Lighting in Design

LiD

08-09/15

LIFX

optimising building heating and cooling based on

software and clever algorithms. Google bought the

company in 2014 for $3.2 billion.

Google is now to produce a more integrated

home system called Brillo, while Apple is develop-

ing HomeKit.The sensors and systems, though, are

relatively low-cost and have spawned numerous

Kickstarter projects. LIFX, for example, received

$1.3 million during its Kickstarter in 2013.

Smart systems are hackable. Smart systems

generate behavioural data that are valuable. These

two things pose major potential privacy issues.

Amazon has already developed tags that allow

you to reorder household items at the touch of a

button. Google will want to learn home behaviour

and sell that information to advertisers. And you

might get home to discover that the neighbourhood

hacker has turned on all the heating in the middle

of summer and cost you a fortune.

But at the same time, systems that can moni-

tor whether a person is in a room and is moving

to figure out whether the lights should be on, can

also call for help if it is known that person is frail

and might need medical attention.

Like my sunrise light, systems only need be

moderately ‘smart’ to provide impressive benefits

to businesses and people in terms of lower costs

and an improved living experience.

The first interior lighting had the potential to

burn down the

still took it inside. Speak-

ing for myself, with my new little gadget, I’m rather

looking forward to winter.

BelkinWeMo

GE SmartLink