In recent years, we’ve seen a plethora of so-called ‘smart lightbulbs’ arrive on the market, often providing consumers with their first foray into the smart home. The obvious examples are Philips Hue and Kickstarter fueled LIFX. However, as I’ve noted before, aside from being ‘connected’ and controllable via an app, for the most part smart lightbulbs and many other smart home products aren’t particularly smart after all. Enter BeON Home‘s smart lighting system that, through the power of light, aims to out-smart would-be intruders.
Currently being crowd funded on Kickstarter, the BeON Burglar Deterrent is a set of LED-lightbulbs based on the premise that crime prevention is favourable over crime detection. The smart lightbulbs install just like regular lightbulbs, including working with your existing wall switches, but — thanks to an additional ‘smart’ module — introduce a degree of intelligence. Specifically, the system learns your home’s lighting patterns, which are then replayed when you are away in a bid to create the impression that someone is still home.
In addition, and perhaps equally smart, is that the BeON bulbs are able to detect the sound of your doorbell so that they will switch on in sequence — again creating the impression that someone is always home and hopefully scuppering a would-be burglar on an initial reconnaissance mission. Each BeON Burglar Deterrent bulb also carries a backup rechargeable battery, ensuring its crime prevention powers even if the power goes out.
Specs-wise, the BeON lightbulbs provide 800 lumens of soft white LED light output (roughly equivalent to a 60W incandescent light bulb). Under the look, each module includes Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, a microphone, processor and, as mentioned, a rechargeable battery. The clever part is the way the modules in each bulb communicate with each other to share information about learned events, such as doorbells, available battery capacity, lighting status and schedules. And, of course, there’s an accompanying smartphone app for remote control and further configuration.
One additional trick that I really like the sound of is that the BeON bulbs can also listen for other events in the home, such as a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, so that they switch on to full brightness to aid with escape! I mean safety.
As for pricing and launch, the Cambridge, MA-based company says the BeON Burglar Deterrent system will be offered in three, six and nine unit packs to accommodate different size homes and will offer both standard A-lamp and recessed BR30 lamp styles. Reward levels on Kickstarter begin at $199 for the early-bird three-bulb package. Shipments are due to begin in April 2015.