Show HN: A candle animation, a volume renderer, and a bundle of LEDs | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A candle animation, a volume renderer, and a bundle of LEDs

dev.moorescloud.com

21 pointsTheZenPsycho17 comments

Anti-aliasing on a ~50 voxel display _sounds_ like overthinking the problem, but the result seems to indicate it was a great approach. It's quite pretty…

that's really cool. but really, it won't be functional in 20 years will it? and really, it's not more beautiful than a candle, is it? and really, we don't need more crap, do we?

For me the main selling point would be that it's less dangerous that a candle I think. But yeah, not exactly vital.

It was still interesting to see their approach on "how to make something feel like real candlelight" with the timelapse image.

EDIT: I now see that they're asking for $700,000 on kickstarter. They probably won't reach their goal (they'd need to get 450k in 67 hours) but I wonder why they ask for so much money to create something like that.

There is a spreadsheet publically available. The short answer is that the way kickstarter works, 65% of whatever you take goes back out as rewards,fees,etc and It takes ~250k to tool up for manufacture. Other kickstarter hardware projects try to strategise by asking low, hoping to overshoot the goal. In truth, a lot of Kickstarter projects ask for much less than they really need to succeed and deliver. We took a risk and decided to be totally honest.

I backed because I want one for my 3 month old baby's nursery. She's fascinated by light and motion and she'll love this. (Knowing Kickstarter it'll probably arrive in time for her to go to college, but it probably goes well with marijuana too.)

I broadly agree with you about not needing more crap, but there is a place for delightful whimsy.

During 2002, candles in U.S. homes caused an estimated 18,000 reported structure fires, 130 civilian deaths, 1,350 civilian injuries, and $333 million in estimated direct property damage. – National Fire Protection Association, Fire Analysis and Research Division: Home Candle Fires

http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/candlereport.pdf

I couldn't help but think many of the downsides for the candle (sticky mess, unsafe, respiratory aggravation, dangerous) applied to electronics manufacture. But out of sight, out of mind.

Cool. Reminds me of the old Amiga demo days and many nights spent perfecting "Fire" demos.

Why not use one LED and just vary the brightness?

It can do things other than be a candle. For example, you can hook it up to your tinderbox and have it alert you when the build fails, with each LED cooresponding to different thingies. If you wish.

http://blink1.thingm.com/

Its an Ambient Orb on steroids. I love stuff like this. It's a shame the kickstarter goal is so high, I don't think it'll fund.