Cortana shown controlling home automation in lighting demonstration

Ron

Cortana shown controlling home automation in lighting demonstration

Windows Phone 8.1 is out now, at least for those who wish to follow the steps to download and install it — others will get the update soon. Cortana is perhaps the most talked about feature, putting the mobile platform on par with iOS and Android, but it seems that if you have some imagination, you can do a bit more with it.

A new video displays Cortana being used to control a light. This is more proof-of-concept than something you’ll be doing tomorrow. It is a bit geeky, as the process goes through a Netduino — a bare-bones computer that is meant for learning and experimentation.

In the short video below you will see the phone-based assistant being used to both brighten and dim a lamp, but the process is going through the tiny computer in order to pull it off. Still, it holds hope for future innovation, as developers get more familiar with just what can be accomplished with Cortana and some ingenuity.