[krohling]

I noticed a lot of these comments ended up referencing challenges with lighting so I figured it would be good to chime in here (caveat: co-founder @ emberlight.co).

Interaction models are something we've been thinking about quite a bit and we've been exploring a number of options. New products like Senic that explore new opportunities are especially exciting for us. Here are 3 rough tenants we've been following when thinking about how people will interact with our product:

   1) The smartphone is not the solution, it's a stop on the way to something much better.  This is basically the point of OP's article and we completely agree.
   2) If it's not broken, don't fix it.  In other words, if there's an existing interaction model in the home that everyone is already used to (i.e. light switch, tv remote, wall thermostat) seriously ask yourself if that really (really) needs to change before inventing something new.
   3) In slight opposition to #2 there are obviously huge opportunities to innovate the way we interact with our home.  Some of the models that I'm quite excited about:

         -The "dashboard" model that Sentri is building (http://sentri.me)
         -The "voice" model: (i.e. Echo, API.ai, etc.)
         -The "gesture" model which is what Senic and a few others are building

We're actively researching many of these and building some very cool partnerships in this space for exactly this reason. I think the end result will end up being some combination of these models and perhaps others that I've missed.

Btw, feel free to reach out directly for thoughts/questions/coffee: [e-mail]