This Interactive Dymaxion Globe Is Perfect for Highlighting World Travels

Mapping the Earth is trickier than it sounds, because the relative size of landmasses and the apparent distance between them is dependent on the map projection technique used to create the map. The world maps you’re used to seeing in school, for instance, are most likely cylindrical map projections. Those work fairly well, but dramatically distort land masses near the poles (such as Greenland). Dymaxion map projections far more accurately portray the landmasses, and Jonathan Diamond built an interactive Dymaxion globe that is perfect for highlighting his travels with his significant other.

Dymaxion projections are created by first converting the nearly-spherical shape of the Earth into an icosahedron (a 20-sided polyhedron). That icosahedron is then “unfolded” to generate a flap map. A Dymaxion map looks a bit strange, but it will have very little distortion and it gives you a much better sense of the real size of landmasses. In this case, Diamond chose it because that flap map could be folded back together to form a globe — or at least a faceted version of one. Each of the 20 sides of the icosahedron were cut from wood and engraved using a laser cutter. Those sides were than assembled together, with one face attached with magnetic so the internal electronics could be reached.

Those electronics were a Wemos D1 Mini ESP8266 board and a string of individually addressable WS2812B RGB LEDs. For every location that Diamond and his significant other Maria visit, an LED will shine through to highlight their travels. This is also integrated into a Google photo album, so looking at a picture will cause that its location to be illuminated on the Dymaxion globe. This also works in reverse. An IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) sensor is connected to the ESP8266 in order to monitor the globe’s orientation. When it is flipped, photos from the side that is currently facing up will be shown on the connected computer. Rotating the globe will cycle through the specific locations on that particular face. The finished globe looks beautiful, and we can’t think of a better way to reminiscence with loved ones about your adventures together.