Morse Code, Signal Lamps, and Twitter w/video

Source: Creative Commons

I remember as a kid getting my first pair of walkie talkies.  My friends and I would play for hours in the backyard or the woods, no doubt scheming ways to harass our sisters or the annoying neighbor kids.  Back then the handheld radios were big enough that the backs of them were printed or molded with the Morse code translation of the alphabet.  Sometimes we’d try to communicate using that code, but we’d inevitably get frustrated and give up.  A few years later, while in Boy Scouts, I learned a little bit of Morse Code.  Really the only thing that has stuck with me was the S.O.S signal and that was mostly because of the commercial for the household cleaning product of the same name.

Morse code and signal lamps have a very rich maritime history and are still used today both as a primary and backup communication system.  The Navy uses an infrared version of signal lamps to communicate during times of radio silence.  Some clever designers at the Copenhagen Institute of Interactive Design have devised a way to connect a twitter account with a signal lamp in an effort to connect two neighborhoods divided by a harbour.  The residence, or anyone with a twitter account, can access the lamps to send their message via lightwaves.  The lamps have a tablet device attached so the messages can be read from the lamps.

Check out a video of the signal lamp in action after the jump.  And bonus points to anyone that leaves the S.O.S signal in morse code from memory in the comment section.






Source: CIID and Vimeo