Akarium call

Semitransparent Design is a company based in Japan, a talented bunch of artists and designers, consisting of members Ryoji Tanaka, Toshiyuki Sugai, Yusuke Shibata and Hiroshi Sato. I first became aware of their work when I wrote about Motion Wall from Nanika (read post). Semitransparent created Snow Wishes for the same interactive interiors shop exhibit.
Akarium Call is a reactive light installation along the 1km long trendy fashion Omotesando avenue in Tokyo. 60 columns of light run both sides the length of the road, are 6m high and 1m wide. This is during a light festival 9th Dec - 8th Jan, the first light festival in 8 years.
Users phone a number displayed on the columns, their voice then controls the pulsating lights. The final version used volume mapping to brightness of light, with a subtle fade in and out, as to not create a strobe light effect. Earlier versions used more complex sound signal processing, but in this public space it was harder to achieve, and they wanted to create an instant synchronized response to the user.