Creating life-like behaviour with a PIR sensor, NeoPixels and Arduino

A team from the Interactive Environments Minor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands hid some NeoPixels behind wooden panels laser cut into organic shapes combined together into the Voronoi Installation.

In its idle state, Voronoi’s hidden servos make the wooden panels move in a relaxing breathing pattern. The NeoPixels light in a crawling pattern reminiscent of fireflies or the firing of neurons. When the infrared sensor detect that someone is near, the behavior changes into a reactive state where the NeoPixels’ color change and the panels move in sync with the person’s movement.