From family pics to Friday night selfies, everyone knows that lighting is essential to our daily lives. Lighting is also one of the most important components of your home. By adding ambiance and life, it can completely transform a space. What’s more, you can beautify your space by adding a few smart technologies. So many rapid transformative changes are occurring in the lighting world (from artificial sunrises to the latest LiFi technologies), it’s hard for anyone to keep up. Here, we collect the most exciting lighting technology trends that go far beyond standard on/off lights.
1. Wake up to an artificial sunrise
Do you find it hard to wake up in the morning? If so, your lighting might be the reason. Set up the faded lighting mode available through the Hue app (for Android and iOS) or use the Lifx app (for Android and iOS) smart lightbulb. Simply adjust the brightness, fade the speed and color, and enjoy a scheduled sunrise in your room.
2. Light up your music
If you are looking for a cool feature to impress party guests, use the Light DJ app (for Android and iOS) to create a memorable experience in which the light adjusts to the music. Light DJ will "listen" to the music coming through the phone's microphone and adjust the lights according to your color preferences.
3. Broadcast the current weather
Technologies such as voice commands and IFTTT allow your apps and devices to talk to each other. For example, Philips Hue or Lifx light bulbs can imitate the current weather conditions. Another option is to use an IOT device such as QM weather. The minimalist design ensures that you will feel the weather with the color expression of the temperature outside.
4. Connect your lights and TV
Besides your weather, music and sunrise features, you can connect your TV screen to smart light bulbs! For example, if you are watching a BBC documentary, the lights can turn navy blue during an underwater scene. Use Hue Matcher (for Android only). If you don't own an Android device, the $4 app Hue Camera (for iOS only) is a fair alternative.
Another interesting screen technology is smart lighting panels which can broadcast your mood on LED screens. The futuristic design will make you feel like you’re traveling on a spaceship.
5. See new email alerts
One more IFTTT trick is to make your lights blink when you receive an email. This will help you avoid having to constantly check your inbox. Simply choose Gmail as the trigger and your light will tell you when your next message arrives. You can also play around with different triggers, such as a new text message, and instead of “blink” you can set up “color change”.
6. Light connectivity
There is no doubt that LiFi is bringing one of the biggest transformative changes to internet connectivity. In case you’ve never heard of it, LiFi is a wireless optical technology which utilizes LEDs to transmit data over record distances. In plain English, imagine that every light fixture or bulb became a WiFi router with speeds 100 times faster than WiFi.
The main benefits of LiFi are the absence of electromagnetic waves (which is great for one’s health!), eco-friendliness, and speeds faster than those of WiFi. LiFi technology was introduced in July 2011 by Prof. Herlad Haas. The technology is amazingly efficient. Therefore, we believe that it will quickly become the norm in internet connectivity.
What is the difference between LiFi and WiFi?
LiFi is based on light data transmission while WiFi is based on electromagnetic waves at radio frequencies for data transmission. Because light experiences less interference than do radio frequency waves, it is used in denser environments. LiFi can even be used in extremely salty sea water or by airlines.
7. Enjoy an indoor campfire
Would you like to enjoy a lit candle, indoor campfire, or fireplace, even if you don’t have one? With smart light bulbs and a variety of apps, you can easily replicate a dancing flame with a change of color and a flickering effect. Add some videos from YouTube that imitate the sound of a crackling fire, and you can achieve the immersive effect of a real fireplace. One of the apps that allow you to do this is OnSwitch (for Android and iOS). To build your fire, simply open the app’s settings and go to Albums > Fire > Fireplace.
In the digital era, human and smart devices are inextricably connected. Lighting is part of this connection. Share this post with your friends if you think they need to know about these tech light hacks.
If you want more, read about how we connected a louvered roof and wireless lighting for Equinox!
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