GE is introducing a new table lamp. Big deal? Well this one has a unique feature that may make it a very big deal, possibly the first in a long line of luminaires designed to make users look at their lamps in a new way. Even talk to them. Talk to them and watch the world change around them.
GE’s new C by GE lamp integrates Amazon’s Alexa voice service technology directly into the lamp so it can listen to your requests and provide information, control the building environment, order dinner.
The voice controlled light source with microphones and a speaker is the first announced use of AVS [Alexa Voice Service] embedded within a lighting product, bringing the skills you'd find in a traditional Amazon Echo product without the need for a stand-alone Echo unit, hub or even a smart phone. Homeowners need only plug in the C by GE lamp and connect to Alexa to unleash a whole new world of tech functionality and smart device interoperability throughout the home.
GE says the new lamp is part of an incubation effort to develop “suite of connected products, through GE Lighting's C by GE brand, and working with ecosystem partners to create a seamless connected experience that elevates what you can do at home, helping you free up time, add security, enable broader control and have fun doing it.”
"This integration is so much more than connecting lighting to voice integration," says Jeff Patton, General Manager Connected Home Products, GE Lighting. "It's really about simplifying and extending an experience for consumers, allowing them to add smart capabilities throughout the home through a really simple form factor Consumers don't need a cell phone, a special switch or a hub. They just need their voice."
Ge expects the connected home market triple over the next few years, and it believes consumers expect a seamless experience as part of that process. “This introduction springboards that by leveraging something ubiquitous in the home today—lighting.”
GE's C by GE table lamp with Alexa will be available for pre-orders as part of GE's C by GE connected lighting products in early 2017 on www.CbyGE.com with product availability in the second quarter of 2017.