System for controlling light in dependence of time-of-flight signal

• US 8,217,595 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2007
• Issued: 07/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ITE-On IT Corporation, Lite-On Technology Corporation
• Original Assignee: Lite-On It Corporation (Lite-On Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Van Endert, Tony Petrus
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, THUY V
• Application Number:
  US12/739,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20110215733A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,719 Days
• Field of Search: 315/246, 315/267, 315/291, 315/308, 315/360, 700/306
• US Class Current: 315/360
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/10 Controlling the intensity of the light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/20 Controlling the colour of the light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/105 in response to determined parameters

Abstract

A lighting system comprising a lamp arranged to transform electricity into a light beam having different properties; a light control system arranged to adjust said light beam properties; an ultrasonic transmitter arranged to transmit ultrasonic signals; an ultrasonic receiver arranged to receive reflected ultrasonic signals; and a processing system arranged to derive a time-of-flight signal representing the time differences between said transmitted and received ultrasonic signals and to send control signals to said light control system in dependence of said time-of-flight signal. The processing system performs a reference calibration step: the time-of-flight is repeatedly measured a multitude of times, and calculates the average of said measured time-of-flight values and stores the average in memory system as a reference time-of-flight value if said deviation of the majority of the measured time-of-flight values of said multitude of measurements is lower than a predetermined threshold.

Claims

1. A lighting system comprising:

a lamp arranged to transform electricity into a light beam having properties including intensity, colour, colour temperature, direction and beam cone angle;

a light control system arranged to adjust said light beam properties;

an ultrasonic transmitter arranged to transmit ultrasonic signals;

an ultrasonic receiver arranged to receive reflected ultrasonic signals; and

a processing system arranged to derive a time-of-flight signal representing the time differences between said transmitted and received ultrasonic signals and to send control signals to said light control system in dependence of said time-of-flight signal,

wherein said processing system is further arranged to perform a reference calibration step, wherein the time-of-flight (TOF) signal is repeatedly measured for a multitude of times, and wherein the processing system determines if a deviation of the majority of the measured time-of-flight values (TOFI) of said multitude of measurements is lower than a predetermined threshold (z), and wherein said processing system is arranged to calculate the average (TOFREF) of said measured time-of-flight values (TOFI) and store said average (TOFREF) in a memory device as a reference time-of-flight value if said deviation is lower than said threshold (z).

2. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein said processing system is arranged to generate an error signal if said deviation is not lower than said threshold (z).

3. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein said processing system is arranged to store said reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF) in said memory device only if said reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF) is greater than a predetermined minimum value.

4. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein said processing system is arranged to generate an error signal if said reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF) is not greater than a predetermined minimum value.

5. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein said processing system is arranged not to store a reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF) in said memory device if during said reference calibration step no signal is received by said ultrasonic receiver during at least a predetermined number of time-of-flight measurements.

6. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein said processing system is arranged to generate an error signal if during said reference calibration step no signal is received by said ultrasonic receiver during at least said predetermined number of time-of-flight measurements.

7. A lighting system comprising:

a lamp arranged to transform electricity into a light beam having properties including intensity, colour, colour temperature, direction and beam cone angle;

a light control system arranged to adjust said light beam properties;

an ultrasonic transmitter arranged to transmit ultrasonic signals;

an ultrasonic receiver arranged to receive reflected ultrasonic signals; and

a processing system arranged to derive a time-of-flight signal representing the time differences between said transmitted and received ultrasonic signals and to send control signals to said light control system in dependence of said time-of-flight signal,

wherein said processing system is arranged to perform a wait-for-control-enablement cycle wherein said time-of-flight (TOF) is repeatedly measured at predetermined intervals and to compare said measured time-of-flight value (TOF) with a reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF) which is stored in memory during said wait-for-control cycle, and to repeat said measurement if said measured time-of-flight value (TOF) is equal to or larger than said reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF),

and wherein said processing system is further arranged to determine if the measured time-of-flight value (TOF) is smaller than said reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF) and if the deviation between the measured time-of-flight value (TOFH) and the previous measured time-of-flight value (TOFH−

1) is lower than a predetermined threshold (tx),

and said processing system is arranged to send control signals to said light control means in dependence of time-of-flight signals derived after it is determined that the measured time-of-flight value (TOF) is smaller than said reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF) and that said deviation is lower than said threshold (tx) for a predetermined number of repeated measurements.

8. The lighting system of claim 7, wherein said predetermined interval is substantially larger if it is determined that said measured time-of-flight value (TOF) is equal to or larger than said reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF), than if it is determined that said measured time-of-flight value (TOF) is smaller than said reference time-of-flight value (TOFREF).

9. The lighting system of claim 7, wherein said processing system is arranged to calculate the average of said measured time-of-flight values (TOF) and to store said average (TOFH) in a memory device, and the processing system is arranged to send control signals to said light control system in dependence on a positive or negative difference between the measured time-of-flight (TOF) and said average time-of-flight (TOFH) after it is determined that said deviation is lower than said threshold (tx) for a predetermined number of repeated measurements.

10. The lighting system of claim 9, wherein said processing system is further arranged to clip the difference of the measured time-of-flight value (TOF) to a maximum allowed positive or negative difference between the measured time-of-flight (TOF) and said average time-of-flight (TOFH) for the purpose of determining the control signals to be sent to the light control system.

11. The lighting system of claim 9, wherein said processing system is further arranged to calculate said maximum allowed positive and negative difference such that the negative difference is smaller than said average time-of-flight (TOFH), and that the positive difference is smaller than the difference between said reference time-of-flight (TOFREF) and said average time-of-flight (TOFH).

12. The lighting system of claim 11, wherein said processing system is further arranged to adapt the determination of the control signals to be sent to the light control system such that a full range of control signal is achieved within a calculated range of the maximum allowed positive and negative difference.