Hasta La Gadget!

Here in the Philippines, we have no real need for a weather app. It’s this simple: the weather here is great. If you’re a plant. I’m not a plant, so I just accept that the weather sucks. That in the middle of a sweltering hot day it’s perfectly normal if it suddenly rains for 6 seconds. But I’d totally buy a weather-telling indoor cloud anyhow.

That’s the Nebula 12, a concept for a lamp that doubles as a weather station. It’s being developed by the Micasa Lab, the same crazy folks who came up with the iRock chair. Like today’s weather apps, the Nebula 12 is designed to provide a visual representation of the forecast, but in a more tangible way.

The device connects to an online source for weather reports. If it’s sunny, the lamp will shine a bright yellow light, but as you can see the fun starts when it’s cloudy. The device will use a controlled combination of liquid nitrogen and hot water to create an indoor cloud. The light can then change the color and brightness of the cloud. Fortunately it won’t create rain or lightning even if that’s the forecast. Below is a short video demonstrating the prototype:

If the device ever gets released, I hope Micasa Lab gives it an “always cloudy” mode. Because that’s the only reason why it will sell.

[via The Nebula Project via The Verge via Cool Hunting]