Do it yourself
Lantern is an Ikea Tertial lamp combined with a 3D-printed housing and off-the-shelf components: Raspberry Pi, laser projector, an accelerometer and some cables.
Augmented Reality
Lantern augments objects and environments with subtle, glanceable overlays. And when they’re no longer relevant, the UI just fades away.
Social devices
Lantern is designed for a social, shared space, so anyone can walk up and use it, using Bluetooth-style connectivity.
It's free from the complexity of user accounts and permissions, just like the light switch in a room.
Open-source.
We’ve made the chassis and built a few use-cases, but we’d love to see what others do with it! Get a few lamps and play with the colours, or fork our project on Github and build your own experiences.
This project is a collaboration with the Android Things team for Google.
Studio notes.
Android Things
Android Things is a new operating system from Google, designed for embedded devices and the Internet of Things. In contrast to other embedded platforms, Android Things lets you build on modern technology that is familiar to mobile app developers.
The Lantern code-base is written in Kotlin, a modern type-safe language that should be familiar to Android and Swift developers alike. In addition, it uses Google technology like Nearby Connection and Cast to accelerate development.
Embedded Projectors
- Projectors are becoming cheaper, small enough to embed. Laser projectors are always in focus, with no manual adjustment needed.
- Unlike screens, projections work across undulating surfaces and reliefs, as well as vertical, horizontal planes
- Projections are a temporary display, and can entirely disappear when not needed. Furniture becomes information becomes furniture.
- We think projectors are a natural fit for subtly embedding information into our homes and shared spaces, and we expect to see more of this in the coming years.
- With Android Things it's easy to deploy rich, graphical, connected apps to these devices.
Nord Projects