Patent Application
20180007247
The present subject matter relates to techniques and equipment to modulate passive optical lighting, e.g. as supplied to an interior space via a daylighting device such as a skylight, window or the like.
Visible light communication (VLC) is gaining in popularity for transmission of information in indoor locations, for example, from an artificial light source to a mobile device. The VLC transmission may carry broadband user data, if the mobile device has an optical sensor or detector capable of receiving the high speed modulated light carrying the broadband data. In other examples, the light is modulated at a rate and in a manner detectable by a typical imaging device (e.g. a rolling shutter camera). This later type of VLC communication, for example, may support an estimation of position of the mobile device and/or provide some information about the location of the mobile device. These VLC communication technologies have involved modulation of artificially generated light, for example, by controlling the power applied to the artificial light source(s) within a luminaire to modulate the output of the artificial light source(s) and thus the light output from the luminaire.
Luminaires, including those configured for VLC transmissions, consume power to drive the sources of artificial light. Power consumption for such lighting can be a major expense, e.g. for enterprises operating large numbers of artificial lighting devices; and generating and supplying such power raises environmental concerns. Also, for some applications, VLC performance improves if more and/or all sources of light illuminating a particular space are modulated.
In view of the power and environmental concerns, many installations do not rely solely on artificial lighting during daytime hours of operations. Daylighting is a practice of placing or constructing elements of a building to distribute daylight from outside the building into interior space(s) of the building, which may reduce the need for artificial lighting during daytime hours. Traditional examples of daylighting devices involved appropriate sizing and placement of windows in walls or doors of the building or of skylights or the like in roofs/ceilings of the building. More sophisticated daylighting equipment utilizes optical collectors, channels, reflectors and optical distributors to supply and distribute light from outside the building to regions of the interior space. Although various daylighting systems may be adjustable, they typically are passive in nature. The light supplied to the interior space is redirected (and/or produced in response to) sunlight from the exterior of the building. Artificial lighting may be combined with daylighting equipment, either in the form of luminaires in the vicinity of a daylighting device or by incorporation of an artificial light source within the same structure that implements the daylighting device. The addition of artificial lighting to a daylighting system provides additional light to the interior space, e.g. in regions where the daylighting may not be adequate and/or for days or times when the collected sunlight may not be sufficient.
The artificial light source(s) incorporated in a daylighting device and/or included in luminaires in the vicinity of a daylighting device may be modulated for VLC. However, the passively collected/distributed light of the daylighting device has not been modulated for VLC.
The drawing figures depict one or more implementations in accord with the present concepts, by way of example only, not by way of limitations. In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements.
In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding of the relevant teachings. However, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present teachings may be practiced without such details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and/or circuitry have been described at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present teachings.
The various examples disclosed herein relate to techniques and equipment to modulate passive optical lighting, e.g. as supplied to an interior space via a daylighting device such as a skylight, window or the like.
Visual light communication involves transport of information or other data over light in a range of frequencies/wavelengths typically considered to be visible to the human eye. Many of the specific examples discussed below involve modulation of light in the visual range, e.g. for capture and processing by cameras, image sensors or other light sensors configured to detect visible light. The present concepts, however, encompass modulation of light in other frequency/wavelength ranges outside the visible light range, e.g. ultraviolet and infrared. Passive lighting devices, for example, often allow passage of infrared light and some ultraviolet light, e.g. in addition to visible daylight, some or all of which may be modulated for various communication applications.
The term “lighting device” as used herein is intended to encompass essentially any type of device that processes generates or supplies light, for example, for general illumination of a space intended for use of or occupancy or observation, typically by a living organism that can take advantage of or be affected in some desired manner by the light emitted from the device. However, a lighting device may provide light for use by automated equipment, such as sensors/monitors, robots, etc. that may occupy or observe the illuminated space, instead of or in addition to light provided for an organism. However, it is also possible that one or more lighting devices in or on a particular premises have other lighting purposes, such as signage for an entrance or to indicate an exit. Of course, the lighting devices may be configured for still other purposes, e.g. to benefit human or non-human organisms or to repel or even impair certain organisms or individuals. In most examples, the lighting device(s) illuminate a space or area of a premises to a level useful for a human in or passing through the space, e.g. regular illumination of a room or corridor in a building or of an outdoor space such as a street, sidewalk, parking lot or performance venue. The actual source of light in or supplying the light for a lighting device may be any type of light emitting, collecting or directing arrangement. The term “lighting device” encompasses passive lighting devices that collect and supply natural light as well as artificial lighting devices include a source for generating light.
The term “passive lighting” as used herein is intended to encompass essentially any type of lighting that a device supplies without consuming power to generate the light. A passive lighting device, for example, may take the form of a daylighting device that supplies daylight that the device obtains outside a structure to the interior of the structure, e.g. to provide desired illumination of the interior space within the structure with otherwise natural light. As another example, a passive lighting device may include a phosphor or other wavelength conversion material, to enhance the light in a desired manner without consuming electrical power. A passive lighting device, however, may be combined with other elements that consume electrical power for other purposes, such as communications, data processing and/or modulation of otherwise passive lighting. For example, a modulated passive lighting device is a lighting device having a passive optical element and an associated optical modulator to modulate light supplied in some manner via the passive optical element, albeit without any consumption of power to generate the light to be supplied for illumination purposes (although power may be consumed to modulate passively obtained light).
The term “artificial lighting” as used herein is intended to encompass essentially any type of lighting that a device produces light by processing of electrical power to generate the light. An artificial lighting device, for example, may take the form of a lamp, light fixture or other luminaire that incorporates a source, where the source by itself contains no intelligence or communication capability, such as one or more LEDs or the like, or a lamp (e.g. “regular light bulbs”) of any suitable type.
The term “coupled” as used herein refers to any logical, physical or electrical connection, link or the like by which signals, data, instructions or the like produced by one system element are imparted to another “coupled” element. Unless described otherwise, coupled elements or devices are not necessarily directly connected to one another and may be separated by intermediate components, elements or communication media that may modify, manipulate or carry the signals.
Reference now is made in detail to the examples illustrated in the accompanying drawings and discussed below.
The passive optical element 3 is at least substantially transmissive with respect to daylight. For example, the passive optical element 3 is configured to receive daylight from outside a structure and allow passage of light to an interior of the structure. The example shows the passive optical element 3 mounted in an exterior building structure 5, such as a roof or wall. Although there will be some losses as the light passes through the element 3 from the exterior or the interior space, the transmissivity of the element 3 is sufficient to provide useful illumination in the interior space, at least at times of bright daylighting outdoors. The passive optical element 3, for example, may be a transparent or translucent glass, acrylic or plastic member in the form or part of a window, a sun-room roof, or a skylight (or part of the skylight). The orientation shown in
The optical modulator 4 is associated with the passive optical element 3 so as to modulate light passively supplied through the optical element 3 for modulated emission into the interior of the structure. In the example, the modulator 4 is positioned so as to modulate light that the modulator 4 receives from the passive optical element 3; however, that arrangement is shown by way of example only. As another example, the optical modulator 4 may be located to modulate light before entry into the passive optical element 3. Stated another way, the optical modulator 4 may be adjacent to or mounted on the entry or exit surface(s) or both surfaces of the passive optical element 3. As another type of example, the optical modulator 4 may be integrated into the structure of the passive optical element 3.
The modulator 4 is optical in that it modulates optical light energy that the modulator receives as light from a source of the light; as opposed to an electrical/electronic modulator that modulates operation of an artificial light generator, for example, by modulating a power supply drive signal or other control signal applied to the light generator. In the examples, the optical modulator 4 is configured to optically modulate light wavelengths in a range encompassing at least a substantial portion of the visible light spectrum. For example, some types of modulators may modulate ultraviolet light as well as some visible light in a range including near-ultraviolet in the visible spectrum and possibly some visible blue light. Other types of modulators may modulate just specific ranges within the visible spectrum, e.g. ranges of red, green or blue light. Still other optical modulator configurations may modulate 80% or more of the visible spectrum and/or may modulate the entire visible spectrum as well as some light in the infrared or ultraviolet ranges of the spectrum. Some modulators may shift a portion of the light energy from one portion of the spectrum to another portion of the spectrum (usually higher energy photons are converted to lower energy photons). An example of this would utilize a phosphor or quantum dot (QD)-based modulator as discussed more, later, with respect to
The optical modulator 4 may be implemented using a variety of controllable optical element or devices, configured to vary one or more characteristics of light output in response to a control signal, e.g. in response to a data input signal. Different implementations of the modulator 4 may vary different characteristics of the light, such as overall intensity, intensity of particular wavelengths or frequency bands, polarization, or angular distribution. It may help to consider examples of technologies to control overall intensity.
By way of a first example, a general category of such an intensity control technology is switchable glass—sometimes referred to as smart glass. Switchable glass typically is implemented as a multi-layered structure of transparent and switchable materials. For example, a switchable layer may be sandwiched between two transparent layers of glass, plastic or the like. One state of the switchable material is transmissive relatively transparent; whereas, in another state, the switchable material exhibits low transmissivity, e.g. is opaque or translucent. Some switchable materials used in smart glass allow for transitional or intermediate states between the transmissive and light-blocking state, e.g. for dimming. Depending on the switchable glass product used to implement the optical modulator 4, the light modulation may involve switching between the transmissive state (light ON, e.g. 70% or more) and the light-blocking state (light at least substantially OFF, e.g. 10% or less); or the light modulation may involve switching between one or more of the ON/OFF states and one or more intermediate states (e.g. between four states such as ≦10%, 25-35%, 50-60% and ≧70%). Current switchable glass products utilize several different types of technologies for the switchable layer, such as: polymer dispersed or micro-blend liquid crystal (LC) devices, suspended particle device (SPD) electrochromic devices. These types of devices change states in response to an applied voltage. A variant uses a similar switchable layer in the form of a smart switchable film, which may be attached to a desired substrate such as a transparent (e.g. glass) window pane. Drawbacks of current examples of these switchable materials may be the need to apply the voltage to achieve the transmissive state (which may impact power consumption for modulated daylighting applications) and slow switching speed (which may not adequately support high data rate light-communication applications). The switchable glass example outlined above is just one example of a technology that may be used to implement an optical modulator. Other examples are described in detail later, with respect to
The system 1 also includes a controller 6, for controlling operations of the optical modulator 4 of one or more passive lighting devices 2. The controller 6 includes logic/processor circuitry coupled to control the optical modulator 4 to modulate data on the light emitted from the passive lighting device into the interior of the structure in a manner to minimize or prevent perception of the data modulation by an occupant in the interior of the structure. In the example, logic/processor circuitry is implemented by a processor circuit 7, such as a microcontroller or microprocessor, and associated logic circuity 8, such as a memory device or other type storage for storing programing logic for execution by the processor circuitry 7 or data for processing by the processor 7.
Some variations of light are observable by occupants of an illuminated space, and some observable variations of light can be distracting or even disruptive of intended activities of occupants of the space. Hence, in the examples, the controller 6 is configured so as to control the optical modulator 4 to modulate data on the light emitted from the passive lighting device in a manner to minimize or prevent perception of the data modulation by an occupant in the interior of the structure. For example, one type of undesirable on and off variation is sometimes referred to as “directly visible flicker.” Most humans cannot see flicker above 60 Hz, but in rare instances some people can perceive flicker at 100 Hz to 110 Hz or even a bit higher. In light modulation of the type under consideration here, to mitigate against perception of the light modulation as “flicker,” the optical modulator 4 can be configured/controlled to modulate the light at a rate above 200 Hz. Another type of undesirable behavior is Stroboscopic flicker, which occurs at higher frequencies and can be made visible due to relatively rapid motion. An example is reading, where the eyes are moving across the page relatively quickly and there are high contrast items (letters against background). Stroboscopic flicker can be somewhat mitigated in the optical modulation under consideration here if the period and duty cycle of each consecutive on/off cycle of the modulation is not constant.
As noted, the optical modulator 4 may take the variety of forms, several of which are discussed later with respect to
Although the optical modulator 4 is driven to modulate the passive illumination entering the interior space via the optical element 3, and the associated controller 6 is powered to run its internal circuitry as well as to drive the operations of the modulator 4, the lighting device 2 is “passive” in that the light supplied to the illuminated interior area or space is collected and/or distributed, not generated by the device 2. Light generation does not involve consumption of electrical power by such a passive lighting device 2. If unmodulated, there may be no power consumption by the passive lighting device 2, for example if the optical modulator 4 and controller 6 are powered OFF. The optical modulator 4 and attendant controller 6 may be implemented by low power technologies to minimize power consumption by the system 1.
The passive lighting device 2s or 2w, the luminaires 11, as well as some other elements of or coupled to the system 10, are installed within the space or area 13 to be illuminated at a premises 15. The premises 15 may be any location or locations serviced for lighting and other purposes by a system 10 of the type described herein. Most of the examples discussed below focus on indoor building installations, for convenience. Hence, the example of system 10 provides lighting and services utilizing visual light communication, in a number of service areas in or associated with a building, such as various rooms, hallways, corridors or storage areas of a building. Any building forming or at the premises 15, for example, may be an individual or multi-resident dwelling or may provide space for one or more enterprises and/or any combination of residential and enterprise facilities. A premises 15 may include any number of such buildings; and, in a multi-building scenario, the premises may include outdoor spaces and lighting in areas between and around the buildings, e.g. in a campus configuration. The system 10 may include any number of passive lighting devices 2 and any number of luminaires 11 arranged to illuminate each area 13 of the particular premises 15.
Although the modulated passive lighting devices 2 and luminaires 11 may operate and/or be controlled separately by any convenient means; in the example, control functions as well as some possible transport of information to devices 2 or 11 for light based communication utilize a data network 17 at the premises 15. Any suitable networking technology (communication media and/or protocol) may be used to implement the data network 17.
Like the device 2 in
Each modulated passive lighting device 2s or 2w is controlled by a respective controller 6s or 6w. The controller 6s includes logic/processor circuitry coupled to control the optical modulator 4s, and the controller 6w includes logic/processor circuitry coupled to control the optical modulator 4w. In the example of
Each controller 6s or 6w could be a standalone device preset or pre-programmed with the data or other information (e.g. an identification code) that is to be modulated on the passive light that the device 2s or 2w supplies into the interior space 13. In the example, however, each controller 6s or 6w is a relatively intelligent controller connected to the data network 17, for additional communications and control functions.
The system elements, in a system like system 10 of
In the example, one or more of the luminaires 11 are regular artificial lighting devices controlled to provide illumination, with the control communications to/from the appropriate lighting controller 14 and/or sensor 12 implemented via the data network 17 at the premises. Hence, in the example, regular luminaires include a network connected controller (Ctrl.) 16. By way of example, the luminaires 11 (with controllers 16), the sensor(s) 12, the lighting controller(s) 14, and the data network 17 may be implemented as disclosed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0252961 by Ramer et al. and/or in US Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0043425 by Aggarwal et al., the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In the example, one or more of the modulated luminaires 11v has an associated controller 18. In addition to responding to state control communications from a lighting controller 14 and/or a sensor 12, in a manner similar to the control function of the regular luminaire 11, the controller 18 controls operation of the modulated luminaire 11v to modulate the light output thereof to represent or carry information/data. Although shown separately for convenience, the controller 18 may be incorporated into the physical structure implementing or housing the light source of the modulated luminaire 11v.
As outlined above, the on-premises system elements such as 6s, 6w, 12, 16, 18 and 19, in a system like system 10 of
For lighting operations, the system elements for a given service area (6s, 6w, 12, 16, 18 and 19) are coupled together for network communication with each other through data communication media to form a portion of a physical data communication network 17. Similar elements in other service areas like 13 of the premises 15 are coupled together for network communication with each other through data communication media to form one or more other portions of the physical data communication network 17 at the premises 15. The various portions of the network in the service areas in turn are coupled together to form a data communication network at the premises, for example to form a LAN or the like, as generally represented by network 17 in
In the example, the overall system 10 also includes server 29 and database 31 accessible to a processor of a computer programmed as the server 29. Such a computer, for example, typically includes the processor, a network communication interface and storage coupled to be accessible to the processor. The storage can be any suitable hardware device (and use any suitable protocol) that stores the sever programming for execution by the processor, to configure the computer as server 29. The storage may also contain the database 31, or the database may reside in other storage, e.g. on a hardware platform coupled to the computer or coupled for communication with the computer running the server programming through a network.
Although
Communication with the server 29 and database 31 can support operations of the system elements at the premises 15, e.g. for monitoring and/or automated control of lighting. For purposes of the present discussion, however, the server 29 and database 31 may be involved in one or more ways with the visual light communication operations of the system 10, including the light communications via the passive optical devices 2. The same or other network equipment may also monitor and control aspects of the light communication operations, e.g. to identify devices using light communication services, determine amount of usage of the services, and/or control ID codes or other aspects of the light based communication transmissions from the devices 2 and 11v. Several other examples of communication with the server 29 and/or database 31, in relation to visual light communication operations of the system 10, are discussed below; and for those discussions, the server 29 and database 31 are collectively identified as VLC services 28 in
In an application providing indoor position determination and/or related location based information, for example, a mobile device 25 includes a light sensor and is programmed or otherwise configured to demodulate lighting device ID codes from a signal from the light sensor. In a typical mobile device example, the included light sensor is an image sensor, such as a camera (e.g. a rolling shutter camera or a global shutter camera). In such a mobile device 25, the programming for the processor configures the device 25 to operate the image sensor to capture one or more images that include representations of at least one modulated passive optical device 2 and/or at least one modulated luminaire 11v and to process data or other signal of the image(s) to demodulate one or more lighting device ID codes from the captured image(s). In such an image sensor based example, the image processing to recover ID codes captures one or more such codes which may have been sent by a modulated passive lighting device 2 and/or a modulated luminaire 11v in the vicinity of the device 25. The relevant modulated light content, e.g. from a particular device 2 or 11v, in any captured image depends on the position and orientation of the mobile device 25 and thus of its image sensor at the time of image capture.
One or more lighting device ID codes obtained from processing of the captured image(s) may then be used in a table lookup in the database 31 (or in a portion of the database downloaded previously via the network(s) 23 to the mobile device 25), for a related mobile device position estimation and/or for information retrieval functions. For example, the mobile device 25 may use its inherent RF wireless communication capabilities to communicate through the network(s) 23 for assistance in a precise position estimation based on one or more lighting device ID codes alone or in combination with mobile device orientation data. As another example, the mobile device 25 may use its inherent RF wireless communication capabilities to communicate through the network(s) 23 to obtain other position or location related services such as routing instructions or product or service promotions related to estimated mobile device position. Alternatively, the position estimation or retrieval of information for location related services may utilize a smaller relevant subset of the database 31 corresponding to all or part of a particular premises 15, which was downloaded to the mobile device via an earlier network communication prior to image capture, e.g. upon entry to the area 13 or the particular premises 15.
Indoor positioning systems have been developed that rely on ID codes of modulated luminaires like 11v; and in such systems, the database maps the stored ID codes to position estimation information and/or other location-related information. Examples of such systems are disclosed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0141554 to Ganick et al. and US Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0147067 to Ryan et al., the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference. The database 31 in the system 10 may include similar information but also includes ID codes of the modulated passive lighting devices 2 and maps those additional codes to similar corresponding position estimation information and/or other location-related information corresponding to locations of modulated passive lighting devices 2.
Hence, in the examples, it is possible to determine an ID code of the passive lighting device 2 obtained from modulated light transmitted by the passive lighting device. With the enhanced database 31 or a relevant portion thereof, it is possible to retrieve the record for the passive lighting device 2, based on the ID code of the passive lighting device. If a portion of the database has been downloaded to the mobile device 25, the mobile device 25 can estimate its position or can forward the ID to VLC services 28 to obtain an estimate of position. In either case, the system 10 processes location-related information from the record for the passive lighting device 2. As an alternative or in addition to position estimating, the processing may involve delivery to the user of other location-related information such as map position, advertisements about products or services in the vicinity, special offers about such products or service localized access (e.g. door entry when the correct device 24 comes within a certain distance of the door), etc.
The inclusion of the database 31, however, also supports similar functions/services based on an ID code from a modulated luminaire 11v, alone or in combination with the use of the code from the passive lighting device 2. For example, the system may additionally determine an ID code of a luminaire 11v obtained from modulated light transmitted by the luminaire 11v, and based on the ID code of the luminaire, retrieve the record for the luminaire. At times when an image only captures light from a modulated luminaire 11v, further processing of location-related information from the record for the luminaire may be based only on one or more such luminaire ID codes. In other cases, the image processing may capture representations of both a modulated luminaire 11v and a modulated passive lighting device 2, and the attendant processing may involve processing location-related information from the records for both the luminaire 11v and the device 2.
As another example of light based communication via the system 10, if the networks and visual light communication capabilities provide a high enough data rate, the server 29 may send user data over the 23 and 17 to one or more of the controllers 6 or 19 to modulate the data onto light output from a modulated passive device 2 or a modulated luminaire 11v, for reception by a user terminal device such as mobile device 25. Upstream communications from the user's mobile device 25 may use uplink light communication elements not shown or may use the wireless communication capability of the device 25, e.g. via the wireless access point 21 or a cellular network tower coupled to the network(s) 23.
The controller 6 for a modulator 4 associated with a passive optical element 3 of a lighting device 2 (
The example of a controller 6 includes a processor 35 coupled to control the diver circuit 33 and thus the modulator 4. The processor 35 also is coupled to communicate via a communication interface 37, which in this example provides communications functions for sending and receiving data via the network 17 shown in
The processor 35 is an electronic circuit device configured to perform processing functions like those discussed herein. Although the processor circuit may be implemented via hardwired logic circuitry; in the examples, the processor 35 is a programmable processor such as a programmable central processing unit (CPU) of a microcontroller, microprocessor or the like. Hence, in the example of
The processor 35 and memory 39 and possibly the communication interface 37 may be separate hardware elements as shown; or the processor 35 and memory 39 and possibly the communication interface 37 may be incorporated together, e.g. in a microcontroller or other ‘system-on-a-chip.’ Alternatively, the processor 35 and memory 39 and possibly the communication interface 37 may be incorporated in the circuitry of (e.g. on the same chip as) the driver 33.
The processors and memories in controllers 6 for the passive lighting devices 2 may be substantially the same throughout the system 10 of
In the example, each controller 6 has the processor 35, memory 39, programming and data set to implement the desired visual light based communications. In an indoor positioning application, for example, the programming would enable the processor 35 to communicate through the interface 37 and network 17, 23 (
The controller 6 also may receive data via the network(s) and the interface 37 for communication to user devices like 25 via the visual light communication capabilities of the controller 6 and the passive lighting device 2 (
Returning to the specific examples, the intelligence (e.g. processor 35 and memory 39), the communications interface 37 and the driver 33 are shown as elements separate from the modulator 4 (and passive optical element 3). Alternatively, some or all of the elements of the controller 6 may be integrated with either one or both of the elements 3, 4 of the passive lighting device 2.
As outlined above, the processor 35 controls the modulator 4 via the driver 33 to vary one or more characteristics of the light supplied by a passive lighting device to illuminate a particular space; and that modulation provides visual light communication, e.g. of a device ID and/or other information such as data intended for a user device, such as a mobile device 25, in the particular space. The processor 35, the driver 33 and/or the optical modulator 4 may be configured to implement any of a variety of different light modulation techniques. The controlled operation of the modulator 4, for example, may vary intensity, color characteristics of passive illumination and/or possibly even a pattern of characteristics of light across the output of the illumination device into the illuminated space. A few examples of specific light modulation techniques that may be used include amplitude modulation, optical intensity modulation, amplitude-shift keying, frequency modulation, multi-tone modulation, frequency shift keying (FSK), ON-OFF keying (OOK), pulse width modulation (PWM), pulse position modulation (PPM), ternary Manchester encoding (TME) modulation, and digital pulse recognition (DPR) modulation. Other modulation schemes may implement a combination of two or more of these modulation techniques.
The luminaire controller 18v includes a processor 45 coupled to control the light source operation via the driver/modulator circuit 43. The processor 45 also is coupled to communicate via a communication interface 47, which provides a communications functions for sending and receiving data via the network 17 shown in
The processor 45 is an electronic circuit device configured to perform processing functions like those discussed herein. Although the processor circuit may be implemented via hardwired logic circuitry, in the examples, the processor 45 is a programmable processor such as a programmable central processing unit (CPU) of a microcontroller, microprocessor or the like. Hence, in the example of
In the example, each luminaire controller 18 has the processor 45, memory 49, programming and data set to implement regular luminaire control as well as desired visual light based communications. In an indoor positioning application, for example, the programming would enable the processor 45 to communicate through the interface 47 and network 17, 23 (
The controller 18 also may receive data via the network(s) and the interface 47 for communication to user devices via the visual light communication capabilities of the controller 18 and luminaire 11v. In such a case, the programming would enable the processor 45 to process received data, as may be appropriate, and forward the received data as control signals for the driver/modulator 43. The signals thus supplied to the driver/modulator 43 cause driver/modulator 43 to modulate power supplied to the light source 41 according to the processed data and thereby modulate the output of the light source 41 to broadcast the data on the modulated light output of the light source 41 into the area illuminated by the luminaire 11v.
Returning to the specific examples, the intelligence (e.g. processor 45 and memory 49), the communications interface 47 and the driver 43 are shown as elements of a separate device or component coupled and/or collocated with the luminaire 11v containing the actual light source 41. Alternatively, some or all of the elements of the luminaire controller 18 may be integrated with the other elements of the luminaire or attached to the fixture or other element that incorporates the light source. As another example, the processor 45, the memory 49 and possibly even the interface 47 may be integrated on the chip that carries the circuitry of the driver 43.
As outlined above, the processor 45 controls the modulator function of the driver circuit 43 to vary the power applied to drive the light source 41 to emit light. This control capability may allow control of intensity and/or color characteristics of illumination that the light source 41 provides as output of the luminaire 11v. Of note for purposes of discussion of position system operations or other visual light communication applications, this control capability causes the driver/modulator 43 to vary the power applied to drive the light source 41 to cause modulation of light output of the light output of the source 41, including modulation to carry a currently assigned lighting device ID code from storage in memory 49 or with other data, e.g. as may be received via the network(s) through the communication interface 47. The processor and/or modulator may be configured to implement any of a variety of different light modulation techniques. A few examples of light modulation techniques that may be used include amplitude modulation, optical intensity modulation, amplitude-shift keying, frequency modulation, multi-tone modulation, frequency shift keying (FSK), ON-OFF keying (OOK), pulse width modulation (PWM), pulse position modulation (PPM), ternary Manchester encoding (TME) modulation, and digital pulse recognition (DPR) modulation. Other modulation schemes may implement a combination of two or more of these modulation techniques.
The present light communication concepts may be implanted by use of an optical modulator in or in combination with a wide variety of different types of passive lighting devices. It may be helpful to consider some examples of types and structures of suitable passive lighting devices.
In the example of
The rail mounting system 540 in the example is configured to prevent water intrusion through the sides of the skylight and rail mounting system. The rail mounting system 540 includes side rails 542 and 544. An upper diverter 546 is disposed between and adjacent rib elevations 512 of the metal panel roof 510 at the top ends of the side rails 542, 544. A rib cutaway region, or gap 522, in one of the rib elevations 512 is provided the top end of the side rails so that water can be diverted by diverter 546 onto an adjacent roof panel. A plate 548 may be located under the gap 522 to prevent water leakage through the roof. A low end closure 550 may be provided between the rib elevations 112 at the bottom ends of side rails 542, 544 to prevent water intrusion at this end of the skylight and rail mounting system.
In the example, each optical modulator 4s is mounted adjacent to the interior optical aperture of the respective skylight 530 into the interior space below the roof 510. For example, each optical modulator 4s may be hung from the lower, interior edges of frame rail(s) forming the box frame of the mounted skylight 530. Alternatively, each optical modulator 4s may be mounted within the box frame of the respective mounted skylight 530, closer to or adjacent to the lower edges of the lens 534 of the respective skylight 530. Other mounting options and/or positions of each of the optical modulator 4s may also be feasible. The size of the optical modulator 4s, e.g. in proportion to the size of skylights 530, is chosen to make illustration of the modulators easy to see in the drawing and is not representative of actual size or proportions of the modulators, the skylights or any elements thereof. For example, each modulator may be implemented as a thin film on a transparent substrate of or attached to the skylight and therefore difficult to distinguish as a separate component in a side elevation view such as depicted in
As another example of a suitable passive lighting device,
The passive lighting device 600 is implemented as a tubular daylighting system. The device 600 includes a skylight lens 612, a diffuser 614, a square-to-round transition plate 616, a square curb piece 617, and an upper straight tubular shaft section 618. The passive lighting device 600 also includes a light damper 620, an upper angled tubular shaft section 622, a middle straight tubular shaft section 624, a lower angled tubular shaft section 626, and a lower straight tubular shaft section 628. The device 600 further includes a round-to-square transition piece 630 and a hinging troffer bracket 632. The tubular shaft sections 618, 622, 624, 626, 628 have reflective interior surfaces. The passive lighting device 600 takes light gathered by the skylight lens 612 and transmits the collected light through the system to a ceiling diffuser secured to the ceiling using the hinging troffer bracket 632.
When installed, the square curb piece 617 is incorporated into the roof structure of a building or the like at the premises, and the square-to-round transition plate 616 is mounted on the top side of the square curb piece 617. Upper straight shaft section 618 is suspended from transition plate 616 by inserting inwardly extending tabs provided in circular aperture of the transition plate 616 into slots 644 provided in the upper edge of shaft section 618.
The light damper 620 includes a circular light blocking plate rotatably attached to the inside of circular wall of the damper via a pivot pin. The pivot pin extends from and may be controlled by a motor not shown. The orientation of plate within the wall of the damper 620 can be controlled by rotation of pivot pin, through selective operation of the motor. The damper plate can be rotated to a horizontal disposition in which it blocks light entering the skylight 612 from being transmitted below light damper 620. If damper plate is oriented to a vertical position, virtually all the light collected by the skylight 612 is transmitted below light damper 620.
Upper angled shaft section 622 is suspended from the light damper 620 with threaded fasteners thereby providing an upper bend in the system 600.
The middle straight shaft section 624 is attached to and depends from the upper angled shaft section 622 using a tab and slot interconnection. A number of tabs are formed in an array 665 in the top part of the straight shaft section 624. A number of such arrays 665 of tabs are circumferentially distributed around the top end of the shaft section. A corresponding number of sets 668 of slots are provided on the bottom end of the angled shaft section 622. Similar arrays 665 of tabs are provided at the lower ends of other sections 626 and 628, and matching sets 668 of slots are provided at the upper ends of other sections 626 and 628. The shaft sections are provided in two alternating diameters, one diameter being slightly smaller than the other so that one section with a smaller diameter will fit snugly within an adjoining section having a larger diameter in a nesting configuration. Thus, adjoining shaft sections may fit into each other by alternating small and large diameter shaft sections. Each set 668 of slots is angularly aligned with one of the arrays 665 of tabs such that each slot of a top shaft section registers with one of the tabs of a bottom shaft section of two sections that are being interconnected.
Where the system output is located within the interior space of the building structure, the round-to-square transition piece 630 shown in in the drawings is attached to the lower straight shaft section 628. A hinging troffer bracket 632 is attached to the round-to-square transition piece and a ceiling diffuser (not shown) is secured to the troffer bracket 632 so that by swinging down troffer bracket 632 the ceiling diffuser is made accessible for ease of cleaning.
The drawings (
The size of the optical modulator 4s or 4a, e.g. in proportion to the size of skylight components, is chosen to make illustration of the modulators easy to see in the drawings and is not representative of actual size or proportions of the modulators, the skylight or any elements thereof. For example, each modulator may be implemented as a thin film on a transparent substrate and therefore difficult to distinguish as a separate component in view like those shown in
As noted earlier, there a variety of technologies that may be used to implement the optical modulator associated with or incorporated in the device, to modulate light supplied to an interior space to carry data. It may be helpful now to consider now several more specific examples, with reference to representative drawings.
In the example of
The drawing shows a single fluid implementation in each cell, although many electrowetting optics use two immiscible fluids, one insulating and one conductive. The modulator of
In the example of
Changeable reflectivity materials may change the quantity of light reflected (e.g. electrochromic coatings) or the distribution of how the light is reflected (i.e. switch between specular and diffuse reflection).
In this case, we have a disk that extends outside of the light tube which can rotate on an axis that is roughly in line with the wall of the tube. The disk would have sections that are opaque (block light) and other sections that are relatively clear (allow light to pass).
Rotation of the disk periodically blocks and passes light, i.e. in a repeating cycle. Then, by rotating the disk at an appropriate speed, the light out of the tube can be modulated. The speed of rotation of the disk creates a pulsing light output of the daylighting device. Varying the frequency of rotation varies the frequency of the light pulses and may be used to carry relevant data.
Here, the disk may have sections cut out that when spun at a defined speed transmit light whereas other sections of the disk block light. A combination of cutouts may provide a desired pattern of transmission/blockage of the light. The alternately opaque and transmissive disk could also be a solid optical piece that has segments of switchable glass. This approach could mitigate issues of slow switching of switchable glass. Segments can be selectively made transparent or blocking to provide appropriate patterns for a desired light output signal.
Hence, a unique pattern of modulated light can be achieved either by selecting the relative size of blocking and transmissive areas and rotating at a relatively constant speed, or by having regularly spaced blocking and transmissive areas and altering the rotational speed. Alternately, different areas could be made on a transparent disk with different phosphors (or QDs) so that the output light shifts between two or more spectra as the different areas of the disk are rotated into the tube.
As an example, an electrochromic coating may be used (like those used on car rearview mirrors). Alternately, a coating or layer that can be changed from scattering to specular reflection also can be used since in the scattering state, some portion of the incident light would be reflected back towards the entrance aperture and therefore would not reach the room. Examples of these types of materials include liquid crystal-based privacy glass. Switching the reflectivity of such a material changes the efficiency of the light tube and thus modulates the quantity/intensity of light carried through into the interior space below the ceiling.
The modulators and modulation techniques discussed above and shown in the drawings are intended as non-limiting examples. The modulators and modulation techniques may be implemented in other ways or locations in or about passive optical element.
For example, either the optical input aperture or the optical output aperture of the passive optical element may have a border region within the area of optical input or output of the element; and a modulator may be located in or near that border region to modulate the daylight passing through that border region. Other light would pass through the passive lighting device without modulation. In a similar arrangement, an optical modulator may operate on a differently shaped or located portion of either the optical input aperture or the optical output aperture of the passive optical element, such as a central region (but not all of) the respective aperture, a bar extending partially or completely across the respective aperture, a cross or x-shaped region of the aperture, etc. Similar regionalized modulators also could be located at intermediate locations along the passive optical element, e.g. at about the middle of a light tube type skylight. The region of modulation in these additional examples need not approach the full area of the light passage or aperture of the passive optical element but might only encompass enough area to modulate light passing through the element that is sufficient to enable a device to detect the modulation from light received from the passive lighting device and recover the data or other information carried by the modulated light.
As another example, for applications requiring communication of minimal information, e.g. providing a parameter sufficient to uniquely identify a lighting device within a given premises, the modulators may be controlled in other simpler ways. For example, rather than modulating the light according to digital data or an identification code, using a processor or the like, the circuitry controlling the modulation may be set to uniquely encode a detectable parameter of the light modulation (e.g. frequency, duty cycle, modulation depth, etc.) over a long period of time without change. In one more specific example, a simple oscillator may have a frequency control setting of an R (resistance) and/or a C (capacitance) value of a resonant circuit or the like that establishes the oscillation frequency. Such an oscillator then might drive the optical modulator at a set frequency that can be detected by the expected receiver. By setting the frequency values for different passive lighting devices about the premises to modulate the light at detectably different frequencies, each passive lighting device can be identified based on detection of its respective modulation frequency. With this approach, the frequencies can be set at installation and commissioning and can remain as initially set for an indefinite period (e.g. until there is some need for change).
As shown by the above discussion, at least some functions using the modulated light transmissions from one or more passive lighting devices may be implemented on a portable handheld device, shown by way of a mobile device 25 in
In the example, the mobile device 1000 includes one or more processors 1001, such as a microprocessor or the like serving as he central processing unit (CPU) or host processor of the device 1000. Other examples of processors that may be included in such a device include math co-processors, image processors, application processors (APs) and one or more baseband processors (BPs). The various included processors may be implemented as separate circuit components or can be integrated in one or more integrated circuits, e.g. on one or more chips. For ease of further discussion, we will refer to a single processor 1001, although as outlined, such a processor or processor system of the device 1000 may include circuitry of multiple processing devices.
In the example, the mobile device 1000 also includes memory interface 1003 and peripherals interface 1005, connected to the processor 1001 for internal access and/or data exchange within the device 1000. These interfaces 1003, 1005 also are interconnected to each other for internal access and/or data exchange within the device 1000. Interconnections can use any convenient data communication technology, e.g. signal lines or one or more data and/or control buses (not separately shown) of suitable types.
In the example, the memory interface 1003 provides the processor 1001 and peripherals coupled to the peripherals interface 1003 storage and/or retrieval access to memory 1007. Although shown as a single hardware circuit for convenience, the memory 1007 may include one, two or more types of memory devices, such as high-speed random access memory (RAM) and/or non-volatile memory, such as read only memory (ROM), flash memory, micro magnetic disk storage devices, etc. As discussed more later, memory 1007 stores programming 1009 for execution by the processor 1001 as well as data to be saved and/or data to be processed by the processor 1001 during execution of instructions included in the programming 1007. New programming can be saved to the memory 1005 by the processor 1001. Data can be retrieved from the memory 1005 by the processor 1001; and data can be saved to the memory 1007 and in some cases retrieved from the memory 1007, by peripherals coupled via the interface 1005.
In the illustrated example of a mobile device architecture, sensors, various input output devices, and the like are coupled to and therefore controllable by the processor 1001 via the peripherals interface 1005. Individual peripheral devices may connect directly to the interface or connect via an appropriate type of subsystem.
The mobile device 1000 also includes appropriate input/output devices and interface elements. The example offers visual and audible inputs and outputs, as well as other types of inputs. Some or all of the user input/output devices may be used in conjunction with features or applications that also utilize data that the device receives via light communication from a modulated passive lighting device and/or from a modulated luminaire, for example, to present a device position estimation based on such received data or to present selected content or other user data transported via the modulated light.
Although a display together with a keyboard/keypad and/or mouse/touchpad or the like may be used, the illustrated mobile device example 1000 uses a touchscreen 1013 to provide a combined display output to the device user and a tactile user input. The display may be a flat panel display, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD). For touch sensing, the user inputs would include a touch/position sensor, for example, in the form of transparent capacitive electrodes in or overlaid on an appropriate layer of the display panel. At a high level, a touchscreen displays information to a user and can detect occurrence and location of a touch on the area of the display. The touch may be an actual touch of the display device with a finger, stylus or other object; although at least some touchscreens can also sense when the object is in close proximity to the screen. Use of a touchscreen 1011 as part of the user interface of the mobile device 1000 enables a user of that device 1000 to interact directly with the information presented on the display.
A touchscreen input/output (I/O) controller 1013 is coupled between the peripherals interface 1005 and the touchscreen 1011. The touchscreen I/O controller 1013 processes data received via the peripherals interface 1005 and produces drive signals for the display component of the touchscreen 1011 to cause that display to output visual information, such as images, animations and/or video. The touchscreen I/O controller 1013 also includes the circuitry to drive the touch sensing elements of the touchscreen 1011 and processing the touch sensing signals from those elements of the touchscreen 1011. For example, the circuitry of touchscreen I/O controller 1013 may apply appropriate voltage across capacitive sensing electrodes and process sensing signals from those electrodes to detect occurrence and position of each touch of the touchscreen 1011. The touchscreen I/O controller 1013 provides touch position information to the processor 1001 via the peripherals interface 1005, and the processor 1001 can correlate that information to the information currently displayed via the display 1161, to determine the nature of user input via the touchscreen.
As noted, the mobile device 1000 in our example also offer audio inputs and/or outputs. The audio elements of the device 1000 support audible communication functions for the user as well as providing additional user input/output functions. Hence, in the illustrated example, the mobile device 1000 also includes a microphone 1015, configured to detect audio input activity, as well as an audio output component such as one or more speakers 1017 configured to provide audible information output to the user. Although other interfaces subsystems may be used, the example utilizes an audio coder/decoder (CODEC), as shown at 1019, to interface audio to/from the digital media of the peripherals interface 1005. The CODEC 1019 converts an audio responsive analog signal from the microphone 1015 to a digital format and supplies the digital audio to other element(s) of the system 1151, via the peripherals interface 1005. The CODEC 1019 also receives digitized audio via the peripherals interface 1005 and converts the digitized audio to an analog signal which the CODEC 1019 outputs to drive the speaker 1017. Although not shown, one or more amplifiers may be included in the audio system with the CODEC to amplify the analog signal from the microphone 1015 or the analog signal from the CODEC 1019 that drives the speaker 1017.
Other user input/output (I/O) devices 1021 can be coupled to the peripherals interface 1005 directly or via an appropriate additional subsystem (not shown). Such other user input/output (I/O) devices 1021 may include one or more buttons, rocker switches, thumb-wheel, infrared port, etc. as additional input elements. Examples of one or more buttons that may be present in a mobile device 1000 include a home or escape button, an ON/OFF button, and an up/down button for volume control of the microphone 1015 and/or speaker 1017. Examples of output elements include various light emitters or tactile feedback emitters (e.g. vibrational devices). If provided, functionality of any one or more of the buttons, light emitters or tactile feedback generators may be context sensitive and/or customizable by the user. For example, in a mapping and navigation application using position estimates based on reception of modulated light, the device 1000 might emit a ping sound or the like via the speaker 1017 and/or operate a tactile feedback emitter to vibrate the device 1000, as an indication when a walking user deviates from a recommended navigation route.
The mobile device 1000 in the example also includes one or more Micro Electro-Magnetic System (MEMS) sensors shown collectively at 1023. Such devices 1023, for example, can perform compass and orientation detection functions and/or provide motion detection. In this example, the elements of the MEMS 1023 coupled to the peripherals interface 1005 directly or via an appropriate additional subsystem (not shown) include a gyroscope (GYRO) 1025 and a magnetometer 1027. The elements of the MEMS 1023 may also include a motion detector 1029 and/or an accelerometer 1031, e.g. instead of or as a supplement to detection functions of the GYRO 1025. Signals from such sensors may be used in combination with data obtained from received modulated light, e.g. to enhance position estimations and/or navigation functions.
The mobile device 1000 in the example also includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver 1033 coupled to the peripherals interface 1005 directly or via an appropriate additional subsystem (not shown). In general, a GPS receiver 1033 receives and processes signals from GPS satellites to obtain data about the positions of satellites in the GPS constellation as well timing measurements for signals received from several (e.g. 3-5) of the satellites, which a processor (e.g. the host processor 1001 or another internal or remote processor in communication therewith) can process to determine the geographic location of the device 1000. Position information obtained from GPS also may be used in combination with data obtained from received modulated light, e.g. to detect entry to premises 15 and trigger a wireless download of data regarding the premises that the device 1000 then accesses based on data obtained from received modulated light.
The portable handheld device 1000, as may be used as device 25 when operating in system 10 of
Hence, in the example of
The processor 1001 controls each camera 1035 via the peripherals interface 1005 and the camera subsystem 1037 to perform various image or video capture functions, for example, to take pictures or video clips in response to user inputs. The processor 1001 may also control a camera 1035 via the peripherals interface 1005 and the camera subsystem 1037 to obtain data detectable in a captured image, such as data represented by a code in an image or in visible light communication (VLC) detectable in an image. In the data capture case, the camera 1035 and the camera subsystem 1037 supply image data via the peripherals interface 1005 to the processor 1001, and the processor 1001 processes the image data to extract or demodulate data from the captured image(s). Alternatively, the camera subsystem 1037 may implement sufficient processing capability to, when instructed, perform some or all of VLC data demodulation function and simply provide demodulated data to the host processor 1001.
Voice and/or data communication functions are supported by one or more wireless communication transceivers 1039. In the example, the mobile device includes a cellular or other mobile transceiver 1041 for longer range communications via a public mobile wireless communication network. A typical modern device, for example, might include a 4G LTE (long term evolution) type transceiver. Although not shown for convenience, the mobile device 1001 may include additional digital or analog transceivers for alternative wireless communications via a wide area wireless mobile communication network.
Many modern mobile devices also support wireless local communications over one or more standardized wireless protocols. Hence, in the example, the wireless communication transceivers 1039 also include at least one shorter range wireless transceiver 1043. Typical examples of the wireless transceiver 1043 include various iterations of WiFi (IEEE 802.11) transceivers and Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15) transceivers, although other or additional types of shorter range transmitters and/or receivers may be included for local communication functions.
The data communication functions offered by transceiver 1039 or the transceiver 1043 may be used in conjunction with VLC data received from a modulated passive lighting device 2 and/or from a luminaire 11v, e.g. to provide map or other location related information corresponding to a VLC identified device 2 or luminaire 11v or corresponding to a position estimated based on VLC data from a device 2 or a luminaire 11v.
As noted earlier, the memory 1007 stores programming 1009 for execution by the processor 1001 as well as data to be saved and/or data to be processed by the processor 1001 during execution of instructions included in the programming 1007. For example, the programming 1007 may include an operating system (OS) and programming for typical functions such as communications (COMM.), image processing (IMAGE PROC′G) and positioning (POSIT′G). Examples of typical operating systems include iOS, Android, BlackBerry OS and Windows for Mobile. The OS also allows the processor 1007 to execute various higher layer applications (APPs) that use the native operation functions such as communications, image processing and positioning. For example, receiving data from a modulated passive lighting device 2 and/or from a luminaire 11v may use the image processing function, and the positioning function may be configured to determine an estimated position of the device 1000 from either one or both of GPS or VLC (and/or other supported technologies such as Bluetooth). One or more of the higher layer applications will configure the device to utilize the data demodulated from received VLC, for example, to present a representation of the estimated device position, information obtain from communication with a server or the like that corresponds to the estimated position or to present content received via VLC from a modulated passive lighting device 2 and/or from a luminaire 11v.
A personal computer such as shown at 27 in
At a high level, a general-purpose computing device, computer or computer system typically comprises a central processor or other processing device, internal data connection(s), various types of memory or storage media (RAM, ROM, EEPROM, cache memory, disk drives etc.) for code and data storage, and one or more network interfaces for communication purposes. The software functionalities involve programming, including executable code as well as associated stored data, e.g. files used for the VLC service/function(s). The software code is executable by the central processing unit of the general-purpose computer that functions as the server 29 and/or that functions as a user terminal device 27. In operation, the code is stored within the general-purpose computer platform. At other times, however, the software may be stored at other locations and/or transported for loading into the appropriate general-purpose computer system. Execution of such code by a processor of the computer platform enables the platform to implement the respective functions relating to or utilizing VLC via a modulated passive lighting device 2 and/or from a luminaire 11v, in essentially the manner performed in the implementations discussed and illustrated herein.
With reference to
The computer system 1151 also includes a main memory 1153 that stores at least portions of instructions for execution by and data for processing by the CPU 1152. The main memory 1153 may include one or more of several different types of storage devices, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), cache and possibly an image memory (e.g. to enhance image/video processing). Although not separately shown, the memory 1153 may include or be formed of other types of known memory/storage devices, such as PROM (programmable read only memory), EPROM (erasable programmable read only memory), FLASH-EPROM, or the like.
The system 1151 also includes one or more mass storage devices 1154. Although a storage device 1154 could be implemented using any of the known types of disk drive or even tape drive, the trend is to utilize semiconductor memory technologies, particularly for portable or handheld system form factors. As noted, the main memory 1153 stores at least portions of instructions for execution and data for processing by the CPU 1152. The mass storage device 1154 provides longer term non-volatile storage for larger volumes of program instructions and data. For a personal computer, or other similar device example, the mass storage device 1154 may store the operating system and application software as well as content data, e.g. for uploading to main memory and execution or processing by the CPU 1152. Examples of content data include messages and documents, and various multimedia content files (e.g. images, audio, video, text and combinations thereof). Instructions and data can also be moved from the CPU 1152 and/or memory 1153 for storage in device 1154.
The processor/CPU 1152 is coupled to have access to the various instructions and data contained in the main memory 1153 and mass storage device 1154. Although other interconnection arrangements may be used, the example utilizes an interconnect bus 1155. The interconnect bus 1155 also provides internal communications with other elements of the computer system 1151.
The system 1151 also includes one or more input/output interfaces for communications, shown by way of example as several interfaces 1159 for data communications via a network 1158. The network 1158 may be or communicate with the network 17 or 23 of system 10 in
For operation as a user terminal device, the computer system 1151 further includes appropriate input/output devices and interface elements. The example offers visual and audible inputs and outputs, as well as other types of inputs. Although not shown, the system may also support other types of output, e.g. via a printer. The input and output hardware devices are shown as elements of the device or system 1151, for example, as may be the case if the computer system 1151 is implemented as a portable computer device (e.g. laptop, notebook or ultrabook), tablet, smartphone or other handheld device. In other implementations, however, some or all of the input and output hardware devices may be separate devices connected to the other system elements via wired or wireless links and appropriate interface hardware.
For visual output, the computer system 1151 includes an image or video display 1161 and an associated decoder and display driver circuit 1162. The display 1161 may be a projector or the like but typically is a flat panel display, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD). The decoder function decodes video or other image content from a standard format, and the driver supplies signals to drive the display 1161 to output the visual information. The CPU 1152 controls image presentation on the display 1161 via the display driver 1162, to present visible outputs from the device 1151 to a user, such as application displays and displays of various content items (e.g. still images, videos, messages, documents, and the like).
In the example, the computer system 1151 also includes a camera 1163 as a visible light image sensor. Various types of cameras may be used. The camera 1163 typically can provide still images and/or a video stream, in the example to an encoder 1164. The encoder 1164 interfaces the camera to the interconnect bus 1155. For example, the encoder 164 converts the image/video signal from the camera 1163 to a standard digital format suitable for storage and/or other processing and supplies that digital image/video content to other element(s) of the system 1151, via the bus 1155. Connections to allow the CPU 1152 to control operations of the camera 1163 are omitted for simplicity.
In the example, the computer system 1151 includes a microphone 1165, configured to detect audio input activity, as well as an audio output component such as one or more speakers 1166 configured to provide audible information output to the user. Although other interfaces may be used, the example utilizes an audio coder/decoder (CODEC), as shown at 1167, to interface audio to/from the digital media of the interconnect bus 1155. The CODEC 1167 converts an audio responsive analog signal from the microphone 1165 to a digital format and supplies the digital audio to other element(s) of the system 1151, via the bus 1155. The CODEC 1167 also receives digitized audio via the bus 1155 and converts the digitized audio to an analog signal which the CODEC 1167 outputs to drive the speaker 1166. Although not shown, one or more amplifiers may be included to amplify the analog signal from the microphone 1165 or the analog signal from the CODEC 1167 that drives the speaker 1166.
Depending on the form factor and intended type of usage/applications for the computer system 1151, the system 1151 will include one or more of various types of additional user input elements, shown collectively at 1168. Each such element 1168 will have an associated interface 1169 to provide responsive data to other system elements via bus 1155. Examples of suitable user inputs 1168 include a keyboard or keypad, a cursor control (e.g. a mouse, touchpad, trackball, cursor direction keys etc.).
Another user interface option provides a touchscreen display feature, which may be similar to the touchscreen 1011 discussed earlier. At a high level, use of a touchscreen display as part of the user interface enables a user to interact directly with the information presented on the display. The display may be essentially the same as discussed above relative to element 1161 as shown in the drawing. For touch sensing, however, the user inputs 1168 and interfaces 1169 would include a touch/position sensor and associated sense signal processing circuit. The touch/position sensor is relatively transparent, so that the user may view the information presented on the display 1161. The sense signal processing circuit receives sensing signals from elements of the touch/position sensor and detects occurrence and position of each touch of the screen formed by the display and sensor. The sense circuit provides touch position information to the CPU 1152 via the bus 1155, and the CPU 1152 can correlate that information to the information currently displayed via the display 1161, to determine the nature of user input via the touchscreen.
The computer system 1151 runs a variety of applications programs and stores data, enabling one or more interactions via the user interface, provided through elements, and/or over the network 1158 to implement the desired user device processing. For example, programming of the system 1151 may enable a technician to operate the device 1151 to instruct a system 1 (
Turning now to consider a server or host computer,
The example 1251 will generally be described as an implementation of a server computer, e.g. as might be configured as a blade device in a server farm. Alternatively, the computer system may comprise a mainframe or other type of host computer system capable of web-based communications, media content distribution, or the like via the network 1158. Although shown as the same network as served the user computer system 1151, the computer system 1251 may connect to a different network.
The computer system 1251 in the example includes a central processing unit (CPU) 1252, a main memory 1253, mass storage 1255 and an interconnect bus 1254. These elements may be similar to elements of the computer system 1151 or may use higher capacity hardware. The circuitry forming the CPU 1252 may contain a single microprocessor, or may contain a number of microprocessors for configuring the computer system 1252 as a multi-processor system, or may use a higher speed processing architecture. The main memory 1253 in the example includes ROM, RAM and cache memory; although other memory devices may be added or substituted. Although semiconductor memory may be used in the mass storage devices 1255, magnetic type devices (tape or disk) and optical disk devices typically provide higher volume storage in host computer or server applications. In operation, the main memory 1253 stores at least portions of instructions and data for execution by the CPU 1252, although instructions and data are moved between memory and storage and CPU via the interconnect bus in a manner similar to transfers discussed above relative to the system 1151 of
The system 1251 also includes one or more input/output interfaces for communications, shown by way of example as interfaces 1259 for data communications via the network 23. Each interface 1259 may be a high-speed modem, an Ethernet (optical, cable or wireless) card or any other appropriate data communications device. To provide user data for VLC through a device 2 and/or a luminaire 11v, or alternatively to provide location related information for or based on VLC type position estimations, to a large number of users' client devices 25 and/o417, the interface(s) 1259 preferably provide(s) a relatively high-speed link to the network 1158. The physical communication link(s) may be optical, wired, or wireless (e.g., via satellite or cellular network).
Although not shown, the system 1251 may further include appropriate input/output ports for interconnection with a local display and a keyboard or the like serving as a local user interface for configuration, programming or trouble-shooting purposes. Alternatively, the server operations personnel may interact with the system 1251 for control and programming of the system from remote terminal devices via the Internet or some other link via network 1158.
The computer system 1251 runs a variety of applications programs to implement the server functions for VLC services 28 and may store the database 31 for the VLC services 28. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the computer system 1251 may run other programs and/or host other services, such as web-based or e-mail based services. As such, the system 1251 need not sit idle while waiting for VLC services related functions.
The example (
The hardware elements, operating systems and programming languages of computer systems like 1151, 1251 generally are conventional in nature, and it is presumed that those skilled in the art are sufficiently familiar therewith to understand implementation of the present VLC related techniques attributed to the user terminal computer 27 and the server computer 29 using suitable configuration and/or programming of such computer system(s) particularly as outlined above relative to 1151 of
Hence, aspects of methods of sending information using VLC through a passive lighting device 2 and/or a luminaire 11v and/or receiving and acting on data sent through a passive lighting device 2 and/or a luminaire 11v outlined above may be embodied in programming, e.g. in the form of software, firmware, or microcode executable by a portable handheld device, a user computer system, a server computer or other programmable device. Program aspects of the technology may be thought of as “products” or “articles of manufacture” typically in the form of executable code and/or associated data that is carried on or embodied in a type of machine readable medium. “Storage” type media include any or all of the tangible memory of the computers, processors or the like, or associated modules thereof, such as various semiconductor memories, tape drives, disk drives and the like, which may provide non-transitory storage at any time for the software programming. All or portions of the software may at times be communicated through the Internet or various other telecommunication networks. Such communications, for example, may enable loading of the software from one computer or processor into another, for example, from a management server or host computer into platform such as one of the controllers of
Hence, a machine readable medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, a tangible storage medium, a carrier wave medium or physical transmission medium. Non-volatile storage media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as any of the storage hardware in any computer(s), portable user devices or the like, such as may be used to implement the server computer 29, the personal computer 27, the mobile device 25 or controllers 18, 11v, etc. shown in the drawings. Volatile storage media include dynamic memory, such as main memory of such a computer or other hardware platform. Tangible transmission media include coaxial cables; copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise a bus within a computer system. Carrier-wave transmission media can take the form of electric or electromagnetic signals, or acoustic or light waves such as those generated during radio frequency (RF) and light-based data communications. Common forms of computer-readable media therefore include for example: a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD or DVD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards paper tape, any other physical storage medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave transporting data or instructions, cables or links transporting such a carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer can read programming code and/or data. Many of these forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying data and/or one or more sequences of one or more instructions to a processor for execution.
Program instructions may comprise a software or firmware implementation encoded in any desired language. Programming instructions, when embodied in a machine readable medium accessible to a processor of a computer system or device, render computer system or device into a special-purpose machine that is customized to perform the operations specified in the program.
It will be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein. Relational terms such as first and second and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element preceded by “a” or “an” does not, without further constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.
Unless otherwise stated, any and all measurements, values, ratings, positions, magnitudes, sizes, and other specifications that are set forth in this specification, including in the claims that follow, are approximate, not exact. They are intended to have a reasonable range that is consistent with the functions to which they relate and with what is customary in the art to which they pertain.
While the foregoing has described what are considered to be the best mode and/or other examples, it is understood that various modifications may be made therein and that the subject matter disclosed herein may be implemented in various forms and examples, and that they may be applied in numerous applications, only some of which have been described herein. It is intended by the following claims to claim any and all modifications and variations that fall within the true scope of the present concepts.
