The detail that surprised me most is how loud this notification is. When a text comes in, the whole enclosed porch gets bathed in bright red light while a high-pitched screaming alarm repeats over and over, and the person at the laptop startles, laughs, and looks around for the source. A gentle glow this is not, and that boldness is exactly why I wanted to share it here.
The parts are simple: Philips Hue bulbs paired with Tasker on Android. The bulb doing the work sits in a hanging ceiling lantern fixture and glows orange-red when the trigger fires. The maker put this together back when first getting the Hue bulbs, and the reason behind it is easy to relate to: texts were getting missed, sometimes for long stretches, because the phone went unchecked. The lights give a way for a text to actually get noticed.
What I appreciate is that the maker did not stop at showing the effect. After someone asked how to recreate it, a tutorial went up on the blog walking through the whole notification setup, which is more effort than many would bother with.
One thing left hanging: the control hardware behind the automation never really appears on screen, and the wide photo of the porch does not make the exact build clear. I would love a close look at what is actually driving the bulbs.
Project by Craig Midwinter. Watch it on their YouTube channel: