'Smart bulb' makers forgot about epilepsy.

The Problem

If you've ever set up one of those 'smart home light bulbs', chances are you've seen it go into 'pairing' mode, during which it repeatedly flashes on and off. For people suffering with photosensitive epilepsy, this becomes a serious hazard. On a small scale, using a flashing light as a status indicator is no problem. Scaled up to overhead lighting and floor lamps, however, this becomes outright dangerous.

On several occasions, I've had to ask family members to leave the room while setting up smart devices. This shouldn't be necessary.

An Easy Solution

Smart bulb makers need to design indicators with everybody's safety in mind, not just the majority. A light doesn't need to blink repeatedly to indicate its status. A simple change of colour can effectively indicate setup mode. Slowly dimming the light and brightening it up again just once can also greatly reduce the danger to those with epilepsy.

It's time to make smart bulbs safer.