Florence Deau 
Patch of Sky is a stunning new research project that has been ideated and assembled at Fabrica, by researchers Leonardo Amico, Federico Floriani, Reda Jouari, Alice Longo, Akshataa Vishwanath and Giorgia Zanellato during the winter 2013/2014. Patch of Sky is a series of three Internet connected ambient lamps (prototypes), enabling to share in real-time the sky above us with loved ones, wherever they are.
About – Patch of Sky integrates with personal spaces, at home or in the office. The prototypes, which can be either placed on a table or hung on the wall, are developed with Arduino, while BERGCloud, a hardware and software solution for the Internet of Things, connects the lamp to the web.
Patch of Sky gathers weather information based on the current Facebook location: meteorological phenomena are classified into eleven common weather conditions, each of them corresponding to a colored light animation which is displayed on the lamp. These animations are carefully designed to be understood at first glance and are called after ancient Egyptian weather deities – Amun the god of wind, Set the god of storms and Tefnut the goddess of rain.
Patch of Sky Lamp – Fog (left) and Freezing (right)
Patch of Sky Lamp – Storm
Patch of Sky Lamp – Cloudy
Patch of Sky Lamp – Hot
Patch of Sky Lamp – Sunny
Patch of Sky Lamp – Rain
Patch of Sky Lamp – Hale
Patch of Sky Lamp – Snow
Patch of Sky Lamp – Drizzle
Photos © Shek Po Kwan, editing by Marlene Wolfmair
