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Show HN: Audio-Responsive, Hackable LED Light
- hp50g 14y agoHonestly, how would spending $79 on this improve my life?
- dmt 14y agoDepends on if you're an artist, or hacker. It greatly simplifies the process of making high-powered LEDs that respond to music. Also, if you buy ~10 you'll be helping a student somewhere because when these are made, a portion are being given away to schools.
- hp50g 14y agoThat actually entirely avoided the question I asked.
- tudorw 14y agoI am not sure it would, move along :)
- neya 14y agoWell, it certainly improves it better than this throwaway profile you just created to comment on this thread.
- hp50g 14y agoHardly. I'm just new here. See my other comments. My point is that if I was an investor, I'd ask the same question. If I was an engineer (which I am), I'd not ignore the commercial implication of no answer to that question.
- mixmastamyk 14y agoThat's for you to decide.
- dmt 14y agoHey does anyone have any ideas for integrating these into a computer science curriculum?
- at81 14y agoThe description says that it is "hackable," so in that sense I'm sure you would be able to play with the coding and program in specific color patterns, or play with the timing?
- dmt 14y agoCorrect. There are a ton of examples already and it's programmable like any Arduino is. What I'm wondering about is what the curriculum goals are in different districts.
- neya 14y agoThank you so much for building this and thank you so much for building this on Open hardware. I can already see a lot of use-cases for this - For example commercial complexes like expensive theaters and 5-star lounges where many people visit everyday. You have your own niche, please don't listen to any of the negative comments (like how this would improve this your life, etc.) It certainly has its place and it would be great if you could drop in your skype, I'd love to have a chat about this (Packaging, Target audience, Marketing, etc) Cheers, Neya
- kordless 14y agoI realize you are trying to show off the product in the video, but the lighting on you guys in the video could be a bit less distracting. Still, I absolutely love the idea of a big bright multicolored LED I can control! Good stuff!
- dmt 14y agoi totally agree kordless, more mykis set up in white mode would have been good front lighting :)
- at81 14y agoThis product looks fantastic, congratulations on creating the product and good luck on the production/marketing phase. One question that comes to mind is does it only respond to specific audio frequencies? Like how does it differentiate between someone talking, versus music playing?
- neltnerb 14y agoSo this is fairly up to the user, actually. There are several implementations of a FFT like algorithm that run on the Arduino, so any of those should be usable to get frequency data. It's also of course possible to do something like wavelet analysis to pick out more complex patterns. For my example I just did a simple envelope follower with beat detection and a rotating hue, but that's just because I'm (personally) not a great programmer. I think that the right person could make this way, way better than I could on my own =) I see this as one of the great strengths of doing this open source, we can build it together instead of each keeping our secrets like the "big fish".
- glasser 14y agoI saw some of these installed at Burning Man last year. They looked great! If I had time to play with blinky lights this would totally be my first choice.
- jtsauls 14y agoVery slick. Though I'm unfamiliar with the space... you say this is cheap, what would a comparable component cost?
- neltnerb 14y agoLED strand lighting is in the $30-40 range, but has no controller or power supply. Professional grade equipment is in the $300 range. There's a range in between, but for context, the LED itself is a $10 part.
- jfoxdreamart 14y agoThe lights are finally here! How exciting, Brian and Dan. As a visual artist, I've seen first-hand the awesome effects the lights can deliver when viewing artwork. Combining those effects with programmable and responsive audio control is a fantastic next step. The ability for users to program the lights will allow them to enhance creativity in their visual, art, and audio projects.
- wiradikusuma 14y agoCan anyone please explain what is this in plain English? (or rather: for programmers who don't understand hardware but think this is cool)
- dmt 14y agoOK> It's a light that you can program over USB using the Arduino IDE. There is already a library/api in development so you can say "light.rgbSend(0x8000,0,0,0xFFFF);" and it will create bright white with half-on red (notice the 16-bit color resolution--not just 0-255). The microphone input will have software frequency binning so you can--say-- trigger green whenever you hear a bass drum in the music.
- nitrogen 14y agoWould there be any chance of getting early access to a developer version, maybe on loan? I'd like to add support for these to my automation equipment (see my profile for a link).
- dmt 14y agocool stuff. we may be running another contest soon, focused on the west coast to give away prototypes. sign up for our announcement list or email us via the website.
- libian 14y agoThis might be tangential, but the project reminds me of http://www.truonex.com/afro/wristwave http://www.truonex.com/afro/wristwave Imagine walking into a party where everyone's clothes are reacting in different patterns according to the music!
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- rayadler 14y agoThe table looks really cool. We need to set up a demo so rental companies and clubs can see the lights in action. Best of Luck,Ray
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- bcourter 14y agoI have one of these guys' previous gen devices and it is awesome. Super bright and a very flexible board.