#HTE

A Lamp That Detects and Mimics Ambient Color in Real Time

Connected device maker Digital Habits, who previously won a Core77 Design Award for their Open Mirror, have created another device that’s caught our eye: The Ambient Light Color Swing. This pendant lamp contains a sensor that allows it to detect the color of nearby objects, then changes its own light to match.

That’s a pretty neat trick, and I’ve been trying to think of a practical application for it.

Okay I’ve got one:

A subset of people of Asian descent turn red when they drink alcohol. Something to do with enyzmes. I don’t get it much, but I’ve got some friends who turn positively scarlet after a single sip and they find it embarrassing.

In the ‘90s some Asian-American friends and I used to go drinking at Decibel, a sake bar on 10th Street in the East Village. Run by Japanese, this bar featured completely red lighting, so everyone looked red in there and my self-conscious friends could drink with abandon.

So I propose we use this Color Swing light in bars, and once it detects a lot of red-faced folk the lighting changes.

Oh wait a second–then it would just highlight all of the drunk Asians in a bar, since the lights further away from them wouldn’t change. Hmm. Okay, this is a pretty dumb idea and I should delete this.

No, you know what, I’ve come too far now and I can’t turn back.