Loochi, brought to you by TBIdeas based in Santa Cruz, CA, is the first Bluetooth4 smart lamp that allows the user to control and animate lighting wirelessly from a smartphone.  Moreover, Loochi is open-source for hardware, software, AND design, allowing for endless lighting creativity to evolve.  Did someone say Loochi-based building-size Tetris?

While the LeWeb 2012 conference takes place this week in Paris with the theme "Internet of Things", TBIdeas has launched its first crowdfunding campaign for the Loochi on Indiegogo.

The "Internet of Things" explores how objects are connected and communicate with each other - smart phones, smart cars, smart appliances.  Check out this fun animation on CNN that explains well how connected objects are and will continue to impact our lives.

And now comes Loochi, the connected lamp.

The Franco-American rockstar L-Team has been developing prototypes of Loochi for the past 6 months to arrive at the current design, with the following features:

  • A 10-watt LED bulb (check out Switch Lighting and Digital Lumens to remind yourself of the efficient-awesomeness of LED lights) from LED Engin producing 510 Lumen (more than the amount of light produced by a 40W incandescent bulb).
  • The base of the lamp, designed by Dr. Jurgen Kienhofer under a CC-BY-SA license,  is made of plastic with a chrome plating, and an aluminum-based heatsink to cool the LED.
  • The Loochi is wirelessly connected via Blutooth® 4.0 - intentionally not WIFI - to avoid complex connection issues and facilitate the user experience.
 

Loochi has countless applications - waking you up gently, linking notifications to light signals, synchronizing Loochi with your music for a party, and more.

Also, Loochi is completely open-source, so you can program your own applications or design and 3-D print your own lamp shade.

If you are as excited about the Loochi as I am, help support the team by crowdfunding and even pre-ordering your Loochi NOW.  Orders go until January 6, 2013, and shipping is expected for March/April 2013.

I ordered mine last night and can not wait to smoochi my Loochi.