EMPIRE STATE

The sun is up right now in New York, there will most likely be no flashes until the sun goes down at .

Transmitting camera flashes from the Empire State Building's observation deck to this virtual observation deck.

The observation deck at the Empire State Building is open until 2AM every day of the year. And each night pictures are taken of the city the building looks over. The flashes from many of these pictures can be seen from all around the city.

Empire State detects the camera flashes and sends them here to this site. The signals of the camera flashes can also be sent to micro-controllers to light up replica Empire State Buildings.

## Create Your Own By combining the Empire State Building Lego model with some electronics you can build a physical instance of _Empire State_. Some experience with electronics and programming is advised. ### Materials - 1x [Beaglebone Black] a credit-card sized computer with hookups for electronics - 1x [Lego Empire State Building] - 1x [White LED][SparkfunLED] - Hookup Wire, [like this][hookupwire] - 1x [Solderless Breadboard] - 1x [330Ohm Resistor] [Beaglebone Black]: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1876 [Lego Empire State Building]: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Empire-State-Building-21002 [SparkfunLED]: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/531 [hookupwire]: https://www.adafruit.com/products/758 [Solderless Breadboard]: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12047 [330Ohm Resistor]: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11507 ### Instructions 1. Assemble the Lego set as instructed up to step **22**. At step **22**, rotate the 1x piece a quarter turn so the hole is visible. Then finish the rest of the set. ![](images/step22.jpg) 2. Set up your Beaglebone. This gets a bit involved, here are a few tutorials to help you get your Beaglebone running: - [BeagleBone Black Getting Started Guide](http://beagleboard.org/Getting+Started) - [Installing an operating system to SD Card with the BeagleBone Black](https://learn.adafruit.com/beaglebone-black-installing-operating-systems?view=all) Steps 3,4 and 7 require the Beaglebone to be connected to your computer via USB. 3. Download the code from Github onto the Beaglebone. From Terminal run: ssh root@192.168.7.2 git clone https://github.com/sklise/empire-beaglebone.git /var/lib/cloud9/autorun/ 4. Install the dependencies: cd /var/lib/cloud9/autorun npm install 5. Wire up the Beaglebone and LED. Leave enough wire between the LED and the Beaglebone to reach the Lego model. ![](images/beaglebone.jpg) 6. Insert the LED into the opening at the top of the Empire State Building Lego Model ![](images/finished-back.jpg) ![](images/finished-front.jpg) 7. Eject the Beaglebone from your computer and plug it back in. The script should start automatically. At this point your LED should be blinking whenever the illustration at the top of this page blinks.

A short video of the above setup in action: