Wobble Sphere

Wobble Sphere is a new experimental playful installation that I'm currently working on. 72 touch-sensitive metal springs and LED rings sit on a large sphere (~50cm diameter), illuminated by various playful interactions and ambient animations.

This is work in progress, and I'm exploring different visuals, physical properties and interactive contexts with this work.

Playful Sphere Interactions

This project is an evolution of Wobble Garden, also using springs and LED rings, but the geometry is that of a sphere - or more accurately a polyhedron with 72 faces (12 pentagons and 60 hexagons, arranged similar to the faces of a soccer ball). This allows for a few interesting design aspects, such as enabling games with incomplete information, animations with spherical geometry, and lighting patterns with separate fore- and background colors.

Making-Of Gallery

Model of the Sphere
I researched sphere tilings, ultimately arriving at polyhedra with 12 pentagons and a large number of hexagons (they typical football tiling).
PCB Layout
After precisely modeling the pentagons and hexagons, I imported them as board outlines into my PCB software, and figured out how to route the signals.
Hidden Art
As a little easter-egg, I decided to put small drawings on the hidden side of the PCBs, and I commissioned Caitlin Goodale for the artwork.
Start of Assembly
The hexagons are irregular to fit together in a spherical shape
Modelling Connectors
I used Fusion 360 to model and 3D-Print the connectors holding the springs and each other.
Attaching Connectors
The 3D-Printed connectors are attached to the PCBs and held in place with the spring screws.
Wiring up the Ball
Each pentagon PCB is connected to a main board in the center of the ball and communicates light and touch data.
Light on!
Everything works! Designing the stand is the next step, here done with aluminium extrusions.
First Playtest
The first playtest happened at A MAZE Berlin in 2022, at the tail end of the pandemic.
Model of the Sphere
I researched sphere tilings, ultimately arriving at polyhedra with 12 pentagons and a large number of hexagons (they typical football tiling).
PCB Layout
After precisely modeling the pentagons and hexagons, I imported them as board outlines into my PCB software, and figured out how to route the signals.
Hidden Art
As a little easter-egg, I decided to put small drawings on the hidden side of the PCBs, and I commissioned Caitlin Goodale for the artwork.
Start of Assembly
The hexagons are irregular to fit together in a spherical shape
Modelling Connectors
I used Fusion 360 to model and 3D-Print the connectors holding the springs and each other.
Attaching Connectors
The 3D-Printed connectors are attached to the PCBs and held in place with the spring screws.
Wiring up the Ball
Each pentagon PCB is connected to a main board in the center of the ball and communicates light and touch data.
Light on!
Everything works! Designing the stand is the next step, here done with aluminium extrusions.
First Playtest
The first playtest happened at A MAZE Berlin in 2022, at the tail end of the pandemic.
Model of the Sphere
I researched sphere tilings, ultimately arriving at polyhedra with 12 pentagons and a large number of hexagons (they typical football tiling).
PCB Layout
After precisely modeling the pentagons and hexagons, I imported them as board outlines into my PCB software, and figured out how to route the signals.
Hidden Art
As a little easter-egg, I decided to put small drawings on the hidden side of the PCBs, and I commissioned Caitlin Goodale for the artwork.
Start of Assembly
The hexagons are irregular to fit together in a spherical shape
Modelling Connectors
I used Fusion 360 to model and 3D-Print the connectors holding the springs and each other.
Attaching Connectors
The 3D-Printed connectors are attached to the PCBs and held in place with the spring screws.
Wiring up the Ball
Each pentagon PCB is connected to a main board in the center of the ball and communicates light and touch data.
Light on!
Everything works! Designing the stand is the next step, here done with aluminium extrusions.
First Playtest
The first playtest happened at A MAZE Berlin in 2022, at the tail end of the pandemic.

Each metal spring is touch sensitive and connected to a custom central controller with 72 touch sensors.

The faces of Wobble Sphere are made up of custom circuit boards in the shape of pentagons and irregular hexagons.

Wobble Sphere works well as an abstract lighting object that responds to touch.

Using Format