Multi-processor system and operations to drive display and lighting functions of a software configurable luminaire

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10083495-B2
Application number	US-201615211272-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 15, 2016
Priority date	Jul 15, 2016
Publication date	Sep 25, 2018
Grant date	Sep 25, 2018

Abstract

The examples relate to various implementations of a software configurable lighting device having a multi-processor system including a central processing unit and a parallel processing unit. The software configurable lighting device utilizes the multi-processor system to efficiently transform and/or modify control data. The software configurable lighting device also includes a transparent image display device and a general illumination device. Transformed and/or modified control data is utilized to drive the transparent image display device and the general illumination device in combination.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A configurable luminaire, comprising:
a display configured to present an image;
a controllable, general illumination, light source collocated with the display;
a driver system coupled to the display and the light source, the driver system being configured to:
supply drive power to the light source in a manner to control general illumination light output by the light source; and
control presentation of the image via the display; and

a multi-processor system coupled to the driver system, the multi-processor system comprising a central processing unit and a parallel processing unit, wherein:
the multi-processor system is configured to obtain data related to operation of the configurable luminaire;
the central processing unit is configured to perform a calculation based on the obtained data;
the parallel processing unit is configured to perform a plurality of operations in parallel,
each operation corresponding to a portion of the obtained data;
each operation comprising at least one task to be performed based on the corresponding portion of the obtained data and a result of the calculation performed by the central processing unit; and
the plurality of operations result in modified data; and

the multi-processor system is further configured to control operation of the driver system, based on the modified data, including to: (1) control light generated by the light source and (2) control the presentation of the image via the display.

2. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , further comprising:
a memory accessible to the multi-processor system; and
programming in the memory, wherein execution of the programming by the multi-processor system configures the multi-processor system to perform the functions.

3. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , wherein the parallel processing unit comprises a graphical processing unit, a field programmable gate array or an application specific integrated circuit.

4. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , wherein:
the obtained data includes image pixel data representing points of the image;
the plurality of operations result in a transformation of the image data; and
the parallel processing unit is further configured to perform the plurality of operations in parallel such that the transformation of the image data occurs during a same processing period.

5. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , wherein:
the obtained data includes control data controlling an intensity of general illumination light output at each of a plurality of pixels of output by the light source;
the plurality of operations result in a modification of the intensity of general illumination light output at a number of the pixels output of the light source; and
the parallel processing unit is further configured to perform the plurality of operations in parallel such that the modification of the control data occurs during a same processing period.

6. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , wherein:
the obtained data includes image pixel data representing points of the image and control data controlling an intensity of general illumination light output at each of a plurality of pixels of output by the light source;
a first plurality of the operations result in a transformation of data for a number of pixels of the image data;
a second plurality of the operations result in a modification of the intensity of general illumination light output at a number of the pixels output of the light source; and
the parallel processing unit is further configured to:
perform the first plurality of operations in parallel such that the transformation of the image data occurs during a same first processing period; and
perform the second plurality of operations in parallel such that the modification of the control data occurs during a same second processing period.

7. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , further comprising a spatial light modulator located between the display and the light source, wherein:
the obtained data includes modulation data for controlling the spatial light modulator;
the plurality of operations result in a modification of the modulation data; and
the parallel processing unit is further configured to perform the plurality of operations in parallel such that the modification of the control data occurs during a same processing period.

8. The configurable luminaire of claim 7 , wherein:
the spatial light modulator comprises an electro-wetting cell array,
the modulation data includes a first control setting value for each respective cell of the array,
the modified modulation data includes a second control setting value for each respective cell of the array, and
a plurality of the second control setting values are modified from and therefore different from corresponding first control setting values for respective cells of the array.

9. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , wherein:
for each operation the corresponding portion of the obtained data represents a respective pixel; and
the parallel processing unit is further configured to:
obtain at least one constant related to the obtained data;
receive the obtained data; and
perform the plurality of operations in parallel such that all portions of the obtained data are modified during one same processing period, the at least one task of each operation including modifying the portion of the obtained data corresponding to the respective pixel based on the at least one constant.

10. The configurable luminaire of claim 9 , wherein:
the calculation includes calculating the at least one constant related to the obtained data; and
the central processing unit is further configured to deliver the at least one constant to the parallel processing unit.

11. The configurable luminaire of claim 9 , further comprising a memory accessible to the multi-processor system, wherein:
the calculation includes calculating a job schedule for control of the parallel processing unit; and
the central processing unit is further configured to:
control, based on the job schedule, the parallel processing unit to perform at least two serial tasks, wherein:
each of the at least two serial tasks is performed in series such that only one serial task is performed during each processing period; and
each of the at least two serial tasks includes calculating a respective constant related to the obtained data; and

upon completion of the at least two serial tasks, control the parallel processing unit to perform the plurality of operations in parallel using the constants.

12. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , further comprising a memory accessible to the multi-processor system, wherein:
the central processing unit comprises a plurality of processing cores;
the calculation includes calculating, by one of the plurality of processing cores, a thread schedule for control of the other processing cores;
the central processing unit is further configured to:
control, based on the thread schedule, at least two other processing cores, wherein:
each of the at least two other processing cores manages a respective thread including calculating a respective constant related to the obtained data; and
each of the at least two other processing cores manages the respective thread during a same processing period; and

after the same processing period, deliver the calculated constants to the parallel processing unit.

13. The configurable luminaire of claim 1 , further comprising a memory accessible to the multi-processor system, wherein:
the central processing unit comprises a plurality of processing cores;
the calculation includes:
calculating, by

Assignees

• Abl Ip Holding Llc

Inventors

• Goodman Jonathan Lloyd
• MAHER Hampton Boone
• Komanduri Ravi
• Raj Rashmi Kumar

Classifications

• H05B45/20

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• G09G2300/023

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• G09G3/3406

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• G09G2360/16

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• G09G5/10

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