Check out the Skot 9000 DigitGrid. It is a huge grid of 7 segment displays that can be used to display a picture or even a video in a crude way. The result is beautiful!
Thanks for the tip Stan.
“The DigitGrid is an array of seven-segment displays. There are 4096 LEDs, forming 512 7-segment digits (they are actually 8 leds each if you count the decimal point). Every 16 digits is grouped together into a “module†with a Texas Instruments TLC5920 LED Driver/Controller. Each module has it’s own PCB with input and output headers. The modules connect together end-to-end to form rows of 32 x 2 digits. There are 8 of these rows. All of the rows are controlled by a Spartan 3E FPGA that also receives frames over serial. The various animations are written in Processing and then sent out frame by frame to the FPGA over 230kbps serial. The TLC5920 has a current limiting setting and as a result, the whole display draws less than 1 amp.”
