Karthik Patanjali

Exploring the intersection of design, research and technology.

Lightbox

The light cycle controller that lets the user control how much the sensors should affect the lighting.

Light sensor

The sensors are to be placed near the window to capture the lighting and temperature.

Light cycle

Installation during NYU ITP Winter show December 2014.

Light cycle

Installation during NYU ITP Winter show December 2014.

Light cycle

The 'LightCycle' is a unique lighting interface based around natural inputs from outside sources such as the light and temperature of a particular location as well as a way for the user to directly interact with their personal lighting environment. There are four individual settings, each of which have distinct parameters for the user to customize.

The 'Auto' mode reads the characteristics of your local outdoor environment via light and temperature sensors and then reacts to these elements by creating and inverse relationship to the actual natural light outside so when it becomes darker as the sun sets or clouds move in front of the sun the light indoors will become both brighter and warmer.

The 'Simulation' mode works similarly to ‘Auto’ but receives information from sensors placed in a remote location so if you are away from home you can get a sense of the light that your friends and family are currently experiencing or simply just experience the light in another part of the world.

The 'Cycle' mode is a reaction to the static nature of most lighting systems. A manual mode where the user sets the range of change in brightness and hue as well as the amount of time the change takes to occur. So for example, the user could set the cycle to change brightness over several hours if they wanted it to be more of a subliminal presence or a few minutes if they wanted to be more aware of the light changing over time.