RGB led strip projekt (wakeup light)

[Qwerty]

Hello!

I'm working on a project that will end up with something like a wakeup ligth with some special functions.
My thought is to take a sheet of glas or some kind of plastic and put some RGB leds behind it (probable a strip).
And what i want this to do:
1. It should have the abilities of a normal RGB led strip with a controller: have some programms, ability to adjust collor and brightnes and so on. But thats the easy part, wich is done by a normal controller.
2. It should be possible to use it with some kind of timer. So it turns on, on a programmed time, (like half an our before I want to wake up). (On a low level of brightnes), and then get brighter and brighter.
You may know how a wakeup ligh works.

So my question is:
How to get the led strip to work with a timer and then get brigther and brighter? The time should be easy to adjust, if you want to get up earlier or later.

I'm happy for any replies with some kind of ideas or thoughts or anything than can help.

//Qwerty

[steffex]

I use an Arduino board with some mosfets and PWM to control a ledstrip.
With PWM you can control the colors of a RGB ledstrip, but also determine the brightness (its comes down to the same thing).

next some push buttons and a display to set the timer and view the current settings.

[Digit]

I use a JeeNode with MOSFET Plugs to control 4 LED strips.
I recently started with this:
http://blog.hekkers.net/2010/09/14/jeenode12v-oops/

A standard JeeNode has RF on board, so you should be able to adjust brightness level remotely.
Also check out this: http://jeelabs.org/2010/09/08/rgb-strips-revisited/