Is the Smart Home Lighting System, really Smart!
As with everything, starting simple is the best way to tackle a project. For Home Automation this would be starting with one of the most basic automation system, a Smart Home Light System.
The Smart Home Light System is an investment which will pay back for itself over time. It will detect motion in a room and turns on/off the lights. This will save energy and make your life a little more easy and comfortable and even smarter!
How it works
A motion sensor is a passive system that detects infrared energy. Humans have a skin temperature of 93 F (34 C), which emits waves in the infrared spectrum (8-10 micrometers). The motion sensor detects these waves and sends a signal to turn on the lights.
The detector is set to react to rapid changes of infrared energy. This avoids the system to react to heaters turning on, or electrical blankets warming up. In this way only a person walking into the motion detectors field of view, will set the system in working and turns on the light.
The trouble
Picture yourself in bed, reading a book. Not much motion is going on and the Smart Home Light System will turn off the lights automatically after a while. You find yourself waving to the dark ghosts in your room, to turn the lights back on. This is a real problem and the Smart Home Lighting Systems fails in those instances.
The best alternative is to switch off the light in a series of dim downs. As the light dims, you find yourself still waving to turn the light back on to full power, but this time at least not in the total dark.
One alternative that is being suggested is to let the Smart Home Light System detect when an object, in this case the human, is on stage and only turns the light on. The person determines the length of the stay and turns the light off upon exit. No more waving, but the main advantages is lost in this way. Automatically turning off lights in rooms not occupied. I would not call it a fully automated lighting system either.
Another alternative is to pre-set a specific time before the Smart Home Light System will turn of the lights again. Very workable for a garage, but not a very desirable solution for the bedroom or kitchen.
The near future
Instead of infrared based motion detectors, full optical detection systems (cameras) can be used. A simple version (used in detecting cars waiting for a traffic light) is based on the differences between the image of an empty room and an occupied room. No object can however be moved in the room, without recalibrating the system. A better but still to expansive optical detection system would be a system used in the Xbox-Kinect. This system has a 3 dimensional face recognition feature inside, which would be a little bit over the top for our Smart Home Light System.
An extra benefit!
Connecting your regular lights with the Home Automation System now turns them into dim lights.
Further exploring
The one leading company in the Smart Home Light System is Phillips. In April 2010, the special program, Philips Dynalite Dimension was launched and gave the Smart Home Automation a considerable push forward.
Light Emitting Diodes (LED) for home lighting are the best because they consume less electricity`~~
Yes indeed, but still a very young field and not yet at the level to illuminate your house in a cozy/warm way. Keep an eye out on these guys though: Xicato.