An inventor from San Franciso is claiming that he has created the"world's smartest energy efficient light bulb".
Phil Bosua designed the Wi-Fi enabled lamp,LIFX(pronounced'life ex'),which can be controlled from a smartphone.
Variables such as light intensity and colour can be remotely changed.It can also be synchronised with music and set to a timer to alter the lighting when occupants are away from home,thus enabling them to maximise home security.
Funding for the project came from Kickstarter,an internet-based funding platform for creative projects.The campaign had originally planned to raise$100,000 but with two months left it smashed its target and raised$1.3m from 10,000 backers.
The lamps cost$69 to purchase and the first round of lamps has already sold out.
Bosua's said his inspiration came from the idea that the light bulb was the"greatest invention of all time,but hasn't changed much in the past 100 years."
After six months and more than a dozen prototypes later he managed to create the LIFX.He says it uses a tenth of the power of regular lamps and will last on average 25 years,or 40,000 hours.The lamps can handle a wide range of colours.
The idea of controlling a lamp from a smartphone is nothing new.A former electronics division of Philips called NXP formulated this concept by making integrated circuits small enough and cheap enough to fit into a lamp which enables every lamp to have an IP address.But Bosua's lamp is arguably the first to fully explore the possibilities of the technology.
