Longmont’s TinkerMill has taken over 380 Main St. to display a magical and interactive light display.
According to CE Raum, vice president of the TinkerMill board of directors, the Longmont Downtown Development Authority asked the makerspace to take over the old Breakers building, which has been vacant since LOCO Gastropub went out of business.
LDDA left the volunteers at TinkerMill with one instruction; to make it interactive.
“We are makers so give us the opportunity to make something and we will,” Raum said.
Twenty volunteers from the makerspace spent the week of Thanksgiving dreaming of how to make an interactive display on a small budget, Raum said.
The result became an LED display that is controlled by a computer program run on Raum’s computer. The display changes periodically as it rotates through the programs Raum and his team develop over time.
On Thursday, Raum was in the process of setting up the system’s first interactive component. He placed cameras in the windows of the building facing the sidewalk on Main Street. The cameras recognized people walking by. When the project is finished, he said, the lights will interact with people on the sidewalk.
Raum is also working on a way to include holiday music in the light display.
In the doorway of the building, the TinkerMill volunteers projected a cozy scene. Raum hopes to make this interactive as well by allowing people to find cutouts in the display in which to place their faces. He hopes that these faces will then be displayed on snowmen in the scene. He said the process has been difficult to control because factors such as changing lighting conditions are hard to predict for the camera. But he is still hopeful.
The display takes up five of the stores eight windows. In the remaining windows, artisans from the TinkerMill, including Raum, displayed their wares which are for sale through the TinkerMill website. The TinkerMill will also hold a Winter Market on Dec. 9 from 2-7 p.m. at its headquarters at 1840 Deleware Pl.
Raum said he expects the display to stay up into January but has not heard about an official date to shut the light display off. He also said that the display will change throughout the season and encouraged people to stop by several times to see what new things the TinkerMill crew dreams up.
