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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: 3, Interesting) by Random2 on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:45AM
While I agree about the overabundance of tracking, I think the intended use slightly different than what you might be thinking:
1) For museums/art showcases, where one might have people wander around a sparse area with only a few displays. This way they could turn the lights on just for the duration the person is in the area, and back off when no one else is around (Not that they couldn't do this with normal IR sensors, but 'ooh shiny smartphones').
2) Smaller lights on a display, like a bright red set of lights that turn on when a customer gets close to them. Say they know you come to Home Depot for shop for 2x4s and screws; and like any 'good' store they're obsessed with rearranging their layout every 4 days. By highlighting sections of stuff that you're likely there to buy as you walk past the it makes them that much easier to find. (this would get ungodly confusing in a high-volume store).
Now, as for the actual utility of these functions...
If only I registered 3 users earlier....
(Score: 2, Interesting) by JimmyCrackCorn on Wednesday February 19 2014, @12:04PM
dim witted.
The crucial part is not about the light.
How about that same museum that has a light that "has location based sales adverts" that allows you to find out about that art without wearing those funky museum ear phones.
And your number two, finally have some specs available from the "location based sales adverts" for that bin of loose screws.