The number of LED bulbs on the market is growing by the day, which is making it harder to differentiate the good ones from the “dime a dozen” type.
One bulb to pay attention to is Stack Lighting’s Alba, which is the brainchild of CEO Neil Joseph, formerly of Tesla, and a team of other impressive minds. The idea behind this smart LED bulb is to provide homeowners with automated lighting control that simulates, to some extent at least, natural outdoor lighting.
In the morning, the sun is soft and as the day wears on, it grows bright and at times, harsh. Towards the end of the day, the light outside grows soft again as it begins to set, before going dark altogether. This cycle is important because it’s the very basis of a human’s circadian rhythm; that is, the world has programmed us to wake slowly, sharpen as the day goes on, and then slowly work our way back down to a state of rest.
Current lighting options — even the ones that tab themselves “smart lighting systems” — don’t offer this level of light adjustment because they need to be constantly monitored and adjusted. What’s more, they don’t allow the user to adjust the softness of the light being emitted because, quite frankly, in the case of most companies today, the technology simply isn’t there.
This is where Alba separates itself from the rest of the pack. It is able to change its brightness and harshness levels, and will do so based on various data points it collects every day, including the behavior patterns of the people that live or work there.
Alba is able to do this using a higher level of motion sensing technology which, in turn, also gives it the ability to automatically turn on lights as a person walks into the room, and turn the lights off when no motion is detected and it is determined the lights are not in use. This saves the owner a great deal of money in terms of his / her electricity bills.
Speaking of money, as one can imagine, an LED bulb this advanced doesn’t come cheap. Home owners must purchase the entire lighting system, which includes a hub and two bulbs, in order to get started. The cost? $150, plus a $20 charge for proximity detection.
While some might scoff at this price tag, it should be noted that Alba does come one with one additional convenience: installing Alba in every light socket in the house means the user could remove all of the home’s / office’s switches. The lights would simply turn on as someone walks into the room, off when they leave, and the rooms would be filled with soft light when it’s time to get out of bed, and slowly go back to soft light when it’s time to retire for the night.
If you want to learn more about Alba, check out the clip below:
Via phys.org
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