I decided to try an idea i had to create a poor mans version of the ambilight tv but instead of using the video signal or limiting it to the computer screen i wanted to use a webcam to look at a TV or computer screen and then average the colors out before being sent to the arduino via serial to turn on the led strip/
i found some processing code that averages the webcam view and added some code to send that data over serial.
then the arduino code parses the serial port to read the color values
the video shows the youtube video playing on the laptop in the bottom right. the top center shows what the webcam is looking at as well as a preview of the color average color.
Then the lamp is changing colors based on what the webcam is seeing.
the processing code is here
http://pastebin.com/L0m0Us6S
the arduino sketch is here
http://pastebin.com/XieE5Gzi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iTOL9K21bE