Our roving cub reporter Scott Merrill is live in Amsterdam at the Philips Research labs. His first report is on the HomeLab.
The HomeLab at the Philips research center is a model home built to test and monitor real-world response to prototype technology. Thirty cameras and microphones record subjects as they use and interact with products for the home; then researches review the recordings to refine the products. The living room is currently configured to demonstrate ambX (pronounced “ambiex”), the successor to AmbiLight, which extends the accent lighting from around the television to throughout the room.
Whereas AmbiLight is a reactive system based on the dominant color on the screen, and only projecting out a couple of inches onto the wall around the television, the ambX system is programmed to execute light sequences throughout the entire room in synchronization with the movie you’re watching. The lighting in your room can be made to (reasonably) match that of the scene, making you feel more immersed in the environment. As objects move off screen, the lighting sequences can simulate the sensation of movement or peripheral action. As things happen on screen, the entire room can reflect the change: imagine the walls flashing yellow and orange as the screen shows an explosion. The immersion can be further extended with rumble pads and fans, making movie watching a more tactile experience than ever before. The system is modular and will work with whatever ambX devices you have, all owning you to start small with a few lights before going whole bore to get the fans and rumble pads.
Looks pretty cool. I think the fans may be a bit much, but still pretty cool.
stupid idea, just a gimmick to sell their lighting. no one will like to stay long in a flashing environment.
I think that was jsut to illustrate where lighting components were placed in the room. You can see clearly in the video the rooms with people in them are not having the disco effect.
amBX is great for games and music on the PC and I think eventually we will see this extended for Cinemas. In the fullness of time this may lead to people adopting it in the home as they become more used to the experience amBX can provide.
Looks cool, but I think they are adapting too fast. Their TV with the lights on the back hasn’t even really taken off yet.
It seems a like minority report to me. But granted that also gives an artist even more control of the environment, i think that it is so natural to have intense lighting during a music performance to create mood and even meaning. It would be an interesting element for a director of a film for instance designing a special programmed lighting sequence as part of a dvd package. And not only do you get then an video track, audio track, but also a lighting track. I believe even that it would better purely for music where people are already used to visualizers. A band releases a album and a lighting designer releases with it a programmed light sequence that goes along with it, to simulate the experience of being at a live show. Basically a glorified visualizer where a person is artistic syncing it with music rather then the computational model of a normal itunes visualizer. CRRAZTY!
The Philips amBX technology brings a fully immersive new sensory dimension to games on the PC. Although I haven’t experienced the amBX technology when watching films on a big screen, I have played the latest PC games using the Premium kit, having the wrist rumbler rumble to each bullet you fire, the fan blowing in your face when you’re driving away from enemies and the lights changing to every environment you encounter. It is spectacular and I can imagine how good it would be on the big screen.
I can see this technology adapting into the home environment very well, especially when watching movies on a home LCD. The lighting is a good mood setter, without having to repaint your walls!
Damn…. those fucking lights flashing all over the house look ghetto as hell. it wasn’t cool under the car and it’s not cool all over the house… i think it looks trashy, maybe it’s something cool for a whorehouse, but not for the family room.
I’d like to get high as hell and go on a “sensory experience.”
I was a skeptic until i experienced it firsthand! The best adjective I can use to describe it is FUN!
Duh, half the shots in the video aren’t even from HomeLab. They’re from Philip’s Redhill UK site.
This is just an interim step. Ten years from now this will seem like such a novel idea compared to the display walls we’ll have in the media room. Who needs ambient color to further immerse you into the movie or game when you’ve got 8 foot by 15 foot full motion video on every side. Think Fahrenheit 451.
OK, ive been in entertainment lighting since being a kid. I know about colour.
Im just coming up to six years now since I re-lit my living room with an led RGB colour mixing system. I think your video doesn’t show the potential well enough.
Just like surround sound, lighting is just as immersive an experience and the world of colourful lighting requires finesse, and subtlety to achieve. I understand how gaming can be enhanced which is clearly what seems to have been filmed with the more kinetic lighting sequences you taped. Unfortunately the soothing background music portrays the opposite effect. The people sat in the room with fast changing colour sequences really do the subject a disservice.
Choosing colour carefully to match differing moods is not a new trick, RGB colour mixing is the way forward, id say refine the use, for instance, optical sensors, feeding back to the control side, simulating in realtime, a sunset sequence over an hour, settling down to a deep blue, with key lighting/ task lighting in place to read a book, or provide lfocalised light where required, with a more subtle wash of colour over the top of the task lighting.
In the entertainment lighting world, where colour is common place, it is usual to build up a sequence of looks for specific events and then to plot the transition from one look to another.
Simmer down the transition times from discotheque to subtle. Such as a colour transition over 10 minutes so the change is imperceptible unless you re-enter the room.
As I enjoy my sixth year in my own colour immersive lighting of my living room, I found a slow colour dissolve around the space works well, constantly changing, slowly over 20 second fades seems to work well. To the extent that when I visit my friends homes, the rooms feel monochromatic.
The upside is im drawing on average 20 watts, far less energy than before, Ill admit though, I do have a tungsten source on a dimmer to handle my task lighting, however the white light led technology has now improved to the extent that warm white, exists at the right levels to work with now.
Anyway keep playing around with slower sequences and I think you could evolve some good looks.