Interactive user interface functionality for lighting devices or system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016345412-A1
Application number	US-201615228463-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 4, 2016
Priority date	May 28, 2013
Publication date	Nov 24, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An example of a lighting system includes intelligent lighting devices, each of which includes a light source, a communication interface and a processor coupled to control the light source. In such a system, at least one of the lighting devices includes a user input sensor to detect user activity related to user inputs without requiring physical contact of the user; and at least one of the lighting devices includes an output component to provide information output to the user. One or more of the processors in the intelligent lighting devices are further configured to process user inputs detected by the user input sensor, control lighting and control output to a user via the output component so as to implement an interactive user interface for the system, for example, to facilitate user control of lighting operations of the system and/or to act as a user interface portal for other services.

First claim

1 - 18 . (canceled)

19 . A system, comprising:
intelligent lighting devices, each respective intelligent lighting device comprising: a light source; a communication interface configured to enable communication via a network link; and a processor coupled to control the light source and coupled to communicate via the communication interface and the network link with one or more others of the intelligent lighting devices and configured to control operations of at least the respective intelligent lighting device, wherein:
at least one of the intelligent lighting devices includes a user input sensor configured to detect user activity related to user inputs, from a user within the vicinity of the user input sensor, without requiring physical contact of the user;
at least one of the intelligent lighting devices includes an output component configured to provide information output to a user within the vicinity of the output component; and
a respective intelligent lighting device further comprises an application program for execution on the processor of the respective intelligent lighting device, wherein execution of the application program by the processor of the respective intelligent lighting device configures the lighting system to implement a non-lighting related service defined by the application program, including functions to:
process user inputs detected by the user input sensor; and
obtain and provide information as an output via the output component, for the non-lighting related service, in response to a processed user input.

20 . The system of claim 19 , further comprising a data communication network at a premises serviced for lighting by the system, the network interconnecting the links to provide data communications amongst the intelligent lighting devices, wherein:
the data communication network is configured to further provide data communications for at least some of the intelligent lighting devices via a wide area network outside the premises, and the function to obtain the information comprises communicating with an information source outside the premises via the data communication network at the premises and the wide area network.

21 . The system of claim 19 , wherein one of the intelligent lighting devices includes both the input component and the output component.

22 . The system of claim 19 , wherein:
the user input sensor is configured to detect an optical input; and the function to process the user inputs comprises processing the detected optical input to identify a gesture of a user.

23 . The system of claim 22 , wherein the user input sensor comprises an image detector.

24 . The system of claim 22 , wherein the user input sensor comprises a device configured for detection of direction and intensity of received light.

25 . The system as in claim 19 , wherein the function to process the user inputs comprises processing the user inputs in a distributed processing manner via a plurality of the processors of intelligent lighting devices.

26 . An intelligent lighting device, comprising:
a light source; a communication interface configured to enable communication via a network link; and a processor coupled to control the light source and coupled to communicate via the communication interface and the network link with one or more others of a plurality of intelligent lighting devices; a user input sensor configured to detect user activity related to user inputs, from a user within the vicinity of the intelligent lighting device, without requiring physical contact of the user; an output component configured to provide information output to the user within the vicinity of the intelligent lighting device; a memory accessible to the processor; and an application program for execution on the processor stored in the memory, wherein execution of the application program by the processor configures the intelligent lighting device to implement a non-lighting related service defined by the application program, including functions to:
process user inputs detected by the user input sensor; and
obtain and provide information as an output via the output component, for the non-lighting related service, in response to a processed user input.

27 . The intelligent lighting device of claim 26 , wherein the function to obtain the information comprises communicating with an information source via the network link.

28 . The intelligent lighting device of claim 26 , wherein:
the user input sensor comprises an audio detector; and the function to process the user inputs comprises detecting spoken words in the audio inputs.

29 . The intelligent lighting device of claim 26 , wherein:
the user input sensor comprises an optical detector; and the function to process the user inputs comprises processing detected optical inputs to recognize gestural user inputs.

30 . The intelligent lighting device of claim 29 , wherein the optical detector comprises a camera.

31 . The intelligent lighting device of claim 29 , wherein the optical detector comprises a device configured for detection of direction and intensity of received light.

32 . The intelligent lighting device of claim 26 , wherein the output component is configured to provide the information output to the user in an audio and/or visual format.

33 . A system, comprising:
intelligent lighting devices, each respective intelligent lighting device comprising:
a light source;
a communication interface configured to enable communication via a network link; and
a processor coupled to control the light source and coupled to communicate via the communication interface and the network link with one or more others of the intelligent lighting devices and configured to control operations of at least the respective intelligent lighting device, wherein:
at least one of the intelligent lighting devices includes a user input sensor configured to detect user activity related to user inputs, from a user within the vicinity of the user input sensor, without requiring physical contact of the user;
at least one of the intelligent lighting devices includes an output component configured to provide information output to a user within the vicinity of the output component; and
a respective intelligent lighting device further comprises programming or configuration data for the processor of the respective intelligent lighting device to configure the respective intelligent lighting device to:
implement an operating system environment for execution of one or more application programs by the processor of the respective intelligent lighting device, wherein execution of one of the one or more application programs configures the lighting system to implement a non-lighting related service defined by the one application program, including functions to:
 process user inputs detected by the user input sensor; and
 obtain and provide information as an output via the output component, for the non-lighting related service, in response to a processed user input; and
implement one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) to facilitate implementing the non-lighting related service.

34 . The system of claim 33 , wherein the implemented operating system environment is a real-time operating system environment.

35 . The system of claim 33 , further comprising a data communication network at a premises serviced for lighting by the system, the network interconnecting the links to provide data communications amongst the intelligent lighting devices, wherein:
the data communication network is c

Assignees

• Abl Ip Holding Llc

Inventors

• Aggarwal Januk
• Rogers Jason
• Rains Jr Jack C
• Ramer David P

Classifications

• H05B47/12 Primary

  by detecting audible sound · CPC title

• H05B47/155

  Coordinated control of two or more light sources · CPC title

• H05B47/197

  Sound control or voice control · CPC title

• H05B47/1975

  Gesture control · CPC title

• H05B47/196

  characterised by user interface arrangements · CPC title