Detection and illumination of dark zones via collaborative lighting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11570869-B1
Application number	US-202117500316-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 13, 2021
Priority date	Oct 13, 2021
Publication date	Jan 31, 2023
Grant date	Jan 31, 2023

Abstract

A processing system including at least one processor may detect at least one dark zone in a vicinity of a user, determine at least one lighting feature for an illumination of the at least one dark zone in accordance with a user profile of the user, identify at least one light source to provide the illumination of the at least one dark area in accordance with the at least one lighting feature that is determined, and transmit an instruction to the at least one light source to provide the illumination of the at least one dark zone in accordance with the at least one lighting feature that is determined.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
detecting, by a processing system including at least one processor, at least one dark zone in a vicinity of a user;
determining, by the processing system, at least one lighting feature for an illumination of the at least one dark zone in accordance with a user profile of the user;
identifying, by the processing system, at least one light source to provide the illumination of the at least one dark area in accordance with the at least one lighting feature that is determined; and
transmitting, by the processing system, an instruction to the at least one light source to provide the illumination of the at least one dark zone in accordance with the at least one lighting feature that is determined.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one light source comprises at least one of:
a fixed light source; or
a mobile light source.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one dark zone is detected via at least one sensor, wherein the at least one sensor is distinct from the at least one light source.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the at least one sensor is a mobile sensor.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the at least one sensor is part of a mobile computing device of the user.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the at least one sensor is part of a vehicle.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of:
a camera; or
a light detection and ranging unit.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the detecting of the at least one dark zone is via a machine learning model in accordance with input data from the at least one sensor.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one dark zone is defined by one or more coordinate points in a space.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one lighting feature comprises at least one of:
a light intensity;
a light color; or
a light directionality.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the user profile identifies a preference for the at least one lighting feature for illuminating dark zones.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one light source is in communication with the processing system via one or more networks.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying comprises determining that the at least one light source is configured to provide the at least one lighting feature.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one light source emits light of a particular color or is adjustable to emit light of a selected color.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one light source is adjustable to emit light with a beam in a selected direction.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the at least one light source is adjustable to emit light with the beam having a selected beam spread.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one light source emits light of a particular intensity or is adjustable to emit light of a selected intensity.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one light source emits light of a particular temporal pattern or is adjustable to emit light of a particular temporal pattern.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system including at least one processor, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
detecting at least one dark zone in a vicinity of a user;
determining at least one lighting feature for an illumination of the at least one dark zone in accordance with a user profile of the user;
identifying at least one light source to provide the illumination of the at least one dark area in accordance with the at least one lighting feature that is determined; and
transmitting an instruction to the at least one light source to provide the illumination of the at least one dark zone in accordance with the at least one lighting feature that is determined.

20. An apparatus comprising:
a processing system including at least one processor; and
a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
detecting at least one dark zone in a vicinity of a user;
determining at least one lighting feature for an illumination of the at least one dark zone in accordance with a user profile of the user;
identifying at least one light source to provide the illumination of the at least one dark area in accordance with the at least one lighting feature that is determined; and
transmitting an instruction to the at least one light source to provide the illumination of the at least one dark zone in accordance with the at least one lighting feature that is determined.

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Chien Ginger
• Cui Zhi
• Zavesky Eric
• Moton Jr Robert T
• Luu Adrianne Binh
• Koch Robert

Classifications

• H05B47/11 Primary

  by determining the brightness or colour temperature of ambient light · CPC title

• H05B47/19

  via wireless transmission · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• Y02B20/40

  Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title