We’re seeing a constant flow of smart home devices, each unit with its own unique advantage. If you aren’t too satisfied with the Amazon Echo or Google Home, maybe something adding something to such a device might be more what you’re looking for.
Covi is a speech-enabled light that automates your home, and is fully funded on Kickstarter. Senic says that it’s the perfect balance of open source smart home tech and interior design. A smart bulb added to a smart speaker could be exactly what is missing on most of our desks at home.
Just like the smart speakers we’ve known to already exist, Covi can be asked questions and control other smart home devices that are present. It actually works with Alexa right out of the box. Not only is it a speaker, it’s also a stylish piece of furniture.
Covi promises to blend into your home, and it’s actually based on the design of a traditional kerosene lamp. It features a small knob on the base which would’ve been used to regulate the flow of oil in the past. For our smart purposes, it’s been modernized into a dimming switch that allows you to control how warm or cool the white LED light of the Covi glows.
The smart lamp features a quad-core computer with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities. Both the Senic team and outside developers contributed to the platform to create the glowing hub’s integrations. So, any consumers interested in learning more about home automation can easily work with Covi since it’s an open-source platform.
Quite a few platforms are supported, including IFTTT, Sonos, Logitech, and many more. It is also open to other smart home systems such as Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings.
As lighting is proven to have an impact on human wellbeing, Covi could really improve our ability to focus and relax while working at our desk. If you choose to enable this setting, it has a cool preset that mimics the quality of natural light throughout the day.
One new feature that Covi brings is that it lets you know when you need to pay attention via ambient light-based notifications so you can stay focused on the things that matter. Instead of distracting text-based notifications, Covi will keep you up to date on the most important notifications, passively.
Covi can be pre-ordered now for about $156 on Kickstarter with expected delivery in March 2018. For the developers out there, you have a pretty neat option here to get started developing for Covi. It provides one unit and one Hub that you can start building software on. Some perks include a 1 hour Skype Session with the Senic Dev Team, early access to beta versions, and access to the developer’s Slack team.
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