To start this project off, I want to talk about the inspiration and influences.
In the last several years I have been heavily influenced by Japanese architecture and interior design. With compact, simple, clean designs Japanese homes can be comfortable while being extremely efficient with space. Homes can be converted into beautiful spaces that not only are physically comforting, but visually relaxing and allowing the residents to more easily achieve a peace of mind or zen state.
One of my favorite elements in design is lighting. It has a very important effect on spaces and how they are perceived. It’s also something dynamic that changes with the time of day, weather and mood. I believe it’s very common to use mood lighting, but in American culture I think this is used often to describe just an adjustable light to a dimmer setting. However, lights can set moods in many different situations. Different combinations of flashing colored lights could either set a fun dance party, or fear and caution in emergency settings. Even the different wavelengths hitting your eye from your computer monitor can make subtle changes. Hours of staring at a white screen can cause strain in your eyes, headaches and possibly a higher stress level. While viewing a darker screen like my blog is a bit easier on the eyes. Programs such as f.lux tint your computer screen to softer colors after the sun has set for exactly these reasons.
So my goal with this is to create a light that sets a mood upon waking up, or really to use the light to make it easier to wake up. Here in Vancouver, Canada we’re only getting about 9 hours of sunlight this time of year. It’s dark when we wake up and it’s dark before we leave work. It can be pretty depressing, especially considering we get so much rain it’s cloudy all the time and we almost never see the sun. For this reason I want to make a lamp that is easy on the eyes and has an alarm function that will turn it on when I have to wake up.
This particular function exists in another Japanese innovation. A certain capsule hotel in Kyoto called Nine Hours, which opened up only a few years ago, uses much more technology than it’s 70’s and 80’s predecessors. One of these innovations is ambient lighting in the entire ceiling of the capsule that can be triggered by an alarm to simulate sunrise.
To replicate this I outlined a few requirements:
- LED based ambient lighting
- With adjustable brightness
- And an adjustable shade
- Alarm Clock functions
- LCD Display showing time
- Adjustable time
- Adjustable alarm
- Music control
- Interface with the computer to control Winamp
- Typical music player commands play/pause/next/back/vol up/vol down
- Additional control to switch playlists
The music control is another addition that I wanted since I go to sleep with music. With the controls of the alarm next to the bed it seemed convenient to be able to control music from it as well. One bonus from this would be that I would be able to set certain music to play on the alarm function as well.
To meet these requirements I will be using the following resources:
- 3D printed parts to build the lamp
- Arduino ATMega to control the lamp, LCD display and computer interface
- Electronics for timekeeping and interfacing; buttons, knobs etc.
- Power supply to run it all
- 3D printed case to house all the electronics
- scripts on the computer to interface microcontroller communication and the music player software