Sensor device with tilting or orientation-correcting photo sensor for atmosphere creation
First Claim
1. A method for controlling a physical property of light emitted by at least one light source, said method comprising the steps ofreceiving modulated light emitted by said at least one light source, which modulation permits discrimination from further light incident on the photodetector, at a planar photodetector movably arranged at a portable user device in order to retain a preferred orientation;
- generating a detection signal representing a value of said physical property of the received light; and
transmitting driving signals to said at least one light source on the basis of the detection signal.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and a device for controlling a physical property of light emitted from a light source. In particular, the invention can be applied to a lighting system for atmosphere creation. The measurements needed for feedback control are made at a portable user device comprising a planar photodetector. More or less all industrially available photodetectors are of the planar type, but planarity is in fact a necessary feature to achieve faithful relative measurements. Since the user device is portable, variations in the orientation of the photodetector can introduce large and unpredictable measurement errors, making effective control of the light source impossible. According to one embodiment of the invention, the orientation-dependent errors are eliminated by measuring the actual orientation of the photodetector and processing the detection signal appropriately. According to a second embodiment, the photodetector is movably mounted in the user device in order to retain its preferred orientation irrespective of the orientation of the user device. In a third embodiment, the emitted light is monitored by a plurality of photodetectors; knowing the actual orientation of the user device, the control device can give priority to the measurements coming from the best oriented photodetector at every instant.
7 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for controlling a physical property of light emitted by at least one light source, said method comprising the steps of
receiving modulated light emitted by said at least one light source, which modulation permits discrimination from further light incident on the photodetector, at a planar photodetector movably arranged at a portable user device in order to retain a preferred orientation; -
generating a detection signal representing a value of said physical property of the received light; and transmitting driving signals to said at least one light source on the basis of the detection signal. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A method for controlling a physical property of light emitted by at least one light source, said method comprising the steps of
signalling to a user to change the orientation of a planar photodetector, which is arranged at a portable user device, in order to decrease a deviation of the photodetector from a preferred orientation; -
receiving modulated light emitted by said at least one light source, which modulation permits discrimination from further light incident on the photodetector, at the photodetector; generating a detection signal representing a value of said physical property of the received light; and transmitting driving signals to said at least one light source on the basis of the detection signal.
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4. A method for controlling a physical property of light emitted by at least one light source, said method comprising the steps of
receiving modulated light emitted by said at least one light source, which modulation permits discrimination from further light incident on the photodetector, at a planar photodetector arranged at a portable user device; -
generating a detection signal representing a value of said physical property of the received light; determining an actual orientation of the photodetector with respect to a preferred orientation; determining, from the detection signal and the determined actual orientation, a corrected value of said physical property of the received light; and transmitting driving signals to said at least one light source based on the corrected value. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus for controlling a physical property of light emitted by at least one light source, said apparatus comprising
a planar photodetector movably arranged at a portable user device in order to retain a preferred orientation, said photodetector being arranged to receive modulated light emitted by said at least one light source, which modulation permits discrimination from further light incident on the photodetector, from which photodetector a detection signal representing a value of said physical property of the received light is generated; - and
means for transmitting driving signals to said at least one light source (100) on the basis of the detection signal. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. An apparatus for controlling a physical property of light emitted by at least one light source, said apparatus comprising
a planar photodetector mounted in a portable user device, said photodetector being arranged to receive modulated light emitted by said at least one light source, which modulation permits discrimination from further light incident on the photodetector, from which photodetector a detection signal representing a value of said physical property of the received light is generated; -
means for determining the actual orientation of the photodetector with respect to a preferred orientation; means for determining, from the detection signal and the actual orientation, a corrected value of said physical property of the light; and means for transmitting driving signals to said at least one light source on the basis of the corrected value. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification