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LightScythe LED light painting wand creates incredible effects

For most people, the fascination of painting with light begins when you first wave a sparkler in circles. Many graduate to capturing light designs with a flashlight and a long-exposure camera. But the LightScythe takes that to a whole new level.

Flickr user The Mechatronics Guy has created the LightScythe, a light-painting wand that can create far more detailed images than you could get while waggling a flashlight. According to Gizmodo, The Mechatronics Guy covered the staff in LEDs, and controls it using Arduino boards and a laptop. He opens the camera shutter, then walks at a steady pace in a line as the staff flashes different colours in a controlled sequence.

The effects which you can see below, are pretty stunning:

The project was inspired by an urban art movement to map WiFi signals, Geek.com reports. The LightScythe took the concept of these floating walls of light and made them highly detailed.

If you're inspired to make your own, you can find the instructions here.

(Photos from Flickr, available under Creative Commons)