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Squishy, flexible Kangaroo Light goes anywhere

The offbeat designers who brought us the Ostrich Pillow get glowy with a flexible LED mat made to tuck into strange places.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
2 min read

Kangaroo Light
Give this light a squeeze. Studio Banana Things

The very name of Studio Banana Things, an international design group, should tip you off that it creates unusual products. Most famous for the Ostrich Pillow, a nap-time accessory that sucks up your whole head, the studio is now playing with things that radiate light. The Kangaroo Light carries on the animal-name theme and offers what is essentially a glowing pad that can fit into purses or other places where flashlights are inconvenient.

The foldable, bendable hexagonal Kangaroo Light contains 24 LEDs that glow out of one side of the gadget. It's rechargeable via USB and can generate up to 2.5 hours of continuous light. It can be tucked into a purse, left sitting on a table for mood lighting, or used as a night light.

The light has a few tricks up its sleeve, including an accelerometer. Besides turning off and on, it can be set to flicker, pulse, or change the light intensity. This capability doesn't come cheap. The Kangaroo will set you back a $76 pledge price, which may make it appeal only to hard-core lovers of weird, slightly squishy glowy things.

Studio Banana Things is trying to raise about $84,000 on Kickstarter to put the light into production. That seems like a pretty lofty goal for something that mostly sits around and glows softly, but we have to remember the somewhat unlikely success of the Ostrich Pillow. That strange contraption clocked in at $195,000, well over the original $70,000 goal. The Kangaroo Light could end up being a similar oddball hit.

Kangaroo Light in a purse
The Kangaroo Light could help you see into the depths of your purse. Studio Banana Things