The following are a series of prototypes to test ideas for potential future projects.
In my continuing quest for a brighter cheaper simpler projector for the graffiti projector concept, I realized that going lensless is the only way to really achieve this. Lenses are in my experience cheap when they don't meet your specifications and expensive when they do. On top of that you have to build a precise structure to keep them aligned and usually need more than one for good image quality. I first encountered the idea of a point source projector when I read about Jim Sanborn's Cyrillic Projector, the pieces A Comma and Lux uses a similar technique.
I built this animation machine in collaboration with Jisho Roche Adachi for an Exploratorium event focused on time. This device uses the same timed strobe circuit as the Prayer Wheel, with magnets embed in the platen, a reed switch in the tone arm and the optical principles of the point source projector to create projected animations. We were able to "program" multiple frame rates into the machine by using the automatic 7'' and 12'' disk settings, which allowed us to play 12 and 18 frames per revolution.
The cylindrical perspective window is a drawing tool which allows a user to trace the local landscape in near perfect perspective. It was built as a prototype for The Exploratorium based on the museum's existing Perspective Window Exhibit. The original Exhibit is a flat window to draw on with a fixed eyepiece. My version uses a curved sheet of lexan instead of flat glass which makes the entire horizontal drawing surface the same distance from the eye. Optimally one would use a spherical window so all points were equidistant from the eye. However, because this window is for drawing landscapes in the far field, most of the drawing happens in the middle of the window so a cylindrical window makes a decent approximation of a sphere as long as the user does not draw on the upper or lower edges of the lexan.