Lighting wall control with virtual assistant

• US 10,595,380 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2017
• Issued: 03/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IDEAL Industries Lighting, LLC (Ideal Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: IDEAL Industries Lighting, LLC (Ideal Industries Incorporated)
• Inventors: Reier, Bart, Power, David, Fang, Yuan, Safarikas, Al
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Tung X
• Application Number:
  US15/714,290
• Publication Number:
  US 20180092189A1
• Time in Patent Office: 904 Days
• Field of Search: 315152, 315312
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/115 by determining the presence or movement of objects or living beings
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/12 by detecting audible sound
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/125 by using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/1965 using handheld communication devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

A lighting wall controller can be a retrofit for existing light switches, and the lighting wall control replaces the conventional light switch and can still work as a conventional light switch or other power switch with “dumb” lights or appliances while providing the ability to control “smart” lights and/or other “smart” devices with voice commands. In addition to controlling lights and/or devices, voice commands can be used to provide information or actions back to the user in response to the voice command. The lighting wall controller thereby provides voice control functionality without requiring additional devices, such as additional voice control appliances.

Claims

1. A lighting wall control comprising:

a user interface;

a voice processing module configured to process voice commands from a user;

power management circuitry configured to receive an AC input signal and provide an AC output signal suitable for powering one or more lights and controlling a light output thereof;

a communication interface configured to communicate with one or more additional lights; and

processing circuitry coupled to the user interface, the voice processing module, the power management circuitry, and the communication interface, the processing circuitry configured to;

adjust a light output of the one or more lights via the power management circuitry based on user input from the user interface and the voice commands processed by the voice processing module; and

adjust a light output of the one or more additional lights based on the user input from the user interface and the voice commands from the voice processing module.

2. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the communication interface is a wireless communication interface.

3. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the light output of the one or more lights and the light output of the one or more additional lights in a synchronous manner.

4. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the light output of the one or more lights independently.

5. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

receive commands from one or more other lighting wall controls via the communication interface, wherein the commands are generated from the one or more other lighting wall controls based on one of user input from a user interface and voice commands from a voice processing module; and

adjust the light output of the one or more lights based on the commands.

6. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the lighting wall control is configured to:

receive the voice commands via a microphone;

transcribe the voice commands; and

determine one or more actions to be performed based on the transcribed voice commands.

7. The lighting wall control of claim 6 wherein the voice processing module is configured to process the voice commands by transcribing the voice commands.

8. The lighting wall control of claim 7 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the one or more actions to be performed based on the transcribed voice commands.

9. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

transmit the voice commands to a remote server via the communication interface; and

receive one or more actions to be performed based on the voice commands from the remote server via the communication interface.

10. The lighting wall control of claim 9 wherein the voice processing module is configured to process the voice commands by performing an analog-to-digital conversion on the voice commands such that the voice commands transmitted to the remote server are transmitted in a digital format.

11. The lighting wall control of claim 9 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the one or more actions.

12. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein:

the voice processing module is configured to process the voice commands by transcribing the voice commands;

the processing circuitry is configured to transmit the transcribed voice commands to a remote server via the communication interface; and

the processing circuitry is configured to receive one or more actions to be performed based on the transcribed voice commands from the server via the communication interface.

13. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to display visual information via the user interface in response to the voice commands.

14. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to request information from a remote server via the communication interface in response to the voice commands.

15. The lighting wall control of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to send a command to one or more other lighting wall controls via the communication interface based on the voice commands.

16. The lighting wall control of claim 1 further comprising a first communication interface and a second communication interface, wherein the processing circuitry is coupled to the first communication interface and the second communication interface and configured to:

transmit the voice commands to a remote server via the first communication interface;

receive one or more actions to be performed based on the voice commands from the remote server via the first communication interface; and

adjust the light output of the one or more lights via the second communication interface.

17. The lighting wall control of claim 16 wherein the voice processing module is configured to process the voice commands by performing an analog-to-digital conversion on the voice commands such that the voice commands transmitted to the remote server are transmitted in a digital format.

18. The lighting wall control of claim 16 wherein the first communication interface is configured to communicate with the remote server via a wide area network (WAN).

19. A lighting wall control comprising:

a user interface;

a voice processing module configured to process voice commands from a user;

power management circuitry configured to receive an AC input signal and provide an AC output signal suitable for powering one or more lights and controlling a light output thereof;

a communication interface configured to communicate with one or more additional lights; and

processing circuitry coupled to the user interface, the voice processing module, the power management circuitry, and the communication interface, the processing circuitry configured to;

adjust a light output of the one or more lights via the power management circuitry based on user input from the user interface and the voice commands processed by the voice processing module;

receive commands from one or more other lighting wall controls via the communication interface, wherein the commands are generated from the one or more other lighting wall controls based on one of user input from a user interface and voice commands from a voice processing module; and

adjust the light output of the one or more lights based on the commands from the one or more other lighting wall controls.

20. A lighting wall control comprising:

a user interface;

a voice processing module configured to process voice commands from a user;

a communication interface; and

processing circuitry coupled to the user interface, the voice processing module, and the communication interface, the processing circuitry configured to;

adjust a light output of one or more lights based on user input from the user interface and the voice commands processed by the voice processing module;

transmit the voice commands to a remote server via the communication interface; and

receive one or more actions to be performed based on the voice commands from the remote server via the communication interface.

21. The lighting wall control of claim 20 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the one or more actions.

22. A lighting wall control comprising:

a user interface;

a voice processing module configured to process voice commands from a user;

a communication interface; and

processing circuitry coupled to the user interface, the voice processing module, and the communication interface, the processing circuitry configured to;

adjust a light output of one or more lights based on user input from the user interface and the voice commands processed by the voice processing module; and

request information from a remote server via the communication interface in response to the voice commands.

23. A lighting wall control comprising:

a user interface;

a voice processing module configured to process voice commands from a user;

a communication interface; and

processing circuitry coupled to the user interface, the voice processing module, and the communication interface, the processing circuitry configured to;

adjust a light output of one or more lights based on user input from the user interface and the voice commands processed by the voice processing module; and

send a command to one or more other lighting wall controls via the communication interface based on the voice commands.

24. A lighting wall control comprising:

a user interface;

a voice processing module configured to process voice commands from a user;

a first communication interface;

a second communication interface; and

processing circuitry coupled to the user interface, the voice processing module, and the first and second communication interfaces, the processing circuitry configured to;

adjust a light output of one or more lights based on user input from the user interface and the voice commands processed by the voice processing module;

transmit the voice commands to a remote server via the first communication interface;

receive one or more actions to be performed based on the voice commands from the remote server via the first communication interface; and

adjust the light output of the one or more lights via the second communication interface.