Embedding Ubiquitously: A Lightbulb That’s Also a Computer

The Italian company Seco describes itself as a manufacturer of embedded electronics�or, to quote the company’s own versiform overview statement, to “‘give a heart’ to inanimate objects”:

In nature, every living being is moved by and centered on a heart.
A pulsating heart that is perfect in every detail, and which,
although hidden, remains essential, the propelling life force for the entire organism.

Throughout the centuries, man has always aimed to �give a heart� to inanimate objects
in order to create complex mechanisms
capable of animating commonly used objects
and to enclose the technology required to make large objects
work inside increasingly smaller spaces.

It is a delicate, complex and hidden type of work.
It is the type of work that SECO has performed with passion for 30 years.

With the Android-powered projector/lamp demonstrated in the video above, Seco seems to be bringing its hidden light into the open. It’s not clear whether this is a demo of a coming consumer product or a concept gadget. If the former, it’s hard to imagine its market�for one thing, the first thing I tend to do when getting ready to use a projector is turn the lamps off. But as an engineering proof-of-concept, it’s pretty powerful�Seco’s packed a lot of computing power to pack into a light bulb, even if the product looks more like a piece of theatrical lighting than anything I’d screw into desk lamp.

With the advent of Android, does every gadget now feel the pressure to go open-source? Imagine an Android-enabled soup spoon with a handle the size of a turkey baster, with access to recipe apps, your calendar and to-do lists, and a microwave generator to cook your minestrone right in front of you. Or a gardening trowel with a tomato-sized Android dongle to furnish planting times, soil-testing apps, and access to Amazon’s full range of lawn and garden products. The open source that through the green fuse drives the flower, perhaps? �via Pico-Projector Info