Lagg writes:
"Philips put out a press release detailing their new retail lighting system, which is designed for the purpose of saving power by tracking subjects in a room, then increasing or decreasing light intensity as needed. Philips also advertises a secondary feature for providing location based sale adverts to the customer directly on their smartphone. This will require the user to install an app to actually receive the sale alerts, but it's unclear exactly how this tracking will be done otherwise.
Any home automation types in the comments have a theory as to how this will work on a technical level? My best guess is that there are infrared LEDs paired with the lighting fixtures themselves that can be picked up by phones with IR sensors in them. Further, what advantages does this sort of system have in terms of lighting efficiency that an electric eye setup wouldn't accomplish just as well?"
(Score: 4, Funny) by ArhcAngel on Wednesday February 19 2014, @04:51PM
I've been to a couple of grocery chain stores that have replaced their cold storage displays with units that have the tech built in. It's a little off putting at first but once you figure out what is happening you get used to it. I've seen kids running down the frozen pizza aisle seeing if they can beet the sensors or just light up a totally dark aisle all by themselves...OK it was me being a kid but you get the point.
(Score: 1) by Hunkerchef on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:28AM
With enough individual lights the future will be like in games, where the character emanates a light from inside himself, wherever he goes. It would feel uncanny.