Netflix Hack Controls Philips Hue Lights

Every now and then the smart or bored people at Netflix get together to come up with new, interesting or weird things that may one day be integrated into future products. They call these events Hack Day.

The company already offers the most popular, maybe the best streaming video service, so what new feature could they add? More Ultra HD content? Smell-o-vision? Dolby Atmos?

A recent Hack Day event resulted in an application that combines the popular Philips Hue color-changing LED smart light bulbs with Netflix streaming video. The result is very cool.

The Philips Hue system (see our review here) lets users change the color and intensity of Hue lights (LED bulbs, light strips and a Hue lamp) with a smartphone app. You can customize color scenes, connect it with the ITTT app and integrate it with home automation systems. Now with this Netflix hack Hue lights can change color based on the colors on your Netflix streaming program. For instance, if James Bond were to jump off a white boat into a blue sea, you’d see the Hue lights change from white to blue.

Years ago Philips offered flat screen TVs with built-in rear-facing lights that did the same thing. Those never caught on, but the effect could be fun in the right circumstances. Screen Innovations offers a projection screen with color-changing LED’s fixed into the back.

Now the bad news—you can’t actually get your own Netflix device to do this now, but maybe if we’re lucky the company will add the feature for real. Check it out in action in the video below:

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