Funky Color-changing LED Sphere Lamp
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
If you’re looking for a good table lamp to ready by… this ain’t it. The Supernova Color Changing Sphere Light is probably just good for mood lighting. It reminds me a bit of my old lava lamp, which was broken in one of my moves a few years ago. Man, I still miss that lamp now that I think about it. I may have to hunt down lava lamps next.
But anyway, the sphere lamp allows you to “create a calming atmosphere of ever changing colors and merged hues.” It uses different LEDs to create color combinations, such as red and green, blue and green, red and blue, and solid colors of red, blue, and green. It’s 8″ in diameter and just looks like a white ball when it’s turned off. There are more pictures of it in action on the merchant’s web site:
Here’s an LED lamp that’s entirely too cool to come anywhere near my house. I don’t think it would fit into my home anyway. My decor is very… look-what-mom-and-dad-gave-me-when-I-moved-out. I think this would be a great lamp in a loft or industrial style setting. Though there is something about it that’s a little creepy. It reminds me of interrogation rooms and science experiments. Could just be me, or maybe it’s the black background it’s pictured against. Anyway, the LED lamp, which is called the “Stardust” by the way, is made by 
I wasn’t quite sure what a “swivel” night light would look like when I clicked the heading over at Maxxima Lighting, and this wasn’t quite what I expected, but this does seem like a good idea. The wall-mounted LED night light can shoot its beam straight out for general lighting, or it can swivel downward to spotlight the floor. That could be useful in an otherwise dark hallway. A bit of floor lighting could make the midnight journey to the bathroom a little safer. You don’t have to remember to turn the night light on either: a dawn-to-dusk sensor detects room brightness and saves you money by only turning on the light when it’s needed. The use of an LED (which should last 100,000 hours) assures you won’t have to worry about bulbs burning out any time soon.
LEDs sure are turning up in some interesting household places. This kitchen faucet has an LED ring embedded in the end. It’s a pull-out faucet, so you can pull it away from the spigot in order to fill pots or clean veggies up close. I guess the addition of LEDs means you can now do these tasks in a dark kitchen in the middle of the night… I know that’s when I like to get cozy with my veggies. Okay, okay, I guess it’s not a bad idea. It’s basically just additional task lighting for your faucet to help you to see what you’re doing. Besides, LEDs are just fun.
Here’s a Christmas gift idea for anyone who’s notorious for investing time and money pimping his (or her) car/truck/SUV/motorcycle out. StreetGlow’s LED tire lights are available in neo blue, green, red, white, orange, yellow, or purple. The battery-operated lights work off a motion sensor, so they only light up when the vehicle is in motion. (They also work on bicycles, if you’d like to add some snazzy bike lights to your two-wheeler. It definitely makes things safer for riding at night.) To install the LED lights, you simply screw them to the valve stem of your tire. They are available for $17 from Amazon:
I’m a sucker for anything LED, but the idea of little lights embedded in wallpaper is just extra nifty. It doesn’t look like the stuff is commercially available yet (this picture is from a trade show: Spazio Krizia 2006 in Milan), but it can’t be long in coming. Yes, it’ll be time to rip down grandma’s fluffy flower-bombarded wallpaper to put up a design oozing with technology. I just have one question though. What happens if, god forbid, you get sick of the design down the line and decide to wallpaper over it with something new? Will the LEDs shine through? Somehow I doubt even a couple coats of primer would be enough to thwart that…
If you’re looking for a fun way to brighten up a wall or delineate an area, these LED light curtains could do the trick. It’s sort of a modern version of those hanging door beads from the 60s. The 10 foot high, 6.5 foot wide curtains can be strung together to do a wide space, or hung in a single segment. 1 unit has 950 LEDs (you can choose the color or get a multi-color curtain) and 38 strings with 25 LEDs per string. All this lighting technology doesn’t come cheap though; each unit is $450 (a lot more expensive than those old door beads). But if you’ve got the money to spend, this could be an interesting alternative to your usual party decorations.
I was never big on ants as a kid (or now), but this blue LED ant habitat from Think Geek might have changed my mind. It’s quite interesting: “This miraculous gel, derived from a NASA Space experiment, serves as both habitat and nutrition for your ants - allowing you to watch in awe as they turn a brick of aqua-blue gel into a fascinating colony of tunnels. Never before have you been so capable of watching these awesome creatures at work.” At the very least, it makes a snazzy night lite (one does wonder how the ants sleep with all that brightness going on though). The price is $19.99 for just the basic AntWorks, but of course you must get the blue LED add-on base, which costs another $12.99.