CES 2018: Dodecahedron design isn’t your regular smart home controller
Nanoleaf, creators of the awesome Aurora modular smart lighting system, is showing off possibly the most bonkers new product of this year’s CES: the Nanoleaf Remote. A Bluetooth HomeKit remote might not sound all that bizarre, but that’s because you haven’t yet realised it’s a 12-sided dodecahedron.
Designed to not only control your Nanoleaf lights, the funky-looking Remote acts as a regular HomeKit remote too – meaning you can control your other Apple-friendly smart home devices as well.
The way you do that is with “a quick turn of the wrist”. Nanoleaf’s words, not ours. We had a quick go at CES 2018 and it’s actually pretty straightforward. The 12 sides are all numbered and you can configure what that side facing up means in the app – either a HomeKit or Aurora scene. If it’s the latter, you get a nice glow of light that’s similar to the scene you’ve selected and you can also increase and decrease the brightness by rotating the Remote on its base.
Verdicts: Nanoleaf Essentials review / Nanoleaf Elements review / Nanoleaf Shapes review
You can set up the configuration for your Remote in either the Nanoleaf app, or from within the Apple Home app. You’ll obviously need an Apple HomeKit hub (iPad or Apple TV) to make it work (a Nanoleaf Rhythm Module can also connect you to your Aurora panels).
Slated for launch in the spring, the Nanoleaf Remote is set to cost $49.99. We want one. We’re not sure why exactly.
In other Nanoleaf news, the company also had some prototype square tiles on show at the Vegas expo. Like the trianglular Aurora, the square panels link together – and you can put up to 1,000 together, so you could effectively cover an entire room – as per the early press image above – although you’ll need additional power for every block of 60.
However, unlike that image above, the design now doesn’t include the dark squares in the corner of each panel. The latest design of this work in progress (below) is a lot more edge-to-edge and seamless. A Nanoleaf spokesperson also told us that the panels will be touch sensitive as well, and will be able to react to motion and music.
There’s no word on a launch date for these at the moment – except for “later this year”. We will, of course, keep you updated.
