Great news for anyone who’s ever dreamed of their boring desk lamp coming to life as their lovable sidekick. Inspired by the animated Luxo lamp that greets moviegoers at the start of every Pixar film, Adam Ben-Dror, Shanshan Zhou, and Joss Doggett created the Pinokio lamp which moves and reacts to its environment with what appears to be genuine emotions.
Powered by an Arduino, a hacked webcam, a mechanical iris, and a set of servos to move it about, the lamp seems curious of its environment, particularly humans, thanks to software that recognizes and tracks faces. It even appears to be capable of playing peek-a-boo, looking rather distressed when it’s not getting attention from someone sitting nearby. And it hates being put to sleep, so it will adorably switch itself back on when you try and power it off. Ok, that part’s a little creepy.
