feasibility of image mapping to LED 'matrix'

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

I'm a total noob to Arduino, so i apologise in advance for silly questions :blush: This part of the forum seemed like the best place to start..but this is maybe more of a programming question.I've done a fair bit of searching but so far have only found small bits of the info i need.

I'm looking to construct a relatively low res LED matrix,but not in the usual sense of e.g 8x8 grid of LEDs,this would be, for a simple example 10 strings of 10 RGB(possibly RGBW),which are flexible and i can rig in a sphere shape,with control over each individual pixel.

I need to be able to have a series of images displayed on this sphere at pretty short intervals,nothing approaching 30fps but that may be nice for future development,the change from one image to the next needs to be triggered by an external control.

The images would be stored on a latop(most likely a mac) so no need for card storage on 'LED control gizmo/Arduino'..these images would be pretty low res of course, but presuming this first prototype can work i would like to scale up the number of LEDs and the res of the images.
As said the images would be low res,but it is important that the 'matrix' can display gradients i.e the LEDs are dimmable as opposed to just being on or off.At their most basic the images would be a white circular gradient on a black background.

A bit of background on me, i'm a Lighting Designer/Tech with over 10 years experience in all sorts of events,i regularly use LED fixtures controlled by DMX either with a lighting desk(e.g Avolites Pearl) or Pharos..the Pharos could do this job and is great for mapping images/video to LED fixtures,but its a bit over the top and expensive for this job and the 2 i have are in constant use.
Although as a fall back i have looked at DMX shields (recievers) coupled with Arduino to drive LEDs with DMX coming from a Desk/Pharos.I would really prefer a simple interface on a computer to which i could just add a the sequence of images to be displayed.

Is this in theory possible using the Arduino and some programming?...maybe more to the point does anything i've posted make sense to anyone :astonished:...sorry its a bit late

I'd be very grateful if anyone can offer some insight or just point me to another thread where someone has managed to do something similar
I will also throw out there that...this could possibly be a paid gig for someone on the 'software' side if anyones interested...i'll hazard a guess that this is going to involve a fair mountain of programming that will probably take me an age to learn.

Cheers,
mala

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No reason why this wouldn't be possible. RGB LED strip is cheap. Look for individually addressable units.

Do your image processing in PROCESSING. there are plenty of examples out there for non-spherical displays like this.

Essentially you will bring in a photo of video, pixelate it to the resolution you want, cycle through the "pixels" and output them to the proper LED.

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Thanks Bruce, thats given me plenty to read up about :slight_smile:

I won't be using LED strip,looking for something brighter and need to be able to have the pixels about 15-30cms apart...had a look at BlinkM and Shiftbrites..something along those lines but not sure yet,need to do some more research. I will have an external dedicated power supply for Leds so hopefully only have to worry about 'signal/control' coming from Arduino.

Cheers,
mala