Gesture-based load control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9430044-B2
Application number	US-201313835594-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Aug 30, 2016
Grant date	Aug 30, 2016

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 load control system for controlling an amount of power provided to at least one electrical load via at least one load control device, the load control system comprising:
a motion capture device configured to generate images of a user; and
a gesture-based control device configured to:
identify, via the images generated by the motion capture device, a first gesture performed by the user,
determine the at least one load control device of a plurality of load control devices in the load control system based on the first gesture that is identified in the images generated by the motion capture device,
identify, via the images generated by the motion capture device, a second gesture performed by the user,
determine control instructions for controlling the at least one load control device based on the second gesture that is identified in the images generated by the motion capture device, wherein the control instructions are capable of causing the at least one load control device to control the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load, and
send the control instructions to the at least one load control device for controlling the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load.

2. The load control system of claim 1 , wherein the first gesture is identified based on a first coordinate associated with the user's body, and wherein the second gesture is identified based on a second coordinate associated with the user's body.

3. The load control system of claim 2 , wherein the first coordinate is associated with a first arm of the user, and wherein the second coordinate is associated with a second arm of the user.

4. The load control system of claim 1 , wherein the gesture-based control device is further configured to:
identify a speed at which the second gesture is performed, and
determine the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load based on the identified speed.

5. The load control system of claim 1 , wherein the gesture-based control device is further configured to:
identify a distance over which the second gesture is performed, and
determine the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load based on the identified distance.

6. The load control system of claim 1 , wherein the gesture-based control device is further configured to determine the at least one load control device based on a vector associated with the first gesture.

7. The load control system of claim 1 , wherein the first gesture and the second gesture are identified in different regions of a regional mapping configuration of one or more of the images generated by the motion capture device.

8. The load control system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to identify an engage gesture indicated by the user, wherein the engage gesture enables the gesture-based control device to identify at least one of the first gesture or the second gesture.

9. The load control system of claim 1 , wherein the first gesture and the second gesture include a same gesture.

10. A gesture-based control device for controlling an amount of power provided to at least one electrical load via at least one load control device, the gesture-based control device comprising:
a controller configured to:
identify, via images received from a motion capture device, a first gesture performed by a user,
determine the at least one load control device of a plurality of load control devices based on the first gesture that is identified in the images generated by the motion capture device,
identify, via the images received from the motion capture device, a second gesture performed by the user,
determine control instructions configured to control the at least one load control device based on the second gesture that is identified in the images generated by the motion capture device, wherein the control instructions are capable of causing the at least one load control device to control the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load, and
send the control instructions to the at least one load control device for controlling the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load.

11. The gesture-based control device of claim 10 , wherein the first gesture is identified based on a first coordinate associated with the user's body, and wherein the second gesture is identified based on a second coordinate associated with the user's body.

12. The gesture-based control device of claim 11 , wherein the first coordinate is associated with a first arm of the user, and wherein the second coordinate is associated with a second arm of the user.

13. The gesture-based control device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a speed at which the second gesture is performed, and
determine the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load based on the identified speed.

14. The gesture-based control device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a distance over which the second gesture is performed, and
determine the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load based on the identified distance.

15. The gesture-based control device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine the at least one load control device based on a vector associated with the first gesture.

16. The gesture-based control device of claim 10 , wherein the first gesture and the second gesture are identified in a same region of a regional mapping configuration of one or more of the images received from the motion capture device.

17. The gesture-based control device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to identify an engage gesture indicated by the user, wherein the engage gesture enables the gesture-based control device to identify at least one of the first gesture or the second gesture.

18. The gesture-based control device of claim 10 , wherein the first gesture and the second gesture include a same gesture.

19. A gesture-based control device for controlling an amount of power provided to at least one electrical load via at least one load control device, the gesture-based control device comprising:
a controller configured to:
identify a first gesture performed by a user,
determine, based on the first gesture, a region of a regional mapping configuration that is associated with the at least one load control device of a plurality of load control devices, wherein the regional mapping configuration includes a plurality of regions of an image received from a motion capture device,
identify a second gesture performed by the user,
determine, based on the second gesture, a region of the regional mapping configuration that is associated with control instructions for controlling the at least one load control device,
determine the control instructions for sending to the at least one load control device based on the identified gestures, and
send the control instructions to the at least one load control device for controlling the amount of power provided to the at least one electrical load.

20. The gesture-based control device of claim 19 , wherein the controller is further configured to identify the first gesture based on coordinates associated with a first arm of the user, and identify the second gesture based on coordinates associated with a second arm of the user.

21. The gesture-based control device of claim 19 , wherein the controlle

Assignees

• Lutron Electronics Co

Inventors

• Jain Soumya
• Zizza Michael J
• Nill John

Classifications

• 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

• 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

• G06T7/20

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