Hey, firstly u guys rock. i frequent the site since dicoverib=ng it and it led me to come up with my own project. here it is
An interactive lamp. the design would be similar to the pixar lamp. Where the light beam is directed will depend on the user's hand gestures: moving hand up or down left or right will move the lamplight accordingly. There should be at least 8 degrees of freedom where the lamp socket connects with the neck and another 8 where the neck connects to the base. moving you hand around the lamp should not limit its tracking of gesture. i'd like it to be arduino powered. it should power on with a snap of the fingers or a clap (cheezy, i know).
Can u give me some advice, on what components i need to use and if it can be all analog or is some programming required.
thanx in advance.

This is basically equivalent to building a robot arm-- strong servo motors can do this, but it won't be cheap. If you want to use an Arduino, then programming is required. Big issue: how to detect a hand. The sorts of sensors that can detect motion can't tell a hand from a face.

8 degrees of freedom? Have you discovered a fourth (non-time) dimension or is there something I'm missing?

trialex. 8 degrees of motion means it can move back forward left right up down diagonal etc

I can see a use for maybe five degrees of freedom. Head tilt and pan, elbow, and base tilt and rotation. Things get *much* harder-- both in hardware and software-- and much more expensive as you add additional axes of control. Keep it simple, stupid.

Thanx dude

Any other info on this topic is welcomed.

Quote by: jason armstrong

trialex. 8 degrees of motion means it can move back forward left right up down diagonal etc

[1] In-out
[2] Left-right
[3] up-down
[4] rotation about [1]
[5] rotation about [2]
[6] rotation about [3]
[7] ??
[8] ??