Windows 8 Mood Lighting born out of a discussion where we were brainstorming how we can make the custom hardware to talk to Windows 8. It was a Diwali season, a festival of light and therefore idea which jumped out of the conversation had festive influence on it. We thought how cool it would be if someone can change the ambient lighting of the room as per one’s will and mood. The lights can be arranged in any fashion and at any place in the room be it false ceiling or a lighting vase.
We conceptualized and developed a Windows 8 app from where the LED’s of different colors can be switched on and off wirelessly. We installed these LED’s (red, green, blue and yellow) in the false ceiling of our room and office and connected that with the Arduino board. It enabled us to change the color of our room/office space with respect to our mood and feelings right from a modern UI of the Windows 8 app.
Technologies explored: Software [Windows store app for Win 8, Windows Communication Foundation [WCF], Console application [exe to talk to serial port] via Bluetooth SPP], Hardware [Bluetooth 2.0, Arduino development board, 12 V Relay Shield, LED strips]
Collaborators: Aditya MSK, Rolly Seth, Jatin Sharma
Timeline: Oct ’12