Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

For hundreds of years, ice cream and overhead lighting have been virtually synonymous. Think about it: incandescent light bulbs look exactly like scoops of ice cream, and what other possible explanation could there be for the soft-serve look of CFLs? Bring the two together forever with these hanging light fixtures shaped like ice cream cones, in your choice of waffle or sugar. Just do yourself a favor and hang them well out of reach, since they’re $80 a pop, and it’s way cheaper and less painful just to go find the nearest Cold Stone and pig out.

[ Mixko ] VIA [ Shiny Shiny ]

By Luke Anderson

One of the annoying things about getting in the shower is making sure that the water is the right temperature. This is especially annoying if your shower takes a minute or two to get warm. Sure, you could just stick your hand in and feel the temperature, but surely there’s a geekier way to do it, right? Of course there is, just get a shower head that emits light based on how warm the water is.

The LED Shower Head will change color from blue to red when the water gets over 89° F/32° C. Sure, you’ll probably still need to do a bit of tweaking to get it just right, but at least you’ll know when it is warm. My favorite part of this is that the LEDs are powered by the water flowing through the shower head. The water pressure builds up energy by passing through small turbines contained within. You can pick one up for $45.

[ Wowcoolstuff ] VIA [ GreenHead ]

By Evan Ackerman

Have you ever noticed that there are surveillance cameras everywhere nowadays? Doesn’t it make you feel all warm and fuzzy and safe in the knowledge that our little sisterish government is looking out for us 24/7/365.25? If you’re still not quite feeling safe enough, now you can get your own surveillance camera light fixture to remind you that someone is always watching. Always. Even you. Yes, you. Right now. Put your pants back on, geez.

If you think I’m kidding, check out this screensaver, which shows live images from over 400 network surveillance cameras worldwide whenever your computer goes idle. Buy this lamp, and your bedroom could be image #401. $75 not including security cameras; those will be installed separately by some guy in black sunglasses claiming to be an electrical inspector.

And as for what’s up with the ducks (or is it geese?) in the bottom of that pic… I think if I knew the answer to that, it might somehow make me feel more at home in the universe.

[ Surveillance Light ] VIA [ Dezeen ]

By Evan Ackerman

Clay Moulton, a student at Virginia Tech, has designed this Gravia floorlamp to be powered completely by gravity. The lamp contains a 50 pound brass weight which is placed 48″ above the ground, and as the weight descends over a period of 4 hours, it drives a generator to power an array of 10 LEDs which diffuse through the lamp, providing a soft white light equivalent to a 40 watt bulb. Now, if you think about it just a little bit, you realize who’s really doing the powering: you are, as the chump who has to lift the weight back up every 4 hours. It’s essentially the same as a clock that uses weights and a pendulum, or effectively the same as a wind-up flashlight. That’s not to say it’s not a cool lamp; besides being cordless and independent of the power grid, it does offer a few other novel benefits:

Moulton estimates that Gravia’s mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year. “The LEDs, which are generally considered long-life devices, become short-life components in comparison to the drive mechanisms,” he said. The acrylic lens will be altered by time in an attractive fashion, Moulton said. “The LEDs produce a slightly unnatural blue-ish light. As the acrylic ages, it becomes slightly yellowed and crazed through exposure to ultraviolet light,” he said. “The yellowing and crazing will tend to mitigate the unnatural blue hue of the LED light. Thus, Gravia will produce a more natural color of light with age.”

It’s currently just a concept, but if it ever gets produced, you’ll have to decide which source you’d prefer to power your lights: your hard work, or some power plant somewhere that you don’t have to lift off the ground several times a day.

VIA [ Core77 Greener Gadgets Design Competition ]

By Evan Ackerman

I have a soft spot for sheep. I blame it on Poe, who was (I think) one of the first desktop screenmates, and who still keeps me company from time to time. Seamour the sheep is as Scottish as Poe is Japanese (for whatever that’s worth). He stars alongside Marty the mole in a 3D-rendered Dutch comic strip called (oddly enough) Seamour Sheep, and has been incarnated in this vinyl USB lamp. Just plug a USB cable into his fluffy little vinyl butt, and he’ll start glowing for ya. It’s a limited edition, and can be all yours for $60. After the jump, have a look at one of the Seamour Sheep webcomics, featuring the first ever 3D sheep in a ninja suit, as far as I know. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Last time I checked (which was yesterday), the UFO lamp still isn’t available for purchase. So, it looks like you’ll just have to buy one of these terran rocket lamps, and use it to go get yourself a UFO the old fashioned way. Each rocket (only some of them light up) is resin-cast and hand finished for exquisite and unique detail. The designer, Jeff Brewer, has a background in the film industry (including flicks like Star Trek VIII, Men in Black, and Star Wars Episode 1) and he’ll even make you large scale custom rockets, for a price. The smaller “Fleet Edition” rockets can be yours for between $60 and $100. Lots of different styles are available, but the one in the picture above caught my eye, because it’s styled a lot like this rocket:

Anyone recognize it? If not, here’s a hint: cheese. On a side note, these retro rockets aren’t really retrorockets… until you turn them upside-down, that is.

[ Cool Rockets ] VIA [ IO9 ]

By Evan Ackerman

The only reason I find the E-Light Entertainment Light at all remarkable is that it looks like a
tesla coil. Seriously, that’s it. What it’s designed to be is a combination lighting and speaker system that clips around patio umbrellas “to add dinner music and soft illumination to your alfresco dining.” I don’t know about you, but I think I’m alergic to alfresco. You can plug an MP3 player (or anything else with a 3.5mm jack) into it, and the rechargeable batteries last for 6 hours, or 12 hours if you only want light or music, not both. When you put it on the recharging dock, it turns into a desk lamp, as in the picture. You can buy it for a vaguely ridiculous $100 from Frontgate.

I think that Frontgate should throw a little R&D money at this thing and turn it into an actual musical tesla coil, like the awesome one in the video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Without electricity, my life would come to a standstill. It’s sad, I know. In the event of a blackout, Energizer should be able to at least keep my lights on with their new rechargeable light sticks, which are LED lights with built-in rechargeable battery packs. The reason that these light sticks are better than, say, a rechargeable flashlight is that they’re designed to function as integrated parts of Energizer’s Light-On-Demand system. The light sticks act like normal LED light bulbs in Energizer desk lights, wall lights, etc. until the power goes out… And then thanks to the internal battery packs, the lights just stay on, for up to 20 hours. You can even take the light sticks out and move them to wherever you need. If you still don’t have electricity after 20 hours and haven’t killed yourself due to boredom, you can keep the light sticks on by replacing the rechargeable packs with conventional alkaline batts. The Light-On-Demand system and light sticks should be available at Target this month, but pricing information (and the website, for that matter) doesn’t seem to be available yet.

Update: More info here; looks like the products will range from $24.99 - $69.99.

[ Light On Demand ] VIA [ Energizer Press Release ]

By Evan Ackerman

After about 10 minutes of study, I have finally determined where the lamp is in this lamp. In the above picture, the triangular base of the lamp is sitting on a table, while the actual bulb is the vertical piece, socketed directly into the angled stand (it’s this bulb, only 7mm in diameter). It’s a good thing this isn’t in production yet, because it would make you question why you paid $1800 bucks for a fatass Macbook Air.

Two more confusing views of this thing after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »