An impossibly long string of balloons is a familiar sight at festivals and concerts across the country. The Balloon Chain by Robert Bose has graced Burning Man, Coachella, Lightning In A Bottle, and Treasure Island Music Festival, as well as international events such as Boom in Portugal and Fete des Lumieres in France.
LumiGeek co-founders Joe Martin and John Taylor met Robert Bose by chance at Coachella. They poised the question to Robert, “Have you considered multi-color LEDs and remote control?”. He quickly answered, “Of course, but I don’t have the slightest idea how to do it.”
After the chance meeting, Martin and Taylor set out to create a system with an ultra-light LED circuit board, rechargeable battery, color-changing LED, and a receive-only antenna. Prior to 2012, the balloons used an ingenius yet primitive lighting system consisting of a watch battery, LED, alligator clip, and hot glue.
Now the system has evolved to include a custom charging station for the circuits, a combination WiFi base station and RF transmitter to control patterns and colors at nearly a mile away, and a custom iPad application by Pat Barry to ‘finger paint’ on the strand of the balloons, as well as play video-based patterns in real-time.
