UPDATED 11:22 EDT / JANUARY 15 2016

NEWS

Sony wants you to control your smart home using a light fixture

Sony Corp., like many others nowadays, dreams of one day controlling your home. But instead of just launching multiple products at once, it is slowly dipping its toes into the market of connected devices one product at a time.

You may be familiar with Life Space UX, the company’s smart home arm, which Sony has showcased in recent trade shows. One of the first products we’ve seen from Life Space UX come to market is the LED light bulb that doubles as a speaker. And at CES 2016, the company brought its Glass Sound Speaker and showed how it can be used to turn any night into a romantic one.

The Multifunctional Light

Now, Sony wants you to control your smart home using a light fixture. Unimaginatively named the Multifunctional Light, the device looks like a spaceship or UFO affixed to the ceiling. Much like any connected light bulbs today, a user can change the color of the light emitted using a smartphone app to suit their current mood. But what makes it stand out from all the other bulbs or light fixtures is that it serves as a hub for all of the user’s connected devices.

The Multifunctional Light features built-in motion, luminance, temperature and humidity sensors, infrared controller, speaker and microphone, and a slot for a memory card.

Walking into a room, it can trigger the television or lights to turn on or set the desired temperature. A user can use the app to control their smart home inside or outside of the house, turn appliances on or off as desired or set a schedule to do so, and even communicate with everyone at home to let them know that the user be arriving soon or use it as an intercom in the house.

The Multifunctional Light is set to arrive in Japan during the first half of 2016. No news yet whether the fixture will be released to the rest of the world, as well as the price of the device.

To learn more about the Multifunctional Light, watch the video below:

Image source: Sony Corp.

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