Cloud in Agency's Lobby Visualizes Social Media in Real-Time

Oh it had to come to this, didn't it? Santa Monica-based RPA has created The Listening Cloud, an actual cloud of sorts that lives in its lobby, monitors social media around the agency's clients and reflects it through changing colors and weather patterns.

It's like an old-school lava lamp except it's powered by the internet instead of, well, instead of the LSD-addled minds of its 1960's-era developers.

Custom software pulls in real-time data from the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram public APIs, then sends commands through a wireless bridge to LEDs inside the cloud, visualizing the data through different light colors and behaviors. It uses the Phillips Hue lighting system and its RESTful API, which allowed software to be coded using Node.js to communicate with the lighting controller. A Web-interface on a nearby monitor lets viewers choose what they'd like the cloud to "listen to" and also displays a raw, real-time feed of the data it's processing.

Of the endeavor, RPA Creative Director Perrin Anderson said,"We hope that others will share their ideas on the marriage of creativity and data by using the hashtag #ListeningCloud on their social accounts."