Designer Danny Taylor created this smiley/frowny dimmer switch concept to help teach kids about responsible energy use. When the lights are off, the dimmer switch expresses its approval with a big smile across its face. But when the lights are on, a disapproving frown will be staring at you until you stop your wasteful ways. More »
Melding past with present, the Teluria Candelabra’s designers were inspired by a centuries old device that used the earth, moon, and sun’s rotations to predict the seasons. Note Design Studio created the piece for Klong with the hopes that their candelabra would visualize the “cause of night and day, solar and lunar eclipses, and the phases of the moon.” More »
Pushing the boundaries of bedside table technology, designer Mikhail Belyaev created the Medusa for the 2012 Moscow Design Week that merges two bedside accessories into one so you have ample room for all your bedtime accoutrements. More »
The Island of Dr. Moreau-style splicing of technologies is generally one trend the world could do without. “Haven’t you always wanted a lava lamp with a built-in hatchet?” No, Mr. Pitchman, and please take your abominations elsewhere. More »
We’ve seen connected light bulbs before, some more sophisticated than others, but they’re rarely as straightforward as GreenWave Reality’s just-shipping Connected Lighting Solution. Eco-friendly LED bulbs in the lineup include support for WiFi and are immediately controllable from a smartphone or tablet as soon as they’re receiving power. Basics controls like group presets and timed lighting are just the start; if you’re not worried about leaving anyone in the dark, the bulbs can respond to motion sensors and only illuminate the rooms that need attention. And while the intelligence isn’t new in itself, GreenWave would argue that sheer accessibility gives it an edge, with electric utilities in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden skipping the retail middleman by selling directly. Don’t despair if you live in the US: the linked-up lighting is cleared for eventual use by Americans who’d like to save both energy and a trip to the light switch.
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GreenWave Reality ships WiFi-aware light bulbs that flick on through motion and smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We’ve seen connected light bulbs before, some more sophisticated than others, but they’re rarely as straightforward as GreenWave Reality’s just-shipping Connected Lighting Solution. Eco-friendly LED bulbs in the lineup include their own WiFi and are immediately controllable from a smartphone or tablet as soon as they’re receiving power. Basics controls like group presets and timed lighting are just the start; if you’re not worried about leaving anyone in the dark, the bulbs can respond to motion sensors and only illuminate the rooms that need attention. And while the intelligence isn’t new in itself, GreenWave would argue that sheer accessibility gives it an edge, with electric utilities in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden skipping the retail middleman by selling directly. Don’t despair if you live in the US: the linked-up lighting is cleared for eventual use by Americans who’d like to save both energy and a trip to the light switch.
Filed under: Household
GreenWave Reality ships WiFi light bulbs that flick on through motion and smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If you’re a fan of deadmau5, and have a massive budget for your Halloween costume, here’s something that’ll blow all your friends away. It’s a replica of the performer’s famous light-up stage head, and it can be yours for the low, low price of $2750 (USD).
It was made by Etsy artist Jeffrey Nappi, and it has an orb-shaped helmet, covered in 168 RGB LEDs, along with electroluminescent mouse ears. It’s operated by a San Devices E680 pixel controller and Madrix computer lighting control software which can be programmed to display any imagery you’d like. While it’s not quite as awesome as this guy’s version that uses over 760 LEDs, you can’t buy that one.
In case you’re wondering how you see out of this thing, the helmet is actually made from a see-through acrylic globe, so I can only imagine the trippy, rave-like experience you’ll get wearing this thing. Here’s a video montage showing Jeffrey’s build process, as well as the helmet in action:
And some more footage of the head reacting to music (and playing a little Tetris):
If you can’t spare the nearly $3000 to buy a pre-built one from Jeffrey, you can attempt to build your own from the parts list and source code provided up on GitHub. But for those of you with the budget, and the lack of technical skill, you can order one over on Etsy now.
These lamps are just as much about the bulbs as they’re about the wooden fixtures. Created by German designer Herr Mandel, the geometric pieces are supposed to showcase their light source, sort of like a picture in a frame. More »
Challenging the iconic Luxo lamp when it comes to flexibility, Michel Charlot’s U-Turn light trades the complicated springs for a brilliantly simply magnetic ball joint. So you can use it as an adjustable desk lamp when working, or flip it over and illuminate an entire room in a spotlight configuration. It’s the lamp of a thousand uses (minus about 995). More »
Yes, we’ll admit that we borrowed that pun in the title. MooresCloud founder Mark Pesce’s Xzibit reference is still a very apt description of the Light, his company’s Linux-based LED lamp. The Australian team’s box-shaped illumination runs the open OS (including a LAMP web server stack) on an integrated mini PC with an accelerometer and WiFi. The relative power and networking provide obvious advantages for home automation that we’ve seen elsewhere, but it’s the sheer flexibility of a generalized, web-oriented platform that makes the difference: the Light can change colors based on photos or movement, sync light pulses to music and exploit a myriad of other tricks that should result from a future, web-based app store. When and how the Light launches will depend on a Kickstarter campaign to raise $700,000 AUD ($717,621 US) starting on October 16th, although the $99 AUD ($101 US) cost is just low enough that we could see ourselves open-sourcing a little more of the living room. At least, as long as we don’t have to recompile our lamp kernel before some evening reading.
Continue reading MooresCloud Light runs Linux, puts LAMP on your lamp (video)
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MooresCloud Light runs Linux, puts LAMP on your lamp (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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