With the Ikea glass desk set up Michael decided to add colour changing LED strip lights underneath the table and link them to his computer to light up when the system receives a notification such as an e-mail or instant message. If you check out the video below of the LED Glass Desk, you can see how this set up works with the led’s lighting up underneath the desk where the keyboard and mouse are placed.
To create this LED lighting set-up you’ll need:
- a glass desk
- RGB strip lights
- a USB controller
- 9x IDC 5×2 crimp connectors
- 10 feet of ribbon cable
- 2 sheets of foam core and tape
- and some twist ties and zip ties.
Once you have all the materials, you will also need the custom software to actually get the RGB lights to talk to the computer and light up when the system receives a notification. The guide to put this all together is online: head over here for the full rundown on how to make this desk-lighting rig.
Building on this set up, it would be interesting to see what people could achieve by modifying the code to work using the RGB strip lights to react when watching a movie or listening to music. Or taking a step further, it could be used with video games as well, or even something much cooler. The modifying community is creative and surprising – so anything is possible!