Carlos: impressive! Pretty good for a “do-what-you-want” project! Form factor looks better in the illustrations, but you may want to look at a couple of alternatives to arduino, smaller, but with the same programming environment – boarduino, or the lilypad, can shrink the footprint of the electronics. Did you do any testing with other people? What was your process like? I wanted to make it narrower, but the LED needs a heat sink, and if the LED was too close to the acrylic, it wouldn’t provide a spread of lighting.

Veronique: the size to me is perfect, but you should provide an AC/DC outlet, so you don’t drain the battery if you are home.

Carlos: But maybe you have a rechargable battery and a solar panel.

Veronique: stability seems to be an issue. I would buy something like this if the same components were the same blond wood – I know you want the lighting unit to stand out, but it’s an aesthetic choice.

Carlos: reminds me of the 7 segment LEDs, where you can make any number with it. Doesn’t give that much light. couple of tricks – what if the whole thing was light emitting? Sometimes when lighting in overhead lamps they put silver reflecting coating onto the side. where the lamp hits the ceiling, so it reflects even more. Otherwise the light gets absorbed by the wood, so you can put reflective materials internal to the unit. I’ve seen projects like this on kickstarter they raise a lot of money.

Veronique: I like the fact that you can take it with you.

Carlos: You could take it with you camping. Add a solar light.