You never know when the level of festiveness in your home might suddenly become critically, even dangerously low. Thankfully, one vigilant soul has put such concerns to rest by creating the Emergency Party Button, a DIY system that with one press transforms a seemingly ordinary apartment into something resembling Rick James’s rumpus room.
The giant red button—activated with a dramatic turn of a key, WarGames-style— kills the lights and closes the curtains, while instantly activating a fog machine, lasers, blacklights and an LED sign—mostly using the industry-standard X-10 home automation protocol. It turns on the stereo too, firing up Haddaway’s “What is Love.” (Was there really any other choice?) The whole system only cost a little over $600 to put together, a small price to pay when you need to party so badly, it’s an emergency.
Read more here about how the project was done.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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The most sorry waste of $600 I've seen in a while...
wow that is quite a waste who would buy what a waste of money
Scotty Boy
That is pretty sweet, maybe a fog machine as well.
did sombody poop a virgin cuss that shiit is tight
King of NERDS - at is sweet gosh as soon as I get $600 and some spare time I know what I'm buying only thing I bet I could do it for cheaper seeing that I would only do it in one of my small rooms (one light no blinds to close) I'm sure I could take off $100 at least
i took this idea and made a way cooler party button with some stuff around the house like lava lamps disco balls and Christmas lights and bought some other stuff, totaling around $100.