, maker of intelligent LED-based illumination technologies, and Ambient Devices, maker of glanceable information displays, has announced an agreement designed to address demand for an emerging wave of wireless ambient devices. Through a technology licensing agreement, Ambient will leverage Color Kinetics' patented Chromacore® technology to provide the color-changing "intelligence" that illuminates its innovative Ambient Orb and enables a broad range of future applications.
"We're pleased to add Ambient Devices to the growing number of companies that are differentiating their products by licensing Color Kinetics' technology. Ambient Devices has created an entirely new way of delivering timely wireless information with massive consumer and business appeal, and we're excited to play a role in this new and forward-looking market," said Bill Sims, president and COO, Color Kinetics. "The use of intelligently controlled LED illumination for the transmission of wireless information demonstrates the truly remarkable breadth of applications that can be achieved using Chromacore."
"We're thrilled to collaborate with Color Kinetics and explore the potential for real-time information visualization," said David Rose, president, Ambient Devices. "Ambient Devices is committed to the concept of 'calm technology', which takes advantage of a person's powerful perceptual system. We have an innate ability to read subtle changes in the surrounding environment and this can be a means to render information without cognitive clutter. Incorporating Color Kinetics' Chromacore technology allows us to do this in a simple and aesthetically elegant way through non-intrusive color-changing light."
In response to the increasingly pervasive flood of information that interrupts consumers via pagers, cell phones, personal digital assistants and the like, Ambient Devices weaves information into everyday objects that employ color-changing light to unobtrusively deliver Internet-based information at a glance. The Ambient Orb, a wireless, glass desktop device, is the first in Ambient Devices' growing line of products to take advantage of Color Kinetics' Chromacore, a pioneering technology that applies microprocessor-controlled, multicolored, high-brightness LEDs to generate millions of colors and color-changing effects. The Ambient Orb is powered by the Ambient Information Network, a nationwide wireless network which transmits user-specified information and seamlessly maps that data to color changes, reflecting fluctuations in everything from the stock market to traffic patterns to pollen counts and weather conditions. Chromacore supplies the color-changing effects that are the Orb's means of communication to users--for example, displaying a linear spectrum from green when a user's stock portfolio is up to red when it's down. It also provides the inherent benefits of LED-based illumination, including long source life, low energy consumption, and little heat emission.
Ambient Devices is working with companies across numerous markets to embed wireless connectivity in a wide range of products, including gauges and indicators for financial services, office furniture, health and wellness, and business accessories. The compact, flexible nature of Chromacore allows for easy configuration within products as small as keychain fobs and pens. As a result, businesses can differentiate their products by transforming them into unique, ambient information delivery services.
The Ambient Orb will be available nationwide in May 2003.