Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Exhibit Inspiration: Huey the Color Copying Chameleon Lamp


Since there are four kids at our house (my wife might argue that there are really five kids, but I digress ...) we pretty much corner the market on toys, gizmos, and gadgets at this time of year.

A great sciencey toy that my 6 year old daughter Caroline received was "Huey the Color Copying Chameleon."  Huey is a slightly squishy lamp of sorts that is internally lit by several LEDs of various colors.  But the cool thing is that on the underside of the toy are two white LEDs that coordinate with an optical sensor to determine the color of whatever Huey is placed upon. The sensor assembly then matches this color by adjusting the shade of numerous multi-color LED's embedded in the body of the chameleon.  It is super cool, as you can see from the video below:



I'm already thinking about ways to play around with this toy with museum visitors --- perhaps as a fun way to discuss color and color sensing? Or as a new mascot for an art museum?

If you'd like to latch onto your very own "Huey" they are in stock via Amazon.

Have fun!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog. P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email (or Facebook or LinkedIn) you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like videos!)