these days we hang the word ‘cloud’ right next to our mouth, but how about putting one (the cloud) in your living, like literally? but this cloud, The Cloud Lamp by Richard Clarkson, is not a place or a natural phenomena (that would ridiculous, wouldn’t it?), but a piece of light and sound art that promised you a lightning experience, or if you prefer, offers you audio reproduction with visual feedback. there is no firm category for The Cloud Lamp by Richard Clarkson, because it is both a nightlight and a nightspeaker, which would qualifies it as a hybrid in that sense. it is described in the creator’s own words “an Arduino-controlled, motion triggered lightning and thunder performance”, and on the other hand, “it is a music-activated visualizer and suspended speaker unit.” this is your very own cumulonimbus cloud which you can physically see and feel, and has electrical circuity in place of mass of vapor which is often out of reach unless you reach for the Everest. and did we mention that it is a whole lot safer then what Mother nature has to offer?
there are several parts to this magical light and sound show which you could own: the cloud, which is a fluffy outer skin akin to a lampshade, attached to an Arduino-embedded styrofoam core, LED lights, a motion detector, plus other electric inputs. the Arduino is responsible for triggering the 16-watt LED bulbs and a 2.1 subwoofer which serves up a pre-recorded thundering effects. the motion sensor detects the presence of you and activates the sound and lightning effects to awe or scare the shit out of you and your guests, or if you desire, the effect can be fired up with a remote. The Cloud Lamp by Richard Clarkson presents a whole new meaning to modern visual effect art and could be worthy of a place in your humble abode if conversational piece is what you seek and we have pretty penny to drop, and by pretty penny, we meant to say $3,360. if you have more to cash to spare, you could also bagged extra cloud shade and satellite cloud for $960 and $240, respectively, to create an even more impressive sky in the home setup. see the The Cloud in action in the extremely short clip after the break.
