What does electric vehicle and energy innovator Tesla have in common with smart lighting pioneer Nanoleaf? As it turns out, both companies seemingly want to cover major surfaces of your home with state-of-the-art technology products. In the Tesla case, they intend to reinvent your roof by covering it with a mosaic of their glassy Solar Roof tiles. With Nanoleaf, they aspire to reinvent your interior walls and ceilings by covering them with a mosaic of their Canvas smart lighting panels.
Rethinking Modular Lighting
Displayed earlier this year at IFA 2018 in Berlin, Nanoleaf Canvas takes the modular wall lighting concept they debuted with their original Light Panels to the next stage of evolution, creating a new product designed to cover not only portions of a wall or ceiling but the entire surface if you so desire.
Designed around the same core light panel technology, Canvas uses an edge-lit panel for adding increased dimensional lighting capability to the surfaces they are installed on. Whereas the original Light Panels were triangular in shape, Canvas panels are formed in tile-like squares to enable a clean wall-to-wall or wall-to-ceiling installation.
On-Wall Flexibility
Among the features built into Canvas are white-tunable and color-changing capabilities; lighting schedules; light alarms; music visualization; app controls; voice commands; and touch controls. For example, simply touching a Canvas panel can set off a mesmerizing ripple effect across the array.
Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant Integration
Canvas light squares are designed to work with the three major connected home ecosystems, including Apple HomeKit and Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant—plus the IFTTT (If This Then That) scripting platform.
Available for Pre-Order
As of November 27, 2918, Nanoleaf began taking pre-orders for Canvas in the U.S. and Latin America. A Canvas starter pack with 9 light squares is priced at $249, while a kit with 25 squares is $569. The panels will begin delivering in December.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on November 27, 2018.
