Pathway Tunnel: An interactive art installation that's made up of pentagons that appear to be rotating, all being placed over a pathway in Columbus Park to increase foot traffic during the winter. Pedestrians passing by activate a range of colorful LEDs by triggering infrared motion sensors as they walk through our installation.

We created this project to compete in the New Urban Mechanics Snowy City challenge, as well as increasing foot traffic in the Columbus park area. Our projects exists to help combat seasonal affective disorder, as well as bringing people outside during the winter months. Our project utilizes an Arduino, IR sensors, and an LED strip. A user simple walks or rolls through the pathway, and can activate the lights without any effort. 

During the winter season, foot traffic and business slows in Boston. Our goal is to help bring people outside. Our project, Pathway Tunnel, inspires and reveals an unexpected surprise. 

Our project utilizes motion sensors, an Arduino and LED strips to allow users to activate a wave of light just by walking through it. As users move through the pathway, lights fade in. Made up of pentagonal lumber frames, it blends in with the existing arches at Columbus Park, while standing out at the same time. Regardless of physical ability, anyone can interact with our installation.  

During the winter season, foot traffic and business slows in Boston. Our goal is to help bring people outside. Our project, Pathway Tunnel, inspires and reveals an unexpected surprise. 

We began with the same arch design as before, but after our mid review, we explored other options. First, we switched our design from arches to hexagons. We rotated them to attempt to create the illusion of the hexagons rotating, but it didn't turn out as perfectly as we'd hoped. Pentagons may have worked better. We also switched from hand soldering every LED together to LED strips. This also allows us complex patterns with the strips. 

Our decisions didn't really change our thesis. We just used the coaches' feedback to improve our design and better support our thesis. Scaling the strip design is proved to be challenging. We had the correct code, and what seemed to be the correct wiring, but I had the wires trying to send a signal in the wrong direction. I soldered the jumpers onto the correct side, and it fixed it. We'll be installing the second strip on Monday.