Philips Hue: Redefining Lights

A product that blew me away

by Ankit Prasad

Once in a while, a product comes along that solves a visible pain point elegantly. Very occasionally, the product not only solves such pain points, but addresses a whole new set of latent needs. The Philips Hue falls in the latter.

The Hue is basically a set of smart light bulbs with adjustable brightness and color that can be controlled from a phone, tablet, or laptop. The first time I saw the Hue in action though, I was completely blown away. Six months later, having replaced all the lights in my apartment with Hues, I can’t imagine life without them.

What Are Lights For?

To determine whether the Hue is a good system, we need to understand the purpose of a lighting system.

Lights are used for:

· Providing a source of light at night

· Providing the color (“temperature”) of light the occupant desires

· Setting the mood

Also important is how the user controls the lights:

· A good control system allows easy and convenient operation of the lights.

With this in mind, we can analyze the traditional lighting system and see its limitations.

The Existing Solution and its Limitations

As consumers, we’ve gotten used to the existing system of lights — a set of bulbs that can be turned off or on to a single state from switches along the wall. Aside from bulbs becoming more energy efficient, little innovation has happened in this space. Yet, if we examine most existing lighting systems, they don’t solve many of the user-needs of lights.

1. Many different uses of lights, yet only one set of bulbs

Most current light bulbs have only two modes — on and off. This doesn't work well for providing the temperature or color of light the user desire at that moment. For example, if a user prefers a whiter color of light when he’s working but his partner prefers a softer, yellow color, they have little choice but to agree on one color for their house.

Traditional lights are also terrible at setting the mood. Say the user desires softer lights during dinner. His only hope is to turn some lights off, and keep a limited number on. What if a “sunset orange” color works best for a group dinner or multi-colored lights for a party? He’s out of luck.

Basically, in most existing light systems the user gets to pick the brightness, temperature, color, and function of the bulbs only once — when he purchases them.

Do lights have to be this way? Is there any reason one can’t change the lights to suit whatever it is he or she is doing at that moment?

2. One control is not always convenient

Most traditional lights are controlled via switches on the lamp. This means to light up a room, the user has to walk around to each individual lamp. Even if the lights can be turned on from a wall switch, she has to be physically present in the room. This isn’t always the case.

For example, one may accidentally leave the lights on when leaving home. It may not be until much later when the user returns that he realizes the lights were left on and have been burning energy all day.

What if the user could control the lights from anywhere? Even better, what if the lights turned off automatically whenever he left the house. Imagine another case, when he is about to go to sleep in his bedroom. What if he could simply turn off all the lights in his house without having to get up and visit each room?

Traditional switches require us to operate each room’s light from that room. That is not always convenient.

Enter the Hue

Let’s take a closer look at the Hue product. The first Hue product a user must buy is the Starter pack. This consists of 3 bulbs and one hub. A Hue bulb is the size of the typical household bulb, and plugs into a standard lamp, requiring no special wiring. The hub shaped like an inch thick stack of DVDs and plugs into the home router. Along with these parts, the user also has to download the Hue app on their iOS or Android device.

When I first tried the Hue, it blew me away:

1. It solved the problems mentioned with traditional lighting.

2. It did so simply and elegantly.

3. It is extensible which enabled even more use cases.

Let’s look at these advantages one by one:

1. It solved the problems mentioned with traditional lighting

a. Changing the colors — Once the Hue is setup (more on that later), adjusting the color and intensity of light is a breeze. Launch the Hue app on the phone or tablet and simply select the desired preset or color. The temperature/color can now be changed to suit the current occupants. The same occupants may also desire different colors — perhaps ocean blue, colorful pencils, or sunset orange — depending on the occasion. The bulbs in the house now do much more than turn on or off — they reflect the lighting best suited for that moment.

b. Controlling the lights — The Hue bulbs can also be controlled from any location in the world. The bulbs connect to the hub which is connected to the internet — enabling the user to turn the lights off or on using the smartphone app when in a different room, or when not at home. The app also works with the geofencing feature of most smartphones, enabling the lights to automatically turn on upon arrival at home, and turn off when leaving home. No more forgetting to turn the lights off!

2. It is simple and elegant to use

Perhaps the biggest advantage of the Hue is just how simple and elegant it is to use.

a. The lack of special wiring is a big plus — the bulbs simply fit into any standard lamps the user owns, making it backwards compatible with the user’s current light setup. Philips has achieved a true technical feat here — if someone had told me a year ago that they could design a light-bulb the size of a regular bulb, that was not only as bright as a standard bulb, but could also change colors and connect to the internet via built-in WiFi, I would have thought they were dreaming.

b. Setup is a breeze –Once the bulbs are screwed in and the hub is connected to the home router, setup requires launching the Hue app, and pressing the only button on the hub to pair it with the smartphone. The hub can also be paired with multiple devices so everyone in the house can control the lights.

c. The app is easy to use — The app is well designed. When launched the home screen presents a list of user-customizable presets front-and-center: which is likely the most common feature the user is going to leverage. If the user wishes to adjust the intensity and color of each bulb individually, that feature is also available via a slide out drawer. The presets can also be engaged via a website, allowing the user to adjust the lights when sitting at his computer.

3. It is extensible

Philips has published APIs for the Hue, enabling users to build custom apps. A few interesting ones have made their way to the marketplace, including one (“Hue Disco”) that turns the lights into flashing strobe lights that flash to the beat of the music — a great feature for parties! The connection with IFTTT (“If This, Then That”) website, allows the user to set various custom recipes, such as “flash the lights when I get an email from my manager”. With a public API, we are likely to see many more custom apps catering to various user segments over time.

Improving the Hue

With such a great system, what can the Hue do better? Here are some ideas:

1. Integrate motion sensors — With such a smart system, wouldn't it be great if the lights in the living room could automatically turn off when the user moved to the bedroom? If the bulbs had motion-sensors built in (that could be easily enabled or disabled by the app), it would be possible to have the lights in a room turn off after a period of inactivity.

2. Sell programmable hardware switches — As amazing as the Hue’s iPhone app is, there are some advantages to the traditional wall switches: namely, they can be operated by anyone in the room (including guests who may not have the app), and the switch is always present in the room it controls (unlike a phone or tablet which may be elsewhere in the house). Hence, it would be useful if the user could buy hardware switches to replace the traditional wall switches in the home. Additionally, which presets are toggled by these switches is something that could be programmed via the app!

3. Better support multiple users — The app currently does not support multiple users well. A number of improvements could be made in this area, such as enabling a scenario where I don’t have access to the lights in my roommate’s room, and he cannot control my room (currently it’s an all or nothing proposition), or geofencing such that the lights turn off only when both my roommate and I have left the house (currently it turns off when whoever set up geofencing leaves the house).

Overall though, the Philips Hue is a fantastic system, that truly brings an old technology (light-bulbs) into this generation.