Wall Sconces with Hidden Weather Display and Tangible

User Interface
by AdielFernandez

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Videos of project in action below!!!

Disclaimer: This is an abbreviated description of the project since I did not have
time to do a full step-by-step instructable in time for a contest. However, I will
gladly make a step-by-step 'ible if there is enough interest. If you like it, please
take a moment to vote for this project in the Design Competition!
Several years ago I purchased three metal wall sconces from CB2. They had a
really nice modular and modern look and tile really well with each other.
However, it was always kind of a pain to light and blow out the total of 15 candles
they can hold since they are fairly high up on the wall and have delicate glass
cylinders that cover each votive. My idea was originally to add LED's that would
flicker like real candle flames so they could be turned on and off easily but still
have the warm lighting of real fire.
During my first semester in the Design and Technology department of Parsons,
The New School for Design, I decided to take the project further than just

flickering LEDs and play with the ideas of ubiquitous computing and tangible user
interfaces. I figured that since I was going to be putting LEDs in the sconces I
could add all sorts of other things to affect how the lights display. I was strongly
motivated by the field of ubiquitous computing (UC), or the movement to add
technology to the world around us to make it better suit us and our needs.
However, I feel one of the problems with UC is that its easy to feel like you're
drowning in a sea of high tech devices. So, for this project I wanted the
technology to blend into the original purpose of the sconces, decorating a living
space to make it feel warmer and more aesthetically pleasing. I decided I wanted
to give the user access to information that would be useful on a regular basis and
quick to digest. The device could have been configured (with the right skills and
hardware) to display any type of data, like Facebook notifications, unread tweets
or emails, etc. But rather than mixing different types of data into the device, for
the sake of a simplified, cohesive user experience I decided to display different
aspects of the weather. Now, after waking up, the user can grab the cube, turn it
on its side and see what the weather will be for the day with a pleasant light show
rather than a weather website or mobile app. To light the piece, I used a digitally
addressable LED strip cut into segments and places in each of the votives to
achieve the desired effect and laser cut small flame shapes made from frosted
acrylic to help disperse the light a bit more.
I also am a big fan of tangible user interfaces and wanted to have a physical
object that people could manipulate to control the lights. So, for the controller I
made a small hand held cube out of laser cut acrylic with a gyroscope,
accelerometer, li-poly battery and XBee radio to communicate with the lights in
the sconces. The cube controls the lights based on which side is facing up and
gestures performed by the user to select what that lights will display and how
some aspects are displayed. I tried to make the cube fun and pleasant to use so I
tried making the gestures fun and intuitive and added a small vibration motor to
incorporate some haptic feedback whenever a gesture is recognized.
The cube has 6 sides (duh) and will recognize the following gestures:
Power Icon
The cube is normally off to save power and will not recognize any commands or
orientation. By having the power icon facing up and shaking the cube, the cube is
now awake, will pulse the inner light that shines through the icons, and will
recognize which side is facing up to allow other modes to be accessed. By
spinning the cube while its on and the power side is up, a fun rainbow display is
turned on and off.

Flame Icon
When the cube is on and the flame side is facing up, the lights in the sconces will
glow and flicker like real candle flames (a little difficult to see in the video). By
rotating the cube clockwise, the number of candles lit are incremented and
likewise, rotating it counter clockwise decreases the number of lights lit.
High Temperature Icon
Having this side face up while the cube is on will display the high temperature of
the day in red light. The lights will display the first digit of the temperature on the
left side by lighting up the number of lights equivalent to that digit. The lights then
pause then display the second digit of the temperature on the right side. For
example, if the temp. is 47 degrees (like in the video), the lights will show 4 lights
on the left, pause, then display 7 lights on the right.
Low Temperature Icon
Similar to the low temp side, this side will show the low temperature of the day in
a cool cyan hue.
Precipitation (snow/rain) Icon
This will display the percent chance of precipitation similar to how the other
temperatures are displayed in blue. Its a little difficult to tell the difference
between the cyan and blue in the video but easier in person.
Travel (plane around the world) Icon
For a bit of whimsy, I decided to make the bottom of the cube display the
temperature of some fantasy destination set by the user in green light. In this
case it's set to Honolulu, Hawaii, hopefully making it easier to bare the cold
winter with hopes of a future vacation.

Please forgive the poor quality of the videos, I will be working on a higher quality
presentation of this project in the future.
Video close-up of Cube
Video of lights and cube in action:
Next Steps
Unfortunately I didnt have time to add an internet connection to the device (my
next step), so at the moment the weather data that is displayed is mocked up and
hard coded. I will be working on this next but didnt want to miss the deadline for

the Instructables Design Competition! I also would like to make a charging dock
for the cube so that it will stay charged and ready at all times. Some extra work
will be done on the signal processing of the accelerometer and gyroscope to
make the gestures even smoother.
Hope you like it and please take a second to vote for this project in the
Instructables Design Challenge!

Is this really what future technology will consist of?

Microsoft created a video a few days ago on what their vision of

future technology will look like. According to the well put together video, its a lot of what we have
now mixed in with some futuristic visions like smart devices that you touch to use. I just finished
reading a great rant by Brent Victor basically shooting down the vision in the video.

As Brent points out in the video above, there is a lot of hand gestures and movements on devices
similar to what we have now (eg.iPhones, iPads). He calls it Pictures Under Glass. I recommend
that you read his rant, its really good and his thoughts explained are well said.
In his rant he doesnt give a solution, but points out that the vision in the video is short sighted, which
it is. He suggests that we think broader, pointing out links to Tangible User Interfaces. I think he is
spot on that the technology in the video is good and is actually what we may see in the next 3-5
years. But what about in 10 years? I dont see the vision in the video to be the type of technology of
the future.
Sci-fi movies are make believe, but often times they get the future right. Here are seven movies that
got the future right. When I think about tangible user interfaces, for some reason the first thing I
thought of was the recently made movie Avatar. In the movie, one scene that I thought of is where
the two military guys are talking about the home of the Navi, which is the local tribe that lives in a
huge tree on planet Pandora, which is the setting of the movie. In the scene, they bring up the tree
using a tangible user interface.

In the scene, they can touch the 3D interface, move it around to learn how big it is, what the surface
is like and locations within the tree. To me, this is a tangible interface. Its actually called a Projection
Augmented Model. With future technology one would be able to perform actions on the interface,
using our hands, similar to the movie scene. Here is an example of Projection Augmented Model:

Does Brent have all the answers, probably not. Neither do I and most people might not at this stage
in technology. But the future of technology wont be picking up an iPad and performing actions on
glass; it will be objects that we can project and manipulate to do the things we want.