The Connected Home's Battle of the Bulbs 176
redletterdave writes: "The current leader in smart lights is Philips Hue Wi-Fi-enabled bulbs. But the competition just heated up last week, with both LG and Samsung unveiling new smart bulbs. Not that Philips is sitting idly by—the boss of intelligent bulbs also unveiled two new products: the Hue Lux LED bulb, a cheaper, stripped-down version of its pricey original, and the Philips Hue Tap, an add-on that lets you trigger lights by touch. But which company will win the battle to illuminate the connected home?"
Re:As one-way as X10 (Score:4, Interesting)
Hackers controlling my lights is a feature I can live without.
Re:The Connected Browser's Battle of the Mute Butt (Score:4, Interesting)
2. Add AdBlock audio filter to slashdot.org domain
3. Problem solved!
Re:If only.. (Score:4, Interesting)
That's a pretty lame reason, actually. What use case (that's big enough to support an entire industry of "smart lightbulbs") involves:
o light fixtures that don't already have switches installed,
o users who are not industrious enough to move the lightswitch themselves,
o users who are too cheap to just have an electrician move it (this is shockingly inexpensive, by the way... typically cheaper than one of these bulbs),
o users who are fine with accidentally flipping the wall switch and making the whole thing inoperative or covering the switch with tape or something cheesy like that to keep people from switching it (or are industrious enough to rewire the switch and install an ugly blank panel but can't move the switch),
o and users who can afford (or rationalize) spending $60 or up on a light bulb?
I guess the intersection of most of that is gadget-addicted renters. Is that really a very lucrative market?
Re:Some reasons (Score:5, Interesting)
Take a look at some Japanese lighting from companies like Panasonic and Sharp for an idea of what real smart lighting is about.
I bought a Panasonic smart ceiling light. It can change between daylight (6000k) and warm white (2700k), depending on what task I am doing. It also has dimming of course. The output is up to 5000lm but it is diffuse so you don't get a blinding point of light or shadows everywhere. It can direct light behind the TV too to give it some backlighting while keeping the rest of the room a bit dimmer. Naturally it comes with a remote control.
It also has a constant illumination mode. This mode adjusts the brightness automatically to keep the light level constant as the more or less light comes in through the windows. There is a more advanced version available for offices where the angle of window blinds are adjusted too so that more light comes in without being blinding. The multiple lights in the office can adjust independently so that those at the back of the room supply more illumination to keep the whole place evenly lit during the day.
Of course it is all 100% LED, low energy. Sharp also built in their Plasmacluster air cleaning technology, and I believe Panasonic are going to do the same with theirs. Sharp have some kind of anti-insect thing as well that somehow deters moths and the like.
Japanese lighting is awesome. Even some toilets have little night lights in the bowl so you can see when you need to get up in the middle of the night but don't want to be fully woken by 800lm. The whole smart home thing has been around for a while here. Air conditioners sense not only when you are in the room, but where in it you are so that they don't blow cold air directly at you. Remote smart-phone control is becoming quite common so you can have the room cooled just before you get home. Sharp make a robot vacuum cleaner that takes photos of stuff it finds under the sofa and sends them to your phone, just in case you lost them.
Meanwhile UK lighting is shit and the US is still pissing itself over the phase out of incandescents. I knew there was a reason I moved.