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MSP1
03-01-2012, 12:39
I built this mood light as a birthday present for Susan, the art student daughter of a friend. Its novel feature is the ability to sense and attempt to reproduce the colour of the surface it is standing on. Despite its relative simplicity, it performs quite well when placed on magazine covers or any of the other colourful materials which litter an art students work area.

The device uses red, green and blue colour sensors based on wide band photo-diodes and an array of high brightness, tricolour LEDs. A Picaxe 14M is used to control the system and to provide a number of other functions.

A full description is contained in the PDF document listed below. This includes photographs, the full circuit, a software listing and details of the mechanical construction of the mood light. Please forgive the rather poor photographs included in this document, but it is the nature of presents that you eventually have to present them! This meant that I no longer had the hardware available to take decent pictures by the time I got around to creating this documentation.

10003

hippy
03-01-2012, 13:24
Its novel feature is the ability to sense and attempt to reproduce the colour of the surface it is standing on.

That's a really neat idea; would have great potential as a translucent Chameleon shaped unit !

MSP1
03-01-2012, 14:49
That's a really neat idea; would have great potential as a translucent Chameleon shaped unit !

I'm on the lookout for someone who is into taxidermy and has access to some Chameleons;)

hippy
03-01-2012, 15:15
Seems someone else already had the idea ...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/dde2/?cpg=cj&ref=&CJURL=

MSP1
03-01-2012, 20:31
Seems someone else already had the idea ...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/dde2/?cpg=cj&ref=&CJURL=

Interesting. Despite the fact that I had been thinking of this as a Chameleon mood light, I originally Goggled for "Mood Light" and not "Chameleon" so I didn't find that. Thanks for the link!