I’d like to focus on the beauty according in the natural world for my Blink System. The natural motion of falling snow or rain is one of the most beautiful scenarios in nature. For my Blink System, I’d like to create lights that change according to the weather. I wish to have blink lights installed between two sheets of glass that would be windows for a home. When the weather changes, the blink lights will be alerted through IFTTT with the weather channel. The lights will blink in a pattern of different colors shown below to simulate rain falling or snow falling.

Another similar installation would be through the traffic tunnels that cars often drive through on the highway. Although there are already yellow lights on the top of the tunnels, I feel that it would be both a fantastical and magical experience if blink lights, that were connected to the change in time were also installed to the side of the tunnels so that after a certain time, they would light up to simulate the stars in the night sky. Often in crowded cities, where pollution is a heavy problem, stars would be a rare sight in the night sky. Installing these simple little blink lights to either traffic tunnels or even the ceilings of rooms, can allow people to experience the beauty of nature.

 

My recipe is called the Charity Event Swagger. As the host of a charity event tweets a series of hashtags in order (#charity, #20%, 40%…), the Blink transitions from a dim red to deep green to indicate how much of the hypothetical donation pool has been filled. The idea behind this recipe is to have a multiple connected light structures throughout a charity event space. That way, possible donors have a strong visual feedback encouraging them to donate, and as those participating in the charity event get tired, the lights will ideally become greener and act as a reward mechanism.

 

Each day, unbeknownst to many people, at least three individuals who made a difference in the world – in some way or another – lose their lives. Perhaps you did not know that William Glasser, the psychiatrist who was the pioneer of ‘choice theory’ died at 8:13pm today. Perhaps you did not know that Ronald H. Coase, who won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, died on Monday at the age of 102. Or perhaps you did, but simply switched to the next headline without much of a second thought.

My IFTTT recipe takes data from the New York Times Obituaries section such that, whenever the page is updated, the blink(1) shines a white light that stays for 3 seconds before dimming. Ideally, it would be in a curious-looking street lamp placed in the center of the Central Park bridge,  as bridges are often symbolic structures that connect the living and spiritual worlds. If the light gets triggered, it is likely that it will be during an odd time of day or well past the time the automated street lamps turn on. Some people may still dismiss the lamp and simply walk past it. But others may pause for a moment and wonder why this particular lamp, placed awkwardly in the middle of the bridge, illuminates for just a few seconds at random times of day.

The light in the lamp shines brightly for a few fleeting moments before going out completely, much like the nature of human life. It is a sign of respect for those who passed and – whenever people stop to look at it and ponder, if only for a brief second – gives the dead their moment of silence, serving as a beacon of remembrance.

The neon OPEN sign and its variants designate temporary shelters for the public. In my IFTTT recipe, this universal symbol is co-opted for the purpose of remedying loneliness.

OPEN Sign is a hassle-free way to invite strangers into your home. One need only tweet a message containing the hashtag #lonely, and the sign will emit an attractive, familiar glow. This avoids the inconvenience of getting out of bed to switch on a sign, as well as the depressing rituals of other loneliness antidotes (like poking people on Facebook). The OPEN Sign is a direct, unambiguous invitation. Most importantly, it provides the satisfaction of a real-life encounter should it succeed in instigating one.

(It may be placed in front of a door, window, garage door, or on the participant’s body.)

 

My blink system connects emails with the subject lines “I Love You” to the navel of their recipient. The small light, embedded in the belly button of the person receiving the email, glows yellow, orange, and finally red, to emulate the flickering colors of a gentle flame. This connection is all about intimacy. I wanted to show that light can be a strong personal force, fostering connections between one or two individuals and not necessarily vast communities. Working in this way limited my trigger choices. The trigger is derived from an intimate conversation: email correspondence. Email communication has become an important facet of my life as I start college away from friends and family. I chose the navel because of its hidden nature. Modesty leads most people to cover their belly buttons in public, so most of the time they are only seen in intimate contexts. Notification in this way allows the receiver to experience it alone. In the pre-days of our lives, the navel is how we connect with the world outside the womb, and the point from which we get sustenance. The nutrients we receive are our fuel, and keep us going. Later in life, I have found that emotional sustenance has become just as important as literal fuel. “I Love You” is an emotional boost of energy that ignites the will to live. I chose the colors of fire to show this ignition.

(Photo of my sister used with permission.)

There are two recipes: one uses sunset and the other uses sunrise as trigger. Each event produces different Blink(1) patterns to simulate the color spectrum that happens at sunset or sunrise. The duration of the patterns also tries to match the approximate duration of the phenomena. The sunrise and sunset, however, aren’t in Pittsburgh; they are in one of the most polluted cities in the world, Linfen (China). I imagine this Blink(1) to be in Linfen (or really, any other extremely polluted city that can seldom see the sun, or rather, that can’t see the true colors of the sky when sun sets or rises), shining in the midst of the city for people to see the vibrant colors of the sky when the sun rises and sets. It would be cool to see the Blink(1) attached to a sort of a pole that would enable it to go up and down, matching the sun’s movements over time. I call this the public sun:

There’s a personal sun too; I imagine the light to be inside a translucent white ball.

This isn’t an environmental message; it’s for the people living in a gray city to enjoy at least little of their space being illuminated by the actual colors of the sky when the sun sets or rises, rather than the red/yellow that manages to penetrate the thick air. I don’t really expect people to react strongly to it or even catch on to the reason the light is changing within a specific color spectrum at a specific moment, but I do want to brighten up the day for those who do know what the public/personal suns are about.

It would also be a good time indicator too in general for the utilitarians.

(P.S. all the GIFs aren’t really representative of the time span of the suns)

1600×1200 pixels

If there is a 30% or higher chance of rain, then blink!

My recipe triggers blink1 every time the phrase 30% chance of rain appears in the weatherchannel.com RSS feed. I have not been able to create a single recipe that can search for 30% chance or higher reports for the daily weather, but that is the idea I wanted to get across.

In my model, the blink1 light is replaced by a personal umbrella. When there is a relatively good chance of rain, the umbrella can be set to flash a color on the morning of a rainy day, or an hour before there is an approaching shower. The colors will serve as a reminder for the owner to bring the umbrella along with him/her. (This is something that I always forget to do, and I’m sure it is common for many other college students who have not adjusted to watching out for themselves…) Another possibility is to have the umbrella glow different colors to match the forecast for the day. For instance, if it is mostly sunny, the umbrella can glow yellow or orange. This would make the weather forecast a simple, visual experience for people who have trouble reading the numbers printed on websites.

In addition, if overcast days make people feel dreary or grey, then the colorful light will serve as a positive contrast to the situation.

It was very hard to take good pictures of this in the dark, so here is another picture! :D