*See video below*
Looking for a way to jazz up your lawn with Christmas lights this year?
Move over robotic reindeer and animated Santas: what about turning your Christmas light display into a functional, garage-sized Guitar Hero game made entirely out of lights?
According to the Daily What, Ric Turner, a former Disney 'imagineer' and special effects specialist, turned his yard into a game of Guitar Hero, built out of 21,268 lights and LEDs, that plays Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover." (see it in action in the video below)
Make has a full explanation from Turner on how he put together "Christmas Light Hero". Here's an excerpt from his description of how he pulled it off:
Christmas Light Hero is using 7 light controllers from Light-O-Rama built from kits to control 21,268 lights and LEDs. Each controller has 16 outputs and 2-3 TTL level control inputs that are used by the game system to fire different programmed light sequences depending on what happens in the game. It relies on the fact that the game sequence is very consistent. If the game and the lighting sequences start together, they will stay in very good sync through the length of the song. The light program allows branching and overlays for fail, star power and "ready." I have some ideas to automate the initial show/game sync, but for now you have to push doorbell buttons at the right moments.
To program the show a video recording was made of a perfect round of Guitar Hero playing Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover. The timing of all the dots and the light show choreography follow that video.
When you play, you watch only the Christmas lights, but the audio you hear is from the Wii, so your flubs are broadcast for all to hear (people in cars can tune 99.1 and crank it up as loud as they want.)