Ruhig Lamp

Ruhig Lamp Interactive story lamp for children and parents

Category | Lighting Date | 2017 Output | Functional Portotype Material | Wood, Arduino, Cardbroad

In the society today, parents get less time to accompny their children. According to the research, 20% of parents spend no time at all reading with their primary school aged children; 54% of parents spends less than an hour a week reading to their kids. Since reading to children activates various function of children, American Academic Pediatrics strongly suggests that parents should read to children.

This project, Ruhig Lamp, wants to cultivate the habbits between parents and children. Firstly, the lamp box consists four paragarph of a story and becomes a short story. Also, parents can tell the stories by different volumns, which will change the brightness of the light. Secondly, children and parents can cooperte together to play shadow game. In addition, there are various colors of light. Due to different content of the stories, the light will change steadily.

Initial Ideas In the beginning, I came up with an idea to create something for children. I was thinking through all day schedule during my childhood. The bedtime of listening stories from records inspiring me a lot. In addition, I built up very strong connection with my sibilings during the time we listened the stories together. Thus, I believe the power of storytelling, especially in the childhood period. These are my first thought of creating this work.

After doing more research,I found to tell story in the bed time really help the development of children. From cognitive, motor, creativity , to speech and communication development, by talking and interacting with parents is able to help children graw up benefitting from various perspectives. To be more specific, firstly, with reading loudly, children have higher possibility to have school scuccess. Secondly, young children may amplify the language they hear more than just talking Current Research

43 Telling story is also similar to a kind of performance. How do I want to present the performance ?There are several ways of telling the stories, such as listening to the radio, talking by parents, creating stories with intimate people. All of above include some common features. Firstly, there is sound. Secondly, people tell “story”. Following the two directions, how can they both interact and play with the stories vividly? Before sleeping, parents normally leave some weak light for children. Under the light, it will be the best moment for them to have fun together. Ideation

By using the skill of paper cutting, I tried to use the light to show the shadow. As a result, parents and children play not only with the box, but interactive with the shadow.

Prototyp to try the size and the effect of light

At first, I designed four layers of wood, since more levels can create different strong effect of the light. Hoever, after testing, the effect of shadow projecting was not as good as look on the product self.

I used different materiasl of paper to lazer the frame as well as make the holes and the empty place for the light to go through. The inner layer of the paper is thinner, which will help the light go through; in the contrast, the outside paper is thicker, which seems like a frame for the whole box.

The lamp has several functions working by Arduino. Firstly, the touch bar. By touching the touch bar, light will change the color. With trying to work approprately, I tried many methods to make the screen work smoothly. Also, I use microphone to take the sound from the user. I also tried various types of micrphones. Fianlly, the one in the product is the best for accepting the sounds. Connecting devices with Arduino

Function of Ruhig Lamp

Time Setting To get darker in the last chapter of story, so it helps children calm the emotion

Volume Control By different levels of volume, the brightness of the light will change gradually.

Horizontal Scroll By scrolling the bar horizontally, the story box will turn from one side to another.

Touch Bar By touching the bar, the light will change color. The color can be dertermined by parents and children.

Mode of Color Changes

Accessories with Ruhig Lamp

In oder to promote the interaction between users. I designed an easy accessory, which is similar to a ring. With the ring, people can change the gestures. Thus, get different shadow cut of animals.