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Build a Persistence-of-Vision LED Globe

Maybe you’ve seen a persistence-of-vision (POV) illusion before: an array of bright LEDs on the spokes of a spinning bicycle wheel that magically paints colorful animations, light effects, and messages in the night. These visual effects are always good for a “Wow!” — but we’ll go them one better and build a 3-dimensional illusion: the POV Globe. The term persistence of vision refers to a phenomenon of human vision: a light stimulus lingers as an aftereffect on the retina for about 1/10 of a second. When light stimuli are sequenced in rapid succession, they merge into one continuous image. Scientists still argue how much of this phenomenon is shared between the eye and the brain, but the effect is real — in fact it’s the basis for film and television.”

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