A free software upgrade that would enable your Philips Hue lights to function as occupancy sensors could soon make them much smarter. Your lights and bulbs may be able to recognize your presence without the need for additional gear thanks to an update to the Zigbee wireless standard.
The Philips Hue Bridge uses the Zigbee protocol to establish a mesh network when you connect your smart lights, switches, and other gadgets to it. In addition to receiving over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates to address problems and provide new capabilities, this enables all of the devices to interact with the Bridge and with each other.
The company that created Zigbee, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), this week unveiled Ambient Sensing, a new feature that would enable Zigbee devices, such as Hue lights, to detect whether you are home without the need for additional hardware. It will be made available by an OTA update for both new and old smartphones.
Ambient Sensing will “open new user experiences like autonomous lighting control and home security, all while enjoying the privacy of running 100% locally without adding occupancy sensors in every room,” according to a brief video from the CSA.
Ambient sensing is still in its infancy, as TechCrawlr‘s Mike Robinson explains. The firm that makes Philips Hue, Signify, has not said if it would be available for Hue bulbs and lamps, and the CSA has not provided a timeframe for when it will be implemented. It may even take the place of the Philips Hue Intelligent Indoor Motion Sensor, though, and it looks like a logical addition to the Hue system.
According to Fabian of Hueblog.com, a trustworthy source of early Philips Hue information, he has firsthand knowledge on the topic, including specifics about the needs for ambient sensing.
“According to the information available to me, the Philips Hue function requires at least three light sources in a room, which must be placed at a certain distance and in a suitable shape,” Fabian says. “A permanent power supply to the light sources is of course essential. It should also be possible to set the intensity of the motion detection.”
Although Signify already has some intriguing ideas for the upcoming year, such as an AI assistant that can utilize voice commands to generate personalized lighting scenarios for you, this seems like a more useful and realistic function. I will keep an ear out for more information and notify you as soon as I find out.