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Startup's Open Source Device Promises Gamers "Surround Sound For Your Eyes"
alphadogg (971356) writes A startup called Antumbra run by 5 college students is looking to throw a little soothing light on this situation: People who hunker down in front of their computers until the wee hours, until it feels like their eyes might fall out. Antumbra's open-source-based Glow, which launches in a limited beta of 100 $35 units on Thursday, is a small (1.5" x 1.5"x 0.5") doohickey that attaches to the back of your computer monitor via USB port and is designed to enhance your work or gaming experience — and lessen eye strain — by spreading the colors from your screen onto the wall behind it in real time. The idea is to reduce the contrast in colors between the computer screen and the background area.
The the idea might not be new, and people have been home-brewing their own content-driven lighting like this for a while, but this is the first I've seen that looks like a simple add-on.
...you insensitive clod :)
... ? :)
On a different note, I work for the company making Philips Television....
Profit !
It seems like something that would be useful, but the article says it needs to be "1 to 3 feet from a wall" which would leave a lot of wasted space in most rooms.
Also, only 1 LED? Should have a whole ring of them!
You could just purchase a torche lamp with a dimmer control.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
steal schematics from opensource and next morning we're young famous innovators.
Only if it comes in the form of a bitchin' panther
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
It's a nice idea and look cool. But have they actually compared eye strain with and without this? And with a placebo
Eye strain isn't from the colors - it's from the brightness of the screen switching and if the screen is the only light source in the room your eyes has to constantly adjust to new brightness levels.
To avoid eye strain - turn on a small lamp in the room. Make sure the ambient light in the room is not zero. That's way better. If anything I'd think this make it worse - the brightness of the whole room changes constantly making your eyes having to adjust more, not less.
I mean, wouldn't that be akin to harassing women according to Game Journalists?
But the guy in front of me in the open space might not really like having colored light shoved in his face.
Thats a typo. They mean LSD, obviously
Seems like a cool idea, just concerned about how much overhead the software will cause.
So, basically, it needs to continuously poll the frame buffer, copy over a fairly huge block of data, rip through the pixel data to determine the mean colors, and then set the device color though the USB port.
I really would have preferred an all hardware solution where its a pass through of your DVI / HDMI, and there would be a DSP that analyzed the HDMI stream and set the color accordingly.
After putting a standard halogen light behind my monitor, I eliminated the headaches was having. [/anecdote]
I fail to see how having the light colored does anything additional besides be distracting.
Very innovative... Philips did it ~10 years ago.
1-2-3 i smell a lawsuit from Ambilight who owns all these patents...
They'll sue, shit happens...
philips ambx setup has been around for a long time now.
So, put a mirror on the wall behind you.
I'm afraid I don't really see the point. This is "preventing eye strain for people who don't want to prevent eye strain by not sitting in the dark".
But, hey, think of it as a geek disco ball I guess.
I'm sure some gamers will say it makes their gaming more enjoyable, and audiophiles with monster cable will say that it gives the sound a more smooth, mellow taste.
Me, I'll stick with my collection of lava lamps. I'm really going to miss lava lamps once all the old fashioned bulbs go away. Did I mention I like lava lamps?
A moose bit my sister once ... it was very painful.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
True gamers use big enough and near enough screens as to cover their entire FoV.
As far as I can tell, this is the same thing:
http://store.lightpack.tv/products/lightpack
That's exactly what they did.
I found this tool a while back. In a matter of minutes I could feel my eyes sigh in relief:
http://jonls.dk/redshift/
Damn shame it conflicts with Philips' Antumbra lighting.
I remember it was a big thing, There was a company marketing exactly this same thing a while back. I think it was originally a new company, then some big peripheral manufacturer bought it and then it disappeared, This was maybe back in the early 2000's that this happened. So not a new idea, been on the market for quite a while and it was taken off the market because no one was buying it.
"...people have been home-brewing their own content-driven lighting like this for a while, but this is the first I've seen that looks like a simple add-on."
There's a reason for this. What they are trying to sell is Ambilight, and Ambilight is patented.
Google "ambilight clone" and you'll find hundreds of open designs you can easily build yourself - patent holders generally don't (or can't) touch distribution of paper designs - but they're not legal to sell commercially.
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.