Unusual Exhibit of a
Vascular System
with pulsing light
language options
The Artery and Vein
Exhibit
Caught in action: A still photo of the 750 EL lighting display.
A cool electronic display created for the
Adventure Science Center built with ingenuity by Doug Pitts and Adam
Rubinstein
Something new is pulsating at
Nashville Tennessee's Adventure Science Center. In over 3000 neon like
electro-luminescent wire rings, its a Las Vegas meets the human body,
work of educational, vascular, ceiling art, that's got electrical
engineers and visitors alike clamoring... How did they do that?
Answer: Electronics genius Doug
Pitts, amusement and exhibit engineer, and Adam Rubinstein, Medical
illustrator combined some sophisticated and unique new illumination
technologies to create the other worldly effects.
If you have even
the slightest interest in how your body works, visit "Body Quest", the
Adventure Science Center's new wing in Nashville Tennessee.
Everything there is kid oriented, from the giant walk-in brain, to the
animatronic heart which was also created by One Dream Design..
A new flexible formable tubular lighting product was an offshoot of the exhibit buiding experience.
"It was Doug Pitt's
concept to go with the electro-luminescent wire, we knew it would be
more difficult, and the technology is relatively very new, to
incorporate it into an exhibit like this was a risk, but it was very
captivating. It was the perfect solution as far as lighting goes, it
generates very little heat, looks almost like neon, and allowed us to
use a 360 ring of light around the artery and vein walls." Said Adam
Rubinstein exhibit builder.
What made it
more difficult was its electromagnetic field and addressing each wire in
sequence with the branching of the many arteries and veins.
Electrical Engineer Doug Pitts Installing the 750 foot lighting array.
"Most exhibit designers would have just used
rope light in drier hose to simulate the effect. But we decided early we
had to come up with a solution that pushed the envelope." said Doug
Pitts
Our focus at the Adventure Science Center was to
fabricate a display to educate patrons about heart disease and reduce heart disease mortality," says
Adam Rubinstein, one of lighting designers, and creator of the heart exhibit.
"The use of the foam tubes for the arteries was also a nice solution, it
gave the perfect illusion of the branching arteries and veins. We were
able to shape and bond it into an assortment of vascular forms".
A glowing section of vein.
Another off shoot of our project was the development of a linkable 60 channel Electroluminescent Wire Sequencer. So it is now possible to sequence electrolumenescent wire
in thousands of channels, also the speed and overlap of each of sequence effect can be modulated and controlled. One Dream Design is marketing the sequencer under the name of MegaSequence Elwire.
The Megasequence-EL wire.
Here is a movie of the Artery display in action, you may need the quicktime plugin to view it.
