AI Moving Lamp

There is a recent shift from the use of notebooks to tablets for taking notes and writing problem sets. Tablets offer many benefits to students such as organized storage and a connection to the internet. However, there are also some drawbacks. One such drawback is glare caused by overhead lights on the screen of a tablet that is placed flat on a surface. This is of particular relevance in well-lit spaces such as libraries. Such spaces were designed to help with reading books or writing in notebooks, but did not consider glare on horizontal screens. The result: library tables that are incompatible for students using both tablets and conventional paper notebooks simultaneously. The goal: only illuminate conventional notebooks, while leaving tablets alone.

To achieve this goal, we design and produce a robotic lamp that uses computer vision to selectively illuminate paper notebooks. This lamp is not just static; it actively searches tables for objects to illuminate. When such an object is found, the lamp will turn on and wait for the object to be removed before continuing to search the table. When the lamp detects a tablet, it understands the need to prevent glare and remains off, thereby avoiding unnecessary reflections on the screen.

Our hope is to improve the library lighting for everyone by removing the need to manually turn on their lamp.

Here's a video showcasing this project: