Available in the Apple Store, the Philips Hue LED three-bulb starter pack comes with three bulbs, a base station and an ethernet cable to connect them to the network.

These bulbs are controlled using an app available for iOS and Android devices. Once you fire up the app, an auto locate feature finds the bulbs that are plugged in, and you can pair them, much as you might pair a Bluetooth headset to a phone.

One the setup is done, you can use your phone to turn the brightness of each bulb up or down, and change the colors by dragging your finger across a picture. You can also set each bulb on a timer, to turn on and off when you choose. One fun but useless feature is that when you shake your phone, the selected bulb changes color randomly.

You can also save your color schemes to the cloud (on Philips' website). Or you can choose from among four Philips color schemes.

LIFX is another interesting phone-controlled LED lighting idea. The developers are trying to get funding via Kickstarter, so the product is neither available now nor certain to hit the market at all. But the developers say they'll have bulbs on the market in March 2013.

LIFX bulbs screw into regular lightbulb fittings but have their own built-in ability to connect to a home's Wi-Fi network. Like the Philips product, LIFX bulbs are expected to support both iOS and Android phones.

The developers say they also plan to make bulb-controlling applications for Windows and Mac. The included smart phone app would enable you to customize lightness, color and timing. The bulbs can even pulsate to the beat of music, the creators say.

LIFX bulbs have no base station; setup is simply screwing them in and firing up the app.

Yet another crowd-funded project is called Lumen, which includes the Lumen Smart Bulb.

Lumen differs mainly in its networking. Rather than communicating through a home Wi-Fi network, the system interacts with the bulb directly over short-range Bluetooth standards. That means you wouldn't control it from a distance over the Internet. But it also means the cost would be lower.

An associated iOS app would offer four presets: Party Mode, Sleep Mode, Wake Mode and Ambient Mode. You would also use the touch interface to run your finger across a color palette, with the bulbs changing color accordingly.

What Else Is Next for Smart Lighting?

The most interesting thing about smart bulbs is that software companies can make all kinds of interesting applications to control them. For example, imagine a virtual flash application that replaces the camera's flash on your phone. You could set it to suddenly brighten all the bulbs in the room with white light at the moment you take a picture.

Another likely app idea is that you could take a picture of a page in a magazine or somebody's actual home and essentially tell your lightbulbs: "Give me this lighting or color scheme." And here's perhaps the best idea of all: Designers could create lighting color schemes you could download to try in your own home.

The bottom line is that smart bulbs turn your lighting into an app. And the thing about apps is that anything is possible.