STACK #197 Mar 2021

LIFE TECH FEATURE

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LIGHT RELIEF !

You may have seen some incredible use of smart lighting and thought, “Yeah, but how can I do that?” You know what? You can get amazing results easily, and without having to make your bank account groan. Let’s take a look at ways that you can dip your toes into the wonderful world of smart lighting, while catching up on the latest tech.

through the millions of them? Or, if that’s a bit too garish, set up a calming array of greens to undulate away pleasantly. Nailed the perfect setting? Save it as a favourite and return to it whenever the mood strikes. Once hooked into your personal helper ecosystem, such as Google Assistant, Alexa or Siri, you can then set the mood with a simple voice command. If bulbs aren’t your go, then a light strip may be the answer. They’re basically what they sound like, a strip of LED lights with adhesive backing. You can subtly highlight everything from kitchen cupboards through to shelving or even your bed, and they’re brilliant behind an entertainment unit or on the back of your television. Fading them and the rest of our room lights out when we sit down to watch a movie never fails to raise a smile – and our guests generally like it, too!

A single smart light bulb can be all it takes to get started on your personal journey into escaping boring lighting to something more exciting – and suited to any mood. Pop a smart bulb into a lamp, set up its app, and you might find yourself spending hours playing with the various effects that you can achieve. Just the spectrum of whites that you can harness can be surprising at first, from full-on white light and a shade perfect for reading, to our regular go-to in warm white. Many smart lights can also be keyed into your personal circadian rhythms – LIFX make an LED bulb, the Day & Dusk, specifically for this task. This involves the device – or its controlling app – automatically shifting the colour temperature and lighting brightness subtly throughout the day to aid alertness, from waking up right through to winding down towards bedtime. With scientists only recently confirming that our eyes are critical to instigating the release of sleep hormone melatonin, this is a great example of perfect timeliness in tech. Then come the colours – with most smart lighting tech offering over 16 million shades, there’s much to experiment with. Besides brightening up our lives, colours are an easy

and effective way to set a mood. Maybe you’d like to get a room just right for an intimate dinner, or highlight your collectible- laden shelves. From more energetic warm colours – generally your reds, oranges and yellows – to more chilled cool ones such as green and blue through purple, you really can conjure something to suit any vibe. Your colours don’t have to be static, either. There’s a rich rainbow to choose from, so why not have your lighting slowly cycle

38 MARCH 2021

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