Saving energy with a multi-tinged switch

The palette of this new art is a set of triangular LED (light-emitting diode) panels, providing up to 16 million colours and numerous shapes when assembled together like Lego.
The product, called Aurora, is the brainchild of the founders of Nanoleaf Energy Technology Shenzhen, a lighting-technology enterprise launched about five years ago by three graduates of the University of Toronto. The company has offices in both Canada and Hong Kong.
The overall market for smart lighting and connected lighting controls had been projected to hit US$6 billion (Bt214 billion) globally in 2015 and double by 2020, according to a report by research firm IHS Markit.
The residential market, which was $1 billion in 2015 and is tipped to exceed $4 billion by 2020, is seen as one of the industry’s biggest achievements and also extends to commercial, outdoor and street lighting.
Paul Bremner, market analyst for lighting and LEDs at IHS Markit, said: “One of the key driving factors for the residential market is the associated growth of smart-home systems which allow consumers to control various devices around their homes through a combination of their smartphones and even voice commands.”
The systems he referred to include Apple’s HomeKit, Google’s Nest, Samsung’s SmartThings and Amazon’s Alexa.
In fact, Nanoleaf’s first innovative project – an energy-efficient LED origami light bulb that won investment from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing – is the world’s first smart-lighting product produced in association with Homekit. It was to be followed soon by a string of many other products such as the Philips Hue white and colour ambience starter kit.
Christian Yan, chief operating officer of Nanoleaf, said the company had discovered that players in the smart-lighting sector have all been working on the same type of light bulb, so making it different by giving it a triangular look is one of the new product’s most innovative factors.
“The triangular shape is modular and flexible, so users can make their own design, while light from three corners allows a good mix of colours,” said the young entrepreneur, who is in his 30s and has an engineering background.
Another unique feature of Aurora is its colour. Like the Philips Hue bulb, Aurora promises the ability to change colour with a smartphone, voice or a switch. But instead of controlling one source of light, it supports the programming of a wall of lighting.
Powered by a single power supply, the Aurora device can link up to 30 panels with Wi-Fi. Users can also programme their colours and the sequence, meaning the art of light can keep changing according to a pattern.
The New York-based Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) described it as a “wall art made of light” after it was launched there for the first time worldwide in September last year. Within three months, the product had raked in $1 million in sales in the United States, according to Yan.
The inspiration comes from aurora borealis – which Nanoleaf chief executive officer Gimmy Chu saw while on a flight in Canada – and the partners were determined to bring the art of nature to human living space.
Yan said that, for instance, users could “paint” a sunrise, and if they say “Good morning” to computer program Siri the next day, Aurora will automatically change to sunrise light. Instead of resorting to a crowd-funding website as its first distribution channel, Nanoleaf picked a museum for the product’s global launch, as well as a high-end interior-design-brand partner for the Chinese mainland market.
Yan explained that the strategy was “to start from the top”. Working with MoMA shows that the product is of high quality and has rich design elements, he said, and it is this quality that has caught the attention and interest of other retailers.