Load the Game

Stack smart light bulb interacts with the world

• Egon Kilin
• September 24th, 2014

IFA 2014 was filled this year with wearable technology and smartphones, but another main exhibition category was the home automation system. You could find smart home automation systems that can control the temperature, lighting, humidity levelg, security cameras and more through a simple application or platform like Apple’s HomeKit or Samsung’s Smart Home. But the Stack smart light bulb doesn’t need you to control it.

We’ve already seen light bulbs that you can set yourself to brighten or darken a room, to change color or even turn into a discoball, like the Elgato Avea dynamic mood light, Philips Hue or the WeMo smart light bulb. The light bulb from Stack on the other hand, doesn’t need an app in order to function in a smart way. Dubbed the Alba Bulb, the bulb has a ton of sensors so that it can tell what’s going on in its environment.

The Stack Alba light bulb senses ambient light intensity and the times of day, so that it can change its brightness and colors accordingly. That means that when it’s morning, it will simulate a sunrise in your room. Sounds cool for just a light bulb. The Stack Alba will turn itself off if it senses a lot of ambient light and configure itself to fit your needs.

The Stack Alba bulb can also sense motion, brightening the room when there’s a lot of it. Even though the bulb can do these things by itself, it still needs  to be configured and tweaked so that it will fit your time zone and sleep pattern among others, probably. It’s not supposed to be a repetitive use, though. The Stack Alba light bulb  will theoretically need just an initial setup done with an app and should further rely on its sensors to work. Would be awesome if it didn’t get confused.

What’s nice about the Stack Alba light bulb is that it aims to reduce energy use by up to %80. With the help of its motion sensors and light sensors, the gadget can turn itself off when you leave or open a window and on when you enter the room. It would actually mean no more forgotten bathroom lights. The Stack Alba bulb sounds like a great device, but it does have a price on the heftier size. You can pre-order it for $150 which includes the starter kit with two light bulbs and a hub and it’s going to cost $60 for each bulb.

The Stack Alba bulb is a bit cheaper alternative of the Philips Hue set and it does offer increased automation with the help of the motion and light sensors. Those who would rather not have the hassle of customizing your lights but still have them at optimum levels- and turning off when they have to, the Stack Alba light bulb can do that. It’s nice to see that home automation  technology is adapting to conserve energy and that the whole idea of having the correct and healthy lighting in your room is being implemented by Stack.