Shadowplay starts out looking like a piece of illuminated art. Its gently glowing circular form sits serenely on the wall until it receives some human attention. When touched, parts of the LED ring turn off, creating strategic shadows.

When you approach the clock and touch the middle of its face, it projects two shadows mimicking clock hands. The shadows point out the current time while a small LED blips around the edge to show the seconds.

The Shadowplay clock is a concept from design studio breadedEscalope. They built it using an Arduino microcomputer that senses your touch, tells the time, and decides which LEDs need to be turned off. The studio hasn’t release information on whether they plan to produce and market the clock, but here’s hoping we can eventually hang this beauty on our walls.

The post Timely Touch: Hidden Clock is Illuminated With a Push first appeared on Gajitz.

Walking around in your favorite video game worlds was probably a dream of every young gamer. These floor mats from JBox can’t exactly put you into a game, but they can help you recreate one in your home. The Quest 8-Bit Mat Sets feature the recognizable blocky graphics we all know and love from the early days of video gaming.

There are four sets, and each comes with four blocks. Two are “base” blocks (like grass) and two are “special” blocks (like treasure chests). The foam blocks all interlock to form a soft, cushy surface on which to sit and while away the hours playing vintage Super Mario Bros games.

For just $6.85 a set, the blocks seem like a rather good deal…but you would need an awful lot of sets to re-floor your entire living room. If you did manage that feat of nerdery (and questionable home decorating), you might just be able to play a life-size game of The Legend of Zelda with a few willing friends.

The post Walkin’ On a Dream: Floor Tiles Put You in 8-Bit Games first appeared on Gajitz.

When the gadget that you really want to play with right now starts to run out of battery power, you will likely be forced to change positions to charge the device while you use it. It’s a first world problem to be sure, but someone figured out a way to beat it. The Power Pillow is a throw pillow with a battery inside which charges your device while you lounge on it.

Created by Lisa Sutt and Geoff Martin, the Power Pillow takes a lightweight 12,000mAh rechargeable battery and sticks it into a soft pocket just inside the pillow’s zipper. A micro USB cable plugs into the battery and then, presumably, the other end is plugged into the device you wish to charge. The battery can charge an iPhone five times or an iPad one and a half times before needing a recharge, according to the designer. And if you really need to charge something on the go but don’t want to lug around a pillow, the battery is removable and small enough to fit in a pocket.

The Power Pillow comes with two batteries so you’re never left with a dead battery in your gadget and your charging pillow at once. The pillow comes in seven different designs to match your decor. Not only will this product let you play with your electronics instead of leaving them lonely and trapped at an outlet; it’s perfect for travel or when you aren’t sure you’ll be anywhere near an outlet all day. The Power Pillow’s successful Kickstarter campaign means that these fluffy chargers will soon be helping kids veg on the couch with an iPad all day.

The post Power Nap: Pillow Charges Your Gadgets While You Lounge first appeared on Gajitz.

Consumer products are definitely getting more and more connected, with everything from thermostats to car starters being controlled by smartphones. The Spark is a light socket that connects to the internet, letting you control your home’s lights via your smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.

Spark is a small device that screws into your light socket. The bulb in turn screws into the Spark. The device connects to your home’s wi-fi network just like another computer. The associated Spark app or website then lets you do a bunch of very cool things with your lights.

The obvious benefit to the system is that you can turn your lights off from work if you forget to do so before you leave in the morning, or turn them on before you get home so you don’t go into a dark home. But the system can also be programmed to gradually light up your bedroom so that you wake naturally, or to flash when you get a new email.

As cool as Spark is, there are, of course, some drawbacks. The light socket itself has to be switched on at the wall in order to allow the app to control it – a detail that will make serial light-turner-offers cringe. It’s also very expensive – at $59 each, most people could pay their entire electric bill for the cost of one or two of these babies.

The post Bright Idea: Wi-Fi Light Socket Connects Bulbs + Mobile Phones first appeared on Gajitz.

Coffee tables are, generally speaking, pretty boring pieces of furniture. But not so with the NES Controller Table made by The Bohemian Workbench. This baby is made to look like a classy wooden version of the classic Nintendo controller – but even cooler is the fact that it really works, too.

When you aren’t engaged in epic marathon sessions of Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers (we don’t care what anyone says; that game was awesome), a piece of glass sits on top of the table to protect it and turn it into a fully functional place to set your beer.

The cool-beyond-words controller table is available in a variety of materials to accommodate all budgets, but the solid hardwood version here will run you $3,500. The lower-cost tables made of composite materials are painted to look like the original NES controllers, in case you’re into accuracy in your giant coffee table video game controllers.

The post NES Controller Coffee Table is a Dual-Functional Work of Art first appeared on Gajitz.