GE Lighting Promotes Launch of “Lights for Life Challenge” by Make: and Hackster.io
GE Lighting is the first company to take advantage of Make: and Hackster.io’s new partnership with the launch of the “Lights for Life Challenge” at Maker Faire Bay Area. GE’s challenge calls upon makers, designers, and engineers to determine use case solutions for the home and LED designs that incorporate voice command capabilities and submit via the Hackster.io platform.
“As an LED market leader, we’re bringing the future to light. We don’t create tech for sake of tech – instead we create smart LED technologies that solve every day problems,” says Tom Stimac, Chief Innovation Manager. “We know voice command is the future user experience, but we want to better understand what are the pain points for consumers inside the home and help design the next C by GE product, using LED technology + voice command and sensor technology. We are excited to work with the Maker and Hackster communities to help us invent new ways to create a more responsive environment in the home or small business.”
For example, GE is looking for ideas on how parents will know when their kids arrive home from school while they’re still at work, or how to closely monitor an elderly parent, or how dog owners can locate their dogs when it’s time to go for a walk. Since the average home has 45 light sockets – all with unobstructed vantage points and a power source – lighting is uniquely positioned to be the connector or “glue” of the smart home.
Participating Makers are encouraged to consider lighting from every angle, from table and floor lamps to light bulbs and Bluetooth-enabled devices to voice-activated illumination or lights that are triggered by temperature sensors. Allowing five months for prototyping and creative inquiry, three winning Makers and/or Maker teams will be announced at World Maker Faire, Oct. 1-2, in New York. Makers vie for cash prizes, and first place winners will see their work developed, manufactured, and taken to market by GE. The winning design will become an extension of the C by GE product family, a new line of smart LED products that GE introduced earlier this year.
For full details about the GE “Lights for Life Challenge,” visit the campaign homepage at Makezine.com/LightsforLife.
