groovetube

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.

As I was wondered around the chi chi shops of Hayes Valley in SF the other week, I came across one of the most memerising things I’ve ever seen. It stopped me in my tracks and I stood there quietly for a few minutes just staring.

This amazing visual effect is called the groovetube and what it looks like is a panel of coloured squares that appear to randomly change through different shades and tones. In seconds you see tens of colours appear, move, and dissappear effortlessly.

But what I thought might have been some incredibly clever electronics and LEDS, was in fact far more rudimentary. It’s a box made of a translucent material, that is quite simply, stuck on to a TV. The colours from the TV are ‘averaged’ by each square and leave this perfectly lit panel. Multiply over 36 more squares and you have hundreds of rearranging patterns over and over again.

This will make any old, crap, TV into a stimulating, fascinating box of lights again, instead of the source of evil that it really is.

Check here for more info and a small video!

Did I get it. Of course I did. I couldn’t leave town without it.