Project Time: Apr 2017 Tech: Arduino
It’s a lamp with a 24-hour lighting feature. I did several projects about light and interactivity. This one interacts with time. It creates a shadow of a real-time clock, and the background color imitates the ambient of sunshine that changing from day to night.
Process
Inspirations
The place where I’m living has a fantastic view of the New York skyline. I took lots of photos of the buildings that reflect the changing of sunlight. From morning to dusk, the richness of the color delights me. Why not making this ambient lighting into my room?
The Color of Lighting
I bought the WS2811 LED strip which is powered by 12V. An interesting feature of the strip is that it has three LEDs in each group, they will response to the program together. Since there are every three LEDs taking 30 degrees on the clock (see the diagram on the right), I had to make the clock change by every 10 minutes.
LED strip structure
Color changing plan
Interaction with Time
I used the Arduino UNO and the millis() function to make the 24-hour lighting feature.Then tested the effect within 12 minutes. The screen on left top corner shows the running time(day:hour:minute:second) counting by Arduino.
This video is actually 12 minutes long, I speed it up.
Fabrication of Lamp Shade
I used the laser cutter and CNC to make the sunflower structure.
The Final Sunflower Shade with Ambient Sunlight
