You will need: – A shoebox or small box – A magnifying glass. We went with the smaller one in the end. – A paperclip – A smartphone – A stanley knife – Duct tape – Black paint (optional)
Figure out the centre of your box. Place your magnifying glass smack bang in the middle and trace around the lens.
Cut the hole out!
Stick your lens in.
Tape down your magnifying glass, making sure everything is sealed and no light leaks in. Tape down any loose sides of the box too. Now, if you want to get fancy, paint the inside of your box black. It stops the light from your smartphone diffusing off the sides of the box, optimising your final projection. Science. But we didn't have time for science.
Poke a hole in the back of the box to slip your charger cable through.
Grab that paperclip and fashion yourself a stand for your smartphone. Unlike MacGyver, it took us eight failed attempts before we fashioned a stand that actually worked.
Like any lens, light passing through your projector will appear upside down. You'll have to flip the screen to get your $3 home cinema to actually work the way it should. For an iPhone go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Assistive Touch. Then touch the floating orb thing that's on your screen and select Device > Rotate Screen. For Android, there're apps like Screen Rotation Control and Ultimate Rotation Control that do this for you. While you're fiddling with your phone, turn the screen brightness way up.
Dim the lights and place your phone on its stand in the box. Move the phone back and forth in the box to find your focus point.
Close the box and find yourself a blank wall to project onto.
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