Sony’s marketing team must’ve been exhausted when they gathered around the conference table to brainstorm a name for its new smart light.
Instead of coming up with something catchy, funny, or downright clever, it went instead with “Multifunctional Light.” Because it’s a multifunctional light.
But even then, this may be considered by some as a misnomer, as this particular product isn’t just multifunctional, it’s really multifunctional – beyond what most clear-minded people would surely expect with a light fixture.
Stick the Frisbee-like device on your ceiling and the thing’s ready to take over your life, or at least your home. First off, it does the obvious stuff, connecting to your smartphone so you can control its brightness in a few taps from the comfort of your sofa. You can also program it so it’ll come on at specific times, handy as a security device if you’re away on vacation or simply for the comfort of arriving back at night to a lit home.
OK, so what else does Sony’s Multifunctional Light do, exactly? Well, it comes packed with sensors that can, for example, monitor temperature, so if it’s too cold, it’ll communicate with your heating system to get the place toasty. The light also activates the air conditioner if it detects high levels of humidity, while another sensor, this time for motion, means the light can turn on your TV when it detects you’re in the room.
Heck, it even has a memory card slot (the jury’s still out on what exactly it’s for), as well as a speaker and microphone. The Multifunctional Light’s promo video (above) appears to show mom calling home and addressing her children through the light’s built-in speaker, an act that in reality will probably freak most kids out the first time it happens. Imagine – “Daddy, Daddy, Mommy’s in the light!”
Of course, the built-in speaker means it can also play music, while the microphone, well, couldn’t it be used to listen in to others’ conversations?
Sony’s all-singing, all-dancing, and all-functioning Multifunctional Light hits the Japanese market in the first half of this year, after which the company may send it beyond its shores. Possibly with a different name.
