Cookie

Laser competition @ Cookie Paris 2017

The first laser competition ever in a demo party. A refreshing contest with vectorial aesthetic. Forget LCD displays, there is no "real" lights inside, think a demo with a beautiful but brutal lightning system : laser lights.

Like in the old days when computers were clock limited, lasers mirrors motors are « slow » and this is another reason why it’s difficult/interesting : to deal with a few hundred points per frame.

Constrain is high to produce high quality visuals, what you see is what your get through skills and imagination.

Examples

• A pioneer realtime laser demo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_CHXwXvWvs
• Space wars game :

Laser Demo competition informations

• This demo laser competition is about custom programs that delivers uber visuals, not lasershows produced with Q…ckshow or any other proprietary software.
• 4 ILDA lasers and their etherdreams controllers will be available on site. You may use one or more laser in your demo.
• There is no mandatory hardware : you can also bring and use your DIY system micro controller based. Remember for custom hardware, there is a « Wild » competition. Ask orga before bringing any extra laser system for safety check.
• One laser+etherdream will be available for test from now on* at the party place, every wednesday during the Jack hackerspace open meeting. Remember that you can also use some of the code examples with built in simulator (see LaserBootstrap).
• For efficiency, no wifi access to the lasers LAN. Bring your RJ45 dongle if needed.
• As all the Cookie demos, you can start coding now.
• This competition will be hosted by the /team/laser of /tmp/lab hackerspace at Jardin d'Alice place.

You're new in laser ?

Here are some useful links and code example.

• LaserBootstrap guide with python
• Download code :https://github.com/tmpbci/Cookie-Paris-2017-Laser-competition-examples

Etherdreams controllers

Easy start

• Connect your ether dream to your IP network
• python sitter.py will display the etherdream broadcast
• python talk.py will draw a color square.

Links

• https://ether-dream.com/
• https://github.com/tmplab
• https://github.com/echelon
• https://github.com/BlackBoxe

Laser safety

• Any laser system must comply to basic safety regulation (emergency stop,…).
• Scanning the audience is forbidden.
• Lasers will be operated by laser safety aware people.