Zygote: the interactive party ball

Sure, you've played "keep it up" with big rubber ball or half-helium balloon at a rave or concert before, but you've probably never had the pleasure of smacking around a one-and-a-half-meter sphere that responds to your whacks with multi-colored blinks. Enter the Zygote: the "interactive" party ball. Yes, now you and your New Rave posse can really get into the "groove" by violently tossing a gigantic orb of light into the air, and then watch as fellow hedonistic revelers join in the fray. Created by designer Alex Beim of the interactive collective Tangible, the Zygote consists of a cube of touch-sensitive, colored LEDs, surrounded by a helium filled globe; when the ball is hit, squeezed, or tapped it emits a variety of colors. The Zygote doesn't serve any technical purpose, though critics have noted that the glowing sphere helps keep "bad vibes" from "harshing" their "mellow." Check the video after the break to see the magic in action.

[Via Fresh Creation]

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 27th 2007 6:09PM]

Rumor is they're just going after anyone who tries to leave.

[Dale Massey @ Aug 27th 2007 7:27PM]

(Y)
Prisoner reference?

[Emceay @ Aug 27th 2007 6:13PM]

Hedonism bot would be proud. Exquisite!

[fischju @ Aug 27th 2007 6:23PM]

Why would they name this after a fertalized egg?

[Samsam @ Aug 27th 2007 6:34PM]

Because obviously when an egg is fertilized it glows several pretty colors. Duhhhhh!

.../cough

[Boynamedsue @ Aug 27th 2007 6:53PM]

because after being test bounced around a gwar concert it ended up with semen on it.

[MikeG @ Aug 27th 2007 7:52PM]

@ Boynamedsue

Eww, but lol, but eww, yet still quite lol...

[alex beim @ Aug 27th 2007 11:46PM]

lol, interesting comments.
It is called zygote because of its potential to create bigger and more specialized structures, just like a zygote does. I'm working on a bigger ball made of 12 zygotes called morula. Each ball in the morula is individually controlled from a computer. You can probably imagine the kind of cool visualizations you can create by connecting it to the music..
Thank you for the post!

Alex

[Samsam @ Aug 28th 2007 12:16AM]

I won't buy it until it at least reaches the Blastula stage :D

[Macincrash @ Aug 27th 2007 7:27PM]

....but can it play Doom?

LoL

That was my first time doing that. It's fun!

But seriously, I want 3 of 'um.

[Eli @ Aug 27th 2007 10:52PM]

And may it be the last.

[bali @ Aug 27th 2007 7:55PM]

rave like its 1994 all over again. awww yeah!!!

[John DunB @ Aug 27th 2007 8:24PM]

I thought "keep it up" was a game that's played with a (hopefully) attractive girl after drinking too much.

[Whoa.... @ Aug 27th 2007 8:42PM]

you no understand magic ball make oog feel good

[Maff @ Aug 27th 2007 9:05PM]

Geoffrey Gizm the glowing borl sac!

[alex beim @ Aug 27th 2007 11:48PM]

My original video is
here:http://vimeo.com/270719and photo
here:http://flickr.com/photos/tangible/sets/72157601013709698/

[Revrant2394 @ Aug 28th 2007 2:50AM]

Codger: Damned hippies with their newfangled party balls!

Back in the day we threw rocks, and if you lived you got drunk!

[ChrisG @ Aug 28th 2007 3:04PM]

The name this sounds like a rouse to donate to a sperm bank lol. All I'm saying is I don't even want to think about soon to be children when I out on a night of debauchery and partying.