Philips Hue simplifies lighting design through room measurement
Hue enables simulating a sunrise from one side of the room to the other with a 3D scan using a mobile phone, and will soon offer AI-based automations.
With the new "Spatial Aware" Hue function, color gradients from ceiling to floor should be possible, for example, to simulate sunsets more naturally.
(Image: Signify)
On the sidelines of CES, Philips Hue announces a new app feature that simplifies individual room concepts for color design with smart light bulbs. With the feature called Spatial Aware, you use your smartphone camera to take pictures of a room decorated with Hue lights. The software identifies the light points and considers their location when distributing the color nuances of a color combination selected in the Hue app to the light points. Previously, the algorithms ignored whether the light points were adjacent or far apart – as is common with apps from lighting providers.
Because the Hue software will consider spatial proximity in the future, lighting moods that imitate natural scenarios should appear more realistic. In a sunset scene, the lights on one side of the room would emit warm yellow tones to imitate the setting sun, while the ceiling lights on the opposite side would display darker color tones.
The function is scheduled to be available as a free update “from spring 2026” and will then be compatible with about half of the light scenes pre-installed in the app. Spatial Aware can then be activated via the light scene library.
HomeKit for cameras, AI for Automations
In addition to the new lighting concept feature, Philips Hue announces the long-awaited interface to Apple Home for the brand's security cameras in Las Vegas. The wired Hue Secure Camera, the Hue Secure Video Doorbell, and the Hue Secure Contact Sensors are to receive access to the Apple world by March 2026. From then on, live videos can be streamed via the picture-in-picture mode of the Apple TV set-top box, and push notifications from the Hue Secure system can be received in Apple's Home app. Philips Hue left open whether the cameras will then also support HomeKit Secure Video. The integration enables video storage in Apple's iCloud and location-based automations for camera recording. Previously, Hue lamps with Matter could be integrated directly into Apple Home, but not all of them.
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The AI assistant, which has been announced repeatedly for a long time, is now finally to be launched in German. Philips mentioned the first quarter of 2026 as the timeframe. As soon as the AI assistance is available, it will enable rule-based creation of automations via voice input, contrary to what was previously known. Saying “Wake me up every day at 6:45 AM, except Wednesdays” should then be sufficient for the corresponding result, eliminating the need to click together the conditions with the graphical editor.
Note: heise online is a media partner of CES 2026.
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