Lamp shuts off digital alerts while user is in a conversation

Among the most ubiquitous intelligent home products today are smart lights. These fixtures are now automated, entertaining with color switching and music, all-seeing with security functions and depend on people’s moves and habits. Tech-savvy users likely appreciate a lot of next-generation features, but for those who want to break free from invasive technology, a lamp that is smart in a different way could be a fit.

The fixture, designed by NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program student Skylar Jessen and dubbed as an ”anti-smart lamp”, is one that is capable of shutting off digital notifications while the owner is immersed in a conversation.

The smart lamp uses microphones that can “hear” the owner and the person he or she is talking to. It considers a dialogue important, therefore the time to keep it off of distracting alerts, if it takes more than 30 seconds. The light will then allow reception of notifications after the talk has stopped for more than two minutes. As regards speech detection, the maker is looking into the possibility that human movements can be factored in to determine more accurately what conversations are engaging for people.

The product, though is still a prototype, shows that living smart can be not too tiresome by suggesting that intelligent devices can be developed more to regulate other technology.