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Internet-Connected Ambient Lights Keep You In Touch With Others

08.07.14 | By
Internet-Connected Ambient Lights Keep You In Touch With Others

The Benetton Group’s communication research center, Fabrica, is no stranger to the interweb pages of Design Milk, as everything they launch is nothing short of incredible. Their latest is Patch of Sky, a set of three internet-connected lamps that keep you linked with your loved ones no matter where they are. The ambient lamps tell your people in real time about the sky and the weather, helping them feel a little bit closer to you.

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If you think about it, what’s one thing that often gets brought up when you’re talking to someone in a different area? That’s right – the weather. Now, instead of having to talk about it, they can get a subtle visual display of the weather information. The LED strips change patterns and colors throughout the RGB spectrum, for example – white-ish blue blinking means a thunderstorm.

So, how does it all work? Well, the lamps are connected to the internet via BERGCloud, which is where the location and weather information comes from. The built-in LED strip then produces colored light animations for those on the other end.

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The lamps are named after ancient Egyptian weather deities – Amun, the god of wind, Set, the god of storms, and Tefnut, the goddess of rain.

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Photos by Shek Po Kwan, editing by Marlene Wolfmair.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.