Jordan O'BrienIKEA is planning to launch a new smart home system next year, with a distinctive focus on lighting.
The Swedish furniture juggernaut has yet to show off the products, but speaking to Gizmodo the company described what it had planned.
“IKEA is planning to offer lighting kits that will enable people to personalise their homes to create a sense of safety and wellbeing,” reads the company’s description of the product.
“Bedside lamps will be able to imitate the sunrise while coffee will be automatically brewed and different modes can be optimised to support each family throughout the home using wall switches or a smartphone App.”
Unlike many smart home systems however, IKEA is aiming this directly at consumers, with the company claiming that there’s no need to call an electrician or to wire in the system.
While IKEA has been dipping its toes into smart solutions for the home, this is the biggest push yet by the furniture chain.
Björn Block, the head of lighting and IKEA Home Smart, says that the company plans to sell its solutions at ‘prices so low that as many people as possible can afford them.’
The system will comprise of smart lights and a switch that acts like a remote. Taking the remote into a room will activate the lights automatically and adjust them to the preferences set by the person holding it.
IKEA is taking customisation even further however, expanding the functionality of the system beyond what the remote is capable of, by offering a mobile App – although the company is yet to say what its purpose for the App is.
So what’s unique about this system? Well, IKEA is getting rid of the ubiquitous smart hub for its system; instead it’s relying on putting all the brains inside the lightbulb.
IKEA has yet to detail this system, or to prove that it works, but this time next year we may finally see a smart home system everyone can afford.