Smart bulbs bring Night Shift-like light to your whole house
If you've been paying attention then you probably already know that you shouldn't be looking at screens at night. That's because the blue light emitted by phones, tablets and televisions is likely disrupting your sleep.
Device makers have recently started to catch on with new features that change the color temperature of the display based on the time of day to make light easier on your tired eyes (and brain). Now, one startup is bringing this idea to your whole house with light bulbs that adjust throughout the day.
Called Helia, the new line of bulbs from Soraa are LED lights that aim to recreate the feel of natural sunlight. The bulbs, which rely on sensors rather than Wi-Fi, emit bright blue light in the morning when you're waking up and then slowly reduce the amount of blue light until the sun sets and all blue light is eliminated.
The idea is similar to f.lux or Apple's Night Shift, both of which change the color temperature of your display to make the light warmer (and thus easier to view) at night. But Soraa says what sets Helia's lights apart is their ability to avoid the orange-looking light that takes over your iPhone or laptop when using similar software. That's because rather than simply making the color of the light warmer, Soraa says it has devised a way to use a different spectrum of light that strips out blue light entirely.
The resulting light is difficult to describe. It's not orange like your iPhone with Night Shift turned on but not quite as bright and white as a typical LED bulb. If you were looking at the light on its own, you might not notice the difference, but when put next to a regular LED you can easily tell that Helia's light seems softer and a bit easier to look at.
Whether that difference will be enough to justify outfitting your whole house with the $49.95 bulbs is another matter. Soraa says it is conducting research on how its lights affect sleep patterns and the early results are positive.
Even though the bulbs don't use Wi-Fi, they are app-controllable and you can set a custom schedule independent of sunrise and sunset times. Each bulb also comes with an extra port for a "Smart Snap" module that, at launch in the spring, will allow the lights to turn on automatically when motion is detected in the room and sell for $29.95. Soraa says it plans to partner with other companies on future modules that will add more functionality.
Additionally, the company is selling a $49.95 "Cloud Connect" accessory that allows you to control the lights remotely and connect to third-party services like Alexa and IFTTT.
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
