Lunera, an IoT infrastructure company that began as an innovative LED lighting company, has announced that it is changing the networking and compute paradigm with the introduction of Lunera Smart Lamps, Lunera Ambient Compute software platform, and Lunera Ambient Compute Marketplace. The company’s Smart Lamp invention embeds IoT-edge technology — networking, compute, sensors and controls — directly into the end cap of a light-emitting diode (LED) light bulb. This smart lighting technology is poised to impact numerous areas for facility management.
The Lunera Ambient Compute software platform automatically creates a self-organizing, Wi-Fi mesh network that can connect billions of IoT devices to the cloud. The wireless infrastructure, in each Lunera Smart Lamp, can deliver an IoT network that is omnipresent. The network supports devices that use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4, and EnOcean protocols.
Using the compute technology — processors, memory and storage — in each Lunera Smart Lamp, the Lunera Ambient Compute platform can create a fog and edge cloud. This enables its users to reduce their dependency on the cloud and benefit from less latency, more speed, improved security and privacy, and lower costs.
Deployed within indoor settings on a massive scale, Lunera can enable context-aware applications — from indoor wayfinding and asset tracking, to Wi-Fi monitoring, proximity messaging, space utilization, occupancy-based HVAC control and automated demand response — to run in and between the cloud, the edge and the device itself. Lunera and third-party applications are available in the Lunera Ambient Compute Marketplace.
LED light bulbs are the ideal hardware form factor to drive the shift to ambient computing. Light bulbs are pervasive throughout an indoor space, reach every inch of a room and have always-on power. By leveraging Lunera’s patented, plug-and-play technology, an end-to-end deployment can be cost justified on energy savings.
“Not too long ago we went from believing that the computer is the computer, to understanding that the network is the computer. Today, Lunera is leading the next shift, one that has the potential to be even bigger: the network is everything around us,” said John Bruggeman, chief executive officer, Lunera. “Until now, no one has conceived of the light bulb as the network or the platform for ambient computing. We believe Lunera is perfectly situated to realize the promise of this new compute paradigm.”
The Lunera Ambient Compute Marketplace is built on a microservice architecture that enables rapid development, deployment and integration of third-party ecosystem applications. The first wave of applications include:
Real-time location-based services that turn each lamp into a beacon that can transmit and receive signals. The platform supports both Apple iBeacon and Google Eddystone for proximity messaging, indoor GPS, asset tracking and space utilization, while providing pinpoint accuracy — unlike traditional beacons, notes Lunera — and connectivity to the cloud where intelligence resides. This allows users to create new revenue streams by providing new services, protect valuable assets, secure their premises, optimize their spaces and find indoor places quickly.
IoT networking that enables connectivity of everything smart to realize the potential of the IoT within indoor settings. Customers will be able to monitor their Wi-Fi networks to ensure higher predictability, reliability and always-on availability, while reducing cost of operations and optimizing user experience.
Energy management will allow for a different user experience for each building occupant. Utilizing Wi-Fi connectivity, each lamp can send energy usage to the cloud for interpretation and action, and adjust automatically to its surroundings. Lunera also enables tighter connectivity between utilities and customers to drive greater energy savings. Lunera provides Automated Demand Response (ADR) controls at the lamp and HVAC level, as well as occupancy-based HVAC control.
Among the Lunera customers commenting on this latest development was vice president, environmental affairs for Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW) Airport, Robert Horton. “DFW Airport is committed to leveraging technology to create new experiences for our customers and further enhance our sustainability efforts,” said Horton. “Lunera shares our vision for innovation, and we look forward to partnering with them to find creative solutions with a variety of applications to improve the customer experience.”
