A lot of people have experienced with the simplicity voice control of your smart lighting via Amazon smart speakers . According to a Statista survey, Smart speaker household penetration rate will reach to 75% in US, and Alexa enable Echo device definitely the leader in this space.
Alexa skills is the backbone to support a lot smart home features. There are some common smart home skills that specifically for smart lighting and controls.
Echo family also introduced smart speaker with screen. These smart display make the interactions with smart home devices even easier with simple touch interface. You can even make video calls or streaming security camera feed into these displays. Of course, you still can do all Alexa voice assistant can do on the smart display.
What are the smart lighting control related smart home skills for lighting Alexa offered?
- Alexa.BrightnessController — Users can control the brightness of devices, such as light bulbs.
- Alexa.ColorController — Users can change the color of devices, such as color-changing light bulbs.
- Alexa.ColorTemperatureController — Users can control the color temperature of devices that support tunable white light, such as light bulbs.
- Alexa.PercentageController — Users can control properties of devices that can be expressed as a percentage.
- Alexa.PowerController — Users can turn their smart home devices on and off.
- Alexa.PowerLevelController — Users can control the power level of their smart home devices.
- Alexa.SceneController — Users can activate or deactivate multiple smart home devices that are grouped together into a scene.
AutomationManagement
Implement theAutomationManagementinterface in your Alexa skill for your devices that support automation, such as thermostats.
DeviceUsage.Estimation
Implement the Estimation interface so that users can view an estimate of their energy use for devices that don’t measure energy use directly, such as light bulbs and televisions.
DeviceUsage.Meter
Implement the Meter interface so that users can view their energy use for devices that measure energy use directly, such as electricity and natural gas meters.
The following image shows an overview of the functionality offered by the Smart Home Skill API.
Alexa App is a great way to configure smart home devices and easy to use.
Here is an example of the User interface for light bulb control via Alexa App. User can easily power ON/OFF light. It can also set up the light brightness for the dimmable smart light. it can set up timer for turn off even create routine for example “turn on light when there is people presence detected” ,”turn off light at 9PM”; It can also create Scene when control a group of lights and set each device at its own unique setting.
There are 4 types common smart lighting devices within Alexa app :
1) Light ,Smart light bulb or light fixtures.
2) Plug , smart plug.
3) Switch ,These could be simple ON/OFF switch or Dimming capability switch.
4) Hub, that could be a SmartThings Hub or Philips Hue hub.
The other great benefit with the Alexa eco system, it has already connected to most of the other smart home eco system via development built smart home Alexa skills.
Amazon even offer Alexa Connect Kit to smart home devices developer to help them quickly and easily building products with Alexa Control through voice and mobile applications, amazon’s wi-fi simple setup. The developer wont need to worry about the managing cloud services ,write Alexa skill, even complex networking and security firmware.
As a customer with Amazon’s echo devices and Alexa voice assistant, I do find it is getting smarter everyday with new features rolling out constantly. It may be a great start point for any one like to try smart lighting control for their homes.
Start with a Echo Dot or Echo , and couple of smart switch, or maybe smart color light bulb. It will be a great addition to your holiday season.
