Color-changing light bulbs are as common as pigeons these days, and color-picking gizmos have been around in various forms for the past couple years as well — but never before have the two technologies been combined in a single product. Until now, that is.
A company by the name of PEGA Design & Engineering has developed a clever portable lamp that can match the color of just about any object you desire. Want the lighting in your room to mimic the color scheme of the magazine on your coffee table? What about the bright green leaves on your favorite houseplant? Just place the ColorUp lamp on top of whatever catches your eye, give it a good squeeze, and the bulb will instantly adjust its hue to match the object.
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To make this possible, the lamp’s base is outfitted with a small camera encircled by a white LED ring. When the soft silicone bulb top is squeezed, the LED ring shines on the surface, and the camera determines precisely what color it’s sitting on. From there, the lamp’s microprocessor uses this information to adjust the red/green/blue/white levels on the internal LED array. The result is an instantaneous color match you can activate with a squeeze.
ColorUp has been in development for a couple years now, and now that PEGA believes it’s nailed down the ideal balance between size, battery life, and brightness, they’re nearly ready to launch it. Specifics on pricing and availability have yet to surface, but the company’s website suggests the lamp will be available before 2014 is done. We’ll keep you posted, but for now you can find out more here.
