Sound and light unleashed in LightFreq with built-in audio

Sound and light unleashed in LightFreq with built-in audio

An enterprising team with experience in music, engineering, coding, product and graphic design, have come up with a prototype called LightFreq, This is a Bluetooth light bulb with built-in HD audio. A light bulb and speaker combo? Why would anyone want to own that kind of device? The team has an engaging set of answers: "Why do we only use our lights to see? That would be like only using our phones to make calls, right?" "We solved the problem of the dumb light bulb." The distinguishing edge to their concept is that the device comes with an accompanying app, for iOS or Android smart devices, which unlocks numerous features. With the app, the user can turn LightFreq into a useful device for notifications according to the color of the light or for mood-centric applications such as strobe lights. Also, LightFreq will turn on and off automatically when you enter or leave a room. As for "follow-me" audio capabilities, the LightFreq starts playing music in the room you are in and when you move into a different room your music will follow, while turning off in the room you just left.

Using the app for notifications, one can drag and drop a notification icon (whether it's a text, call, email, Facebook or Twitter) into the color wheel and the LightFreq bulb will change color when there is a new notification.

The creators said they "paid close attention to the CRI (color rendering index) to provide as accurate colors as possible." LightFreq delivers a large number of color combinations. There are warm, cool, or color wheel modes, strobe mode, or lights dancing to music

What can you play on this device? Their answer is, "Through Bluetooth you can stream anything from your smart device or laptop, as long it has Bluetooth 3.0 or higher." But how good is the sound? "Using acoustic suspension invented in 1954 by Edgar Villchur, we are able to use a very small space to produce deep bass response with minimal distortion. Unlike the stiff suspension of conventional speakers, the trapped air inside the enclosure provides a more linear restoring force for the woofer's diaphragm, enabling it to oscillate a greater distance (excursion) in a linear fashion," they said.

According to project descriptions, LightFreq fits into any standard light fitting and lamp and it is 5mm longer than a standard CFL ; it will last around 40,000 hours. Also, they noted that LightFreq combines a hub free Wi-Fi mesh network and Bluetooth 4.0 on one chip to save space and improve efficiency.

They have turned to Kickstarter to bring it to the next stages of manufacturing and delivery. Evidently, there are Kickstarter visitors who consider their alternative to the "dumb light bulb" something to pursue. At the time of this writing they more than doubled their goal of $50,000 with 20 days to go. Pledges range from $70 for one LightFreq along with the free LightFreq app, to higher pledges for sets of more. Estimated delivery date is February 2015.

More information: www.kickstarter.com/projects/l … d-audi?ref=discovery

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