According to Fast Company, this GreenChip technology operates on the 802.15.4 wireless protocol, which means it doesn’t use the same bandwidth as 802.11 wi-fi gadgets. Cool.
But what do you do with networked bulbs? Automate your home, of course.
You’ll also be able to control mood lighting “states” with a remote control, or via your iPad, as if you were a theatre lighting designer; you’ll be able to quickly and easily incorporate movement sensing automated lighting, that could even turn on dimly if it detects you’re stumbling to the bathroom at midnight; and you’ll be able to download apps to hone and polish your home’s lighting energy needs so that you end up with a smaller power bill.
And to top it off, JenNetIP—the framework that lets the bulbs talk to computers and devices—in is the process of becoming open-source, which means that issues with platforms and manufacturer compatibility should be a non-issue. The Greenchip bulbs should be available by the end of the year at stores like Home Depot, where they’ll come in packs of 5 (plus a remote) for $US50. [Fast Company]
Adam
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 1:39 PMWhy does that mean we need IPv6? I would prefer to have lightbulbs and other home automation systems behind a router on a private network. Perhaps with an all-in-one web-administration console port-forwarded, but probably no more than that. Kind of like what we do now.
We probably have more need for IPv6 for times when we really need extra public IPs, such as with the ever-growing popularity of smartphone/tablet devices.
Cameron
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 1:57 PMHardly needs IPv6 to work. Like you’d have these on the open internet anyway. You would most likely be installing them in home, behind a firewall and then if they really needed to access the internet they would use NAT.
Anonymous
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 2:59 PMNo body knows what the future would be like. Maybe one day router works differently and everything needs IPv6.
matt
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 2:08 PMlol, what a waste of money and especially, electricity…
Greg
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 6:11 PMWaste of electricity?
” you’ll be able to quickly and easily incorporate movement sensing automated lighting”
Meaning, you could program the lights to turn off when you leave a room and on when you enter.
LucasF
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 7:44 PMIsn’t it that they would need ipv6 because they have run out of ipv4 addresses? And there are a LOT of light bulbs in the world!
Sardo
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 10:01 PMSo… Why have these smart bulbs, when you could just make a smart socket??
David Shears
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 10:31 PMIPv6 has local addressing too, but why would you want local addresses for these devices?
The whole idea of IPv6 for devices is that you have all your hardware connected to the greater internet, thereby enabling a user rather than a home automation installer, the ability to configure this device themselves. It also enables more generic software to be written for multiple devices from different providers.
You don’t need to worry about having these devices out on the greater internet. They are still protected (even more so when you think about how difficult it is to guess an valid IPv6 address) and because they are out on the greater internet you don’t need to run your own web server or have additional hardware installed on your computer (a computer that you have now committed to have on all day because it controls all your home appliances mind you).
David Shears
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 10:46 PM@matt – Smart homes and smart grids will be one of the greatest acheivements of this part of the century, to create smart devices that can be controlled cheaply and efficiently means that we can remove a huge portion of the wasted energy we use every day.
The Saint
Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 12:43 PMNetworked light fixtures have been around for a while. In large infrastructure they are networked back to a computer maintainance system, this enabled the maintainance system to print a list of lamp changes needed and back battery status if they are emergency lights.
There has been several dedicated lighting control protocols used in networking lights too, namely LWR and DMX, they are only simplex protocols.
Moving to IP based systems seems a logicol progresion to me, and one with good purpose.