Ambient Orb

For years I’ve been fascinated with those space age glowing green nightlights.  I’ve had two plugged into my wall for over five years now.  (They also only use 1/100th of the power needed for a standard 7-watt nightlight bulb and costing only 2 cents a year to operate.) You can imagine my delight when I read about these new wireless digital devices – ambient orbs that change colors based on information from the internet.  It mutates unobtrusively and visually when your IM buddies come online, the weather forecast changes or the DOW goes up or down.  I used to wonder how long it would be before we had full wall-size green light panels.  Now, it’s only a matter of time before these “light sources” also transmit real-time visual data from the internet into our physical spaces.