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 Controlling the amount of energy used by light bulbs can help conserve energy, keep a check on electricity costs and even slash carbon-dioxide emissions.

That was the idea behind the Windows Light, a software that automatically adjusts light bulbs' brightness depending on the availability of light at a given time, thereby reducing the amount of energy consumed by them.

Udomsak Donkhampi, Saroot Udomkarn, Tanthawat Khemavast and Krithee Sirisith, who are studying software and knowledge engineering at Kasetsart University, developed the software.

The software uses luminance sensors that detect the level of brightness in a given area, Udomsak said. If the system finds a room too bright, it dims the light bulbs to suitable levels.

"This helps reduce energy waste, save costs and slash carbon-dioxide emissions which cause global warming," he said.

To make the system more efficient, the team used a webcam to monitor movement in a given area, Saroot said. If the camera finds no movement for a set amount of time, it turns off the lights. The time period can be manually set.

"We adopted image-processing technology to detect movement. Information from the camera is sent to an analyser software that controls the light," he said.

The system also comes with a monitor which shows, in real-time, how much carbon dioxide is being emitted by a light bulb and how many trees would die from the resultant pollution. With the system, Udomsak estimated a small house - which uses up to ten light bulbs - can save about US$7 (Bt224) a month on electricity bills.

The developers plan to further develop the system to control the amount of energy consumed by other electrical home appliances such as televisions and air-conditioners.

The team recently won the Thailand Imagine Cup 2008 hosted by Microsoft (Thailand). The developers will now represent Thailand  in the Imagine Cup 2008, Microsoft's annual software-development competition, which will be held from July 3 to July 9 in France.