tsutomu mutoh optone dynamic LED light

the optical tone art project shows dynamic color compositions



japanese designer tsutomu mutoh developed a software that controls the dynamic color
of LEDs through a special algorithm to display RGB colors and has applied it to a series of lamps.
instead of on/off switches, new controls by physical action (such as swinging or rotating)
are implemented.

tsutomu showed his work at the salone satellite 2010 in milan.
designboom featured his work already in 2009 where he exhibited in the same place.




optone waft



LED light spectrums in conjunction with sensors interact with inhabitants of the room.









optone hamon




optone hamon
image © designboom




optone hamon
image © designboom




optone hamon




optone spinner




optone flaska




optone color control algorithm



'in the optone, the original software controls the dynamic color of LEDs, as a computer works
on digitized data from an input device, with the color output being numerically calculated.
human beings perceive color as stimuli in lightness, hue and chroma. on the other hand,
the color stimuli from output devices such as computer monitor or full-color LED are light
which consist of red, green and blue done by an additive mixture color method. to control colors
visually for human beings by computers, we must be sensitive to this discrepancy and find a new
way to manipulate colors by numbers. let's look into the three types of hue color circle (see above).
the lowest one is called the johannes itten's 12-hue color circle in which yellow, red and blue
are selected as primary colors and arranged to maintain the complementary characteristics diagonally.
the uppermost one is called the HSB hue color circle in which red, green and blue are the
primary colors and extended while maintaining numerical differences of the hue between colors
as constant. the middle one is obtained from the optical tone algorithm which maintains the
complementary characteristics for diagonal colors and their lightness in a circle as constant.
we choose a color model suitable for each design or art work, but be aware that on the HSB model,
the hue difference is numerically constant but visually not constant, and the lightness is also not.
johannes itten's model is visually proportional but numerical continuity is broken, and hard to
manipulate by computers. the optical tone color model is designed visually proportional
and still computational. because the optone is aimed to construct a relation between the light-source
color and environmental object color by computer, I chose lightness primarily as most the important
psychological stumuli to control colors, then arranged hue to maintain the complementary characteristics.
the obtained algorithm makes possible a visually comfortable interaction with colors in real space.'
- tsutomu mutoh




tsutomu mutoh
image © designboom




optone obi









optone higure







tsutomu mutoh is a graduate of the visual communication design department,
college of formative arts at musashino art university, and currently a fellow at the
international media research foundation. he has been exploring dynamic forms on computer
and electronic media through experiments in the area of visual communication design
and artistic expression combining traditional formal concepts with digital technology.