This disclosure is related to a “smart” lighting system that utilizes a directable beam of collimated light to cause emission of non-collimated light by a phosphor plate.
“Smart” home systems are increasingly popular with consumers. Smart home systems may include devices such as security cameras, electronic door locks, and lighting systems. Such smart lighting systems typically include features like enabling activation of lights remotely via a smartphone, the setting of a schedule for activation of lights, or the use of proximity sensors for activation of lights.
While these smart lighting systems are popular with consumers, they nevertheless are unable to satiate all commercial desires. For example, while smart lighting systems that can direct light toward specific areas may exist, those smart lighting systems use mechanical arrangements of motors and gears to aim a light source toward the desired specific area. Although this does achieve the goal, the amount of physical space taken up by the motors and gears to provide the desired degree of aimability is undesirable, often rendering such lighting systems unusable with conventional lighting fixtures.
Therefore, further development into the area of smart lighting systems so as to satisfy long felt commercial needs is desired.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.
A smart lighting system will be described in full herein below, however, first the “smart” bulb components of the smart lighting system will be described with reference to
Referring initially to
The optical module 128, under control of the control circuitry 126, generates a beam of collimated light, shown as laser beam 137, that is scanned across the phosphor plate 130 in a fixed scan pattern. The control circuitry 126 controls generation of the laser beam 137 by the optical module 128 so as to modulate the laser beam 137 as it is scanned across the phosphor plate 130 in the fixed scan pattern. When the laser beam 137 impinges upon the phosphor plate 130, the phosphor plate 130 emits light. The light emitted by the phosphor plate 130 is focused by the objective plate 132.
By modulation, it is meant that the laser beam 137 may be switched on and off by the control circuitry 126 so that it impinges on less than all locations of the phosphor plate 130 as it is scanned across the phosphor plate in the fixed scan pattern, or switches between two or more power levels such that it impinges on certain locations of the phosphor plate 130 with a higher intensity than that with which it impinges on other locations of the phosphor plate 130.
This modulation of the laser beam 137 is caused by the control circuitry 126 in response to received configuration data. The configuration data defines how the light produced by the phosphor plate 130 should appear, in terms of size, shape, and intensity. The control circuitry 126 determines a desired projection pattern that will result in the phosphor plate 130 producing the light as per the size, shape, and intensity defined by the configuration data, and modulates the intensity of the laser beam 137 differently during portions of the fixed scan pattern that coincide with the desired projection pattern than during portions of the fixed scan pattern that do not coincide with the desired projection pattern. As stated, this can mean that the optical module 128 generates the laser beam 137 at a given intensity during portions of the fixed scan pattern that coincide with the desired projection pattern, and does not generate the laser beam 137 during portions of the fixed scan pattern that do not coincide with the desired projection pattern. The result is the formation of a projection pattern by the laser beam 137 on the phosphor plate 130 (shown as 142 in
It should be appreciated that the color of the laser beam 137 generated by the optical module 128, as well as the specific type or blend of phosphor used in the phosphor plate 130, may be selected so as to cause emission of specific wavelengths of light by the phosphor plate 130. For example, the laser beam 137 may be blue, and the phosphor may be organic, resulting in the emission of white light at a high luminous efficiency approaching 200 lm/W. As another example, the laser beam may be blue 137 and used together a phosphor that emits infrared light, resulting in the generation of infrared light.
As shown in
The optical module 128 itself is shown in
The combination of movements of the mirrors 138 and 140 results in scanning of the laser beam 137 in a constant scan pattern, through one or more optics (not shown in
Although the optical module 128 shown utilizes two uniaxial mirrors 138 and 140 to achieve two dimensional scanning of the laser beam 137, a single biaxial mirror may be used instead. In some instances, a single uniaxial mirror may instead be used.
Subcomponents of the control circuitry 126, as well as other components and subcomponents of a smart lighting system 100 utilizing the smart bulb 120, are now described with reference to
The control circuitry 126 includes a data interface 143 that enables bi-directional or uni-directional wireless data communications. The data interface 143 wirelessly receives the configuration data and passes that configuration data to controller 145, which processes the configuration data, and based thereupon, sends appropriate control signals to the laser driver 147 and the mirror driver 149 to respectively effectuate the moving of the mirrors 138 and 140 in the fixed scan pattern and the modulation of the collimated light generator 136 to form the desired projection pattern.
A system controller (or smarthub) 150 is spaced apart from, but local to, the smart bulb 120. For example, the system controller 150 may be located in the same house or same office as the smart bulb 120. The system controller 150 includes a data interface 155 for bi-directional or uni-directional wireless communication with the data interface 143 of the control circuitry 126. The data interface 155 receives configuration data, and the application processor 153 processes the configuration data prior to sending the configuration data to the data interface 143 of the smart bulb 120.
The application processor 153 also may receive sensor data from one or more optional embedded sensors 151 (e.g. cameras, proximity sensors, ambient light sensors, temperature sensors, time of flight ranging sensors, etc), and may also process or alter the configuration data in response to the sensor data. In some cases, the application processor 153 may, without receipt of configuration data, generate configuration data on its own in response to the sensor data.
A mobile wireless communications device 160, such as a smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, or smarthub panel, receives user input, processes the user input via its application processor 161 to form the configuration data, and sends the configuration data wirelessly, using its data interface 163, to the data interface 155 of the system controller 150. The mobile wireless communications device 160 may execute one or more applications, via the application processor 161, that prompt the user for the user input.
As explained earlier with reference to
For example, a dimming mode of operation is shown in
In some cases, instead of the dimming being performed for the entire projection pattern 142 formed by the laser beam 137 on the phosphor plate 130, the dimming may be performed differently at different parts projection pattern 142, so that the light produced may be dimmer in certain parts of the projection pattern 142 than in others.
As another example, a beam spot size alteration mode of operation is shown in
In addition to changing the size of the projection pattern 142, the shape of the projection pattern 142 may be changed such that the shape of the light itself is produced. For example, the projection pattern 142 may be rectangular, thereby producing light in the shape of a trapezoidal prism with a beam spot in the shape of a rectangle. This pattern forming allows the formation of multiple beams or spots of varying shapes.
As another example, a beam spot position alteration mode is shown in
It should be appreciated that this also allows, in conjunction with the teachings above, the creation of multiple beams of varying shapes, and the adjustment of the position of those beams with respect to one another. In some cases, the position of multiple beams may be continuously adjusted on the fly so that the beam spots are continuously moving, or moving in a specified pattern.
An image display mode is now described with reference to
The images displayed may be to highlight certain elements in the environment, such as in the examples shown in
A pattern display mode is now described with reference to
As can be seen, none of the various modes of operation described above require physical movement of the smart bulb 120 itself, or of the phosphor plate 130 itself. Thus, it is appreciated that the bulb described is capable of installation into conventional light fixtures, yet provides those fixtures with the capability of projecting an adjustable position light, without the fitting of a mechanical movement system.
As was explained above, the phosphor plate 130 and collimated light generator 136 may be selected such that infrared light is produced when the laser beam 137 impinges on the phosphor plate 130. Therefore, the smart bulb 120 may be used as a heater. The same modes described above relevant to visible light may be used for the production of infrared light.
For example, a heat dimming mode is described with reference to
A heat beam size alteration mode is described with reference to
A heat beam direction mode is now described with reference to
As explained, in the case of the application processor 153 processing the configuration data based on sensor data, this processing may be performed on the fly and continuously. Therefore, dimming, light beam movement, light beam shape changing, information display, or pattern display may change based upon the sensor data. For example, the application processor 153 may modify the configuration data so as to increase the intensity of the light produced based upon detection of one or more persons in the environment (via proximity sensor, camera, time of flight sensor, etc), with the intensity being increased (from none, or from a lower setting, to a higher setting or a maximum setting) when there are persons in the environment as opposed to when persons are not in the environment. Similarly, light beam movement (alone or in combination with splitting the light beam into multiple light beams) may be used so the light is aimed toward individuals in the environment, and tracks those individuals as they move throughout the environment. Information display may begin or change based upon presence of individuals, or certain individuals, in the environment, and may even be customized such that information set as being desired by a certain individual may be displayed when that person is present in the environment, or when that person is the closest person to the sensors—the individual may be identified via facial recognition or body recognition, using a camera as a sensor. In addition, any number of such sensors may be present, and the configuration data may be based upon a fusion of sensor data (e.g. if person A is present and the ambient light is below level X, if person B is present and less than 10 ft from the sensor, etc) such that changes in the configuration data are made based upon multiple conditions in the sensor data being present.
The desired projection pattern formed by the laser beam 137 on the phosphor plate 130 may be continuously moving, adjusting, or changing, so as to effectuate continuous changing of the light produced by the phosphor plate 130.
In some applications, the system controller 150 need not be present, and that the smart bulb 120 may directly wirelessly communicate with the mobile wireless communications device 160, or may wirelessly communicate with the mobile wireless communications device 160 through the internet. In addition, the mobile wireless communications device 160 or the controller 145 of the smart bulb 120 may perform all configuration data processing described herein in some applications.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
20090134802 | Oketani | May 2009 | A1 |
20120286673 | Holland | Nov 2012 | A1 |
20130200785 | Yano | Aug 2013 | A1 |
20140192206 | Holz | Jul 2014 | A1 |
20140267716 | Child | Sep 2014 | A1 |
20160299061 | Goldring | Oct 2016 | A1 |
20170052289 | Boissevain | Feb 2017 | A1 |
20170085768 | Van Der Sijde | Mar 2017 | A1 |
20170104972 | Novotny | Apr 2017 | A1 |
20170188434 | Yuh | Jun 2017 | A1 |
Entry |
---|
Denault, Kristin A., et al: “Efficient and Stable Laser-Driven White Lighting,” AIP Advances 3, 072107 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4813837 (7 pages). |
Wallace, John: “Semiconductor Sources: Laser Plus Phosphor Emits White Light Without Droop,” https://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-49/issue-11/world-news/semiconductor-sources-laser-plus-phosphor-emits-white-light-without-droop . . . (3 pages). |
IRDC2 Excitation & Emission, LDP LLC, https://www.maxmax.com/phosphorsdyesandinks/infrared-phosphors-dyes-and-inks/infrared-down-conversion-powder/irdc2, copyright 1997 (1 page). |
Buckley, Edward: “Eye-Safety Analysis of Current Laser-Based Scanned-Beam Projection Systems,” Journal of the SID 18/11, 2010 (pp. 944-951). |
Buckley, Dr. Edward: “On Proximity Detection Systems for Pico-Projectors,” Journal of the SID 20/6, 2012 (pp. 297-299). |