Philips Lighting has a new system out, aptly named Hue.  Utilizing existing light fixtures and wiring, the Hue system will allow the user to control the lights from an app on their smartphone through their wireless network.  The Hue bulbs are simply inserted in place of standard bulbs and an included network hub is connected to a router by Ethernet cable.  The hub interacts with the bulbs through the ZigBee wireless standard and with the control app by Wi-Fi.  The bulbs can even relay signals to one another, forming their own network and extending control to the entire house.  

The control app is capable of performing any task a standard programmable installation can perform, and others.  For example, it can choose an individual color from a single pixel of any image and assign that specific color to any number of the bulbs in the network.  It can also monitor the user’s location through the phone’s GPS signal so that it can turn the lights on when he arrives at the home.

Philips also plans to release the code for the Hue’s control app to developers, so there’s no telling what sort of options will be coming up for this system in the near future.

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