Designing Low-Resolution Lighting Displays

The Internet of Things (IoT) enabled through sensor-rich environments and smart devices allows us to collect and exchange vast quantities of data. The advent of new markets, such as the smart home sector, and movements, such as the quantified self, indicate the IoT’s huge economic and social impact. With the increased availability of IoT services, it becomes important to enable users with intuitive mechanisms for accessing the gathered data.

We developed the “Light Shifting Display” – a novel type of low-resolution lighting display that presents real-time information in an ambient manner. The prototype features a discrete and continuous display mode to support a wide range of visual representations and to explore the boundaries between display and luminaire design. The project was conducted in close collaboration with the Sydney-based green-tech start-up Solar Analytics. The prototype was evaluated in a real-world context in three family households over several weeks, displaying energy performance data. Preliminary findings indicate that the display gained a lot of attention and might provide a promising alternative towards high-resolution media in the Internet of Things Era.