The smart home light switch solution provider is named a gold winner in the Awards’ IoT Consumer Hardware category
by Kim Kay
Smartphones and their attendant mobile apps have refashioned the way we live our lives – allowing us to shop, order food, book a plane ticket and even swipe right with astonishing ease. In fact, smartphones and mobile apps have converged so seamlessly in recent years that, if sales numbers are anything to go by, then users have found the smart shopping experience to be a sublime one.
Comparatively, the user response to the smart home has proven slightly more lukewarm. It’s no wonder, since you first need to open an app on your smartphone (providing you can find it, of course) before you’re even able to adjust lighting, music or the climate inside your home.
It’s an irony that hasn’t been lost on users: The more smart home products you have, the harder it is to use your house. Every smart lock, thermostat, light and sound system requires different mobile apps, none of which seem to work together. And if you’re a guest or a child without a connected phone in a smart home, then you’re completely out of luck. To be sure, it’s a clumsy approach at best.
A Brilliant fix
Luckily, the folks at Brilliant knew there had to be a better – and far more elegant – solution (read: no protracted hunt for your mobile phone required). Indeed, the Brilliant Control makes operating and controlling a home’s smart devices as easy as flipping a switch via an infinitely usable smart home panel.
Brilliant’s uber-smart light switch, which boasts a beautifully designed and intuitive LCD touchscreen (that can display a clock, customizable scenes, seasonal art, motion art, and photos), is the first of its kind to combine all methods of ambient computing – voice, touch and motion/presence – into one logical package. The control also comes equipped with a built-in camera, privacy cover, and microphone and speaker (which allows users to control it with voice commands and which makes it easy to add a video or voice intercom to a house).
“We allow anybody in a house to control the house from any room they’re in with touch, voice, or motion control,” said Brilliant co-founder and CEO, Aaron Emigh. “This is a great option for family homes, luxury homes, remodels, 55+ housing, and more.”
The judging panel for the 2017 IoT Innovator Awards recognized Brilliant’s, well, brilliance when it comes to giving users this much-desired voice and touch control, naming the company a Gold award winner in the IoT Consumer Hardware category.
The IoT Innovator Awards honor the best of Internet of Things businesses and products across the globe by showcasing the year’s top products, projects, companies and ideas that comprise the IoT landscape.
No stalling on this installation
The ease with which Brilliant’s control can be installed is also a huge drawcard: Essentially, if you can install a light switch, then you can install a Brilliant Control. The solution fits into an existing light switch gang box, with no additional wiring, modification or remote hubs required – which means that it should take the typical user about 5-10 minutes to install and hook up the device to their home WiFi.
That’s a far cry from other available systems on the market, which usually take weeks to install and configure andcome with a hefty price tag – often running upwards of $20,000. Alternatively, a single Brilliant Control light switch can be installed in minutes for $199.
Controlling – in a good way
Users swipe up or down on the Brilliant touchscreen to turn lights on or off (or apply continual pressure to dim them). The light switch-likeness of Brilliant’s solution makes perfect sense in a smart home, in large part because of its endless usability.
“There’s [a light switch] in every room, and it’s something people use all the time,” Emigh said. “You can place the [Brilliant Control] anywhere in the house that you want people to have control. Our early customers have shown a 28 percent increase in the use of smart home products, and 96 percent learn to use it in less than three seconds.”
Connections are everything
Brilliant uses WiFi to connect with partner products such as Sonos, Nest, Ecobee, the Honeywell Lyric, Ring, Philips Hue, Wemo lights and smart plugs, and Bose Soundtouch. What’s more, Amazon Alexa is already built in, which allows Alexa into any room of the home, eliminating the need for a plugged in device such as Amazon Echo or Dot.
“In the last year, the smart home industry has evolved from mobile app controlled devices to voice based appliances that plug into the wall like Amazon Echo or Google Home,” Emigh said. As this market rapidly matures, these capabilities will be built directly into the walls of your home – true ambient computing that anyone in the home can easily access.”
Sounds like a bright – make that brilliant – idea to us.
The Brilliant panel will begin shipping in February 2018 and will be available for purchase in the U.S. in March 2018 via Brilliant’s website. Brilliant also has a dealer/distributor in place that allows interested custom installers and builders to contact the company directly.
Kim Kay is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of IoT Innovator. She can be reached at kim_kay@iotinnovator.com.
