Athlete Daley Thompson launches the world's first social media-driven light show at the EDF Energy London Eye, which will be powered by the UK's tweets every night of the Games. Photo: David Parry/PA Wire

The mood of the nation before and during the Olympics is to be captured and turned into a light show at the London Eye each night, driven by social media.

Launched last night by EDF, the landmark will be transformed by London 2012-related tweets every day at 9pm.

The highs, lows, triumphs and glories will be portrayed through a variety of colours and sequences.

To create the light show, EDF Energy has partnered with a group of graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

They have developed an intuitive algorithm that linguistically analyses tweets about the Games from the UK.

Real-time tracking splits the tweets into positive and negative conversations and filters them through a programme, which systematically converts them into a light show.

It displays the Union Flag and gold, silver or bronze lighting, to celebrate Team GB’s medal haul.

Olympic legend Daley Thompson, who launched the light show, said: “Hosting the Games in London is an incredible once-in-a-lifetime event and as a passionate supporter of the Games I want everyone to get behind London 2012 and really show their support.

“We need to get behind our Team GB athletes to power them on to gold! EDF Energy of the Nation gives you a really easy way to join in, wherever you are and help drive a world first every night on the EDF Energy London Eye - a light show powered by the nation’s tweets.”

Justin Manor, founder of Sosolimited, who developed the technology for the lightshow, said: “The algorithm we developed converts real-time social emotions into colour and motion – tweets to light show.

“We distil 24 hours of action into a 24-minute visual concert that embodies the emotional peaks and troughs of the day.”

To join in tweet your thoughts using the hashtag #Energy2012