Illuminated Brain Model Provides Visualizations of Ailments

It is an understatement to say that there is a lot that can go wrong with your brain. From physical trauma to degenerative diseases, our brains are susceptible to damage. And while our entire bodies play a role in our mental health, our brains are certainly the epicenters of our moods and mental states. But reading in a text book about different conditions and ailments isn't always a good way to learn, which is why Nicholas Stedman, in collaboration with Globacore Interactive, built this interactive illuminated brain model that helps people explore the brain.

This is not an accurate anatomical model and it doesn't provide realistic visualizations of conditions. It won't, for example, show a rendered brain lesion. Rather it is a combination of an interactive art piece and a kind of reference. The skull glows in a rainbow of pulsing and undulating light. At various points on the skull's surface, there are capacitive touch sensors. When a user taps one of those, a nearby screen will display information about a specific malady. For example, touching a pad might cause information about Alzheimer's disease or concussions to show up on the screen. That information includes associated treatments.

Stedman constructed the skull from scratch, using an SLA (stereolithography) 3D printer. SLA 3D printers are known for producing very smooth prints, with high detail and almost invisible layer lines. That makes them perfect for decorative applications like this. Stedman used a combination of opaque and translucent resins to achieve the perfect light diffusion.

Inside the skull is an ESP32 development board controlling eight Adafruit DotStar High Density 8x8 RGB LED grids. That results in a total of 512 LEDs. They're programmed to show soothing animation effects. The capacitive touch pads are actually just gold-plated earrings connected directly to the ESP32.

Stedman and Global Ordinance displayed this Illuminated Brain at the Dassault's Digital Twin exhibit at CES 2023.