The company that designed the LavaLamp in the 1960s today has a lamp that is controlled by motion detection.

Pass your hand horizontally through the air above the Mathmos Airswitch and the lamp turns on or off. Raise your hand vertically and the Airswitch brightens or dims accordingly.

We’re always on the hunt for lamps that turn on by voice, motion, touch and/or a timer - anything but those awful little switches that make it painful, if not impossible, for people with limited hand mobility.

The Mathmos Airswitch works with infrared beams that track the movement of an object over the acid-etched hand-blown glass lamp.

The bummer is it only handles a 40-watt bulb - not much candle-power for a $90 lamp.

Click here to see a video of the AirSwitch in action.