Osram adds build-your-own applications for Lightify smart bulbs

Open APIs allow home users to tailor LED lights to respond to any cue. The APIs come with instructions to maximize the capabilities of the smart bulbs.

Trying to widen the appeal of smart light bulbs at home, Osram is making it easier for users to develop their own applications for the company's Lightify line of intelligent LED lamps.

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Lightify already responds to pre-programmed app-based commands from smartphones, tablets, and PCs to turn on/off or change brightness or color and color temperature.

But recognizing that users might want to tailor their lights to do other information-based things, Osram has introduced a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) to help them along.

If, for example, a user wants the lights to flash or change color when a Pittsburgh Pirate hits a home run or a stock price hits a certain level, then he or she can use the new APIs to make that happen. Osram is providing APIs based on the open, Web-based REST (Representational State Transfer) architecture. Some users might still find the process daunting or uninviting. Osram is also providing a set of how-to instructions.

“Every user with the necessary programming knowledge can become creative: from special lighting scenes for children’s birthday parties or Christmas celebrations to innovative network possibilities in which light operates in unison with thermostats or other household devices,” the company said in a press release.

Lightify boss Timon Rupp added, “Thanks to its link to the cloud, the interface offers virtually unlimited ways to design your lighting at home — regardless of where you happen to be at the time. As a result, creative people with programming knowledge can create their own light-management.”

Osram said the APIs are downloadable for use in Europe, the US, Canada and Australia, at https://eu.lightify-api.org or at https://us.lightify-api.org.

MARK HALPERis a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).