High powered LED project - new to electronics building

[Guest noukker]

Hi, so I'm new here, I'm a designer and I'm working on a personal project. I want to see if I can describe it accurately enough to communicate my questions, I'd say I have a better-than-layperson understanding of electronics, but I really basically have no idea when it comes to a lot of basic and technical stuff, so if anyone wants to chime in (it's really in the thought experiment/concept phase right now) I would extremely appreciate it.

So essentially I am putting together a kind of art project device, it's a handheld, battery operated device which will have an array of extremely hi-lumen LED arrays (like those in a phone flash, maybe bigger/brighter), at least in the 100+ lumen range (but I've found small 6mm LEDs that are many time higher), that all fire in a very fast programmed sequence when you hit a trigger button.

I also want to have a directional speaker (maybe an ultrasonic like this http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/soundlazer-kickstarter-speaker/) but much smaller, maybe only three or four of the little individual cones, that would make a directional noise simultaneous to the LEDs firing.

So I think my main questions so far are:

a. How many of these little high capacity LEDS can I realistically cram in a 2-3" diameter circular area? (keeping in mind the whole device has to be "pocketable", so probably a rectangular enclosure no more than 8" x 2" x 3" overall).

b. How big of a battery am I going to need to power say, 25 super bright LEDS and this speaker? (battery life is a minor concern)

c. How big of a heatsink am I going to have to put behind the lights? DO i need a heatsink?

d. What would the circuit board look like to control all of this? (The exact pattern that the lights fire in is probably the only real possibly proprietary element of this whole product, but let's assume I figure out what the pattern has to be ahead of time and it's a set pattern with defined delays and really only an on/off function, no need to reprogram it later).

e. How would I go about making a testing version, no need for an enclosure, just LED's i can rearrange by hand to test different light patterns to refine this concept?

Please bear with me if any of these questions sound exceptionally dumb, I went to art school and I didn't exactly spend a lot of time with a soldering gun in my hand (though now I'm starting to wish I had).

On that note, bonus question: what's a really good resource for a total newbie to get started with building electronics? Books, kits, websites that anyone really likes? This is just a thought experiment and I might not build it but I'm thinking if I have an actual reason to learn about this it'll motivate me to learn more about electronics in general.

Thanks so much in advance,
noukker

[audioguru]

The idea of the Soundlaser has been used for a few years in museums, art galleries and for translation in conference halls. I am surprized that the Soundlaser is not violating the original patent.

Only 3 or 4 of those ultrasonic transducers probably will not be loud enough to work and the directionality might not be tight enough. Smaller transducers will produce even less ultrasound level.

[Guest noukker]

The idea of the Soundlaser has been used for a few years in museums, art galleries and for translation in conference halls. I am surprized that the Soundlaser is not violating the original patent.

Only 3 or 4 of those ultrasonic transducers probably will not be loud enough to work and the directionality might not be tight enough. Smaller transducers will produce even less ultrasound level.

I was thinking that might be a problem, is there any way I can get a standard audio speaker to be really loud and pocket sized, but still be *somewhat* directional? Or am I just going to have no control over where the sound goes (the idea is that it's louder for someone on one side of the device than the person using it).

Thanks for the reply!

[audioguru]

I was thinking that might be a problem, is there any way I can get a standard audio speaker to be really loud and pocket sized, but still be *somewhat* directional? Or am I just going to have no control over where the sound goes (the idea is that it's louder for someone on one side of the device than the person using it).

The Soundlaser uses 39 small but high power ultrasonic transducers. They operate at a very high frequency that cannot be heard and are in an array so that they produce a very directional beam. When the beam reflects off a person's head or an object then the original beam and the reflection produce interference and normal audio that seems to come from the person's head or from the object.

Ordinary speakers must be much larger to produce normal low frequency audio and they are not directional. They need a lot of power to be loud. Their sound obviously seems to come from the speakers.