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emberlightNow that LED bulbs have started to make an impact on the [city] lighting market, new products are emerging that take the functionality of the bulbs and marry it with the potential for innovative usages of the technology. Bulbs now exist that allow you to change the color of lighting in one area or many areas of a room from your smart phone without using color gels or changing out bulbs. Often, these adjustments can be made right from a smart phone, and they can be programmed for time, date, intensity and other specifications. Even better than all of that, they can be changed on the fly.

Up until more recent advancements, however, these progressions on the “fun” and interesting side of LED lighting have revolved around kits that require the user to have a base or “hub” that the smart phone controls can talk to. The hub then sends the message to the bulb and changes the color or the setting. While it looks instantaneous, extra hardware is necessary in order to make the change happen.

Beyond just the need for extra hardware, the bulbs and products that come with these sets aren’t cheap. They can often cost several hundred dollars in [city] to get the right amount of lighting for the situation, and the bulbs are difficult to replace in the rare instance of a malfunction.

These concerns could be addressed with Emberlight, a program and product that are still in developmental stages and could give more flexibility to smart-phone controlled lighting. With Emberlight, all the user needs is an adapter and a bulb that can be dimmed.

The product is not limited to a specific type of bulb, either. While LEDs are the most energy efficient option in [city], any kind of bulb that can be dimmed can plug right into the Emberlight adapter.

The actual Emberlight device is a base that the bulb connects into rather than connecting right into the fixture. Then, the Emberlight adapter is screwed into the socket with the bulb attached. The device connects to a smart phone via both Wifi and Bluetooth, and the whole interface can be set up with a few taps on the touch screen while in the downloadable app.

The system uses regular bulbs and not higher-tech options like color changing alternatives. Emberlight can’t inherently make the bulbs change colors like some of the smart options with proprietary bulbs can. That being said, it would still give you a remarkable amount of control over your lighting options including scheduling, setting up gradual adjustments in the light as [city] natural light changes, ability to turn on and shut off lights from a distance and more.

Emberlight can be used in permanent fixtures as well as floor and table lamps. They offer the ultimate in flexibility to what may have been just a regular bulb before. If it can be put on a dimmer switch, it can successfully be connected to Emberlight. While the implications of this may not be life changing in [city], they could offer a healthy amount of control and energy efficiency that hasn’t previously been possible without a large investment in proprietary and difficult to replace options.

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