PG&E Ambient Energy Orb
Now this is bloody interesting – a power company in the States has an incentive program to reduce usage during peak times (heard usage surges are big problem in the US).
So, the orb glows red – customers in the thousands now have a glanceable view of energy load – and can act by turning off the bedroom lights and that extra monitor etc. it doesn’t require any explicit interaction with the device.
A really good example of the Ambient Device in action – I like.
Found from an idle browse of 37Signals