Many of the things we communicate about ourselves aren’t with words. We’re constantly sending visual signals through our personal style, our body language and, yes, the car we drive. We wanted to amplify that idea by creating a car that could send signals on its own. We covered the Lexus IS with 41,999 individually addressable LEDs, transforming the surface of the car into a screen. By creating our own operating system and three custom animation modes, the Lexus LIT IS turned a car with an expressive design into an entirely new vehicle for expression.

We covered a 2017 Lexus IS with 41,999 individually addressable LEDs. We used openFrameworks to create a custom app. We combined 20 individual teensy Arduino microcontrollers to create our GPU. A half-mile of LED strips became our high-resolution “screen.” And the Lexus LIT IS became a computer with its own operating system. All while remaining a drivable vehicle.

The intent was to build an OS that could be easily adaptable for a variety of future applications. For launch, we created three animation apps based on ways people send non-verbal signals: through style (still and video files can be uploaded or custom-created to mold to and amplify the shape of the vehicle), music (data visualization creates dynamic, ever-changing patterns based on sound) and body language (Microsoft Kinect technology detects and reacts to gestures).

Our short-term goal was to get attention for the launch of this Lexus IS. Our long-term goal was to use this vehicle in a range of applications into the future. Because of the dynamic nature of both the LEDs and the OS we can constantly customize executions and create new applications. So far, the LIT IS has been used as an installation at New York Fashion Week, an art piece at a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition launch party, a showpiece at New York Auto Show, a yule log for the holidays on social media and it had a starring role in a music video with rising star Dua Lipa. When the T-Mobile CEO asked for one in magenta, we gave him one on Twitter. Because of the way it was designed and built, the possibilities for what this car can do are only beginning to be explored.

With the creation of the Lexus LIT IS, we introduced the first drivable communication platform. Through 41,999 hand-placed LEDs, we transformed the surface of the car into a screen. Using a custom openFrameworks app, we were able to create an OS that was sophisticated enough to manipulate the LEDs in a variety of ways – through motion, sound and imagery – and built in a way that allows functionality to be added anytime. The LIT IS is more than a car. It’s an entirely new vehicle for expression that can continually evolve and transform to express itself in different, mesmerizing

To own a Lexus means you’ve achieved a certain level of success. That level of success is often associated with age (#sigh). But all luxury has an entry point. We needed the younger, screen-obsessed, socially-active, trend-observant crowd to realize there is a relevant Lexus model–the Lexus IS–that fits their status in life and expresses their point of view. A lot of that point of view is projected without using any words. Our audience constantly sends signals through body language, personal style and curated social feeds. That idea and those signals inspired us to turn the Lexus IS into a screen and a new type of platform for expression. We were inspired by the screens that our audience simply can’t take their eyes off of. But we were also inspired by the ways we, as humans, express ourselves. So we created an OS and custom animation applications based on sending non-verbal