Ambitiously automated dorm-room

When Derek L My was a freshman at UC Berkeley, he kitted out his dorm-room with a variety of automation systems controlling the lights, drapes, and music (include a plastic-encased "Emergency Party Button" that triggered a disco ball and awesome strobing light-show). In this short video, he demonstrates the many preprogrammed modes he designed into the system. It's a nice testament to the ways that elaborate effects can be attained with simple mechanisms, and all the ways that a small space can be enhanced with superfluous gadgetry.

Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm (BRAD) (via Geekologie)

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grimc

Note: Low is currently a freshman, and UC has already been jerks and told him he has to take BRAD down.
- http://www.facebook.com/nikolas.adair Nikolas Adair
  
  Um, maybe that has to do with the fact that Low monkey’d with his room’s wiring while it was live and without consent, placing himself and all his guests at risk of electrocution. Note the switch hanging out of the wall.
- Petzl
  
  How’d UC find out? Yo, don’t be snitchin’!
tedrock

A friend of mine got kicked out of the dorms for messing with the electrical system to do something just like this – but that was in the late eighties.
Perhaps he can find a way to automatically keep his camera in focus. He could call it, and I’m just spit balling here, ‘AutoFocus’… Also, in my experience, the chicks REALLY love disco balls as a way of setting a romantic mood.
bumblebeeeeeee

so, the lights turn on and off and the blind closes.
- swimsy
  
  not quite — there seems to be some kind of roommate-removal functionality. perhaps the disco ball and strobe scared him away.
- bumblebeeeeeee
  
  it’s just off-the-shelf budget store plug and shite. the delay on the response would make it faster to just hit the switch.
http://blog.youporn.com/ YouPorn Jude

Sweet room. Blacklight in a Dorm Room in the vicinity of a Bed seems like a really, reaaaaally bad idea though.
- bo1n6bo1n6
  
  He needs “Masturbation mode” .
  - http://blog.youporn.com/ YouPorn Jude
    
    Now that’s what I’m talkin about.
ROSSINDETROIT

One man’s superfluous gadgetry is another man’s essential civilized convenience.
digi_owl

The love tune from Lion King and a disco ball is his definition of romantic?
Vanwall

I think “The Prodigious Hickey” episode from Public TV’s Lawrenceville Stories had a steampunk-ish version of the automated dorm room.
http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

The good news is: “I’m moving out the dorms in two weeks and moving the entire setup to my own apartment,” Low said. “The whole system is quite mobile, actually, so that won’t be too difficult.” I also expect he’ll get a lot of jobs fixing up other people’s rooms/apartments with all this free publicity.
http://www.facebook.com/andy.the.awesome Andy Kerr

All that gadgetry, and he hasn’t figured out how to focus a camera?
jamesmcwilliams

I think this guy just “borrowed” the idea from Zack Anderson: http://web.mit.edu/zacka/www/midas.html
TheFool

The original, AFAIK:
http://web.mit.edu/zacka/www/midas.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_kYaPZ6eds

The guy has some other great projects on his site too.
mhsenkow

We used to do stuff like this at Michigan Tech. One guy had an entire system in which his bed would rise and fall at the touch of a button. Then people started worrying about fires/etc. and students aren’t allowed to do that anymore.
http://soundcloud.com/pocketsquare grumble-bum

I’m assuming that no actual partying ever went down during Party Mode. Auto-open blinds wouldn’t be a very good idea, nawmean?

That said, my one-time college buddies & I were always dreaming up dorm rooms like this. Except we were on acid. Plus, the user-friendly interface tech would have been almost science fiction at the time (mid 90′s).
Kevin Walton

Needs “The Clapper”
http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

As a bonus the sound from the blind opening is loud and maddening enough to get anyone out of bed!