Species of Illumination – Lamps That Behave like Animals

Ever needed some light but you were too far away and didn’t have the clapper installed? What if you could just call the lamp over like your pet dog. For his graduation project at Design Academy Eindhoven, Bob de Graaf is exploring ideas such as this. Inspired by the movie Wall-E and an experiment at a park in Eindhoven, Bob has begun creating lamps that respond to humans and light much like organisms would.

Species-of--Illumination-Darwin

…lights that act and react like autonomous creatures. ‘Wallace’ seeks out the darkest space in a room and brings light to it. Having done that, it’s no longer the darkest space, so he moves on, constantly bringing light where it is darkest. Meanwhile solar-powered ‘Darwin’ searches for sunlight during daylight hours to charge his battery, and in the evening wanders around the house seeking movement

While a friend of mine insists this is how Skynet begins, I’m excited to think about a home and the objects in it responding to me organically as I move about different rooms. To be fair, the notion of a lamp following me around is a bit creepy at first, but I think I could grow to love it. Wall-E is one of my favorite movies so I can definitely see where Bob gets his inspiration from in creating lovable robots.

Matt Scott is an experienced gamer, zombie survivalist, and lover of all things robot. He firmly believes that games are one of the ultimate ways to bring people together to learn, teach, and grow. You can follow him on Twitter

2 Comments

  1. Tate Srey - 11/05/2013 reply

    I don’t like to think of this as the beginning of Skynet or of sentient robots like Wall-E. I like to think this is how Pixar will make Luxo, Jr.

    • Matt Scott - 11/06/2013 reply

      Is this before or after Luxo, Jr. stomps on the I of Pixar crushing it to death and then looks at the audience as if to say “You’re next.”

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