(^66) The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book raspberrypi.org/magpi
It was important to get the viewing
angle, screen brightness, and
orientation right for each screen
The cabling is tucked away
and hidden behind the screens
to make for a tidy installation
By mixing the Pi-powered
screens with static mini-
billboards, a busy, realistic-
looking Times Square emerged
isit New York and it’s hard
not to be overwhelmed
by the glittering scale
of Times Square. Spread over
millions of square feet, ľanked
by skyscrapers and assaulting the
eyes with brightly lit advertisement
hoardings, it is one of the world’s
most visited tourist attractions.
Projects SHOWCASE
When recreating Times Square in miniature, Uttam Grandhi and his team knew the
bright lights of its billboards would have giant appeal
Gulliver’s Gate
is inspired
by the satire
Gulliver’s
Travels
It features
landmarks
from more than
100 cities
Visitors use
telescopes to
see the detail
close up
The Pi boards
are connected
to a 24-port
Netgear switch
The team
also bought a
Raspberry Pi
starter kit
Quick
Facts
GULLIVER’S GATE
V
UTTAM GRANDHI
An Elastic Mind enthusiast based
in Brooklyn, NY. His interests span
electronics, sculpture, biology,
maths, animation, and origami.
utt.am/about
While the owner of the globe’s
largest and most expensive
digital billboard once declared,
“size matters in Times Square,”
one company, Gulliver’s Gate, is
proving that small can be equally
beautiful. It has spent $40 million
bringing together 50 nations in
a 49 000 sq ft (4552 m^2 ) miniature
world, situated in the former New
York Times building on 44th Street.
What’s more, it has made great use
of 23 Raspberry Pi Zeros.
Pi-powered models
By connecting the Pi boards to 23
ten‑inch and seven‑inch screens,
artist and design technologist
Uttam Grandhi, together with
a talented team from Brooklyn
Model Works, has brought a
1:87 scale recreation of Times
Square to life. They have used
the displays (which were bought,
complete with LCD control
boards, from the electrical retailer
Banggood.com) as small‑factor
digital billboards, fixing them to
both the façades and terraces of
the recreated towers.
“We’ve situated them on
diļerent miniature buildings
and in diļerent orientations,Ĥ
Uttam says, having used them
in both landscape and portrait
mode. “Our designer, Martin
Eisler, had to design a modular
Laser-cut hooks are used to attach the screens to the
buildings – the team used the Speedy 300 laser cutter