Hi all, first post here! I'm a graduate student in industrial design, and I love making things. I've worked with the Arduino platform a couple times to do some simple projects, but I recently got a request to do something that I could use some input with.
I was contacted by a composer, who is writing a rock-opera. The lead actor is to wear a jacket that lights up, and interacts with the music in the performance. Because of the precision needed in the operation of the lights, it cannot be controlled automatically with sensors or by manual controls on the actor (he will be dancing during the show). So we decided on a remotely controlled system, using 2.4ghz interference-free radios from RC planes. Each radio has up to 6 controllable channels, and I think I could rig up two radio systems to the jacket.
The lights are where I'm having issue. The jacket is to have a 5x10 matrix on the back, two 5 LED strips on the lapels, and a 3x6 matrix on the right sleeve and a 10 LED strip on the left sleeve. As far as light choreography goes, I can control the arms together and the torso together for simplicity.
I'm assuming I would need two Arduino boards to control the torso and arms separately. Any advice on how to make the LED matrices to be controllable by Arduino, and how to program them to perform actions based on simple inputs (i.e. change color, brightness, flash on/off, sweep in a direction)? I've never done programming before, so a good tutorial would be very helpful.
With your help, this project could debut on stage at an American Music Festival! Thanks,
-Tom