Illumination device, system and method for manually adjusting automated periodic changes in emulation output
First Claim
1. An illumination device, comprising:
- a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) chains, each of the plurality of LED chains is configured to produce illumination for the illumination device at a chromaticity consistent with a chromaticity setting;
a driver circuit coupled to the plurality of LED chains that automatically changes a color temperature output from the illumination device as a function of a time of day;
a control module coupled to the driver circuit for sending a brightness value to the driver circuit, said control module comprising;
an interface coupled to receive an intensity value;
a storage medium comprising a non-linear first mapping of the intensity value to the brightness value, and a second mapping of a color temperature as the function of the time of day; and
a controller coupled to receive a change in the intensity value from the interface and to fetch the non-linear first mapping and the second mapping from the storage medium to produce a greater change in the color temperature nearer sunrise or sunset than during noontime, even though the brightness change resulting from the intensity value is equal at sunrise, sunset and noontime.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An illumination device, system and method are provided herein for emulating sunlight along a daytime or nighttime locus. Sunlight is emulated depending on the path length of the sun relative to a structure containing the illumination device and system. One or more illumination devices can be grouped together and perform the sunlight emulation along the locus by producing different color temperatures throughout the day by all illumination devices within that group producing the same color temperature changes throughout the day. Moreover, a particular advantage of the preferred embodiments is the ability to manually change at any time the emulated natural sunlight output from the one or more groups of illumination devices and advantageously change the color output more so at certain times than at other times by simply actuating a trigger on a dimmer associated with a virtual or physical keypad.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An illumination device, comprising:
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a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) chains, each of the plurality of LED chains is configured to produce illumination for the illumination device at a chromaticity consistent with a chromaticity setting; a driver circuit coupled to the plurality of LED chains that automatically changes a color temperature output from the illumination device as a function of a time of day; a control module coupled to the driver circuit for sending a brightness value to the driver circuit, said control module comprising; an interface coupled to receive an intensity value; a storage medium comprising a non-linear first mapping of the intensity value to the brightness value, and a second mapping of a color temperature as the function of the time of day; and a controller coupled to receive a change in the intensity value from the interface and to fetch the non-linear first mapping and the second mapping from the storage medium to produce a greater change in the color temperature nearer sunrise or sunset than during noontime, even though the brightness change resulting from the intensity value is equal at sunrise, sunset and noontime. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An illumination system, comprising:
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a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) configured to produce a plurality of color temperatures along a black body curve; a timer for producing a plurality of times of day, comprising a first time of day at sunrise or sunset and a second time of day at noontime; a driver circuit coupled between the timer and the plurality of LEDs to receive the plurality of times of day and to send a drive current to the plurality of LEDs to produce a first color temperature during the first time of day and a second color temperature during the second time of day, wherein the timer is remote from the driver circuit and wirelessly or over a wired connection forwards the plurality of times of day to the driver circuit as well as a control module, each of the plurality of times of day having a different time value from others of the plurality of times of day; a remote controller coupled to produce an intensity value; the control module coupled between the remote controller and the driver circuit for receiving the intensity value and sending a brightness value having a non-linear correspondence with the intensity value to each of the plurality of LEDs, said control module comprising; a storage medium comprising a non-linear first mapping of the intensity value to the brightness value, and a second mapping of the color temperature as a function of the time of day; and a controller coupled to receive a change in the intensity value from the remote controller, fetch the non-linear first mapping and the second mapping from the storage medium, and produce a greater change in the color temperature during the first time of day than during the second time of day even though the brightness change resulting from the intensity value is equal at both the first time of day and the second time of day. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for illuminating a structure, comprising:
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producing a color temperature among a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) illumination devices within the structure; automatically changing the color temperature among the plurality of LED illumination devices based on periodic, differing time of day signals sent from a timer remote from the plurality of LED illumination devices to emulate changing natural light produced by sun; receiving a change in intensity value; in response to receiving the change in intensity value, fetching a first mapping of the intensity value to a brightness value and a second mapping of the color temperature as a function of time of day; and producing a greater change in the color temperature during a first time of day than during a second time of day even though the brightness change resulting from the intensity value is equal at both the first time of day and the second time of day. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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Specification