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Look familiar?  No worries though, we’ve got a solution!

Due to the way they’re manufactured, it’s possible to adjust LED light to lean towards the blue end of the spectrum, which helps when you want to wake up, or stay awake, by stimulating the parts of your brain that reduce melatonin production (the hormone that makes you sleepy).  We all love a nice warm light, and now it’s also possible to go cool when we need it.

We can already control the amount of blue in LED light; in the future, we might even be able to automatically change the lights to suit your preferred mood whenever you walk into a room.  Sensors could use facial recognition software to anticipate how you feel, detecting whether you’re tired or anxious and automatically adapt the intensity or tones of room lighting to energize or soothe.

2. Feel better

Being able to adapt your room lights has big benefits if you’re suffering from more than just bedhead.

The Philips HealWell System for patient rooms uses changing light levels throughout the day to help patients wake up and fall asleep more easily.  Because the lighting system can be controlled remotely, should you ever find yourself in hospital your doctors can select lighting to improve the healing environment in your hospital room.

3. Make grocery shopping less traumatic

We know that going to the supermarket is nobody’s favorite task.  But using LED, we can send location information to a smartphone app to make it just that little bit easier.

If you opt in by downloading a smartphone app, the LED light could, for example, help you find that one thing you’re looking for (we’ve all been there…) by beaming location information that pinpoints where you are in the store.  It acts like an indoor GPS, allowing the app to then guide you to that elusive item and even trigger the store system to send you details of special offers.

Now that’s cool - your own digital personal shopper. 

4. Put your green fingers to good use

Philips has developed a system that uses specific lighting hues within LED lights to shorten growing times and increase the size and yield of vegetables.

So if you’re entering the county fair soon, why not give the lights a go and see if you can win first place?

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Although if this is what your cucumber turns into, trying to win prizes might not end well.

5. Become a better cook

We can’t count the number of roast dinners that have gone wrong when the inevitable hustle and bustle of family get-togethers drowns out the timer.

  With the Philips Hue system you can set your lighting to make the room a different colour when the timer sounds. Never overcook your roast again. Not even the biggest Superbowl half-time show could trump that. Not even this:

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Check out what else people have been doing with Philips Hue over at IFTTT.

Bonus:

Saturday night fever or rave, rave, rave.  Set up your smartphone to play music and change the lights with the rhythm = instant nightclub!

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