I envision a future where the lights are always set right. On, off, color, and dim. They adjust according to: who is in the room, time of day, and other inputs (switches, dimmers, motion sensors). They adjust on their own, without user interaction. With the C by GE bulbs and a smartphone, the hardware is already there. There's no reason to take out the phone out of your pocket.
Instead of setting a schedule for each bulb (or group of bulbs), I envision the user enters a profile: the color and dim you want throughout the day. When you enter a room, the bulb reads your profile, and sets the lights accordingly.
How does it work exactly? Three phases: setup, connect, and operate.
During setup, you install bulbs, set the bulb location (GPS coordinates, by holding the phone up next to the bulb), and the room dimensions. You install the app on your phone, and set the phone to auto-detect bulbs.
During connect, your smartphone detects and connects to bulbs when you enter range. As move about, the phone auto connects (and disconnects) from other bulbs.
During operation, the bulb sets the light output (on/off, dim, and color) to match the preference of occupants in the room. Your lighting preferences (color and dim per time of day) and your GPS location are sent to the bulb, and the bulb checks your location against the room dimensions to determine occupancy. Position continually updates as you move about.
What do you do about multiple inputs, or users? A simple average. For example, if there are multiple users with different color preferences, the bulb averages the color preferences.
What do you do about jarring transitions? Eliminate them: force all changes to ramp up or ramp down. Bulbs turn on quickly, and stay on for ~30 min after exiting the room, a-la vacancy sensors, to reduce false-negatives.
What about switches? Switches act as an override. On/off switches turn the bulbs on the full brightness. Turning them off-then-on will reset to full brightness. Because of volume of legacy switches and dimmers, some will always be incompatible with LED bulbs (not just this proposal -- all LED bulbs). All bulbs auto off after two hours or so no matter what, so lights never get left on by mistake.
What about new users? Existing switches should act as overrides, so anyone can always control the lights. When a registered user enters, the standard operation resumes, so the default functionality is for the lights to dim and turn off.
Why bother? Lights always adjust based on occupancy to maximize energy savings and user experience. The light must perform the adjustment autonomously, without user input, or the controls will always be defeated. Motion sensors and schedules can do some of this functionality, but this approach is better because the occupants actually transmit a signal to the bulb. That eliminates ambiguity about occupancy, and enables personalized responses. Altogether, this approach maximizes both energy savings and user experience.
What are the applications? Early-adopter residential is the easiest application. Small residential structures have the least Bluetooth and GPS interference. Users will be few and consistent, and so better able to learn the system. Ultimately, the applications are limitless; schools, airports, cars, cafes, streetlights… your profile goes with your smartphone, so your preferred lighting experience goes where you go.
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