There’s a new device that’s generating some buzz in the weathersphere this month — a simple box, connected to the internet, that will simulate the actual weather conditions in the forecast right there on your table top.
The Tempescope, as Tokyo-based creator Ken Kawamoto calls it, “is an ambient physical display that visualizes various weather conditions like rain, clouds, and lightning,” says tempescope.com. “By receiving weather forecasts from the internet, it can reproduce tomorrow’s sky in your living room.”
The way I understand it, the device is fairly simple. So simple, in fact, that the team has published instructions on how to make your own. In addition to the acrylic box, you’ll need some water (obviously), a water pump, a mist diffuser (think cool humidifier), and some flashy LED lights to make it all go bling.
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“The diffuser will fill the box with mist to match the level of cloud cover outside,” wrote Digital Trends after the Tempescope was introduced at Japan’s technology trade show CEATEC in 2014. “If it happens to be raining, the pump will pull water from the lower reservoir and drip it down from the Tempescope’s ceiling. It can even recreate lightning during a storm.”
The lightning is cool, which you can watch in the video above, but snow would be an awesome addition to the elements portfolio.
Overall, the Tempescope is an interesting idea, but will people spend the money for a box of weather when they could just check an app (or look out the window)? “Sure, you could always use an app to tell you how much it’s raining outside, but actually being able to see a physical representation with real raindrops would arguably give you a better idea of how hard it’s coming down,” continued Digital Trends. “With a bit more development, this thing might actually be kind of useful.”
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There’s no price tag on the device yet and it’s not technically for sale, but there may be a crowdfunding drive in the near future.
Would you buy one? Tell us what you think in the comments.
An earlier version of this story quoted Digital Trends as saying that the red and blue lights correspond to temperature. Tempescope creator Ken Kawamoto told the Post that this is a common misconception, and that “the colours represent the colour of the sky (red: sunrise, blue: blue sky).”
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