Wireless Solid State Lighting Controller

• US 20180295705A1
• Filed: 04/10/2017
• Published: 10/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IDEAL Industries Lighting, LLC (Ideal Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: CREE Incorporated (Wolfspeed, Inc.)
• Inventors: Reier, Bart, Van Epps, JR., Daniel James, Fang, Yuan, Power, David, Herman, Leigh, Gordon, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 10,813,197 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/30 Semiconductor lamps, e.g. solid state lamps [SSL] light emitting diodes [LED] or organic LED [OLED]

Abstract

A lighting controller comprises power circuitry, transmitter circuitry, a touch-sensitive panel, and processing circuitry. The power circuitry is configured to relay power from the lighting controller to a solid state lighting fixture wired to the lighting controller. The transmitter circuitry is configured to wirelessly exchange signals with the solid state lighting fixture. The touch-sensitive panel is configured to emit light and receive touch input from a user. The processing circuitry is electrically coupled to the power circuitry, the transmitter circuitry, and the touch-sensitive panel. The processing circuitry is configured to wirelessly control, via the transmitter circuitry, the attribute of light emitted by the solid state lighting fixture in accordance with the touch input received via the touch-sensitive panel and control the light emitted from the touch-sensitive panel to indicate the attribute as the attribute is wirelessly controlled.

Claims

1. A lighting controller comprising:

power circuitry configured to relay power from the lighting controller to a solid state lighting fixture wired to the lighting controller;

transmitter circuitry configured to wirelessly exchange signals with the solid state lighting fixture;

a touch-sensitive panel configured to emit light and receive touch input from a user;

processing circuitry electrically coupled to the power circuitry, the transmitter circuitry, and the touch-sensitive panel, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to;

wirelessly control, via the transmitter circuitry, an attribute of light emitted by the solid state lighting fixture in accordance with the touch input received via the touch-sensitive panel; and

control the light emitted from the touch-sensitive panel to illuminate an area around the lighting controller and correspondingly indicate the attribute as the attribute is wirelessly controlled.

2. The lighting controller of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to interpret the touch input received from the user via the touch-sensitive panel, based on which of a brightness control mode and a color temperature control mode of the lighting controller is active, to determine a control signal for wirelessly controlling a brightness attribute or a color temperature attribute of the light emitted by the solid state lighting fixture.

3. The lighting controller of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to toggle between the brightness and color temperature control modes responsive to a double-tap of the touch-sensitive panel or a pressing of the touch-sensitive panel longer than a threshold duration.

4. The lighting controller of claim 2, further comprising a series of solid state indicator lights, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control the series of solid state indicator lights to visually indicate which of the brightness control mode and the color temperature control mode is active.

5. The lighting controller of claim 4, wherein to visually indicate which of the brightness control mode and the color temperature control mode is active, the processing circuitry is configured to:

responsive to one of the brightness and color temperature control modes being active, set a first majority of the series of solid state indicator lights to illuminated and a first remainder of the series of solid state indicator lights to extinguished;

responsive to the other of the brightness and color temperature control modes being active, set a second majority of the series of solid state indicator lights to extinguished and a second remainder of the series of solid state indicator lights to illuminated.

6. The lighting controller of claim 5, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to select which of the series of solid state indicator lights is included in the first or second remainder of the series of solid state indicator lights to visually indicate the attribute of the light emitted relative to a supported range for the attribute.

7. The lighting controller of claim 2, wherein the touch input is a sliding touch input and to determine the control signal the processing circuitry is configured to determine, within a range of supported configuration values, a configuration value to indicate via the control signal based on a length over which the sliding touch input was received via the touch-sensitive panel.

8. The lighting controller of claim 7, further comprising at least one feedback device communicatively coupled to the processing circuitry, the at least one feedback device comprising a haptic feedback actuator, an audio device, or both;

wherein, to determine the configuration value within the range of supported configuration values, the processing circuitry is configured to;

responsive to the brightness control mode being active, determine a brightness value between minimum and maximum supported brightness values;

responsive to the color temperature control mode being active, determine a color temperature value between minimum and maximum supported warmth values;

wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to, responsive to determining that the configuration value is equal to a value at either end of the range of supported configuration values, provide feedback to the user using the haptic feedback actuator, the audio device, or both.

9. The lighting controller of claim 1, wherein the attribute is a brightness attribute or a color temperature attribute of light emitted by the solid state lighting fixture, and wherein to control the light emitted from the touch-sensitive panel the processing circuitry is configured to control the light emitted from the touch-sensitive panel to indicate both the brightness attribute and the color temperature attribute.

10. The lighting controller of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to, responsive to a user selecting a different lighting fixture to wirelessly control via the touch-sensitive panel, update the light emitted from the touch-sensitive panel to indicate a brightness and color temperature of the different lighting fixture as the different lighting fixture is wirelessly controlled by the lighting controller, wherein the lighting controller is not wired to provide power to the different lighting fixture.

11. A method of controlling solid state lighting, wherein the method is implemented by a lighting controller and comprises:

relaying power from the lighting controller to a solid state lighting fixture wired to the lighting controller;

wirelessly controlling an attribute of light emitted by the solid state lighting fixture in accordance with touch input received from a user via a touch-sensitive panel of the lighting controller; and

emitting light from the touch-sensitive panel to illuminate an area around the lighting controller and correspondingly indicate the attribute as the attribute is wirelessly controlled.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising interpreting the touch input received from the user via the touch-sensitive panel, based on which of a brightness control mode and a color temperature control mode of the lighting controller is active, to determine a control signal for wirelessly controlling a brightness attribute or a color temperature attribute of the light emitted by the solid state lighting fixture.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising toggling between the brightness and color temperature control modes responsive to a double-tap of the touch-sensitive panel or a pressing of the touch-sensitive panel longer than a threshold duration.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising visually indicating which of the brightness control mode and the color temperature control mode is active via a series of solid state indicator lights of the lighting controller.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein visually indicating which of the brightness control mode and the color temperature control mode is active comprises:

responsive to one of the brightness and color temperature control modes being active, setting a first majority of the series of solid state indicator lights to illuminated and a first remainder of the series of solid state indicator lights to extinguished;

responsive to the other of the brightness and color temperature control modes being active, setting a second majority of the series of solid state indicator lights to extinguished and a second remainder of the series of solid state indicator lights to illuminated.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting which of the series of solid state indicator lights is included in the first or second remainder of the series of solid state indicator lights to visually indicate the attribute of the light emitted relative to a supported range for the attribute.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the touch input is a sliding touch input and determining the control signal comprises determining, within a range of supported configuration values, a configuration value to indicate via the control signal based on a length over which the sliding touch input was received via the touch-sensitive panel.

18. The method of claim 17:

wherein determining the configuration value within the range of supported configuration values comprises;

responsive to the brightness control mode being active, determining a brightness value between minimum and maximum supported brightness values;

responsive to the color temperature control mode being active, determining a color temperature value between minimum and maximum supported warmth values;

further comprising, responsive to determining that the configuration value is equal to a value at either end of the range of supported configuration values, providing feedback to the user, the feedback comprising haptic feedback, audio feedback, or both.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the attribute is a brightness attribute or a color temperature attribute of light emitted by the solid state lighting fixture, and wherein emitting light from the touch-sensitive panel comprises emitting light from the touch-sensitive panel to indicate both the brightness attribute and the color temperature attribute.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising responsive to a user selecting a different lighting fixture to wirelessly control via the touch-sensitive panel, updating the light emitted from the touch-sensitive panel to indicate a brightness and color temperature of the different lighting fixture as the different lighting fixture is wirelessly controlled by the lighting controller, wherein the lighting controller is not wired to provide power to the different lighting fixture.