I meant to post this a while back, but we ended up putting together a pretty cool art project for Burning Man 2012 with a bunch of LED lights with integrated microphones. In the video you can see how each one responds a little differently to the music.

The original idea was that people would go up to it, and accidentally set it off by talking or making noise. Then they’d see it flash and go up and look at it more closely, a bit confused. They’d maybe look at if for a second, and then say something to a friend, making it flash.

The flash would of course surprise them and make them shout. Making it flash brighter. Which would of course make them shout louder. Which would of course make it flash brighter. Until the LED array is the brightness of a thousand suns!

Well, maybe not quite that bright yet. But thus the autonomous LED spotlight was born.