Convention In Philly Sparks Bright Ideas For Smarter, Healthier Home And Office

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The lighting industry took over the Pennsylvania Convention Center this past week for their annual trade show focusing on architectural and commercial design. Some of the innovations look to make your home and office 'smarter.'

If you own an Amazon Echo, Google Home, or use Apple's HomeKit, you know it can help you do things like this with minimal added gadgets.

"If you're coming home and your hands are full of sports equipment, rather than walking in and fumbling for a switch, you can simply ask Alexa, or Siri, or Google Assistant to turn the lights on for you," said Ed Blair, senior vice president at Lutron Electronics in Coopersburg.

Personal assistants and anywhere apps are getting linked to more and more products for your home energy savings and convenience. Blair says for office comfort, the trend is toward ditching harsh fluorescent lights in favor of LEDs with color tuning technology.

"The goal, especially in health care and office applications, is to have that changing of the color temperature mimic the behavior of the sun," Blair said. "That creates a much better feeling of wellness, and there are a lot of health benefits connected to that."