Design and Implementation of a Cylindrical Persistence of Vision Display

Persistence of Vision (POV) is a relatively new and low cost concept to display messages instead of typical flat screens that can be used for warnings and advertisements in streets and commercial sectors. The idea is based on a number of LEDs installed on a platform that spins rapidly to create an illusion of a continuous image. In this work, a cylindrical POV is presented to show messages in the space (3D) rather than a plane (2D). One of the challenging issues is to synchronize the frequency of control signals from a microcontroller with the motor speed to result in a non-flashing display and have a resolution that is good enough to let viewers distinguish different characters. A special software application utilizing Visual Basic is developed to interface hardware components together in a user-friendly environment.