Blub, your bright companion

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

This was a story of love and hate:

We love reading in bed.

We hate waking up too late, or too sudden.

We love falling asleep.

We hate thinking too much in the morning.

We love waking up with the morning sunshine.

We hate switching off lights.

We love warm days,

We hate traffic jams,

We love to love, and we hate to hate.

So, we started thinking: how come our bedroom was basically the same from our grand parents, despite the tablets, the iphones, the alexas and all those devices that came to our modern lives to make them easier? Is there a better way to say good night and to welcome the new day?

So we needed a buddy, somebody who knows if we are still awake, or if we should wake up, a mommy who tells us to take a coat before leaving home or daddy who turns the lights off when we fall asleep. Somebody who stays awake all day and all night long, but whom one woudln't notice.

And one night, it was right there, on our nightstand lamp. We hadn't noticed it before. It resembled a bulb, but it behaved like a friend. We learned its name was Blub, and then we woke up.

But, what was it?

We knew for sure it was luminous. We soon learned it was also bright. It dimmed our lights down when it perceived we were falling asleep, but kept them on while reading on our tablets or while chatting. It woke us up in the morning a little bit earlier when the traffic was bad; we knew about the weather at home and at work even before opening the blinds or the newspaper.

How did it do all that?

Blub was not only bright -it recognized our voices!- but friendly: it rapidly became buddies with our iPhone, our Android and our Alexa. And it learned from them a lot: if we were reading some blog before falling asleep, what time do we wake up, if there is something to do before going to the office on a certain day, or if we should bring the umbrella.

Weren't you curious about where all that magic came from?

We were, and we asked it. The following presentation is what we learned from it:

DESCRIPTION

Blub is a lighting fixture compatible with a regular lamp. It's geometry is not much different than a regular bulb.

However, through its built-in microphone and interconnectivity capabilities with other smart devices, such as home automation systems or smart phones (iPhone, Alexa, etc.), it provides useful data when going to bed or waking up.

It comprises two parts: the lighting module, and the information ring

The lighting module is made of led's of different hues which, when combined, emulate the sun hues of the sunset or the sunrise.

The information ring is made of RGB led's that, combined, cast an additional layer of light for some seconds to subtly provide some useful information.

Here is a function prototype to show how it works:

HOW IT WORKS

For more details and examples of real-life scenarios, watch the Blub Presentation video in the How it All Began section above.

Sleep Time

You can set up on your Blub App the time you typically go to bed. Around that time, Blub will be on Sleep Mode. This means, every time you turn it on at sleep time, a countdown will start. For 5 min it will light at full brightness, then start dimming down for 5 more minutes if it does not feel you are awake, until it turns off completely. These default times can be adjusted on the Blub App as well.

If any interaction of being active happens, i.e. using your phone or talking, the countdown will start over again at the brightness status of the time it was triggered.

Wake Up Time

Blub will interact with your smart devices, for example, to start dimming up some time before your clock alarm rings, to help transition to real life. You can set it up to start dimming up earlier if the traffic that day is expected to be bad or if heavy rains can make you get late to work.

Useful Data

Through Blub you can get useful information in a quick and intuitive manner to help you leave to work in the morning as efficiently as possible.

By saying "Traffic" the information ring will cast some color patterns for some seconds to show the status of traffic on your daily commute, as is set up on your phone.

In the same way, by saying "Weather" it will tell you what to wear at home and on your destination by means of colors and lighting patterns.