Gesture-based load control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10452153-B2
Application number	US-201816152385-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2018
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

A load control system may include load control devices for controlling an amount of power provided to an electrical load. The load control devices may be capable of controlling the amount of power provided to the electrical load based on control instructions received from a gesture-based control device. The gesture-based control device may identify gestures performed by a user for controlling a load control device and provide control instructions to the load control device based on the identified gestures. The gestures may be identified based on images received from a motion capture device. A gesture may be associated with a scene that includes a configuration of one or more load control devices in a load control system. The user may perform one or more gestures to program the gesture-based control device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A control device for controlling an amount of power provided to electrical loads via a plurality of load control devices, the control device comprising:
a controller configured to:
identify a gesture indicated by a user, wherein the gesture is associated with a scene that is configured to control the plurality of load control devices;
determine the plurality of load control devices based on the gesture;
determine control instructions for each load control device of the plurality of load control devices based on the gesture; and
send the control instructions for each load control device of the plurality of load control devices to control the amount of power provided to the electrical loads.

2. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to identify an engage gesture indicated by the user, wherein the engage gesture enables the control device to identify the gesture associated with the scene.

3. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to identify the gesture associated with the scene based on images received from a motion capture device.

4. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of load control devices include at least one of a dimmer switch, an LED driver, a motorized window treatment, a thermostat, or an AC plug-in load control device.

5. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to store a plurality of scenes that are each associated with a respective gesture, and wherein the plurality of scenes comprises the scene associated with the gesture.

6. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the gesture associated with the scene is identified based on at least one coordinate associated with the user's body.

7. The control device of claim 6 , wherein the coordinate is associated with an arm of the user.

8. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the scene comprises one or more of a movie scene configured to control the plurality of load control devices for watching a movie, a bedtime scene configured to control the plurality of load control devices when the user goes to bed, an away scene configured to control the plurality of load control devices when the user is away from a user environment, or a stay scene configured to control the plurality of load control devices when the user is located in the user environment.

9. A method for controlling an amount of power provided to electrical loads via a plurality of load control devices, the method comprising:
identifying a gesture indicated by a user, wherein the gesture is associated with a scene that is configured to control the plurality of load control devices;
determining the plurality of load control devices based on the gesture;
determining control instructions for each load control device of the plurality of load control devices based on the gesture; and
sending the control instructions for each load control device of the plurality of load control devices to control the amount of power provided to the electrical loads.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising identifying an engage gesture indicated by the user, wherein the engage gesture enables the gesture associated with the scene to be identified.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving images from a motion capture device; and
identifying the gesture associated with the scene based on the images received from the motion capture device.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising storing a plurality of scenes that are each associated with a respective gesture, wherein the plurality of scenes comprises the scene associated with the gesture.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising identifying the gesture associated with the scene based on at least one coordinate associated with the user's body.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the coordinate is associated with an arm of the user.

15. A control device for controlling an amount of power provided to at least one electrical load, the control device comprising:
a controller configured to:
identify, via generated images, a gesture performed by a user;
determine at least one load control device configured to control the at least one electrical load based on the gesture that is identified in the generated images; and
generate control instructions for controlling the at least one load control device based on the gesture that is identified in the generated images, wherein the control instructions are configured to control the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load.

16. The control device of claim 15 , further comprising a load control circuit, and wherein the controller is configured to control the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load via the load control circuit based on the control instructions.

17. The control device of claim 15 , wherein the gesture is identified based on a coordinate associated with the user's body.

18. The control device of claim 17 , wherein the coordinate is associated with an arm of the user.

19. The control device of claim 15 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a speed at which the gesture is performed, and
determine the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load based on the identified speed.

20. The control device of claim 15 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a distance over which the gesture is performed, and
determine the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load based on the identified distance.

Assignees

• Lutron Tech Co Llc

Inventors

• Jain Soumya
• Zizza Michael J
• Nill John

Classifications

• G06T7/73

  using feature-based methods · CPC title

• G06F3/017 Primary

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• H04N13/204

  using stereoscopic image cameras (stereoscopic photography G03B35/00) · CPC title

• G06T7/20

  Analysis of motion (motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51) · CPC title