Experimental hardware game developer Robin Baumgarten’s latest creation, the Wobble Sphere, makes creative use of 72 touch-sensitive door stopper springs, each outlined in an LED ring that reacts when the stopper is touched.

Not only does each individual ring react, but the surrounding rings react as well, allowing users to create colorful patterns that can move throughout the sculpture bringing it to life. The Wobble Sphere builds on some of Baumgarten’s previous designs which also incorporate touch reactive door stopper springs. As Baumgarten mentions in a recent tweet, the  project was created during the 2020 Covid19 pandemic and the shape of the wobble sphere—a globe with spikes—may seem a bit familiar (only this is the kind of corona structure you want to touch!)

Baumgarten mentions in a Teensy forum post that to create the project he used a Teensy 4.0 and 72 neopixel rings. He’s also posted a behind-the-scenes documentation of the making of the project on his website for those who’d like to learn more about the project’s construction or ogle the beautiful artwork by Caitlin Goodale on the custom PCBs inside the sculpture.

Baumgarten has created many playful interactive art installations over the years incorporating everything from LED reactive springs to kitchen knives.