Muslims need to know the Qibla direction wherever they are in order to direct themselves towards it at the time of prayers.
The question always raised strong furor among Muslims worldwide that, how can we locate the Qibla direction in any place of the world?
Thanks to the new technology invented by Soner Ozenc a London-based Turkish designer the Janamaaz (Prayer mat) that lights up when facing Makkah.
The demo of this prayer mat can be seen the below video.
According to Soner Ozenc, only two prototypes exist currently, one of which was purchased by New York’s Museum of Modern Art for its show last year on interactive design.
Ozenc is trying to raise $100,000 through Kickstarter.com, the online fundraising tool,to bring the mat into mass production. If he reaches his goal, for $500, donors can expect one of the first mats out of the factory Detroit Free Press reported.
Named EL Sajjadah — the “EL” stands for Electro Luminescent and sajjadah is Arabic for prayer mat — the rug uses an embedded digital compass to find Mecca based on the mat’s current location, information the user gives to the mat’s tiny computer.
The whole mat, which is made partly of neoprene, doesn’t glow, but the designs do. “The mosque pattern was drawn pixel by pixel by looking at a small-scale model of Istanbul’s Blue Mosque,” Ozenc said to the Detroit.
Siasat News