Creative Project / Curatorial Project / More
Bowing Lamp- Dec 2024
- Collaborate with Sonny Yan
Tools & Skills
Product Design, Tangenble Interaction Design, Arduino, Electronic, 3D Modling, 3D printing, Woodwork
Bowing Lamp is an interactive lamp that responds to human movement. When you bow to the lamp, it bow back to you and turns on its light. The work reimagines how humans interact with everyday objects in connected and playful ways.
Design
Our prompt is to design a product for Japan’s first “Absurd Hotel,” a collaboration between Kenya Hara and Kenji Kawakami. Since the hotel will open in Japan, we wanted to incorporate meaningful elements of Japanese culture into our design. Japan is well known for its politeness and friendliness, and the bowing gesture immediately came to mind. After consulting with my Japanese friend, we decided to integrate this human gesture into our design to create a vivid, playful way for everyday objects to interact with people while celebrating local culture. The lamp’s body features adjustable height and swivel functions, making it capable of anthropomorphic poses. Moreover, the light itself not only provides direct feedback to the user but also reinforces the lamp’s functional clarity.
Beyond its conceptual exploration, the lamp is also designed as a practical product. Combining function and form, it features a hassle-free DC power system for uninterrupted use, a minimalist look that complements any space, and an inclusive accessory that makes the experience accessible to all.
Technology
We used the Bluetooth connection between two Arduino Nano 33 BLE boards to enable communication between the human bowing gesture and the lamp’s responsive movement. One board detects and transmits the bowing gesture signal, while the other receives it, triggering the servo motor and lighting up the LED. The Arduino’s built-in gyroscope serves as the sensor for detecting the bowing angle.
Porcess
The lamp was design in reference to minimalist aesthetics of MUJI. We went to MUJI offline shop to learn about its design and decided on a combination of white and oak wood for our materials.
We went through several iterations of the design, carefully considering every detail . To test proportions, we printed lampshades in different sizes and ultimately chose a smaller one to ensure the servo motor could lift it smoothly. For the headband, we maintained the lamp’s rounded angle design, modeling a curved case to house an Arduino Nano and a 12V battery.
We encountered some limitations when designing the middle connection part, as it needed to accommodate a servo motor and an Arduino board. To address this, we divided the interior to fit both components while ensuring enough space for the upper part to move up and down. Slots were added to the connection rod for easy assembly and detachment.
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