Lutron-Josh.ai Integration Said to Simplify Control for Complex Lighting
Lutron is building a far-field mic into lighting control keypads via an integration with Josh.ai that solves a quandary for integrators wanting to integrate voice control without compromising aesthetics. The Josh.ai Ready Wallplate incorporates Josh nano, an architectural mic, giving homeowners the ability to control lights with voice or touch via scene-based buttons, said the companies on a Wednesday product unveiling on YouTube. On-panel tabs enable customers to turn off the mics for privacy.
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The companies said the integration combines the intuitiveness of a button press with the flexibility of voice. Unlike smart speakers, Josh.ai’s voice technology uses natural language processing (NLP), allowing consumers to speak commands without having to remember precise words and phrases. One example on a Josh.ai video showed a user saying only, “Good morning,” after the Josh wake word, to set in motion a scene where the voice engine gives the day’s weather, while opening shades and turning on a pre-programmed lighting sequence.
The switches work with all of Lutron's lighting control systems. It's especially well suited to Lutron's Ketra technology that lets customers draw from 16.7 million colors of LED lighting to create different moods and experiences that would be limited by a button-based wall switch. Voice control widens the possibilities for the number of phrases customers want at their disposal, and NLP capability means customers don’t have to remember precise commands, said the companies.
The Ketra system offers a wide gamut of tunable color, and customers are able to create moods and ambience by tuning the vibrancy, warmth, color temperature and intensity of a home’s lighting system, said Ben Bard, Lutron director-engineering, residential. “To control all those dimensions, the keypad is a very good way to do a couple of your most frequent, quick-access things,” he said, but to unlock the power of the tunable lighting system, “you need something like voice” that gives power without “undoing the simplicity of the system.”
For those lighting color and intensity choices to be useful to clients, integrators need to make them available via an intuitive interface. A customer may want lights to go to a 2700 color temperature to get a certain atmosphere, “but no one talks that way,” said one integrator. Voice control that drills down to timers and color control “is huge,” said another dealer. The integrated switch isn’t complicated, but it gives “infinite possibilities” for what a dealer can program, he said. Switches are expected to begin rolling out next month.