This cool gadget puts the weather outside into a box on your desk

By

Tempescope
Yes, it even does clouds and lightning.
Gif: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac (via Ken Kawamoto)

The best way to check the weather is usually pulling up an app or website, turning on a TV, or simply going to a window and looking outside. But what if you had a gorgeous device on your desk that could actually show you what’s going on out there?

Tempescope is that pretty little thing; it simulates present and future weather conditions inside of a clear acrylic case.

Inventor Ken Kawamoto came up with the Tempescope, which uses Bluetooth and a companion iOS app to download meteorological data from the Internet and then re-creates it in small scale using fans, condensers, pumps, lights, and real-ass dihydrogen monoxide. You can see it all in action in the video below:

Impressively, Tempescope can even “play” an entire day’s forecast, and it indicates time using an RGB light in the top of the case. Kawamoto will launch a Kickstarter later this year to fund production of a consumer model, but if you’re handy with circuit boards and the Arduino open-source programming language, you can find free downloads of all of the plans, instructions, and code to make your own at Tempescope’s website.

Even beyond the fact that you could build one of these yourself for only the cost of parts, it’s a cool device for presenting digital information in an analog way. Sure, it’s full of motors, programming, and some pretty fancy tech, but the fact that what you end up “reading” consists of real clouds made of actual water vapor lends the Tempescope an elegance and simple beauty that’s hard to find on a screen.

Don’t get me wrong — it is good that it only simulates lightning with flashing LEDs. That would be ridiculously dangerous.

Via: This Is Colossal

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.