SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE SUITED TO SOCIAL SETTING AND MOOD IN AN ENVIRONMENT

• US 20110190913A1
• Filed: 01/13/2009
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van De Sluis, Bartel Marinus, Aarts, Ronaldus Maria
• Application Number:
  US12/812,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20110190913A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: A63J 17/00 Apparatus for performing colour-music
• 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 47/155 Coordinated control of two or more light sources
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

The invention relates to the automatic creation of an atmosphere such as a lighting atmosphere combined with music, which is suited to social setting and mood in an environment such as a room. An embodiment of the invention provides a system (10) for automatically creating an atmosphere suited to social setting and mood in an environment (12), comprising —a sound receiving unit (14) being adapted for receiving sound (161, 162, 163) from the environment (12) and generating an audio signal (18) representing the received sound, —an audio signal processing unit (20) being adapted for receiving and analyzing the audio signal (18) for social setting and mood in the environment (12), and —an atmosphere creation unit (22) being adapted for automatically generating control signals (24) for an atmosphere creation system (26) for creating an atmosphere based on the result (28) of the analysis of the audio signal (18). This system allows a comfortable and automatic creation of an atmosphere, which is suited to social setting and mood in an environment, for example in a room.

Claims

1. System for automatically creating an atmosphere suited to social setting and mood in an environment, the system comprising

a sound receiving unit for receiving sound from the environment and generating an audio signal representing the received sound,

an audio signal processing unit for receiving and analyzing the audio signal for social setting and mood in the environment, and

an atmosphere creation unit for automatically generating control signals for an atmosphere creation system for creating an atmosphere based on the result of the analysis of the audio signal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal processing unit comprises an audio content analysis and classification unit for analyzing the audio content contained in the received audio signal and for classifying the analyzed audio content.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the audio content analysis and classification unit comprises a feature extraction and audio classification algorithm for classifying the audio content.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the audio content analysis and classification unit is adapted for analyzing the audio content for presence information and/or verbal expressions and to classify the social mood in the environment based on the analyzed presence information and/or verbal expressions.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the atmosphere creation unit is further adapted for mapping the classified social mood to an atmosphere, which fits the classified social mood, by means of a look-up table containing mood classes matched to atmosphere properties and atmosphere content.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the atmosphere creation unit is further adapted for automatically creating an atmosphere by generating control signals for the atmosphere creation system controlling one or more of the following systems:

a lighting system for generating a lighting atmosphere;

an audio rendering system for generating audio;

an electronic display system for displaying electronic pictures and videos;

a smell generation system for generating artificial smells;

a climate control system.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the atmosphere creation unit is further adapted for adapting an atmosphere to dynamics of the sound received with the sound receiving unit.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein

the sound receiving unit is further adapted for receiving sounds from different locations in the environment and for generating audio signals representing the sounds received from the different locations,

the audio signal processing unit is further adapted for receiving and analyzing the audio signals for social setting and mood at the different locations in the environment, and

the atmosphere creation unit is further adapted for automatically generating control signals for an atmosphere creation system for creating different atmospheres at the different locations in the environment based on the result of the analysis of the different audio signals representing the sounds received from the different locations.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising

a sensor for detecting human presence in a location of the environment and

a sensor signal processing unit being adapted for determining a measure for human presence in the sensed location, wherein the atmosphere creation unit is further adapted for automatically generating control signals for an atmosphere creation system for creating the atmosphere based on the determined measure for human presence.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface for receiving an user input for enabling an automatic mode of the system in order to evoke an automatic atmosphere adjustment behavior of the system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the user interface is further adapted for receiving an user input for adjusting specific properties of the automatic atmosphere adjustment behavior of the system.

13. The system of claim 1, being further adapted for receiving a predefined input and selecting a predefined atmosphere corresponding to the received predefined input and for generating corresponding control signals for the atmosphere creation system in order to create the predefined atmosphere.

4. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

15. Method for automatically creating an atmosphere suited to social setting and mood in an environment, comprising

receiving sound from the environment and generating an audio signal representing the received sound,

receiving and analyzing the audio signal for social setting and mood in the environment, and

automatically generating control signals for an atmosphere creation system for creating an atmosphere based on the result of the analysis of the audio signal.

16. A computer program enabled to carry out the method according to claim 15 when executed by a computer.

17. A record carrier storing a computer program according to claim 16.

18. A computer programmed to perform a method according to claim 15 and comprising an interface for communication with an atmosphere creation system.