This thing is COOL!  What I love almost more than Lebedev Studios products is their process sketches – and the fact that they actually include them on the website!  Check out these process shots:

What kinda bums me out is what the product finally ended up being, at least on the Lebedev Studios product page for Spectrus, is a product with no LEDs embedded for maximum awesome.  Here’s what the initial render looked like, LEDs and all:

and here is what they ended at – just colored lines on the case, no illumination:

I still think it’s cool.  But it would have been SO MUCH COOLER illuminated!!!  Art Lebedev, your studio still rocks to me.

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

Art Lebedev Studios’ Spectrus USB Hub – Interesting Design!

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I have to say I am having a TON of fun on the floor of LightFair 2010 – this is a conference I will be attending each year!  I walked around yesterday on the floor, meeting people, getting hugs from people, and generally having an excellent time.  One thing that I am super excited about is that I HAVE A REAL PHOTOGRAPHER shooting work for JimOnLight.com!  Everybody’s favorite Amanda Lynne Ballard is here, shooting pics and making me look GREAT!  You have to see some of the work she got for you all, and make sure to thank her.

Check out some photos of the showfloor – if you’ve not been to LightFair, you need to make plans!  This is a huge year for LightFair, most people ever!

“The Map”

WANT.  NOW.

Part of Cree LED’s booth – AWESOME!

Peter Kirkup showing how he nerds his iPad into controlling the Orb.  Awesome.

I love me some Peter Kirkup!  This kid is a GENIUS!

I also loves me some Ginny Skalski from Cree – she’s the Social Media voice of Cree LEDs!  What a rock star!

Green Man Walking

The biggest CFL I have ever seen.  Ever.

That’s right – OptiLEDs immersed in water.  How’s that for IP 68?

SeaChanger – in all if its greatness!

More OptiLED submersion

Finally – someone acknowledged Street Lighting!

Stay tuned – I’m here all week!  Lots more stuff to come.  I am very excited!

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

LightFair Day One – What A Great Conference!

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That’s right.  Check out this video – Jay opens up a can of ButtKick on some balloons from across the room:

That is freaking awesome.  Jay posted the entire how-to on the Laser Pointer Forums – definitely check it out!  He’s even added a safety to his modification!

CAVEAT:
If you’re gonna be playing around with lasers, especially this kind of laser project, you need to cough up some bread and get a pair of laser filter glasses so you don’t burn your eyes out.  Here’s a pair from OEM LAser Systems, Inc that will do the job fine, and here is a bunch from Amazon. Don’t mess around with this, you need them.  Playing with lasers isn’t worth your sight.  Oh, and also – you’re not gonna blame it on me if you screw up.  Play smart.

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

12X Blu-Ray Star Trek Phaser That Actually – Um, Phases

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I love to jump rope.  I love love love it.  I grew up in an area in central Illinois where Double Dutch was THE grade school recess activity of choice – either jumping or watching.  I grew up in a financially poor area, but the kids I grew up and went to school with were rich with creativity – and when there was no rope to jump, they collected and tied bread bags together and made jump ropes with that.

I just read about a toy idea that uses kinetic energy used in jumping rope to charge an LED flash light – the toy also monitors how many “jumps” you’ve done, and how much charge you’ve given to the light.  Kinetic energy to electrical energy – I already like this thing and it’s still in concept phase.

Check out some images of designers Hyun Joo Lee and Eu Tteum Lee’s jump-rope-flashlight:

Thanks, Inhabitots!

Jump rope has come a long, long way from Butternut bags, hasn’t it?

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

A Jump Rope is Fun – But It Also Can Make Light

That’s right – a bar of light, er, soap, wait, no, it’s a light.  It’s a light that looks like a bar of soap.  A Soap Light.  Jiyeon Ahn and Jieun Kim of the multidisciplinary design firm Luca 12:00 have created this handheld light, which, as you can imagine, fades up and out as you rub it in your hands.  Yeah, that’s right – and it sits in a soap dish looking holder, too.

Crazy.

Thanks, Yanko!

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

Soap – A Portable Light

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I wrote about the Processing environment a while ago, in relation to a project called MSAFluid.  It’s worth checking out the Processing and Supercontroller websites if you’re a geek like me.

This thing is awesome, Jakub.  Great work.  Check out Jakub’s Vimeo channel – cool stuff.

Here’s the original video of Jakub’s work, this set not quite as detailed as the one above:

Thanks a lot, Make Mag.  This is why I love your blog so much.  Original post on the Arduino Forums.

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

Jakub’s Almost Light Theremin (If Theremin Could Do Video)

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There is news out right now that Apple has filed for a patent on adding photovoltaic cells to their iPods.  That’s right.

I almost put this in the What? category, but I am staying strong that maybe it’s a possibility.  Can you imagine?  I mean, I have replaced the battery in every iPod that I have ever owned.  It’s not hard to do, and it’s certainly cheaper than buying a whole new iPod – who does that anyway?  Doesn’t the Apple Store gouge you for changing the battery, or do they just replace it?  That hardly seems resource efficient.

I wonder how long it’s gonna take to charge this little puppy – I can see myself forgetting my charger right before I have to do some programming or something where I need to really focus “because I figured I would just charge it in the sun.”

Interesting.  I say GO APPLE! on this one.

Check out the schematics, from CleanTechnica:

The skinny on the street is that this patent will cover basically all of their mobile devices, from Shuffles to iPhones.  Crazy.

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

Solar iPods? QUE?!

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What?  Who asks for that for christmas?  Can Santa’s elves make that?  Do they just contract that out or something?

The other hardest thing about buying presents for a lighting professional is when you forget to get them until the Monday before Christmas!! I went through Amazon this morning and grabbed some stuff that I think lighting people would like, and I listed some of it below.  I picked stuff that I thought I would like to either give or receive – so good luck, and hurry up!  Christmas is on Friday! AAAA!  Two day shipping!

Did you pick something out?  Time’s a wasting!

1. 10-LED USB light bar
2. Kensington “Flylight” USB light
3. Black and Decker “Ready Wrench”
4. Crescent brand adjustable spanner with thumb slide (I have 2 of these!)
5. 8″ Stanley brand “crescent” wrench (adjustable spanner)
6. Cooper Lighting 80-LED rechargeable folding worklight
7. Amprobe LM631A digital light meter
8. Gerber Pro Scout needle-nose multitool
9. christmas ornament earrings!
10. christmas light earrings!
11. Gerber’s Legen multitool
12. Victorian-era Edison replica lamp, 25W
13. 1890 Edison lamp replica, 40W
14. 1910 squirrelcage filament replica lamp, 40W
15. 1920 double-looped filament replica lamp, 30W
16. 28-piece Klein tools Electrician set
17. Leatherman New Wave multitool with leather sheath
18. Lava Lamps!
19. USB charm light
20. christmas lights necklace
21. Mastech 20-200,000 lux meter
22. Sekonic L-358 Flash Master
23. Sekonic L-398 light meter

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

Gifts? For a Lighting Professional?! Oh my.

My friend Tina told me about this really cool light toy called a Boid Interaction Toy – a light ball that senses other Boid balls and adjusts its intensity accordingly.  Imagine a sensitive toy that gets happy when its friends are around – that’s the Boid:

From Leiteq’s website about the Boid Interaction Toy:

“An interactive light-ball, responding to other boids and overall ambient light. The Boid senses it’s surrounding Boids by integrated sensors, and changes it’s brightness accordingly. The boid is a stand-alone product, and a single Boid already reacts to ambient illumination. A few together can synchronize joyfully, or display contrary brightness. Many Boids together display intriguing flows and patterns.

The Boid is also a social product. It can bring Boid-owners together to interact and unfold even more mystical patterns. Don’t stay put with only one or a few Boids, bring them together!”

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

The Boid Interaction Toy – A Sensitive Ball of Light

Ever think to yourself – “self, it would be so great if I could wake up to a custom color glowing all around me.”

Meet the Poesy Luminotherapy Bed:

The Poesy Luminotherapy Bed is one of those “well, where on Earth did you come up with that?” designs from French designer Philippe Boulet to combat the lack of such a bed.  Poesy has an integrated color mixing LED system with a remote controller system, and you can apparently mix custom colors.  You can set to wake up or go to sleep with any color of your choice, and from what I’ve been reading, control the intensity.  I wonder if I can program an RGB slow sine chase on this thing?

Thanks, Freshome!

by Jim On Light | Licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License

A Bed Full of Light