News By Russell Holly Oct. 9, 2014 4:29 pm
Ambient lighting setups are always a good time, but in general these setups are either complex, expensive, or they don’t work with enough things to make the experience worth it. The folks at Antumbra think they have a solution with Glow, which is a $35 LED cube that uses open source software to offer ambient lighting to any desktop setup.
Ambient lighting setups are fun because of the immersive experience they create. The added light around the edges of your monitor or television make the movie you are watching or the game you are playing feel that much more present. On a traditional desktop PC setup, this experience doesn’t require a ton of light to create. All you really need is a dark room and a monitor that is close-ish to a wall. This is the experience Antumbra is banking on you having, and with their USB-powered LED puck mounted to the back your monitor, the hope is you’ll be able to get the full experience for $35.
The launch software will basically poll your display, grab the average color being shown, and use that as the color the LED produces. This is fairly common, especially with apps like Huey for Philips and LIFX bulbs. There will be other tricks the software can do, and Antumbra is actively encouraging users to build their own ideas by offering to include the best options in the launch.
If you want to get in on this experience, you can sign up to participate in their limited Beta*right now. There’s currently no mention of a pre-order or launch window, but if this setup is even half as impressive as the demo videos suggest, then this experience will be worth checking out.
More...
Ambient lighting setups are fun because of the immersive experience they create. The added light around the edges of your monitor or television make the movie you are watching or the game you are playing feel that much more present. On a traditional desktop PC setup, this experience doesn’t require a ton of light to create. All you really need is a dark room and a monitor that is close-ish to a wall. This is the experience Antumbra is banking on you having, and with their USB-powered LED puck mounted to the back your monitor, the hope is you’ll be able to get the full experience for $35.
The launch software will basically poll your display, grab the average color being shown, and use that as the color the LED produces. This is fairly common, especially with apps like Huey for Philips and LIFX bulbs. There will be other tricks the software can do, and Antumbra is actively encouraging users to build their own ideas by offering to include the best options in the launch.
If you want to get in on this experience, you can sign up to participate in their limited Beta*right now. There’s currently no mention of a pre-order or launch window, but if this setup is even half as impressive as the demo videos suggest, then this experience will be worth checking out.
More...
