Gesture-based load control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11068066-B2
Application number	US-201916571699-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2019
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Jul 20, 2021
Grant date	Jul 20, 2021

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 at least one electrical load via at least one load control device, the control device comprising:
a controller configured to:
receive an indication of a gesture performed by a user, wherein the gesture is associated with a scene, wherein one or more load control devices are configured to be controlled as part of the scene;
determine the one or more load control devices included in the scene based on the indicated gesture;
determine control instructions for the one or more load control devices included in the scene based on the indicated gesture; and
send the control instructions for the one or more load control devices included in the scene to control the amount of power provided to the respective electrical loads.

2. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive an indication of a first gesture performed by the user, wherein the first gesture enables the control device to identify and indicate the gesture associated with the scene.

3. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive the indication of the gesture associated with the scene from a motion capture device.

4. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the applicable load control device includes one or more 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.

6. The control device of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the gesture associated with the scene comprises a 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 for watching a movie, a bedtime scene for when the user goes to bed, an away scene for when the user is away from a user environment, or a stay scene for when the user is located in the user environment.

9. A method for controlling an amount of power provided to at least one electrical load via at least one load control device, the method comprising:
receiving an indication of a gesture performed by a user, wherein the gesture is associated with a scene that is configured to control at least one load control device;
determining one or more applicable load control devices based the scene; determining control instructions for each of the applicable load control devices; and
sending the control instructions for each of the applicable load control devices to control the amount of power provided to the respective electrical load.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving an indication of a first gesture performed by the user, wherein the first gesture enables the gesture associated with the scene to be identified and indicated.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising storing a plurality of scenes that are each associated with a respective gesture.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the indication of the gesture associated with the scene comprises a coordinate associated with the user's body.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the coordinate is associated with an arm of the user.

14. A system for controlling an amount of power provided to at least one electrical load via at least one load control device, the system comprising:
a motion capture device configured to indicate a gesture performed by a user; and a system controller configured to:
receive the indication of the gesture from the motion capture device; determine one or more applicable load control devices based on the indicated gesture;
determine control instructions for each applicable load control device based on the indicated gesture; and
transmit the control instructions for each applicable load control device to control the amount of power provided to the respective electrical load.

15. The system of claim 14 , further comprising a load control circuit, and wherein the system controller is configured to control the amount of power provided to the respective electrical load based on the control instructions via the load control circuit.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the gesture is associated with one or more of a movie scene for watching a movie, a bedtime scene for when the user goes to bed, an away scene for when the user is away from a user environment, or a stay scene for when the user is located in the user environment.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the motion capture device is further configured to determine a speed at which the gesture is performed.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the control instructions include a determination of an amount of power provided to the respective electrical load based on the indication of the speed at which the gesture is performed.

19. The system of claim 14 , wherein the motion capture device is further configured to determine a distance over which the gesture is performed.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the control instructions include a determination of an amount of power provided to the respective electrical load based on the indication of the distance over which the gesture is performed.

Assignees

• Lutron Tech Co Llc

Inventors

• Jain Soumya
• Zizza Michael J
• Nill John

Classifications

• H04N23/95

  Computational photography systems, e.g. light-field imaging systems · CPC title

• H04N23/20

  for generating image signals from infrared radiation only · CPC title

• G06T7/73

  using feature-based methods · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• H04N13/204

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