Fibre optics

Fibre optics

Fibre optics is the main thing that will be new to me in this project, so I start with that. I research fibre optics online a bit; most of the information about making with fibre optics seems to come from people who are using them to make clothing, which is pretty cool.

Fibre optics use reflection to carry light from one end to the other. When I studied engineering in university, they were a big deal for telecommunication and computing. In those scenarios, you want to have as little "light leakage" as possibly through the sides of the fibre optic, but, in my research today I learn that there are some fibre optics with "side glow" that leak a bit of light on their sides, making the whole fibre glow. I think that will be even cooler for this project... I love the idea of a glowing net.

I order a sample to try it out. Once it gets here, It's like a plastic spaghetti strand. I try it out against a RGB (color-changing) LED and it has a pleasant glow.