System for automatically creating a lighting atmosphere based on a keyword input

• US 8,374,880 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2008
• Issued: 02/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van De Sluis, Bartel Marinus, Diederiks, Elmo Marcus Attila
• Primary Examiner(s): AZAD, ABUL K
• Application Number:
  US12/596,485
• Publication Number:
  US 20110022396A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,758 Days
• Field of Search: 704251-257, 704/270, 704/275
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/12 by detecting audible sound
• 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, particularly a lighting atmosphere, based on a keyword input such as a keyword typed or spoken by a user. A basic idea of the invention is to enable a user of an atmosphere creation system such as a lighting system to automatically create a specific atmosphere by simply using a keyword which is input to the system. The keyword, for example “eat”, “read”, “relax”, “sunny”, “cool”, “party”, “Christmas”, “beach”, may be spoken or typed by the user and may enable the user to find and explore numerous atmospheres in an interactive and playful way in embodiments of the invention. Finding atmosphere elements related to the keyword may be done in various ways according to embodiments of the invention. The invention allows also a non expert in designing or creating atmosphere scenes to control the creation of a desired atmosphere in an atmosphere creation system.

Claims

1. A system for automatically creating an atmosphere with an atmosphere creation system comprising

keyword input receiving means configured to transform a keyword into a digital signal;

a keyword interpreter configured to translate the digital signal into a computer-processable keyword representation;

keyword-enriching means configured to generate one or more alternative keywords related to the computer-processable keyword representation;

an atmosphere elements finder configured to find atmosphere elements related to the keyword by automatically processing the computer-processable keyword representation; and

an atmosphere creation controller configured to generate a control signal for the atmosphere creation system, which adjusts settings of the atmosphere creation system depending on the found atmosphere elements, wherein the keyword interpreter further configured to;

determine whether a keyword enrichment is required based on a feedback signal from the atmosphere elements finder,

send the computer-processable keyword representation to the keyword-enriching means,

receive the alternative keywords from the keyword-enriching means, and

send the alternative keywords to the atmosphere elements finder.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the keyword input receiving means comprise a keyboard and a microphone for the entry of a keyword and an analog-to-digital converter for generating the digital signal from a microphone signal.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the keyword interpreter is configured to check and correct the spelling of a keyword inputted via the keyboard and comprises an automatic speech recognition module for translating a spoken keyword into the computer-processable keyword representation.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the keyword enriching means are configured to generate alternative keywords by using a database of synonyms, a language model or mind mapping technology, and/or a domain specific model that maps related atmosphere-related terms to each other.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the atmosphere elements finder is configured to search through a knowledge database arranged to map keywords to certain atmosphere properties.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the atmosphere elements finder is configured to use semantic web technology enabling to find relations between the keyword and certain atmosphere properties.

7. A system for automatically creating an atmosphere with an atmosphere creation system, comprising

keyword input receiving means configured to transform a keyword into a digital signal;

a keyword interpreter configured to translate the digital signal into a computer-processable keyword representation;

an atmosphere elements finder configured to find atmosphere elements related to the keyword by automatically processing the computer-processable keyword representation; and

an atmosphere creation controller configured to generate a control signal for the atmosphere creation system, which adjusts settings of the atmosphere creation system depending on the found atmosphere elements, wherein the atmosphere elements finder is configured to;

find sounds, music and atmospheric sounds related to the computer-processable keyword representation as certain atmosphere properties;

search for images using the computer-processable keyword representation; and

analyze found images in order to find properties attributable to certain atmosphere properties by

segmenting an image for foreground and background areas by detecting which objects in the image are in front and what part of the image is part of the background,

detecting where the horizon is in the background area of the image and dividing the background area into upper and bottom areas depending on the detected horizon,

determining color characteristics in each of the areas, and

mapping the determined color characteristics of each of the areas to certain atmosphere properties.