Color-changing desk lamp indicates owners’ away status and incoming emails

placeLamp tracks the location of owners and emits different colors to let coworkers know where they are, or if they've received a new message.

While some aspects of The Internet of Things are obviously beneficial — think Nest‘s energy saving and remotely controlled heating, for example — the possibilities can actual be a bit more unusual and creative. Exemplifying this is the placeLamp, which tracks the location of owners and emits different colors to let coworkers know where they are, or if they’ve received a new message.

Created by designer Sam Stubblefield, the lamp takes a simple cylindrical form that is illuminated from the bottom with LEDs. When connected to owners’ smartphones, the lamp can track how far away from it they are. placeLamp turns off if they’re out of the office, glows subtly if they’re in the vicinity but not at work, and continues getting stronger the closer they are to their desk. Users can control the lamp’s indications, even setting it to turn blue when they’re out of the country, for example. It can also be used to alert owners of email or text messages, glowing different shades to indicate their urgency.

Watch the video of the prototype lamp in action below:

Although placeLamp doesn’t offer extra functionality that out-of-office notifications and on-screen displays don’t already provide, it communicates in a less distracting manner that could work well in stressful office environments or even hospitals. Are there other pieces of office furniture that could be redesigned to deliver information to workers?