The Tempescope recreates the weather outside in a nifty box, and you can make your own (via Tempescope Project)
A nifty gadget unveiled in the beginning of October at the CEATEC trade show in Japan is called the Tempescope. It is an 'ambient weather display' you can put on your coffee table or in your office. The Tempescope recreates the weather outside in your own home which allows you to gain a direct sense of what the real weather is like outside. Mostly, this new gadget is pretty cool and eye catching as it seems to set the tone for your home or office.
The Tempescope can recreate the level of cloud coverage, rain, and lightning occurring outside. It also uses blue and red LEDs to give a sense of what the temperature outside is like. In a way, this device seems to settle the issue between Fahrenheit and Celsius as all cultures would be able to gain a tactile sense of what the weather is like from within your own home.
You can watch a video of what the Tempescope can do in action.
I must admit that while it may not serve a necessary purpose, it is very aesthetically pleasing and majestic and seems like a fun thing to have around the house.
Not surprisingly it was created by a designer, Ken Kawamoto, from Japan and will debut on Kickstarter next year. If you can't wait until Kawamoto releases their Kickstarter campaign, the designer has released plans and instructions on how to create your own Tempescope on GitHub here: https://github.com/kenkawakenkenke/tempescope/wiki/Make-a-Tempescope.
In order to do so you'll need an Arduino microcontroller, acrylic boards, a water diffuser, a remote transmitter, and some LEDs (among a few other gadgets and gizmos). They have also released source code which allows the Arudino to sync wirelessly with a smartphone or PC to access weather information to use as data. Their instructions thus far are not entirely in-depth, but if you have some knowledge already, then you can tinker and figure out how to personalize your own Tempescope.
The water diffuser allows the Tempescope to create the mist and clouds according to the Weather data it receives. The LEDs are used to indicate the temperature visually (using a red to blue scale), and they can also be used to recreate lightning during a thunderstorm. The remote transmitter is used to send and receive data from the PC or smartphone.
The Tempescope can also recreate rainfall by piping water from the bottom of the Tempescope up through plastic tubing and dripping it down the acrylic box to make realistic rainfall. The design right now is up and running, but Kawamoto wants to add some more touches before trying to mass produce it for the Kickstarter campaign.
This concept is really cool and combines the beauty of design with a practical purpose. It also seems like a fun pet project to try which could make a cool gift or be a topic of constant conversation in your home. And if all else fails, you can always use a Tempescope as a really cool paperweight.
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