Don Howdeshell sent in this great Arduino Ambilight project. Sure seems like the Ambilight projects will continue to be popular. This one uses an Arduino at the core and ShiftBrite LED lights. You can see the effects here before the diffusion was added but make sure you watch the video below where the full effects of the lighting system are shown off!

“The first challenge was to construct my own ShiftBrite Shield.  They can be purchased from Macetech’s store, but I wasn’t interested in spending that much money on one when I could build what I needed for a fraction of that cost.  As you can see, my ShiftBrite Shield is a bit more complex than Macetech’s because I didn’t have a transformer that could push enough amperage at those voltages.  My solution was to use a 12V 2A transformer and step the voltage down using an LM317T voltage regulator. ”