Plinths

A wifi enabled smart lighting system for displaying Art works

The new SensiLab space was designed with a large front window allowing for research work to be displayed to passers by. The architect of the space also designed a number of free standing plinths that our various research artifacts could be placed on. These plinths have spaces for lighting to be installed and we wanted to be able to control this lighting in a unique way.

I developed a simple wifi enabled controller for coloured LED strip lighting. The LEDs have red, green, blue and white channels which allow for a wide range of possible lighting, all the way from intense bright colours through to subtle tinted soft whites. Each plinth is accessible over the network via HTTP allowing anyone on the same network to access them with just a web browser and modify the colour. They are capable of colour transitions and animations, giving them a dynamic element if wanted.

A custom circuit board was developed to make installation within the plinths easier and power can be chained from one plinth to another meaning only one needs to be plugged in at the wall socket. Once the board and power connectors were installed in a plinth LEDs were added under the diffusing top to create a nice soft light.

The system is also used in the SensiLab ‘S’ sign in the front window of the lab. The sign was built in the lab out of laser cut acrylic and LEDs were installed and wired up to the same control board as the plinths. As such the sign can also be access over the network and programmed to run various effects.