In our project we are building a wooden reindeer with 16 LED lights on the body using multiplexing. A light sensor will measure the light conditions. The LEDs react to the light sensor and will light up as soon as it gets dark. The LEDs are going to be on the inside of the reindeer with some transparent material on the surface to diffuse the light. The head will be movable with a motor so it can move to the left and the right. Optionally we want to use a temperatur sensor, so the LEDs can react to the surrounding temperature as well.

We were considering using rgb LEDs but decided to stick to single-colored ones.

We came up with the idea by meeting in a group and discussing what we wanted to build. We all liked the look of wooden materials and agreed very early to build something with LEDs and multiplexing. Also we wanted to build something with a recognizable form instead of a simple box. We were thinking about an object that has some relevance to Finland and decided to use the form of a reindeer.

You can find more information about our decission making process in this blogpost. We started by creating a first sketch of the reindeer and used a more abstract form for our 3D model. As a first electronical board we builded a light sensor board that can be used in our final project.