Illumination system

• US 8,872,442 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2012
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Fushimi, Shigemi
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DON P
• Application Number:
  US13/692,175
• Publication Number:
  US 20130141011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 694 Days
• Field of Search: 315/149, 315/294, 315/312
• US Class Current: 315/294
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/10 Controlling the light source
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/155 Coordinated control of two or more light sources
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission

Abstract

An illumination system includes: a plurality of lighting devices; a control device for controlling the lighting devices; and a remote controller for remotely setting a control content to be performed by the control device. The remote controller includes: a light property setting unit for setting a light property of a control target lighting device; a pointer for emitting visible light to point the target lighting device; a projection position acquiring unit acquiring a projection position of the visible light; and a remote controller transmitting unit for wirelessly transmitting the property information indicative of the light property and the projection position information.

Claims

1. An illumination system, comprising:

a plurality of lighting devices;

a control device for controlling the lighting devices;

a remote controller for remotely setting a control content to be performed by the control device; and

a projection position acquiring unit,

wherein the remote controller includes;

a light property setting unit for setting a light property of a control target lighting device among the lighting devices;

a pointer for emitting visible light to illuminate and point the control target lighting device; and

a remote controller transmitting unit for wirelessly transmitting property information indicative of the light property set by the light property setting unit to the control device,

wherein the projection position acquiring unit acquires projection position information indicative of a projection position of the visible light emitted from the pointer,

wherein the projection position information is transmitted to the control device,

wherein the control device includes;

a control device receiving unit for receiving the property information and the projection position information;

a lighting device selecting unit for selecting the control target lighting device based on the projection position information received by the control device receiving unit and lighting device position information acquired in advance; and

a control device transmitting unit for transmitting the property information received by the control device receiving unit to the control target lighting device selected by the lighting device selecting unit, and

wherein each of the lighting devices includes;

a lighting device receiving unit for receiving the property information transmitted from the control device transmitting unit; and

a lighting device control unit for controlling a light source of each of the lighting devices based on the property information received by the lighting device receiving unit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the light property setting unit includes an imaging unit for imaging a sample having a light property or an information code indicative of a light property, and the light property setting unit is configured to obtain the light property by analyzing an image obtained by the imaging unit and to set the obtained light property as the light property of the control target lighting device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the lighting devices includes a lighting device transmitting unit for wirelessly transmitting current property information indicative of a current light property of said at least one of the lighting devices to the remote controller, the remote controller includes a remote controller receiving unit for receiving the current property information wirelessly transmitted from the lighting device transmitting unit, and the light property setting unit is configured to set the light property indicated by the current property information received by the remote controller receiving unit as a light property of another control target lighting device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the remote controller further includes a setting adjustment unit for adjusting the content of the light property set by the light property setting unit.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the projection position acquiring unit is provided within the remote controller and the remote controller transmitting unit wirelessly transmits the projection position information acquired by the projection position acquiring unit to the control device, and

wherein the projection position acquiring unit has:

a remote controller position detecting unit for detecting the position of the remote controller;

a direction detecting unit for, based on the posture of the remote controller, detecting the emission direction of the visible light emitted from the pointer; and

a distance measuring unit for, based on the light reflected from a projection object of the visible light, measuring a distance from the remote controller to the projection position of the visible light, wherein

the projection position acquiring unit is configured to recognize a position which is moved forward from the position of the remote controller detected by the remote controller position detecting unit in the emission direction detected by the direction detecting unit by the distance measured by the distance measuring unit, as the projection position of the visible light.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the projection position acquiring unit is provided separately from the remote controller, the projection position acquiring unit including a distance image sensor for imaging the visible light to acquire a distance image indicative of a three-dimensional optical path of the visible light, the projection position acquiring unit is configured to find the relative positional relationship of the projection position of the visible light with respect to the distance image sensor based on the distance image acquired by the distance image sensor and to calculate the three-dimensional coordinates of the projection position in an arrangement space of the lighting device based on the relative positional relationship thus found and the pre-acquired three-dimensional coordinates of the distance image sensor in the arrangement space of the lighting device, and the lighting device selecting unit is configured to acquire the three-dimensional coordinates of the projection position calculated by the projection position acquiring unit without going through the remote controller transmitting unit.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the lighting device selecting unit is configured to select, as a control target, the lighting device existing within a selection area determined on the basis of the projection position of the visible light.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the remote controller includes an area changing operation unit for enlarging or reducing the selection area, the remote controller transmitting unit is configured to wirelessly transmit area changing information indicative of the content of the selection area changing operation performed by the area changing operation unit to the control device, the control device receiving unit is configured to receive the area changing information wirelessly transmitted from the remote controller transmitting unit, and the lighting device selecting unit is configured to select, as the control target, the lighting device existing within the changed selection area based on the area changing information received by the control device receiving unit.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein, when a locus of the projection position of the visible light forms a closed curve, the lighting device selecting unit is configured to select, as a control target, the lighting device existing within a space surrounded by the closed curve when seen from the remote controller.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the remote controller further includes a setting adjustment unit for adjusting the content of the light property set by the light property setting unit.