Guy Theraulaz drove me yesterday to the website of the Acconci Studio, an architecture and design studio located in New-York. Among their recent projects, they propose to illuminate a street with hundreds of tiny light bulbs that light up along the paths of pedestrians, cycles or cars. The final result looks like swarms of fireflies that precede the street users while they move.

Swarms illuminating a street

Behind these swarms are a set of sensors that perceive the presence of pedestrians, cars, cycles or any other moving entities. These sensors interact with a multi-layered cellular automata that controls the illumation and supports the self-organization of the system as a response to the presence and movements of entities inside it. This ambient intelligence system is not aimed at providing some form of service to its users, but its goal is rather to enhance the experience of people moving inside such illuminated streets. I did not manage to find whether or not they were able to build their device, but I definitively want to try it!