Smart lights that react to voice commands spoken to smart speakers are old hat, but a smart light with a built-in AI microphone? That’s a new twist.
Showing off its wares at the IFA trade show in Berlin this week, Germany-based smart device manufacturer Lepro is teeing up a quartet of “AI Lighting Pro” lights that can set the mood based on your natural-language prompts—anything from “Give me an Iron Man vibe” to “Set a cyberpunk city theme.”
Each of the lights features a built-in microphone that captures your commands (you must say the “Hey Lepro” wake phrase first) and processes them using Lepro’s new LightGPM AI engine, a large language model that’s trained on “color psychology and lighting design,” Lepro says. The AI then delivers an “ideal” multi-color lighting scene based on your voice prompt.
We’ve seen plenty of smart lights with AI-powered light scene bots before; Philips Hue is integrating one into the Hue app, and Govee and Nanoleaf have their own versions. But while those AI bots require interacting with an app, Lepro’s integrated AI microphones are a novelty, or at least they are for me. (It’s worth noting that the brand does have an app for those who like to tinker with their lighting modes manually.)
Lepro’s “AI Lighting Pro” lights can set the mood based on your natural-language prompts.
Lepro
The built-in mics don’t just listen for voice commands; they’re also keeping an ear out for music, with Lepro’s LightBeats tech capable of syncing the smart light’s LEDs with the pulse of nearby music sources. (That’s a far more common smart light feature, by the way.)
Among the lights in Lepro’s AI Lighting Pro series are the TB1-Pro, a space-age table lamp with multi-colored and adjustable light rings; the S1-Pro, a flexible LED light strip; the N1-Pro, a neon rope light with a “continuous, dot-free glow”; and the OE1-Pro, a super-slim floor lamp that offers 2,700-Kelvin warm-white light as well as RGB lighting.
The AI Lighting Pro lights can all connect directly to home Wi-Fi routers, meaning (for better or worse) there’s no need for a hub, and they’re all compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
Lepro says it will roll out its AI Lighting Pro line in North America later this year; the company has yet to announce pricing details.
This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting.