[Project 3] Lightbox

BY Alessio Mosaed, Joy Gu, Sally Chen

  • Overview: a collection of objects, e.g. mirrors,  a toy laser light and white rock for kids to play with and learn about light.
  • Goal
    • The box will help kids learn about principles of light, mainly focusing on reflection by creating paths for light to travel through rotation of mirrors.
    • Interactive game: fun and slightly challenging, appropriate for elementary school children.
    • To fulfill these goals, we decided to implement a game in which players would place and rotate mirrors to reflect a laser beam towards a specified destination.
  • Process and Prototyping
    • Brainstorming: Light is interesting and allows for instant feedback
    • Prototyping: Laser-cutting allowed us to quickly produce prototypes and cut the mirrors to size
    • Issues and solutions:
      • A flashlight beam spread out too much:
        • a laser beam didn’t
      • Securing the mirrors while easily adjusting them:
        • A pegboard let us place the mirrors securely and rotate them easily
      • The mirrors would tilt, reflecting the light in unexpected directions
        • We added triangular legs on the backs of the mirrors to prop them up and prevent tilting
  • Outcome
    • Check out the demo video here: LightBox_Demo
    • Overall apparatus:
    • Laser and two stands that help level the light: 
    • Mirror showing reflection, along with the triangular stands and dowel that support it:
  • Lesson Learned
    • Originally, we planned to demonstrate more principles. However, we encountered:
      • Difficulty in creating parts that could successfully demonstrate them
      • Risk of overcomplicating design
      • Better to produce a simple and coherent product than something elaborate but badly-designed
    • We also realized it’s Important to let light travel in a level path so that the laser will not shoot off of the box and accidentally into kids’ eyes, damaging their eyesight. 
    • It would be fun to use flour and chalk to show path of laser!
      • Not included in the box because they are difficult to clean off the board
  • Conclusion
    • The Lightbox activities would be an engaging, effective, challenging and safe activity for kids to learn about light principles!