The all new Interactive LED Module (iLED)

What is The Interactive LED Module(iLED)?

First of all it’s an idea and secondly, it’s an improvement; and, not to forget, a soon to be Kickstarter project.

At the moment we are “restricted” to interact with surfaces through touch: touch screen, buttons, touch pads and all that. There are “touch-less” ways, of course, but they require expensive cameras and infra-red sensors along with high-end image-processing techniques.

I thought there had to be a better and simpler way.

I present to you, The (I)nteractive (LED) Module (iLED), the first well designed version of a new way. This panel uses extremely simple, partially analogue, technology to offer a new, fun and intriguing experience at an affordable price. Using simple, yet efficient, infra-red motion detection, it senses your presence and responds to it in a gentle yet playful way. This device packs what, in my opinion, every device or gadget’s basics should: it’s clean, simple yet complex in responding, customisable, modular, fun and, most of all, open-source. This means that you can either get a single module and just play around with it, program it and customise it or you can get more of them, put them together and create something unique like and interactive coffee table, or even something truly big like a fully interactive wall. Whether you’re a maker, and like to tinkle on everything, or just a tech enthusiast that wants a cool device to play with, this one is for you.

One small, 6x12 cm, module packs 32 ultrabright LEDs forming 8 responsive pixels, each being controlled by its own motion sensor thorough two ultra-low-power Texas Instruments microcontrollers which can, of course, communicate between them, if wanted, through the serial communication ports on each chip.

But why did I call it “an improvement”?

Because it is. It is not the first of its kind, but it’s the first to pack a decent resolution in terms of sensing the environment and performance at an affordable price. It is, in my opinion, the first step towards a new way of interacting with objects and surfaces that surround us daily. If this will get launched, it will provide me with the resources necessary to take this technology many steps further and hopefully end up with the interaction technology of tomorrow at everyone’s disposal.

Riddles, games, secured locks with puzzles or real-life and touch-less “slide to unlock”, you can have it; all in a new, fresh and slick look at an affordable price with almost endless possibilities.

The iLED has gone through the prototyping phase and is now awaiting manufacturing. Photos and videos of the product will be posted as soon as the first batch will come out the factory's door; this is expected to be somewhere around the 10th of March.