As a potential final project, I would like to create a levitating, interactive crystal ball. The ball might act as an interactive display, a touch-free controller, or a climatic visualizer. Whatever it is, it must feel magical.
To fulfil this assignment, I used Rhino + Grasshopper to sketch an idea of the ball, showing a rotational potential with several LED's animating the surface. The script to model this is fairly straight forward:
The top block defines the sphere and its grid of points, with a color for each point being defined relative to its coordinate at any given time. As the ball rotates, you get the moving gradient effect.
The bottom block defines the base and constrains its rotation to match that of the ball.