Lightboard 💡✍️

Introduction

Before my 1st programming Olympiad, I thought coding was mostly simple input/output work, like my Arduino projects. I had not yet encountered Big O notation, sorting algorithms, or graphs. I was eliminated early, but it became a turning point. I learned a lot afterward and placed 12th nationally the following year.

During COVID, I had plenty of free time and wanted to give back to the community by helping Moroccan students learn computer science in a more interactive way.

Content: I produced 12 lessons, each around 25–48 minutes long. (The videos are not in English :/) The topics include:

A lightboard sends light through a transparent sheet’s edge, making fluorescent marker strokes stand out against the background.
Before building the full frame, I tested the idea on a small acrylic sheet, and it worked!

Cutting the wood.

Screwing the pieces together.

Poor blanket :/

Built everything in my student dorm :)

Strengthening the frame.

Dimensions: 3 ft × 6 ft × 15/64 in / 91 cm × 183 cm × 0.6 cm.

The LED strip runs along the edge of the plexiglass, facing into its thickness so the light travels through the sheet.

Installing the LEDs.

Looking good.

Added bulbs to light my face.

Added black fabric to reduce background reflections.

Changing the LED color changes the writing’s appearance without erasing or redrawing anything on the board.

Camera: Huawei P30 Pro.
Camera app: Pro mode in the built-in app.
Audio: This part was tricky because the phone was some distance away, with the board between us. I used a LavMicro to record audio separately, then synchronized it with the video during editing (a clap at the start gave me a reference point).

Organizing the ideas and fitting each lesson onto the lightboard.

And no, I AM NOT WRITING BACKWARD. I get that question a lot! I simply flip the footage horizontally in Adobe Premiere.

Since audio and video were recorded separately, I clapped at the start to create an audio spike, then matched it to the visible clap in the footage.