Smart Home technology has stumbled onto the market in very unattractive ways, still looking like those white devices from security companies like ADT. Alarms, sensors, hubs, and thermostats have never been built to be attractive. They were built to be geeky and functional. That all changed about 2 years ago. Nest and Amazon’s Alexa entered the smart home market with attractive, easy to use devices that were ‘cool.’ Since then, the industry has boomed and will likely take over our lives in the next 5-10 years.
At this point, most startup smart home device manufacturers are following in Nest’s steps by focusing on attractive, simple devices. The latest to catch my eye is the multi-use, wall switch replacement from Brilliant Controls. Their devices are not available yet, but they are taking pre-orders with early-adopter discounts.
Brilliant controls are not like many of the other switch replacements. They do it all through a nice touchscreen, builtin wifi/bluetooth, and Alexa integration.
Features include From Brilliant.tech:
- 120 Volt, 5 Amp light control, dimming compatible
- Easy to use touch sliders – just swipe up/down to turn on/off lights, or hold your finger to dim
- Motion sensor, ambient light sensor, and voice control
- Amazon Alexa Voice Services built in
- Camera with physical privacy cover, providing audio/video intercom capability between two or more Brilliant Controls
- Ability to connect to and control supported Wifi-enabled smart home products
- Customizable Scenes to save your favorite settings
- Brilliant mobile app (available at shipping for iPhone and Android
Brilliant looks promising – I’ll write a full review once I receive mine later this year. NuBryte – you have some competition now ;)
Image from Techcrunch.com
Leave a Comment