Life meter gives a real life measure of video game health

water-light-health-bar

This hack makes the virtual real by displaying your video game character's health meter as a column of illuminated water. The build video, which you'll find embedded after the break, is really quite remarkable. The column is a clear piece of pipe anchored at one end by hand-tightened plumbing drain fittings. This allows [Bfayer] to attach a flexible bladder which he constructed for the project. … [Read more...]

A clock that uses sixty RGB pixels

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here's a project inspired by a highly polished art piece. [Tobias] has been working on his own RGB LED clock which uses one light for each minute in an hour. He was inspired to start the project after seeing the Equinox clock. That one used a little PCB for each LED, and included an acrylic bezel and diffusers for each light. With the advent of LED pixel strings assembling one of these for … [Read more...]

Add some animated bling to your GQ duds

geeky-tie-uses-animated-leds

This tie turned VU meter has us asking: Will anyone be able to look you in the eye during a conversation? It uses an integrated microphone and microcontroller to make a single-column display made of RGB LEDs move to ambient sound. It shouldn't be hard to guess that this project is another build from [Becky Stern]. She's been on fire lately, offering up glowing football helmets and a turn-signal … [Read more...]

NASA inspired circadian rhythm lights

circadian-rhythm-light-rig

After reading about an initiative between NASA and Boeing to develop lights for the International Space Station [Rasathus] decided to give it a go at building his own. The project uses RGB pixels to build a circadian rhythm light installation. Without the normal rise and fall of the sun the sleep wake schedule for the astronauts can be pretty rough. This uses color and intensity of light in a … [Read more...]

Wall votive display controlled with a glowing cube

wall-votive-display

This wall hanging would look great even if it did no more than light up. But thanks to a unique controller it's meant to work as an interactive display for your living area. The rectangles and votive candle cups are a set of three store-bought hangings. But lighting the candles and remembering to blow them out was a pain, so [Adiel Fernandez] decided to add the LEDs to make the job easier. But … [Read more...]

Sunrise alarm clock mounted above the bed

sunrise-alarm-from-led-strips

This sunrise alarm clock was made in a bit different form factor than we normally see. Instead of a box next to the bed it's a bar above the headboard which slowly illuminates every morning. This was [Holly's] first electronics project. She spent pretty much all summer working on it and accumulated a skill set that included designing for and operating the laser cutter and assembling and … [Read more...]

Stocker monitors the markets

stocker-monitors-the-market

If you can't help but spend the day checking in on your stock prices this ambient device can help you cope. It monitors how the trading is going and illuminates an LED as feedback. Here the Apple stock is trading up so the light is green. The video after the break shows other stocks trading down, causing it to switch to red. An Arduino interfaces with the custom application via USB. For now it … [Read more...]