Buddy Technologies Limited (ASX:BUD) has successfully passed efficacy and safety testing for a brand new product which is expected to launch an entirely new category of smart lighting – a smart, antibacterial disinfecting light called “LIFX Clean”.
Built on top of the award-winning and multi-patented LIFXA19/A60 1200 lumen smart light platform, LIFX Clean offers a fully functional white + colour smart light that includes the mobile app control, internet connectivity and native integration with voice and automation partners such as Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Hey Google that customers have come to expect.
LIFX CEO, David McLauchlan, said that in a smart lighting world-first however, LIFX Clean also includes additional and specially designed LEDs that emit visible light at a germicidal wavelength of 405 nanometres.
At this specific wavelength in the High Energy Visible range, light has a disinfecting effect (called porphyrin excitation) on bacterial microbes on surfaces and in the surrounding air. While the use of UV-C light has a much quicker antimicrobial effect, HEV lighting is safe for use in the presence of humans, pets and plants and unlike UV-C requires no protective measures for its safe use.
As a consumer antibacterial product, LIFX Clean meets the regulatory requirements to be sold in LIFX’s key markets of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The North American markets of the United States and Canada are subject to different regulatory requirements, and those are currently being progressed. The Company does expect to be able to sell LIFX Clean into all of these markets, including North America, at the time of product launch.
The efficacy of any light-based cleaning product is a function of the energy output of the light and the distance of the light from the subject being cleaned. Currently available disinfecting lights targeted at hospital operating theatres and recovery room bathrooms have a typical efficacy of 70% of bacteria killed in 2 hours of light exposure. In a typical desk lamp fixture, or if used in under-cabinet lighting, LIFX Clean has an efficacy of greater than 80% in 2 hours, or more than 99.99% overnight (40cm distance for 8 hours).
Mr McLauchlan said that unlike chemical or ultraviolet light (UV – which cannot be used in the un-protected presence of humans, pets or plants) based products which are episodic, LIFX Clean is a non-contact, continuous disinfection product. LIFX Clean can be used as a normal white or colour smart light by day or evening, and then the Clean lighting may be scheduled to come on overnight, or the Clean lighting may be left on continuously (in cleaning mode, LIFX Clean emits a light blue light).
LIFX Clean will initially be sold as a standalone light bulb, but the Company does expect to offer it for sale with a specially designed desk or counter-top fixture that will include a tray to hold items like keys, mobile phones, wallets and other day to day items that commonly mobilise bacteria.
LIFX Clean is a ground-breaking product that we believe will help create a whole new category of smart lighting, one that we intend to lead with a combination of innovation and relentless pace. This might be our most important step yet towards making every space smarter,” Mr McLauchlan, said.
“When the pandemic that has spread throughout the world first took hold, we asked ourselves, ‘What could our team do to contribute to more hygienic environments?’, and ‘How could we help our customers avoid secondary bacterial infections that would worsen the impact of the pandemic?’.
“The result is LIFX Clean, and I couldn’t be more proud of the team for developing such an affordable and highly innovative product that will help to meet the enormous and currently unquenchable worldwide demand for cleaning products.”