{"id":866,"date":"2011-12-07T08:17:51","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T13:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/?p=866"},"modified":"2011-12-07T08:17:51","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T13:17:51","slug":"cheerlights-connecting-lights-together-to-bring-us-closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/2011\/12\/07\/cheerlights-connecting-lights-together-to-bring-us-closer\/","title":{"rendered":"CheerLights: Connecting Lights Together to Bring Us Closer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that time of year&#8230; holiday time and family time. I was inspired this time to create a project that brings us a little closer. Lights are a big part of the holidays and with <a title=\"CheerLights project power by ThingSpeak\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cheerlights.com\" target=\"_blank\">CheerLights<\/a> you can connect your lights to other lights via Twitter with a little help by\u00a0ThingSpeak Apps.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><script type='text\/javascript'>  \nwindow.onload = document.write(\"<iframe width='560' height='345' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' frameborder='0'  src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yqi28Qcvvdg?rel=0' ><\/iframe> \"); \n <\/script><\/p>\n<p>Since the project release, there has been much activity. A part from CheerLights being discussed on blogs like <a title=\"Creating a Global Network of Christmas Lights\" title=\"http:\/\/blog.makezine.com\/archive\/2011\/12\/creating-a-global-network-of-christmas-lights.html (link no longer works)\" target=\"_blank\">MAKE<\/a>\u00a0and <a title=\"Build a Christmas Light Controller and Join a Global Network of Synchronized Lights\" href=\"http:\/\/lifehacker.com\/5865026\/build-a-arduino+based-christmas-light-controller-and-join-a-global-network-of-synchronized-lights\" target=\"_blank\">Lifehacker<\/a>, the community has created some interesting bits of tech that extend the project further than lights. So if you don&#8217;t have a way to connect your lights together with CheerLights, you can connect your mobile phone, browser, and web sites together by subscribing to the CheerLights <a title=\"Last CheerLights color\" href=\"http:\/\/api.thingspeak.com\/channels\/1417\/field\/1\/last.txt\">feed<\/a>. Right now you can check the latest CheerLights color with an <a title=\"CheerLights Android App\" title=\"https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.silverball.android.cheerlights (link no longer works)\" target=\"_blank\">Android App<\/a> created by\u00a0<a title=\"Chris Leitner on Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/ChrisLeitner\">@ChrisLeitner<\/a>. Another really neat thing is a browser plugin for <a title=\"CheerLights Chrome Extension\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cheerlights.com\/chrome\" target=\"_blank\">Chrome<\/a>\u00a0designed by <a title=\"Josh Crumley on Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/JoshCrumley100\">Josh Crumley<\/a>. So, in the top corner of your web browser you can see the latest color in an unassuming\u00a0way. It&#8217;s a little reminder that we are connected.<\/p>\n<p>To join CheerLights, all you have to do is build something that subscribed to the <a title=\"CheerLights ThingSpeak Channel\" href=\"http:\/\/api.thingspeak.com\/channels\/1417\" target=\"_blank\">CheerLights ThingSpeak Channel<\/a>\u00a0or access the data using <a title=\"CheerLights JSON Feed\" href=\"http:\/\/api.thingspeak.com\/channels\/1417\/field\/1.json\">JSON<\/a>\u00a0and <a title=\"CheerLights XML Feed\" href=\"http:\/\/api.thingspeak.com\/channels\/1417\/field\/1.xml\">XML<\/a>. You can also use the apps, browser plugins, or web widgets to see the colors. Visit the\u00a0<a title=\"CheerLights on Tumblr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cheerlights.com\">CheerLights<\/a> website hosted on Tumblr for details on making a controller with Arduino, ioBridge, or Digi&#8217;s ConnectPort.<\/p>\n<p>To control CheerLights, just send a Tweet to @CheerLights and mention a <a title=\"CheerLights colors and commands\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cheerlights.com\/control-cheerlights\">color<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Just think when you send this Tweet that you are updating 1000&#8217;s of lights, apps, browsers, and widgets all at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>Spread some cheer&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>[via <a title=\"Creating a Global Network of Christmas Lights\" title=\"http:\/\/blog.makezine.com\/archive\/2011\/12\/creating-a-global-network-of-christmas-lights.html (link no longer works)\" target=\"_blank\">MAKE<\/a> \/ <a title=\"Build a Christmas Light Controller and Join a Global Network of Synchronized Lights\" href=\"http:\/\/lifehacker.com\/5865026\/build-a-arduino+based-christmas-light-controller-and-join-a-global-network-of-synchronized-lights\" target=\"_blank\">Lifehacker<\/a> \/ <a title=\"AWESOME THING OF THE DAY: A Social Network for Holiday Lights\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/strombo\/technology-1\/awesome-thing-of-the-day-a-social-network-for-holiday-lights.html\" target=\"_blank\">CBC <\/a>\/ <a title=\"CheerLights: a social network of lights\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\">ioBridge Projects<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that time of year&#8230; holiday time and family time. I was inspired this time to create a project that brings us a little closer. Lights are a big part of the holidays and with&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/2011\/12\/07\/cheerlights-connecting-lights-together-to-bring-us-closer\/\">read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[30,14,141,142,143,60,38,23,81,98,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/iot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}