Fireworks are awesome, but most of them are tubes of cardboard filled with things that go boom. C'mon people, what's the problem, we live in an age where our cellphones have crazy features, a computer can beat a human being at Go, and some other awesome achievement like uhhh.. SpaceX (people like talking about them, for good reason reusable rockets are awesome). Why aren't fireworks more sophisticated (there are probably good reasons but I'm being semi-rhetorical). We live in an era of incredibly low cost computing. $10 will now get you a computer capable of streaming video and handling 80% of the uses most people have for their computers (ok this doesn't include all of the required accessories, but the point remains). What is to stop us from bringing these incredibly affordable platforms to making fireworks more awesome? NOTHING!!! (aside from economics)
Imagine a small micro-controller that can be accessed via some kind of wireless network. Possessing an internal timer, accelerometers providing up to 6 axis of pertinent information, and enough onboard power capacity to light the fire-work's fuse. Now technicians for major events could go to an incredible degree of planning when it comes to the pyrotechnics. During Boston's July 4th celebration, one of the cool fireworks, made a smiley face, totally awesome, unfortunately not all of the shells had the smiley face facing in the "correct" orientation, where the smile roughly occupied the bottom half of the explosion. With accelerometers and orientation controls, the system could calculate at what time it could go off to look normal. That's kid's stuff, let's go bigger. One of the most dramatic parts of these displays is to have the grand finale follow allowing with a dramatic point in the local musical performance. With a system that can be remote activated while in flight, now truly crazy displays could work with acoustic sensors near the musical performers and when the musical signal is given they go off. Even crazier, you could set the activation code to start the detonation such that you would hear the blast of fireworks, right as the music is blasting.
Additional benefits could include safety in wiring. Instead of having to manually wire to each individual cell, the technical crew could do much of their work in software. Multiple redundancies in the activation mechanisms would help to minimize instances of the entire display going off all at once. (For this to work, one approach would be to have the control chips to receive their power wirelessly and use that power to charge a capacitor, this would further help to reduce the potential for pre-mature activation)
Long term features, variable chemistry. Some manufacturers might produce a limited range of smart fireworks. The smart models would contain dynamically accessible chemistries, allowing for variation in the color and size of a given explosion. Additionally moving to as bio-degradable a chip structure as possible, while it might be difficult to make the controller out of nothing but recyclable materials, the goal should be as close to 100% as possible.
More sci-fi. 3-D printing with the chips, hopefully, eliminating risks to the people responsible for making the explosive.
Imagine a small micro-controller that can be accessed via some kind of wireless network. Possessing an internal timer, accelerometers providing up to 6 axis of pertinent information, and enough onboard power capacity to light the fire-work's fuse. Now technicians for major events could go to an incredible degree of planning when it comes to the pyrotechnics. During Boston's July 4th celebration, one of the cool fireworks, made a smiley face, totally awesome, unfortunately not all of the shells had the smiley face facing in the "correct" orientation, where the smile roughly occupied the bottom half of the explosion. With accelerometers and orientation controls, the system could calculate at what time it could go off to look normal. That's kid's stuff, let's go bigger. One of the most dramatic parts of these displays is to have the grand finale follow allowing with a dramatic point in the local musical performance. With a system that can be remote activated while in flight, now truly crazy displays could work with acoustic sensors near the musical performers and when the musical signal is given they go off. Even crazier, you could set the activation code to start the detonation such that you would hear the blast of fireworks, right as the music is blasting.
Additional benefits could include safety in wiring. Instead of having to manually wire to each individual cell, the technical crew could do much of their work in software. Multiple redundancies in the activation mechanisms would help to minimize instances of the entire display going off all at once. (For this to work, one approach would be to have the control chips to receive their power wirelessly and use that power to charge a capacitor, this would further help to reduce the potential for pre-mature activation)
Long term features, variable chemistry. Some manufacturers might produce a limited range of smart fireworks. The smart models would contain dynamically accessible chemistries, allowing for variation in the color and size of a given explosion. Additionally moving to as bio-degradable a chip structure as possible, while it might be difficult to make the controller out of nothing but recyclable materials, the goal should be as close to 100% as possible.
More sci-fi. 3-D printing with the chips, hopefully, eliminating risks to the people responsible for making the explosive.
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