Programmable lighting with multi-day variations of wavelength and intensity, optimized by crowdsourcing using an online social community network

• US 8,847,514 B1
• Filed: 05/24/2011
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Aaron Reynoso, Zhao Gang
• Original Assignee: Aaron Reynoso, Zhao Gang
• Inventors: Reynoso, Aaron, Zhao, Gang
• Primary Examiner(s): Owens, Douglas W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cooper, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US13/115,074
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: 315/291, 315/307, 315/294, 315/297, 315/312, 315/363, 47/581.LS
• US Class Current: 315/307
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 7/045 with electric lighting
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/20 Controlling the colour of the light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/46 having LEDs disposed in parallel lines
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/16 by timing means
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 60/14 Measures for saving energy, e.g. in green houses

Abstract

A programmable luminaire has arrays of LED'"'"'s producing different wavelengths of light. A light map specifies how wavelengths of light reaching a plant or other organism are changed throughout a virtual day and over different growth phases of a plant'"'"'s life. A host interface has a GUI light-map editor allowing a user to edit individual wavelengths in a light map that can be uploaded and shared with other users on a crowdsourcing web site. A large on-line community optimizes the light maps for a specific species of plants or animals. The wisdom of crowds converges until the best wavelengths, intensity and duration are arrived at through ranking, resulting in maximum desired output. Light maps are voted on by users and ranked based on votes, links to other light maps, and yield results. The LED'"'"'s may be dimmed at intervals during the day for shading and sun fleck.

Claims

1. A programmable luminaire comprising:

a microcontroller;

a light map storage;

a plurality of arrays of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), each array of LEDs for outputting light at a different wavelength;

a program memory for storing a lighting program that is executed by the microcontroller to read a light map from the light map storage, and to adjust output-light intensities of the plurality of arrays of LEDs for different wavelengths in response to wavelength specifications in the light map;

a timer for triggering the microcontroller to apply to the plurality of arrays LEDs a next set of wavelength specifications from the light map after a period of time has elapsed; and

a host interface that receives an edited light map from a host and writes the edited light map to the light map storage as the light map;

wherein the light map comprises a first growth-stage daily light map, a second growth-stage daily light map, and a third growth-stage daily light map;

wherein each growth-stage daily light map specifies at least 5 different wavelengths of output-light intensities that change multiple times over a virtual day;

wherein the light map further comprises;

a first-stage day count that specifies a first number of virtual days to repeat the first growth-stage daily light map during a seedling growth stage;

a second-stage day count that specifies a second number of virtual days to repeat the second growth-stage daily light map during a middle growth stage;

a third-stage day count that specifies a third number of virtual days to repeat the third growth-stage daily light map during a flowering growth stage,

whereby edited light maps from the host control output-light intensities for the different wavelengths that are adjusted multiple times during a virtual day, and between multi-day growth stages.

2. The programmable luminaire of claim 1 wherein the plurality of arrays of LED'"'"'s comprise:

a first array of LEDs outputting a first wavelength of light that is between 300-500 nm;

a second array of LEDs outputting a second wavelength of light that is between 500-600 nm; and

a third array of LEDs outputting a third wavelength of light that is between 600-750 nm.

3. The programmable luminaire of claim 2 wherein the second array of LEDs is driven by the microcontroller to have lower output-light intensities than the first array and the second array, when averaged over a virtual day;

wherein energy efficiency of the programmable luminaire is increased for plant growth by reducing green and yellow light intensities and increasing red and blue light intensities.

4. The programmable luminaire of claim 1 wherein the light map storage is a non-volatile semiconductor memory.

5. The programmable luminaire of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of channels, each channel for driving one of the plurality of arrays of LED, wherein each channel comprises:

an adjustable current driver, receiving a wavelength specification from the light map, for adjusting a current to an array of LEDs in response to the wavelength specification from the light map; and

a constant voltage source, controlled by the microcontroller, for generating a constant voltage to the adjustable current driver.

6. The programmable luminaire of claim 5 further comprising:

a dimming control circuit, coupled to the microcontroller and to the adjustable current driver in each of the plurality of channels, for reducing light intensities by disabling current from the adjustable current driver for a programmable portion of a repeating period of time.

7. The programmable luminaire of claim 6 wherein the light map further comprises a sun fleck specification that specifies dimming of wavelengths of light for a shading period of time during a virtual day,

whereby sun fleck shading is specified by the light map.

8. A programmable-lighting optimization system comprising:

a programmable luminaire which comprises;

a first array of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that emit light at a first wavelength;

a second array of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that emit light at a second wavelength;

a third array of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that emit light at a third wavelength;

a fourth array of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that emit light at a fourth wavelength;

a fifth array of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that emit light at a fifth wavelength;

wherein the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth wavelengths are different wavelengths of light;

a light map storage that stores a light map having wavelength-intensity specifications for the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth wavelengths that vary over time;

programmable LED drivers that vary light intensities of arrays of LEDs in response to the wavelength-intensity specifications from the light map;

a timer for triggering a new set of wavelength-intensity specifications from the light map to be applied to the programmable LED drivers after a period of time;

a crowdsourcing web site accessed by users;

a shared light map database, accessed through the crowdsourcing web site, for storing light maps;

a light-map editor, executed by users to modify a light map to generate an edited light map;

a host interface that copies the edited light map to the light map storage in the programmable luminaire;

a review module, on the crowdsourcing web site, that queries users to submit votes for light maps;

a ranking module, on the crowdsourcing web site, for using the votes to generate a rank score for a light map; and

a display module that displays matching light maps from the shared light map database that match a user query, and for displaying the matching light maps in a ranked order based on the rank score from the ranking module;

whereby light maps used by the programmable luminaire are edited and ranked by the crowdsourcing web site.

9. The programmable-lighting optimization system of claim 8 wherein the shared light map database comprises light maps for use on a specific living organism;

wherein the shared light map database is searchable by a kind of living organism.

10. The programmable-lighting optimization system of claim 8 wherein the light map specifies wavelength-intensity specifications that adjust light intensities of different wavelengths multiple times during a virtual day, and that specifies multiple stages of the wavelength-intensity specifications, wherein each of the multiple stages is a multi-day growth stage,

whereby light intensities are adjusted during a day and after each multi-day growth stage.

11. The programmable-lighting optimization system of claim 10 wherein the light-map editor is a graphical-user-interface (GUI) that comprises:

a draw pad window that displays and modifies a user-drawn curve that graphically shows wavelength-intensity specifications from the light map for a selected wavelength for one virtual day;

a wavelength selector that selects as the selected wavelength edited in the draw pad window from a plurality of wavelengths that includes the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth wavelengths;

a combined wavelength display window that shows a graph of multiple wavelengths superimposed on each other for the virtual day; and

a growth-stage selector that allows a user to specify a current multi-day growth stage that is being displayed and edited.

12. The programmable-lighting optimization system of claim 11 wherein the light-map editor further comprises:

a plurality of single-wavelength windows, each for displaying a curve for a single wavelength over the virtual day.

13. The programmable-lighting optimization system of claim 8 wherein the ranking module generates the rank score for a current light map based rank scores of linked light maps that are linked to the current light map;

wherein a linked light map is linked to the current light map when a same user generated both light maps, or when the current light map is derived from the linked light map.

14. The programmable-lighting optimization system of claim 8 wherein the light map further specifies a shading period when the light intensities are dimmed to test shading during a virtual day.

15. A method for optimizing lighting applied to a living organism comprising:

searching a shared light map database for light maps for the living organism and identifying matching light maps;

ranking the matching light maps based on ranking criteria that include votes from users of a crowdsourcing web site and reported results from prior usage of the matching light map;

displaying a ranked list on an electronic display device to a user, the ranked list identifying the matching light maps in an order determined by the ranking;

when no matching light map is found by the searching, displaying a default light map for a different living organism to the user;

receiving a selection from the user, the selection identifying the default light map or one of the matching light maps as the selected light map;

using a light-map editor to edit the selected light map to generate an edited light map with edits of wavelengths from the user;

sending the edited light map to a programmable luminaire;

using the edited light map to control time, intensity, and mixture of a plurality of wavelengths of light applied by the programmable luminaire to the living organism during a grow cycle of multiple virtual days;

during multiple times in a virtual day, the programmable luminaire adjusting intensities of the wavelengths of light in response to the edited light map;

when the grow cycle is completed, the user evaluating the living organism to generate yield results;

uploading the edited light map and the yield results to the shared light map database;

displaying the yield results and the edited light map to other users of the crowdsourcing web site and receiving votes from the other users for the edited light map; and

ranking the edited light map using the votes and displaying the edited light map in a ranked order to other users of the crowdsourcing web site;

whereby the edited light map is voted on by other users of the crowdsourcing web site for ranking.

16. The method for optimizing lighting applied to a living organism of claim 15 wherein receiving votes comprises receiving expert votes from expert users of the crowdsourcing web site, the expert users including experts from academic institutions, and receiving hobbyist votes from hobbyist users of the crowdsourcing web site;

wherein ranking the edited light map further comprises weighting the expert votes more highly than the hobbyist votes,

whereby expert and hobbyist votes are received and weighted for ranking.

17. The method for optimizing lighting applied to a living organism of claim 15 wherein the programmable luminaire adjusting intensities of the wavelengths of light in response to the edited light map comprises adjusting at least 5 different wavelengths of light by adjusting current to at least 5 arrays of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) each producing a different wavelength of light.

18. The method for optimizing lighting applied to a living organism of claim 17 further comprising:

during a sun fleck period of the virtual day, dimming some of the wavelengths of light to test shading on the living organism,

whereby sun fleck is tested on the living organism by dimming followed by a burst of light energy.

19. The method for optimizing lighting applied to a living organism of claim 18 further comprising:

during the grow cycle, comparing a grow time since a start of the grow cycle to a current time to detect a setting time between growth stages;

when the setting time is detected, switching to read a different portion of the edited light map, the different portion for a next growth stage,

wherein time, intensity, and mixture of the plurality of wavelengths of light applied by the programmable luminaire to the living organism are adjusted during the grow cycle of multiple growth stages, wherein each growth stage comprises multiple virtual days,

whereby wavelengths are adjusted for different growth stages and within each virtual day.

20. The method for optimizing lighting applied to a living organism of claim 18 wherein searching the shared light map database for light maps for the living organism comprises searching by a species of living organism within a genus of a kind of a living organism, and returning a light map for another species of living organism within a same genus of living organisms.