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Once upon a time in the not too distant past, all you really needed from a lamp was a switch to turn it on and off. According to Dyson, we need quite a lot more from our lighting.
In true Dyson style, and following on from last year's Lightcycle, Jake Dyson has unveiled the Lightcycle Morph and well, there's a lot going on. The smart, Wi-Fi connected lamp uses data on ambient light, time of day, natural light at your location and even your age to determine how much and what type of light you need.
In theory that means the Morph is continually adjusting the brightness and colour temperature, reacting to both what you're doing and the daylight outdoors. That goes some way to accounting for the considerable price of £500 for the Desk model and £650 for the Floor model.
The Lightcycle Morph's three warm LEDs and three cool LEDs react to Dyson's proprietary Daylight Tracking algorithm, which runs via its Dyson Link companion app for iOS and Android. Dyson's research team say that they looked at the wavelengths and colour of light that exists in the Earth’s atmosphere, reportedly taking a million measured data points. With this data, Dyson says it was able to create an algorithm that combines both those measurements with the GPS location in your phone.
“When you’re near the light, this tells it where you are geographically and it gives you the precise wavelength of light that is expected where you are,” says Jake Dyson. “If you’re in London, the wavelength of light will be different from Brighton or Bristol or Slough. It’s that precise.”
Somewhat more straightforwardly, there's also an ambient light sensor on board to help the Lightcycle Morph react to changes in the room. The infrared motion sensor, which detects when a person is nearby, can be deactivated in 'sleep mode'.
Of course, when you’re using the lamp, it's likely you won’t actually notice that there’s anything all that remarkable about its output. But in the background, Dyson says it's constantly working to give you the best light for your eyes based on your location and time of day. “What we’re creating is a lighting system that supports your body clock,” Jake Dyson adds.
Like its 2019 Lightcycle, it makes use of its Heat Pipe technology, which cools down the LEDs. This nifty addition should preserve the colour and the brightness of the light for decades.
The most noticeable change from its predecessor is that the life-ruining sliding arm has been replaced with a 360-degree rotating arm, allowing the lamp to pivot, and yes, be placed right up against a wall. Another neat trick on the Morph is that by having the arm folded back on itself, you’re able to create a soft glow that fills the lamp’s perforated aluminium-polycarbonate stem.
The modes are as versatile as anyone could need with the ability to use it as a task light with a 20-minute Boost mode, a feature light or ambient light. Controls include slide-touch for dimming and temperature tweaking.
Also intriguing is the fact that if you stick your age into the connected app, then over the years, the lamp should on average get brighter. The Illuminating Engineering Society is cited as saying that a 65 year-old needs up to four times as much light as a 20 year-old - make of that what you will.
For £500 (or more), you'd expect a lot of smart light for your money and that's what you're getting with the Lightcycle Morph's bells and whistles. For anyone working from home, say, and looking to tweak their 24/7 environment just so, it could potentially be justified.
The Lightcycle Morph is up for pre-order from January 28 and it looks like the altogether simpler Lightcycle is still on sale for £450.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
