Exciting times for home automation: using light to alter moods

A number of companies have also done scientific studies showing that the color of light from multi-colored LED smartbulbs can impact things such as mood and reduce the impact of jet lag. The sun’s light naturally changes color throughout the course of the day, and human biology appears to take cues from that. In addition to saving a lot of energy compared with traditional or fluorescent bulbs, you can do a lot of other color things with multicolored smartbulbs. Some folks have them automatically flash purple to remind children of their bedtime. Smarthome bulbs should not, however, be seen as panacea. Many of these devices are first generation. Most current LEDs don’t emit in all the wavelengths that human eyes are known to detect (infrared wavelengths, used for circadian rhythms, is missing from most of these systems). Nor are these devices marketed (or intended) to treat medical conditions. But if you’re a technophile, an environmentalist interested in greener bulbs, or just like the idea of seeing what light can do, you may want to look into new gadgets.

The Wink hub recently launched (July 7, 2014) on Amazon and home depot. Purchase two connected devices with the hub, and the price goes down to $0.99. (It supports ZigBee, Z-wave, bluetooth, wifi and various proprietary radios. It’s supposedly the most compatible hub out there. We’re disappointed to note that it’s not compatible with X10 radios, however, which is decades old. As a result, it is still perhaps the most widely used home automation system out there.)

Unfortunately, the Wink Hub seems to be getting very poor reviews on Amazon at time of writing. Most reviewers are suggesting to wait for another firmware upgrade.

We previously commented about the lack of compatible standards hindering home automation. The Wink hub, developed by the Quirky site, seems to one answer to this. (Supposedly Apple’s HomeKit will offer similar functionality when it comes out later this year.)

That’s the bad news. The good news is that apparently all LED light bulbs in the future will be smart bulbs. This is thanks to GEs announced $15 LED smart light bulbs (which will work with the Wink). This is what  many dumb LED light bulbs currently cost. By making them smart, it becomes possible to dim them, set them on timers, and create sophisticated scenes.

But the GE bulbs are single-wavelength bulb. We’re actually much more excited about Philips Hue, which we’ve installed in the office and are playing around with (featured photo courtesy Phillips Hue). We previously pointed out that multi-wavelength LED light bulbs have the potential to impact moods (and sleep cycles) much more than traditional incandescent bulbs or even the newer compact fluorescent bulbs. The Philips Hue smart bulbs are more expensive than the single-wavelength GE bulbs (Currently, $45 versus $15, although we’re guessing Philips will reduce prices in response to GE).

Philips has done some scientific studies confirming their bulbs can indeed impact moods (something that had already been previously established). (When we brought up the subject of multi-colored LED bulbs impacting moods amongst some friends earlier this year, someone wondered if LED bulbs would require FDA approval as medical device. No, Thomas Edison and colored light bulbs long predate the FDA Act, so they are “grand-fathered in” under the Act, especially if they are manufactured and marketed primarily for non-medical uses … like using them as a light bulb. No approval necessary for colored light bulbs, or so we think.)

And indeed, it seems to work. The “energize” and “concentrate” setting in the Hue app seem to mimic the harsher white light of the early morning. (“Energize” looks like the lighting scheme from the Death Star. It definitely puts you on edge. This author half-expected Darth Vader to appear out of a corner somewhere.) “Reading” (apparently also the default when you use the wall switch) is closer to incandescent. Both “Reading” and “Relax” mimic the colors of the sun later in the day, thus preparing our primordial minds for bedtime.

One concern we’d have is that RGB wavelengths aren’t all there is to the eye’s circadian rhythms. We seem to remember something about infrared sensors in the eye that specifically control circadian rhythms. If true, Philips Hue won’t mimic that. (Since infrared beams partially reflect off window glass, the only way to get those infrared rays is by going out into the sun. BTW, our skin also absorbs UV rays to make Vitamin D, and research recently came out suggesting that UV addiction was the primordial addiction. Nowadays you can get Vitamin D from a multivitamin. But, to get those “good feelings” from UV addiction, and the associated increased incidence skin cancer, you’ll also have to soak up some rays.)

The real techno types will note that RGB doesn’t precisely correspond to our eye sensor wavelengths. (It even varies from device to device, and some technical effort is needed to make sure that RGB images display correctly to our eyes on devices with different capabilities. For those of you with Macs, this is what all that color calibration profile stuff is about, if your Mac doesn’t  auto-detect your older monitor hardware.). Since Philips has calibrated its four major modes and done scientific studies, this isn’t a concern for those four modes.

Of course, both Philips and GE offer all the other features you’d expect from a smart bulb. You can set all kinds of dimers, timers, and advanced lighting scenes that used to be reserved for industry. (There are Philips Hue apps that will let you create a lightshow against music.)

One criticism leveled against all of these smart bulbs (and we’ve hinted at it as well in our earlier LED bulb article) is that they rely on existing infrastructure. They are, of course, incompatible with existing incandescent dimmer infrastructure. (The dimmer is built into the bulb and controlled with your smart app via the ZigBee protocol from a hub like the WiFi-equipped Wink hub, or the ethernet-ready hub that Philips provides.) In general, it’s not recommended to insert these bulbs into a lamp with an incandescent dimmer (or even the extremely rare fluorescent dimmer switch, which EE types will note, contrary to conventional wisdom, was quite feasible and commercially available for decades in the form of a variable ballast.) You really want a fixture that can only be switched “on” and “off.”

Although Phillips “Hue” responds (somewhat) to the traditional “on” and “off” switch, it, of course, becomes unresponsive when switched “off.” If you switch it back “on” again, it goes to its default wavelength (apparently “reading” mode, which is similar to incandescent in wavelength) and loses any dimmer setting. It also doesn’t seem to support a feature seen in some old X10 units, where, if you briefly toggled the power, the unit would interpret that as meaning to toggle the X10 state. So, you could flip the wall switch “on”, “off”, “on”, and, if the Phillips Hue was “on”, it would turn off, but remain responsive to ZigBee network commands. It doesn’t do that, although some decades old X10 systems had that feature. If you want to turn a Phillips Hue bulb off but keep it responsive, you must do so via the ZigBee network (e.g., via an app.)

If you walk into IKEA these days, you’ll see they have a pretty good stock of light fixtures that are only “on” and “off.” That’s the result of the Compact Fluorescent Bulb and LED revolution. If you walked into IKEA ten years ago (and certainly Walmart or K-mart), many of your home Torchiere-style lamps might have been labeled “incandescent only” and included an incandescent dimmer.

So, some progress has been made. But these portable fixtures are still waiting for the next stage in the revolution: a software “on/off” switch that sends a ZigBee on/off command to the bulb, so that it stays responsive even when turned off from the physical switch. (They’ll probably offer much more, such as handy scene controller.) These things we’ll likely see appear in new home lighting fixtures as well. For decades, X10 had a battery-powered radio scene controller that could be affixed next to a wall switch, presumably these are also available for ZigBee. That should help overcome the natural temptation of guests to try and use wall switches to control ZigBee smart bulbs. New home builders will start building ZigBee controllers into the walls to overcome these problems and create a more natural interface.

Of course, if your ZigBee home network gets hacked, it may be harder to turn off the lights if there is no old-fashioned on-off switch.  Making smart light fixtures will require more engineering. We’ve already commented on the number of engineers need to change a light bulbs from incandescent to LED, or even invent light bulbs in the first place. We’ve already did an article explaining how to use analytics to figure out how many engineers are needed to change a light bulb. The question now is, how many engineers are needed to change a light fixture and make it smart as well?)

It seems like it’s still early days for smart LED bulbs. But what we’re seeing is already very exciting: the ability to use LED wavelengths to improve moods and enhance living spaces.

Photo credit: Publicity photo courtesy (C) Philips

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