Future of HA lighting

[wkearney99]

It's one thing to have 'visions' but it's another thing entirely to be able to deliver them to market effectively.  Wishes won't make it happen, nor will wild-eyed optimistic hopes.  Good luck with it.  
 
Be the pioneer that makes it all change.  Nobody's going to suggest you shouldn't try.  Whether or not you'll succeed, well, good luck.
 
Meanwhile, it's a bit crass using the forum for shilling products.  You're welcome to spend ad dollars, but hawking the idea as a thin guise for selling your own stuff isn't really what these forums are here to provide.  Being banned for spam isn't really a great way to participate in community forums.

 

[tmbrown97]

I wouldn't consider much SPAM - just differences in opinions and someone who started out on the forum exploring options and deciding he didn't like the mainstream options and trying to fix a "problem".  That's what entrepreneurialism is all about.
 
Time will tell if it's successful - although I will say that I have no interest in individually controlled bulbs until I can use a similarly convenient wall switch or remote to set the scenes that I want.  There can't be a physical wall switch that cuts power making my other remotes/apps useless because the light has no power.  Once that's solved, great - though many areas don't have all built-in lights and use a lot of lamps where this could be nice; but in my house we don't use any light that's not a permanent fixture controlled by a physical switch already.

 

[picta]

There is definitely a market for automated bulbs, like dorms and temporary spaces, but it is not a Home Automation market. This is somewhat like comparing a space heater to an HVAC system. Space heaters have their applications, but you won't use them as a main heating source for a house.

 

[NewZealandHome]

currently 90% of the HA industry has no prices on their website... normally because they are unaffordable. 

This is the NEW home automation that is affordable, and integrated with every device from a central android or arm micro. (i.e. SmartThings)

I'm guessing none of you have seen this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/702772580/ube-wifi-connected-smart-light-dimmer

or this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smartthings/smartthings-make-your-world-smarter

or this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/787856320/the-luminode-an-evolutionary-leap-in-smart-home-te

or this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/lifx-the-light-bulb-reinvented

 

[iostream212]

You're guessing we haven't seen that? So we've uncovered the one thing you don't have a statistic for? Nope, 95% of us are just a bunch of uninformed noobs. We rely on you to bring us the news. Thanks for that gem. I now know kick starter can tell the future.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I'm guessing none of you have seen this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/702772580/ube-wifi-connected-smart-light-dimmer

or this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smartthings/smartthings-make-your-world-smarter

or this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/787856320/the-luminode-an-evolutionary-leap-in-smart-home-te

or this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/lifx-the-light-bulb-reinvented

 
Oy... <_<
 
I did THIS review of the Phillips Hue system back in January at CES (so I knew of automated light bulbs a while ago).
 
I also interviewed the people of Smart Things at CES, took pictures of their booth and WAS going to do an "Exclusive Update" on them. 
 

 
That is, until I found out they mandate that you connect and control everything via their server and if you loose connection to the cloud, your automated system is useless.    I shut the recorder off and walked on!
 
Same thing with Belkin (and their line of IP switches/products).
 
As far as Ube, yup, backed them and will be getting a few of their switches in to play around with. B)
 
So...please don't tell 'me' what the future of home automation entails! :nono:

 

[NewZealandHome]

67 hours to go on wireless light switch UBE,  hopefully it gets off the ground, its still short by a few hundred backers.
"Ube is based on an ARM 32-bit processor running embedded Android and contains a Wi-Fi interface."

I will see if I can get smartthings to support offline mode, it was something that we discussed a few months ago as a critical need. Its still early days, we are still doing a lot of coding this month. And we have also been implementing, in smartthings, local LAN support for devices without the need for internet.

In my opinion, a central smart home automation ARM/Android based hub should cost no more than $49 retail. and a wireless light switch no more than $15  so there is still more competition yet to come, that's for sure. Just take a look at the $99 OUYA for an ARM based gaming console, and $49 ROKU for an ARM based tv unit, and $49 for UBE value based wifi dimmer.

Just like lockitron, there will be wifi controlled switch covers for your light switches





 

 

[Neurorad]

Many startups have innovative ideas, but it will be Lutron who gets the patents. Look at them to see the direction of lighting control and management.  Lutron may be a larger company, but they've somehow managed to always be at the cutting edge.
 
Lutron has a patent pending for direct Wifi and NFC control of load devices - IP addressable dimmers without the need of a central controller, for control and programming.
 
http://www.cepro.com/article/lutron_files_patents_for_home_automation_via_internet_of_things/
 
I don't know how automation would be possible with this, but it's the direction of control. The accompanying slideshow includes diagrams that show a central controller.  It appears to me that this patent covers the recruitment of the dimmer using NFC, simplifying setup. And, it seems that NFC could be used to detect vacancy and occupancy as well (Slide 7/Fig 11 from the slideshow), but I don't think NFC currently has the range for that.

 

[az1324]

Nice to see we can look forward to more efforts by Lutron to stifle innovation.  What "put a ____ in a dimmer" will they patent next.
 

1. Microphone
2. Camera
3. X-Ray or non visible-light based scanner (2D or 3D)
4. Biometric sensor
5. Cellular modem
6. Satellite modem
7. Credit card reader

 

[utzbaldwin]

lol, here is a reality wake-up call for ya: I did some quick calculations based on LimitlessLED, LIFX and UBE, Luminode,  5,000 people agree with automating bulbs, and 200 people agree with automating a switch..  thats 25 : 1 ratio in favor of wireless automated light bulbs.

I actually agree here.. to a point.  The long term future of lighting will be intelligent lamps.  But until homes are wired differently, the wall switch is still the obvious location for intelligence due to the number of fixture types, lamps, etc.  not to mention smart light bulbs require constant power.  Since the ube dimmer is an IP based UI, we can modify the firmware to deliver constant power to the lamp, then allow the capitative multi-touch to operate the lamp via WiFi.  RGB adjustment and intensity.  This functionality wont be in our release, (when we created our prototypes the Hue and LIFX were not out yet).  But we could certainly update firmware to offer a feature like this in the near future.

 

[NewZealandHome]

I also interviewed the people of Smart Things at CES, took pictures of their booth and WAS going to do an "Exclusive Update" on them. That is, until I found out they mandate that you connect and control everything via their server and if you loose connection to the cloud, your automated system is useless.    I shut the recorder off and walked on!So...please don't tell 'me' what the future of home automation entails! :nono:

 
We are actively considering implementation scenarios whereby we can distribute SmartApps to and execute SmartApps locally on the hub. These scenarios include two implementation concepts:

1. First is support for local “Wiring”. What we call SmartApps Wiring is a feature that will allow simple SmartApps to request that certain “event-to-action” sequences run as close to the physical devices as possible. Wiring supports scenarios such as “when motion is detected on motion sensor A, turn on switch B” and allows those rules to be deployed locally within the hub.
    
2. Second is full support for SmartApps event handlers locally in the hub. In this implementation, we would support the automated deployment of SmartApps event handlers (which are components of SmartApps) to the hub itself, further reducing the dependency on the SmartThings Cloud.

In all cases, we obviously recognize the critical scenarios where a loss of communications with the SmartThings Cloud could have a degrading impact on critical, local use cases and are being deeply thoughtful on how we minimize the risk of disruption.

 

[NewZealandHome]

thats 25 : 1 ratio in favor of wireless automated light bulbs.
I actually agree here.. to a point.  The long term future of lighting will be intelligent lamps.  But until homes are wired differently, the wall switch is still the obvious location for intelligence due to the number of fixture types, lamps, etc.  not to mention smart light bulbs require constant power.

I think homes will stay wired the way they are for reachable isolation in emergencies, if anything there will just be lesser switches, maybe 1 per larger zone.

The large number of fixture types, lamps, and installation cost actually works "against" smart wall switches because they won't work with every type, they will try hard, but will generally fail with a number of types.  Advantage of intelligent control systems, remotes and intelligent lamps, means that the bulbs themselves control the colors and brightness.. then you don't have compatibility issues.

In my experience is that consumers tend to bypass the existing wall switch, and walk straight to the location of the RF remote wall switch, for the convenience of Full Zone ON. and Full Zone OFF before bed. especially since people now place the remote switch at more convenient locations, i.e. main entry point to the living area from the bedrooms, couch side table, bed side table etc.  the kids even just click the ALL ON button when getting up in the morning.. no one touches the light switches anymore.  Teenagers just use the android phone app to turn the bedroom lights on/off because they are in bed txt'ing or on fb late at night anyway.

-Hamish,
LimitlessLED.

 

 

[sic0048]

I also can see where automating the light bulb is the way of the future - especially in the near term where retrofitting homes is hard.  I have a couple of Centralite Jetstream devices in my house (both switches and plug controllers), but it would be much easier for me to replace bulbs than switches.  This coming from someone who is knowledgeable enough to replace they switches myself.  The vast majority of the public doesn't have that same knowledge and actually has a health fear of electricity.  For them, automating the light is the only practical method of getting lighting automation into their homes.
 
The big question for me comes down to cost.  Does it make sense to have to continue to replace the automation component along with the bulb when/if it fails, or is it cheaper to buy a switch one time that should last much longer than a light bulb (even with newer bulb technologies)?   

 

[NewZealandHome]

The big question for me comes down to cost.  Does it make sense to have to continue to replace the automation component along with the bulb when/if it fails, or is it cheaper to buy a switch one time that should last much longer than a light bulb (even with newer bulb technologies)?   

 
Automated light switches use the same electronics parts as smart light bulbs, if I was engineering a wall switch I would use the same components in the light switch as the LimitlessLED smart bulbs.  they will both equally last decades if built well. We actually research individual component life within the working temp. range required of them for each part.  the electronic parts are made to last longer and longer every month that goes by.  all electronics companies realize the benefits of making components that last longer, that is their competitive edge over the other guy. So I think we are going to see a lot of smart products that last a long time.. if only battery technology could keep up.  microchips are now coming to save the day for the battery industry - they use less and less energy every revision.

 

[ellesshoo]

Not sure who is being referred to in some of this so called market research but I'm definitely in the camp of keep the brains in the controller (aka switch), it will always be cheaper to have dumb bulbs and 99% of existing wiring is compatible with smart switches, not so with smart bulbs. People who can't replace a switch are unlikely to program anything beyond a couple of bulbs do some novelty trick... A novelty that will quickly ware off. This sounds like a sales pitch.