A good story can fire up your imagination. But what if it could also change the world around you?
Surrey and Middlesbrough-based lighting technology expert amBX is proposing an intriguing Kickstarter for parents of young children. It’s seeking at least £23,000 to build an e-book app called Luminous Tales, which enables children to read stories that set off LED lighting effects in the room at certain points in the story.
It’s already built a prototype, based on the classic fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood. It’s pretty rough at the moment, but you get the gist in the video below…
AmBX aims to have the Luminous Tales app complete by June next year. It’ll initially be designed for iOS and PC, although there are plans for other platforms in future.
The idea is that amBX will work with illustrators to produce stories that interest children and play nicely with special illumination effects. Think jungles and rolling seas, for example. It aims to build up a whole library of e-books, which can be downloaded through the app itself. There are expected to be five of these at launch.
All Kickstarter backers will receive a “lighting controller package” which will allow them to control mood lighting. It plans to support several LED colour controllable bulbs that connect over Wifi, such as the Philips Hue range, Halcyon and the Cyborg gaming lights. The added bonus is that this system isn’t just useful for bedtime reading: It’s also handy for movies, games and music, which means that you can try playing with lighting effects even after the kids have drifted off.
On the rewards scale, £5 gets you a single Luminous Tale and access to the app and the light-control package, while £5,000 or more enables you to get your own personal story created on the app.
Pledges must be made by Saturday December 14 at 8.47am EST. Go here to browse the Kickstarter page and find out more.
In case you haven’t heard of amBX before, here’s a quick recap. It was born in a Philips research lab in Redhill, Surrey, and spun out as a producer of LED colour controlling technology. It licenses software which enables users to control the lighting around them in interesting and creative ways, and works with clients in sectors such as gaming, retail, home, cinema, hospitality and architecture. In 2011, it was funded to the tune of £700,000 by Northstar Ventures, and has a base in Middlesbrough’s Boho One.
On a personal note, I visited the amBX offices for an interview a couple of years back, and the company had some nice ideas about how to make your entire room part of the movie and games experience.
Here’s the company showreel. Mmm, shiny…