GNR8 new/s

Interactive Couch

 

Forget couples counseling to tell you you're drifting apart from your lover.  A UK designer has come up with a concept that’s illuminatingrelationships from their living rooms.

This sofa is embedded with patterned lights which react to seating arrangements. As a couplesit apart on the sofa, they are surprised when a cold blue patternbegins to grow around them signifying their distance apart from eachother.  With the pattern changing in relation to weight and proximity,as they move towards each other warm pink petals begin to formrepresenting their closeness.
 
Using light emitting(Electroluminescent) technology in conjunction with trigger sensitivematerials, the pattern is displayed in relation to where a person issitting.  The petals will randomly illuminate around your body anddisappear when you move to another spot, meaning an ever evolving andchanging pattern display occurs. With the thoughtful and playfuldevelopment of the pattern, the wonderment of where the pattern willlead adds to the experience of using the sofa.

LoFi

Since we last featured them (for the lightbrix), experimental light/sound design collective hehe have been very busy, with installations such as bruitRose (where street noise is converted into images), and artifi-ciel, (where remote sun and rain sensors generate artificial online weather), among others.

Our favorite, though, is LoFi, which turns the facade of a building into a graphic equalizer, publicly displaying the frequencies of the live music playing inside.

Leaves you wondering if the better show is on the inside or the outside of the building...

Mirror TV

Manufacturer: Ad Notam

From the website:

ad notam delivers moving images with sound on mirror and glass surfaces.

A glass or mirror surface with an integrated view surface in TFT display technology to playback high-resolution colour films (TV, SAT, DVD, video, etc.) or PC presentations (PC, laptop, flashcard, etc.) provides a completely new, trendy and effective way of communicating information.

ad notam supplies various design products for applications in retail (POS, POI), company presentations (foyers, trade fairs and exhibitions, showrooms), hotel and catering, hair salons and consumer market.

TV in your mirror...

jelly light

Designers: Dirk Rutten & Jeroen Kascha for NXT design

The Jelly-light is a massive light sculpture.

The light-source is fitted inside a generator fitted with an energy-saving MHR150 watt bulb. Light from the generator flows into the Jelly-light through optic fibers infused in transparent rubber.

Add an optional colour wheel, with a range of colours, and a programmable system, and you can create a huge assortment of dynamic color schemes, a lightshow hanging from your ceiling.

Available in diameters of 1.5 to 3 meters.

heliodisplay

Designer: Chad Dyner

Designed by Chad Dyner, an MIT graduate student, Heliodisplay displays images in thin air, without the need for a projection screen or other refractive surface. That's pretty cool in and of itself, but get this: The Heliodisplay is interactive -- a "floating touch screen" -- allowing a hand or finger to navigate and select. In other words, you can reach into the display and manipulate visual elements by grabbing them (Think Minority Report!).

Price: $18,600

Ambient Orb & Beacon

Designer: Ambient Devices

Not exactly "news", as we've been carrying Ambient Devices products for over a year, but definitely worth another look. This set of products is as exciting today as when we first laid eyes on them:

"The next generation of interior lighting is here!

This frosted glass Orb slowly transitions between thousands of colors to show changes in the weather, the health of your stock portfolio, or if your boss or kid is on instant messenger.

Imagine if you had to...click to continue..."

Orb comes preset to the DOW, beacon to your local weather. As with everything at GNR8, shipping is free to the US.

See them both now at GNR8.