Project Proposal

Icarus Lamp

The project for this semester is being done in a team of two.
My teammate is George Geo

 

Deciding on our project topic - 

After surfing through a huge list of ideas on the internet, with  the help of google and "instructables", we shortlisted a few ideas that we thought would be ideal for our project -

 

- A music synthesiser
- An expression pad for frequency modulation
- A form based product which incorporates mechanical parts
- A product which has "light" as its main USP (Like a lamp/Light)

 
(instructables - https://www.instructables.com)

While listening to alot of music both me and George decided we wanted to make a musical instrument, that would play one note whose frequency we could modulate using our hand movement. As great as that sounded, our bubble was soon burst since we realised we did not have the technical knowledge nor the parts needed to build such a complex machine.

We decided to scrap that idea to our "Future projects" and continue brainstorming.

Based on mutual interests and ability to create a working prototype, both me and George decided it was best if we stuck to a form based product that would have one key "moving part".

We came across the idea of an "Iris Lamp"

(https://www.instructables.com/id/Iris-Lamp/)

The basic functioning of an iris lamp is its ability to use complex geometrical shapes with gears and shafts to open and close a "circular space"

To make it more interesting, our initial idea involved into a "Proximity based Iris Lamp"
With this product, we want to be able to control the opening of the lamp to a particular size based on the distance of an object/person from the lamp itself.

We decided to call it the "Icarus Lamp"

 

The features of the Icarus lamp- 

- The name Icarus came after we were talking about the Greek mythological figure Icarus who flew too close to the sun. Similarly the user of our lamp would be able to come close to our "Sun" but the lamp will close in on itself reducing the light to the user.

- The iris part will be a seamless design element, as it would be the main functioning part of our module.

- Proximity sensors built around the lamp sides would help us locate the distance of a human being from the lamp, helping us control the opening of the "iris".

The Iris opening