A tangible visualization of weather data or more
This project is to create a tangible ambient display that visualizes multivariate information. This device changes its shape, color and creates sounds to show information, which can be related to weather data, stock market prices, real-time sports reports or any other information meaningful to users. It is also malleable (accepts tangible inputs). Ideally, people can read most critical information by a glance at this lamp.
To provide more tangible feedback, the Weather Lamp will be designed to change its shape according to the data fed to the lamp. The Weather Lamp will be a cylindrical structure, which makes it look identical from all sides. The lamp will be vertically divided into several sections. Each section is a Tangible Visualization Module (TVM) that represents special meanings to the viewer. For example, a Weather Lamp that has 3 vertical sections provides the weather forecast of the morning, the afternoon and the evening. The visualization is displayed by the size and color of the TVM. When there is a severe weather alert, the lamp will generate sounds to inform people. Besides actively providing information, the Weather Lamp also accepts tangible inputs by squeezing it. An LED on top of the lamp will indicate the status of the lamp. To setup the lamp, the user has to connect to the web server of the lamp and provides the RSS link of data and color/shape coding information. The cover of the lamp will be some elastic translucent material that can change shapes easily and diffuse the LED light.
The current prototype is made of transparent acrylic sheets. The TVM is a combination of 2 acrylic discs, gears, a servomotor and an RGB LED. When the upper disc rotates counterclockwise, the tracks force the outer part of the TVM reaches out. On the other hand, the TVM retracts when the upper disc rotates clockwise. Each TVM requires 1 GND, 1 5V power for the servomotor, 1 digital I/O to control the servomotor and 3 digital outputs for the RGB LED. In addition to this, there will be an RJ45 connector, a speaker and an LED to show the mode of the lamp. For a Weather Lamp with 3 TVMs, one Wiring board will be sufficient to control all these components. The Weather Lamp will be responsive to simple HTTP requests. So that users can setup the lamp through web browsers.