TwitMap: Topographical Colorado Twitter Map

 

TwitMap

This instructable will show you how to make a 3D Map of Twitter data for the state of Colorado, but you'll be able to recreate it for any area that you wish.

This map is made out of multiple laser-cut layers of basswood and uses LEDs and an Arduino board to display what kind of Twitter activity is coming out of various cities in Colorado. We can display if Tweets from a given city are happy, sad, depressed or angry. We even have a Bieber mode!

We made this for the Things That Think class Spring 2011 at CU Boulder. We're Paul Heider , Buck Heroux  and Ian Smith .

Step 1: Stuff You Need

1 Arduino Mega board
1 USB Cable
5 2x1 ft sheets of basswood (may need more, depending on the area you want to make)
Laser Cutter
Twitter Dev Account
Adobe Illustrator - or any other vector editing suite, although the steps for this instructable are written for Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop - same deal as with Illustrator
Topographical image of a state/region - I found mine with by searching 'Colorado Topographical Map' in Google Images
Wire Cutters
Wire
10 RGB common-cathode LEDs
Circular File
Masking tape
Soldering Iron
Solder
Wood Glue
Clamps
10 4 pin connectors - to plug in your LEDS

Comments

[leeroper]

WOW You have blown my mind with this idea, I just joined the site, browsed around didn't click on projects properly, then saw this and I had to check it out.

It's a brilliant concept and what a way to use the open source Arduino stuff.

Cool idea, good job!

[Foxtrot70]

Where did you download the Topo of your state? Please list a link.

[ianisborn]

I found it through Google Image search. I just added a link to a zipped folder of my images/vector files on the 'getting the map ready for cutting' step.

[Martokz]

You can also download free topo maps from the usgs.gov website.
Excellent project!

[paganwonder]

Wow, and they said CU students just ride bikes, rock climb, drink in excess and burn furniture! Way to go guys, really KOOL project!