SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A LIGHTING EFFECT

• US 20140265864A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABL IP Holding LLC (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ABL IP Holding LLC (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hickok, John T., Norton, Mark, Westrick, Richard L. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 9,018,840 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 315/132
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/10 Controlling the light source
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/155 Coordinated control of two or more light sources

Abstract

Systems and methods for creating and previewing a lighting effect, such as displaying an array of colors across a number of lighting fixtures are provided. A user may specify some of the colors for the array, as well as relative positions of the colors. A lighting management system determines transitional or intermediary colors and assigns the colors specified by the user, as well as the intermediary colors to the lighting fixtures. The resulting lighting effect may be displayed in a preview bar. The colors and the order of the colors may be edited to obtain a desired lighting effect.

Claims

1. A method for creating a lighting state for a plurality of lighting fixtures, comprising:

receiving, via one or more input devices, an ordered list of colors, wherein the ordered list of colors includes a first color and a last color;

defining, via a controller, a plurality of steps wherein each step corresponds to one of the plurality of lighting fixtures, wherein the steps include a first step and a last step, the first step is associated with the first color and the last step is associated with the last color, and the first step is associated with a lighting fixture at a first location and the last step is associated with a lighting fixture at a last location;

determining, via the controller, intermediary colors for steps between the first step and the last step, wherein the intermediary colors are determined by defining a path from the first color to the last color through a color space and selecting colors along the path that are approximately equally spaced along the path as the intermediary colors; and

assigning, via the controller, the intermediary colors for the steps between the first step and the last step so that a progression of the intermediary colors in a direction from the first step to the last step follows a progression of the colors along the path from the first color to the last color.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, via a display device, a preview bar showing the first step with the first color, the last step with the last color and the steps between the first step and the last step with the intermediary colors.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, via the controller, control signals to the lighting fixtures so that the lighting fixture at the first location displays the first color, the lighting fixture at the last location displays the last color, and lighting fixtures at locations between the first location and the last location display the intermediary colors.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving, via one or more input devices, an ordered list of colors, further comprises:

receiving, via the one or more input devices, a midpoint color.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

defining, via the controller, a midpoint step, wherein the midpoint step is approximately halfway between the first step and the last step.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the path includes the midpoint color.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing, via a display device, a preview bar showing the first step with the first color, the last step with the last color and the steps between the first step and the last step with the intermediary colors, wherein one of the steps between the first step and the last step shows the midpoint color.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the one or more input devices, a selection of a mirror function; and

redefining, by the controller, the steps so that a midpoint step is approximately halfway between the first step and the last step and is associated with the last color and the last step is associated with the first color, colors associated with steps between the first step and the midpoint step mirror colors associated with steps between the midpoint step and the last step, and the midpoint step is associated with a lighting fixture at a midpoint location that is approximately halfway between the lighting fixture at the first location and the lighting fixture at the last location.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

providing, via a display device, a revised preview bar showing the first step with the first color, the midpoint step with the last color, the last step with the first color, and the steps between the first step and the midpoint step and the steps between the midpoint step and the last step with the intermediary colors.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

providing, via the controller, control signals to the lighting fixtures so that the lighting fixture at the first location displays the first color, the lighting fixture at the midpoint location displays the last color, the lighting fixture at the last location displays the first color, and lighting fixtures at locations between the first location and the midpoint location and between the midpoint location and the last location display the intermediary colors.

11. A method for creating a lighting state for a plurality of lighting fixtures, comprising:

receiving, via one or more input devices, an ordered list of colors, wherein the ordered list of colors includes a first color and a last color;

defining, via a controller, a plurality of steps wherein each step is associated with one of the plurality of lighting fixtures, wherein the steps includes a first step associated with the first color and a last step associated with the last color;

receiving, via the one or more input devices, a selection of a mirror function;

redefining, via the controller, the steps so that the first step and the last step are associated with the first color and a midpoint step is associated with the last color; and

determining, via the controller, intermediary colors for steps between the first step and the midpoint step and steps between the midpoint step and the last step, wherein the intermediary colors for the steps between the first step and the midpoint step correspond to colors between the first color and the last color in a color space and the intermediary colors for the steps between the midpoint step and the last step mirror the intermediary colors between the first step and the midpoint step.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing, via a display device, a preview bar showing the first step and the last step with the first color, the midpoint step with the last color, the steps between the first step and the midpoint step with the intermediary colors, and the steps between the midpoint step and the last step with the intermediary colors in a reverse order from an order between the first step and the midpoint step.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

assigning, via the controller, the color associated with the first step to a lighting fixture at a first location, the color associated with the midpoint step to a lighting fixture at a midpoint location, and the color associated with the last step to a lighting fixture at a last location; and

controlling, via the controller, the lighting fixtures so that the lighting fixture at the first location displays the first color, the lighting fixture at the midpoint location displays the last color, the lighting fixture at the last location displays the first color, and lighting fixtures at locations between the first location and the midpoint location and locations between the midpoint location and the last location display the intermediary colors.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein determining, via the controller, intermediary colors for steps between the first step and the midpoint step and steps between the midpoint step and the last step, comprises:

determining a path from the first color to the last color through the color space and selecting a number of approximately evenly spaced points along the path, wherein the number of points corresponds to the number of steps between the first step and the midpoint step.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein determining, via the controller, intermediary colors for steps between the first step and the midpoint step and steps between the midpoint step and the last step, comprises:

determining a frequency associated with the first color and determining a frequency associated with the last color; and

selecting a number of approximately evenly spaced frequencies between the frequency for the first color and the frequency for the last color, wherein the number of frequencies corresponds to the number of steps between the first step and the midpoint step.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein determining, via the controller, intermediary colors for steps between the first step and the midpoint step and steps between the midpoint step and the last step, comprises:

determining a wavelength associated with the first color and determining a wavelength associated with the last color; and

selecting a number of approximately evenly spaced wavelengths between the wavelength for the first color and the wavelength for the last color, wherein the number of wavelengths corresponds to the number of steps between the first step and the midpoint step.

17. A lighting management system, comprising:

a lighting controller configured to determine colors for a plurality of lighting fixtures in response to receiving a selection of the plurality of lighting fixtures, a first color, and a last color,

wherein the lighting controller is configured to assign a first lighting fixture to the first color and a last lighting fixture to the last color, and to determine intermediary colors for the lighting fixtures between the first lighting fixture and the last lighting fixture, and

wherein the lighting controller selects colors between the first color and the last color in a color space as the intermediary colors, wherein the colors between the first color and the last color are selected so that the colors are approximately evenly spaced through the color space.

18. The lighting management system of claim 17, further comprising:

a display for displaying a preview bar having a plurality of steps, wherein the first step is associated with the first color, the last step is associated with the last color, and steps between the first step and the last step are associated with the intermediary colors.

19. The lighting management system of claim 17, wherein the lighting controller is configured to control the lighting fixtures so that the first lighting fixture displays the first color, the last lighting fixture displays the last color, and lighting fixtures between the first lighting fixture and the last lighting fixture display the intermediary colors.

20. The lighting management system of claim 17, wherein when the lighting controller selects colors between the first color and the last color in a color space as the intermediary colors, the lighting controller is configured to determine a path from the first color to the last color through the color space and to select colors along the path as the intermediary colors.

21. The lighting management system of claim 20, wherein

the lighting controller is configured to assign the intermediary colors to lighting fixtures between the first lighting fixture and the last lighting fixture so that a progression of the intermediary colors in a direction from the first lighting fixture to the last lighting fixture follows a progression of the colors along the path from the first color to the last color.

22. The lighting management system of claim 20, further comprising:

a display for displaying a preview bar having a plurality of steps, wherein the first step is associated with the first color, the last step is associated with the last color, and steps between the first step and the last step are associated with the intermediary colors,

wherein the lighting controller is configured to assign the intermediary colors to the steps between the first step and the last step so that a progression of the intermediary colors in a direction from the first step to the last step follows a progression of the colors along the path from the first color to the last color.

23. The lighting management system of claim 18, wherein

the display is configured to display the preview bar so that a color associated with one step fades into a color associated with an adjacent step.

24. The lighting management system of claim 17, wherein

the lighting controller is configured to receive a midpoint color and to assign the midpoint color to a lighting fixture approximately halfway between the first lighting fixture and the last lighting fixture.

25. The lighting management system of claim 20, further comprising:

a display for displaying a preview bar having a plurality of steps, wherein the first step is associated with the first color, the last step is associated with the last color, and steps between the first step and the last step are associated with the intermediary colors,

wherein the path includes a point associated with the midpoint color, and wherein the display is configured to display the preview bar having a step approximately halfway between the first step and the last step that is associated with the midpoint color.

26. The lighting management system of claim 17, wherein when the lighting controller selects colors between the first color and the last color in a color space as the intermediary colors, the lighting controller is configured to determine a first frequency associated with the first color and a last frequency associated with the last color and to select intermediary colors having frequencies between the first frequency and the last frequency.

27. The lighting management system of claim 17, wherein when the lighting controller selects colors between the first color and the last color in a color space as the intermediary colors, the lighting controller is configured to determine a first wavelength associated with the first color and a last wavelength associated with the last color and to select intermediary colors having wavelengths between the first wavelength and the last wavelength.