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Coin Lamp Has an Inevitable Future Date With a Hammer
Posted by Jack Loftus at 4:30 AM on September 29, 2008
Coin Lamp has its heart in the right place, but I'm afraid the inevitable path that each of these concept lamps will take, given enough time, is into a garbage can. In pieces. Because your retirement fund will tank, you'll get desperate, and you will need the $US2.35 in change this simple little lamp contains something fierce. So, it will be Coin Lamp meet hammer, and then you can afford your small latte at the expense of not being able to see that night. Kudos to designer Jethro Macey for thinking of it, as anything that keeps us mindful of our energy consumption is a welcome step forward. [Jethro Macey via Presurfer]
This is a giant exterior light assembly that looks as angular as a stealth fighter, and bit like a Star Trek shuttlepod. By designer Jeroen Molenaar, it's got some artistic merit and sure, it lights up outside places really nicely... but who cares? It's a giant light fitting that looks like a spaceship, and that's all you need to know. [
Sheesh, if it's not one thing it's another: first the International Space Station had 
Brando's Traffic Prompters are cheap at US$16 per light and are meant to promote highway safety. You can even combine a red one with a blue atop your car to emphasise your state of emergency. Just don't be surprised when you're busted for impersonating a police officer.
I have an allergy to all gimmicky USB things, but these USB Halloween Pumpkin LED lights are actually cubicle-worthy, especially seeing how they all look with the lights off. Unfortunately, the US$13 8-pumpkin lights package has some problems.
Honestly, we'd have posted the Stimuli 3.0 lamp even if it did nothing special. Just look at it, sitting there all science fiction-y, like some huge alien computer's vulnerable data core. But it just so happens that the spherical shape and surrounding panels have a specific function, to constantly adjust the lamp's light levels to correspond with that coming in through the windows. By shifting around the panels with an internal 3 axis gearbox, light output can fill the light gap left by a waning sun, maintaining a constant light level through the day. Plus, it'll match your alien autopsy dinner table fabulously. [
"The lightbulb is dead. Long live CFL!" may be the chant sounding around the world as we switch to the energy-efficient fluorescent lighting, but this has its own problems—something the LED bulb from Frog Design is intended to fix. It's arguable the CFLs are bad for the environment, with plastic parts, electronics and mercury inside, and they emit a harsh light and can't be dimmed. LEDs are more efficient, potentially longer lasting, are dimmable and need less components. Frog has decided that to get consumers to adopt LEDs, and for ease of use, it's simplest to package them in a traditional glass enclosure, complete with screw-fit contacts. It's a design I've secretly thought about for ages: making it into a real product has just one difficulty... bright enough, white enough, long-lasting diffuse LEDs. [
I have yet to meet someone who is genuinely not creeped out by spiders, so I would imagine that you could get a lot of laughs out of a 91cm model that features four twitching legs illuminated by purple incandescent lights. It would be great as a Halloween decoration, or for placing next to your partner in bed. Nothing starts a morning right like watching a loved one pee their pants and let out and a shrill, girlish scream. Now, that's invigorating. Available for US$70. [
If you've got 1,500 straws lying around the house—and i mean, who doesn't—then boy do we have the project for you! The straw lamp can be a unique addition to your decor throuh what looks like a few hours of work that requires little to no coordination. (Essentially, you stick the straws into a cylindrical mesh and after repeating several times you get this neato lamp.) Bonus points to anyone who fits a forty in the middle and links all the straws for a good group suckfest. [
This chandelier-ish lighting design, dubbed Kurage3, allows you to change its level of illumination by changing how curved a shape it makes. Simple science really: If you make it curve past the critical angle for the 1.5-mm fiber-optic, instead of shooting through the tube of glass, the light from an LED light source leaks out at the corners. It's a messy, organic-looking light fitting, which is how fibre-optic lighting should be, or so it feels to me... that way it'd fit into my organic-looking, messy home. It's from Schemata Studio, but there's no info on whether you'll be able to buy it for real. [
