The Smart Light 4.0, a completely "Made by Vietnam" product

Nguyen Huy Du, DuCapital’s CEO, says Smart Light is the company’s premier product.

Du, who created the Smart Light, recalls how he came up with the idea, “The Smart Light originated from a practical demand for a device that can provide lighting, help parents monitor their children’s study at home while they’re still at work, and remotely connect students with teachers, tutors, and parents.”

Normally, a child can sit at a table and turn on a desk lamp, and his parents will believe he is studying, but he might in fact be reading a comic book. With the Smart Light, that can’t happen.

The Smart Light 4.0 is a lamp with an integrated IP camera, speaker, microphone, and wireless internet connection, which enables parents to observe and communicate with their child via the internet using a tablet or smartphone and assure themselves that the child is really studying?

Do Lan Huong of Hai Ba Trung district in Hanoi was on a business trip but could study  with her primary school daughter late one evening after finishing work via the Smart Light 4.0.

Huong said she really like this product, adding, “Even when I’m driving or in a meeting or on a  business trip, I can connect and see the kids at home. With the Smart Light, I can find educational videos and teacher profiles and choose the ones most recommended  by other parents.”

The Smart Light 4.0 is introduced at an exhibition featuring "Made by Vietnam" and "Make in Vietnam" technological products in December 2020 in HCMC.

Du says the lamp’s LED white light technology saves energy using 3 levels of sensor control. Its built-in camera can rotate 360 degrees to allow parents to see whatever their child is studying. The lamp’s Internet connection can connect the student to tutors, teachers, and educators in Vietnam and other countries. This means parents can find a suitable tutor for their child anywhere in the world.

“A family often gives their child a new desk lamp at the beginning of a school year. Ordinary lamps don’t have safe lighting modes. The Smart Light 4.0 has three lighting modes - daylight, an evening light for studying, and a restful night light. It reduces eye strain. The lamp integrates an IP camera, speaker, microphone, and Internet connection so that, using a smartphone app, parents can study with their child, chat with him, and explain anything unclear in the lesson,” he said. 

Nguyen Trong Hai, an English teacher, said, “As a tutor, the biggest benefit is less traveling. I can teach more students in a day.”

Du and his team had to solve a number of problems prior to turning out the first commercial version of the product.

“We faced lots of difficulties in making the hardware for the product. Many of the raw materials and components had to be imported. Developing the app required studying and analyzing data compression and data transfer techniques to minimize the delay between users,” according to Du.

But Du concluded, “Eventually we managed to get all the technical elements right. There were no comparable products in the market. We failed again and again."

The Smart Light 4.0 will be available nationwide beginning this June and exported to Cambodia, Pakistan, Japan, and China, said Du.

He said, “Our current challenge is to make the public familiar with the Smart Light. Our distribution system with thousands of authorized dealers is being trained to use the product so they can demonstrate it and believe in it.”

The Smart Light is part of the smart education ecosystem TOTA 4.0.

The Smart Light beat out more than 400 other products to win first prize in the 2018 "Young knowledge for education” contest. Last year, the Smart Light joined uTEACHER, a smart tutor solution, and SmartROOM in the Top 10 of the "narrowing the digital gap" category of the "Make in Vietnam" digital technology product awards.