Hackaday Podcast Ep 358: Soft Displays, LCD Apertures, and Mind Controlled Toys
Feb 20, 2026
They explore a soft pneumatic microfluidic display and a 3D printed vacuum valve system. A CRT-based DIY VR headset and an FPGA HDMI converter get a retro tech deep dive. There's talk of LCD apertures built into lens adapters and GPU-driven brute-force antenna design. Coverage also includes time-of-flight sensor arrays for real-time 3D mapping and vintage mind-control toys revisited.
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Cheap Time-Of-Flight 3D Scanning
- Low-cost VL53L5CX time-of-flight sensors produce usable 3D point clouds when combined with IMU stabilization and smoothing filters.
- Sweeping the sensor with an IMU and persisting points creates effective room scans without expensive lidar rigs.
Lens Adapter As Mini Display
- An SLR-to-mirrorless adapter contains enough space to embed electronics like an LCD and microcontroller for creative optical effects.
- Using old Nokia-style LCDs without backlight gives dynamic in-lens masks that produce novel video bokeh effects.
Vacuum Logic For Soft Displays
- Soft pneumatic pixels built from 3D-printed cups and silicone can form tactile displays by toggling vacuum pressures.
- Vacuum-actuated valves act like FETs, enabling row/column multiplexing and logic-style control of a display matrix.