He’s a kind of a character. Clyde is a versatile, expressive lamp that’s made to be tinkered with. Here’s what he’s got going for him:
Unique, organic design, crafted from high-quality materials.
High-intensity, energy-efficient LED task lighting. At about 6W, our LEDs output more light than a 40W incandescent.
Soft, colorful ambient lighting.
Point him where you want: Bendy legs can rest on or hang off of almost anything.
You decide: add "personality modules" to make Clyde react to his environment in different ways.
Arduino compatible and easy to program to do whatever you want.
Clyde is the first offering from Fabule Fabrications.
In the Press
"Williams told Mashable that since expressiveness makes people feel strongly about their things at home, she believes 'it's important for people to be able to adapt that expressiveness to their own taste.' That's reflected in Clyde's different levels of customization."
"Clyde’s makers, Fabule, were among the standouts from a largely impressive group of startups, considering few were little more than an idea just 15 weeks ago... Fabule’s Amanda Williams said that she wanted to create an object that was “not just smart but expressive and delightful”. It’s a nice contrast to the more staid, robotic spins on the smart home."
"Clyde is a hackable, customizable desk lamp designed for both utility and creative expressiveness. He is hopefully the first in a line of objects for everyday life that are accountable to their end user, encouraging hacking, modding, and personalizing."
"many people want more warmth, welcome, and creativity from their smart devices and Clyde’s “delightful and quirky” personality make him a pleasant addition to any home."
"Clyde is an Arduino-compatible, expressive lamp that looks like a fun way to experiment and get creative with hacking your physical environment… We predict it will be a winner."
"The Clyde Lamp is best described in a few words as cute, clever, and quirky. It is a great conversation piece for your desk or home that has a multicolored LED light with a bright personality."
Lots of personality
At Fabule we think that “smart” things are great, but we also need warmth, welcome, personality, and creativity. Our home is a place for the people, pets and things that we love. Clyde is the kind of device that we’d want to invite in.
We spent a lot of time designing a delightful, quirky personality. Our whole process was driven by questions like: what does he look like when he’s laughing? Purring? Sleepy? As you get to know Clyde better, you'll be able to shape his behavior by adding and changing his "personality modules".
How to use Clyde
Touching Clyde's squishy silicone "eye" will turn him on and off, and switch between ambient and task lighting.
Touching Clyde's legs will make his ambient light cycle through many colors. Stop touching him when you find the color you want.
We also supply an "afraid of the dark" personality module that will make Clyde sensitive to ambient light levels. Install it to make him light up softly for a while when the room goes dark.
We've mentioned these "personality modules" that you can give to Clyde. Here's what that means. Clyde responds in certain ways to his owner and environment: to your touch, to light levels, etc. His personality modules contain sensors that allow him to perceive all this stuff, and respond accordingly. You get to use these to determine how he acts. Don't worry! It's all very easy.
Easy to customize
Even if you don’t know anything about programming or using sensors, you can simply twist off Clyde’s top, pop in a new personality module, and then close him back up.
We will deliver Clyde with the following personalities for you to choose from:
"Afraid of the dark": A small light sensor attaches to the end of Clyde's leg, covered by one of his translucent silicone feet. When the room goes dark, Clyde will light up in a sequence of gorgeous sunset colors, then over the course of 20-30 minutes he'll slowly fade into sleep.
"Touchy feely": A touch sensor inside Clyde's head attaches to his legs and makes them touch sensitive. When you touch him steadily, he'll cycle through all of his colors. You should also tickle his legs and see what happens.
At the $150 reward level, we'll give him a voice and infinite customization abilities, too!
We're currently developing a "Loudmouth" module with a small speaker to allow Clyde to make some sounds.
We will also supply a "Multiple Personalities" module with a mini-breadboard, so you can add your own sensors and personality designs to Clyde.
We'll do our best to support your tinkering efforts, and that starts with choosing an easy and freely available programming platform for anyone interested in customizing Clyde at such a deep level.
Arduino compatible
If you do want to program, or to learn how, Clyde is Arduino-compatible, which means you have endless possibilities and great community support. He’ll work with any standard Arduino shield, so you can set him up with Wifi, Bluetooth, or XBee connectivity.
You’re not limited to our personality modules either. With just a little bit of coding, you can add LEDs to the ends of his legs, accelerometers or microphones inside him, and anything else you can think of. We're committed to creating great documentation to support all of our fellow tinkerers.
Limitless Tinkering Possibilities
Want to add and program your own sensors? Here are a few ideas...
Add an XBee shield for easy local wireless communication. Control Clyde from your computer: turn him on and off with a button press, or choose his color with a click of your mouse.
Wireless control of Clyde's color.
Add a moisture sensor at the tip of one of Clyde's hollow legs. Run the wires up into his head and get him to glow red when your plant needs water.
Treehugger Clyde looks after your plants.
And more:
Add an accelerometer and make Clyde wake up when you shake him.
Or with that same accelerometer, make Clyde change color when you tilt him.
Add a WiFi shield (or a Spark Core!) to hook Clyde up to the internet and make him display stock market activity, today’s temperature or air quality, or just blink when you have new mail.
Limited Edition Wooden Clyde
We're planning to make a limited run of 100 wooden Clydes, CNC milled from cherry wood and finished in tung oil for a warm natural glow. Each wooden Clyde will be engraved with a number out of 100.
Changes from the current prototype
The prototype that you see in the video and photos here is very close to what the final product will look like. We are planning to make the following improvements to Clyde before delivering him to our backers:
The piece on the lower portion of Clyde's body, which contains the high-power white LEDs, will be made from aluminum instead of plastic. This will dissipate the heat generated by the LEDs, which is the leading cause of shortened LED life.
We've already received manufacturer samples of different colors of gooseneck to use for Clyde's legs. In the video, and in most of the photos, his legs are brass. If you back us, you'll be able to choose brass or black legs for Clyde -- just send us a message telling us which you want.
Did you notice how Clyde has five legs in the video? We'll deliver him with six.
Clyde's head will come off with a simple twist. For the limited edition wooden version of Clyde, we'll use magnets.
We're working with a lamp manufacturer to add a 38 degree lens to Clyde, for a great focused, bright task light.
We've also sourced 12V direct current power supplies, so you won't end up with the thick cord that sometimes appears in the video.
We're pretty detail-oriented about making sure that you receive a really awesome, high-quality, durable product.
Our team
Amanda Williams is one half of Fabule Fabrications. She's in charge of creating beautiful interactions and hardware. She has a PhD in Information and Computer Sciences and has worked at Xerox PARC, Adobe, Intel, and Microsoft Research. She has been accused of eating like a trucker.
Bruno Nadeau is the other half Fabule Fabrications, in charge of product design and software wizardy. With a degree in Computation Arts, he's made some gorgeous physical computing pieces, and can fix a rice-cooker with a toothpick and a strip of duct tape.
Technical specifications
Electronic Parts
Arduino-compatible "brain" with LED drivers.
RGB LED strip.
High-power white LEDs.
Infrared interrupt board (detects when you press on Clyde's silicone "eye").
"Touchy Feely" personality module with MPR121 capacitive touch sensor.
"Afraid of the Dark" personality module with photoresistor.
Optional: "Loudmouth" personality module with mini speaker.
Optional: "Multiple Personalities" module with mini breadboard.
Body: An alloy of ABS and polycarbonate plastics. (Or, for the limited edition Clyde, cherry wood.)
Eye: Shore 60 translucent silicone.
Feet: Shore 20 translucent silicone.
Legs: 30 cm steel goosenecks.
Screws and nuts for fastening Clyde's eye and legs, respectively.
The limited edition wooden Clyde will also contain magnetic fasteners.
Brand New Photos!
(as of June 8)
We had a request in the comments to show photos of the newest Clyde prototype (with the aluminum LED enclosure) with lights on and off. You ask, and we supply! These were cropped and resized in Photoshop, but we haven't retouched them in any other way. We photographed him in our office, with windows open during full daylight, and all of our overhead lights on. Also, his arms are up in the air because he's super excited that he just got funded.
Clyde with no light on.
Clyde with his white light on
Clyde with white and color lights on.
Clyde with color light only.
Production schedule
We’ll ship in November and December of 2013. Here’s our schedule:
June: Refinements to product, optimizing for manufacturability.
July: Finalize our arrangements with light, PCB, and enclosure manufacturers.
August: Order all the necessary components.
September - October: Assembly and quality assurance.
November: Ship Clyde with "Touchy Feely" and "Afraid of the Dark" personality modules.
December: Ship Deluxe Clyde with all of the above, plus additional "Loudmouth" and "Multiple Personalities" modules.
We have already spent three months in Shenzhen prototyping and establishing relationships with manufacturers. We have a supplier lined up for Clyde's legs, and have already selected manufacturers for his body and internal electronics.
International BackersA few notes for our international backers: You may get charged customs and duties fees if you're outside the United States. Make sure you know what you usually get charged in your own country, since it will be your responsibility to cover these fees.
Clyde's power supply has a Type A plug, which is typically used in the United States and parts of Asia. If we have enough UK or European backers to meet a minimum order quantity for another plug type, we’ll go for it. Either way, we'll keep you posted during our development process.
ADSENSE CODE HERE
If you're in Canada, we'll ship to you for no additional cost over US shipping. Simply select the "US" backing option. We'll still deliver Clyde to all our backers up in the True North Strong and Free!
Wireless control of Clyde's color.
Treehugger Clyde looks after your plants.
Clyde with white and color lights on.
An Expressive Lamp for Creative Homes