Smartphones light bulbs appliances
As my colleague Andrea Chang reported in Tuesday's Times, microprocessors and connectivity have been migrating into a growing number of product categories. That trend has been developing for years, but it really took off as residential broadband connections proliferated, as did home Wi-Fi networks . For some products, the benefits of connectivity are obvious. Smart refrigerators, for example, can suggest recipes based on the food they're chilling and create shopping lists for items that are depleted. As networking technology spreads to more mundane items, though, the appeal isn't necessarily as apparent. For instance, why put a communications chip in a light bulb? That's what GreenWave Reality of Irvine has done. The reason, said chief executive Greg Memo, is "having the light quality you want when you want it." FULL COVERAGE: CES 2013 GreenWave's technology lets consumers set up networks of lights in their homes that can be precisely controlled