Patents Examined by Thuy V. Tran
  • Patent number: 10749525
    Abstract: A light switch network comprises a plurality of light switch units, each comprising a gesture interface to sense a user gesture by receiving at least one gesture signal from a sensing zone, and configured to exchange one or more gesture status signals with at least one other switch unit in the network in relation to the received gesture signal; each switch being enabled, on receiving the gesture signal: in a first mode, to change a designated switch mode and/or state in response to the gesture signal; or in a second mode, to not change the designated switch mode and/or state according to one or more conditions associated with the status signals received from the other switch unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: XYZ INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventors: Andrew H. Lohbihler, Michael Kosic, Kevin Kowalchuk, Valentin M. Burtea
  • Patent number: 10716189
    Abstract: Luminaire controllers and methods for controlling luminaires are disclosed. A luminaire controller comprises a sensor input, a communication interface, a mode selector, a local control component, and a distributed control component. The sensor input receives sensor signals from occupancy sensing devices of a luminaire, the communication interface communicates with a lighting network, the mode selector selects an operating mode for the luminaire based on sensor signals and occupancy information, the local control component controls an illumination source of the luminaire according to a selected operating mode, and the distributed control component selectively broadcasts occupancy messages by initiating a distributed control procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: SIGNIFY HOLDING B.V.
    Inventors: Jurgen Mario Vangeel, Pieter De Vreeze
  • Patent number: 10716181
    Abstract: Systems and methods for compensating, controlling, mixing and saturating/desaturating colors produced by or emitted from LED artificial light sources through use of multiple channel, LED controllers to control the proportion of constituent colors each to the other, to control the intensity level of the total light output of the mixed, desaturated light during and after color mixing and/or saturation/desaturation by simultaneously increasing and decreasing power to the constituent color LEDs at the same rate, and once a desired color has been produced, changing the intensity/brightness and/or degree of saturation of the produced color without changing the hue of the produced color.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: LITGEAR, INC.
    Inventors: Albert DeMayo, Alex Vazquez, Lee Parker, Sean Goossen, James David Smith
  • Patent number: 10702617
    Abstract: Antimicrobial backlit devices and methods are provided. In one example embodiment, a device includes a backlight system configured to provide backlight for a display screen of the device. The backlight system includes one or more HINS light sources configured to emit HINS light and one or more non-HINS light sources configured to emit non-HINS light. The device further includes one or more control devices configured to control operation of the one or more HINS light sources and the one or more non-HINS light sources according to one or more light control profiles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Hubbell Incorporated
    Inventors: Thomas Warren Weeks, Jr., Thomas James Veltri, John Lawrence Wolf, Blake Ashton Nickles, Christopher Lane Bailey
  • Patent number: 10701778
    Abstract: A lighting system includes a lighting device that further includes a housing, and light emitting diode (LED) modules positioned in an opening of the housing to emit light away from the housing. Each LED module includes a substrate, a plurality of module-level conductors, and a plurality of LED sets, each of which comprises a first section including a first group of LEDs, one or more additional sections (each including an additional group of LEDs), a first conductive element that electrically connects the first section to a first one of the module-level conductors, and one or more additional conductive elements. The lighting system also includes a sensor and a control circuitry configured to generate commands to control drive currents delivered to the first group of LEDs in each LED set and each additional group of LEDs in each LED set based on the data collected by the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: SIGNIFY HOLDING B.V.
    Inventors: Christopher D. Nolan, Joseph R. Casper, Benjamin David Vollmer, George Dederich
  • Patent number: 10701782
    Abstract: A verification device to detect malfunction in a connected lighting system, the connected lighting system comprising multiple luminaires and multiple occupancy sensors, the verification device comprising: —an input interface (301) arranged to connect to a database and obtain the sensor data obtained from the multiple occupancy sensors, —an aggregation unit (310) arranged to compute occupancy values which are indicative of occupancy over a specified time period at different hierarchical levels by applying a statistical measure, and —a processing unit (320) arranged to compare an occupancy value at a lower hierarchical level with an occupancy value at a higher hierarchical level, finding deviations that indicate a malfunction in the connected lighting system and producing a signal to communicate the malfunction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: SIGNIFY HOLDING B.V.
    Inventors: Ashish Vijay Pandharipande, David Ricardo Caicedo Fernández, Maurice Ampt
  • Patent number: 10694607
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing with a display. A transparent portion of the housing may serve as a display cover layer and may overlap an array of pixels in the display. The array of pixels may form an active area of the display for displaying images for a user. An ambient light sensor window may be formed in an inactive area of the display that does not overlap pixels. An ambient light sensor may be mounted in an interior region of the housing. A metal-coated light guide may have a first end aligned with the ambient light sensor window to receive ambient light from an exterior region surrounding the device and may have a second end at which the ambient light is provided to the ambient light sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Tingjun Xu, Guocheng Shao, Lei Yu, Ove Lyngnes, Sunggu Kang, Tianbo Sun, Xianwei Zhao, Xiaoyong Fu, Xingxing Cai
  • Patent number: 10694616
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a filament power supply for an electron accelerator and an electron accelerator. The filament power supply includes: a rectifier circuit configured to convert a power frequency AC voltage signal into a DC voltage signal; an inverter circuit configured to convert the DC voltage signal into an AC voltage signal; a sampling circuit configured to sample the AC voltage signal to obtain a current sampling signal or a voltage sampling signal; a pulse width modulation control chip configured to adjust a pulse width modulation signal until a voltage of the current sampling signal is equal to that of a reference current signal, or a voltage of the voltage sampling signal is equal to that of a reference voltage signal; a modulation circuit configured to modulate the power frequency AC voltage signal to obtain a modulation signal and output the pulse width modulation signal and the modulation signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Inventors: Jinsheng Liu, Yaohong Liu, Wei Jia, Xinshui Yan, Wei Li
  • Patent number: 10687409
    Abstract: A faceplate remote control device may be attached to a wall-mounted mechanical light switch that has a toggle actuator. The faceplate remote control device may include a toggle indicator that detects operation of the toggle actuator of the mechanical switch. The toggle indicator may cause the generation of an indication of detected operation of the toggle actuator. The toggle indicator may comprise a sliding member that is configured to move with the toggle actuator. The toggle indicator may comprise an obstruction detection device that includes an infrared (IR) transmitter and an IR receiver. The faceplate remote control device may include a control circuit and a wireless communication circuit. The control circuit may be configured to cause the wireless communication circuit to transmit one or more messages in response to detecting operation of the toggle actuator of the mechanical switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2020
    Assignee: Lutron Technology Company LLC
    Inventors: Jeffrey Karc, Jamie Steffie, Jordan H. Crafts
  • Patent number: 10681790
    Abstract: A spotlight and a method of controlling the spotlight with an external device are provided. The spotlight includes a first light source including a center spotlight, a second light source including area lights, a power supply, a transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly with the external device, and a processor. The processor is operable to receive a first input from the external device specifying a first amount of power to be provided to the first light source, and receive a second input from the external device specifying a second amount of power to be provided to the second light source. The processor is also operable to control the power supply to provide the first amount of power to the first light source in response to the first input, and control the power supply to provide the second amount of power to the second light source in response to the second input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation
    Inventors: Kyle Harvey, Alan Amundson, Ross McIntyre
  • Patent number: 10672261
    Abstract: A control device is configured to control one or more electrical loads in a load control system. The control device is a wall-mounted device such as dimmer switch, a remote control device, or a retrofit remote control device. The control device includes a gesture-based user interface for applying advanced control over the one or more electrical loads. The types of control includes absolute and relative control, intensity and color control, preset, zone, or operational mode selection, etc. Feedback is provided on the control device regarding a status of the one or more electrical loads or the control device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: Lutron Technology Company LLC
    Inventors: Chris Dimberg, Matthew V. Harte, Jason C. Killo, Brad Michael Kreschollek, Matthew Philip McDonald, Daniel L. Twaddell
  • Patent number: 10674592
    Abstract: Provided is a plasma generation apparatus including: a housing in which a window is defined at one side in a first direction; a stick type plasma source provided in the housing to generate plasma toward the window; and a driving unit coupled to the plasma source to allow one end of the plasma source to perform a reciprocating movement in a second direction that is a longitudinal direction of the window.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventor: Yark Yeon Kim
  • Patent number: 10674578
    Abstract: A circuit includes: a communication interface configured to receive data; a plurality of output terminals; a bank of input registers coupled to the communication interface; a bank of buffer registers; a bank of output registers; a signal generator configured to generate a plurality of output signals based on respective registers of the bank of output registers at respective output terminals; and a conversion stage configured to: when data is received by the bank of input registers from the communication interface, sequentially convert content of the input registers of the bank of input registers and store the converted content into corresponding buffer registers of the bank of buffer registers based on a conversion function, and when the conversion stage finishes storing the converted content into the buffer registers, simultaneously copy content from the buffer registers into corresponding output registers of the bank of output registers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
    Inventors: Ignazio Cala′, Salvatore Pantano, Santi Carlo Adamo
  • Patent number: 10674574
    Abstract: A lighting control system includes a control system, a plurality of connected control devices and a plurality of lighting output devices each of which includes a processor at their installed location. The control devices and lighting output devices are in communication with the processors via the conventional two-wire power supply wiring. The connected lighting devices are configured to receive a control signal from the control devices through the control system and selectively operate based on the control signal received. The control system may further support multiple control systems that may be interconnected together via conventional two-wire power delivery systems to control larger arrays of sensors, control inputs, and lighting output devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph E. Herbst, Nicholas G. Preiser, Ward Ramsdell, Marc Christiansen
  • Patent number: 10667360
    Abstract: Systems and methods for compensating, controlling, mixing and saturating/desaturating colors produced by or emitted from LED artificial light sources through use of multiple channel, LED controllers to control the proportion of constituent colors each to the other, to control the intensity level of the total light output of the mixed, desaturated light during and after color mixing and/or saturation/desaturation by simultaneously increasing and decreasing power to the constituent color LEDs at the same rate, and once a desired color has been produced, changing the intensity/brightness and/or degree of saturation of the produced color without changing the hue of the produced color.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Inventors: Albert DeMayo, Alex Vazquez, Lee Parker, Sean Goossen, James David Smith
  • Patent number: 10661707
    Abstract: Instead of binary brake lights on a car, the present disclosure provides methods and apparatus to provide an indicator of brake magnitude of the car. A pressure sensor, accelerometer, or other device capable of approximating the magnitude of a braking force is coupled to a control module, which itself is coupled to auxiliary lights mounted on the car. These auxiliary lights are capable of displaying a pulse, color, or a pattern correlated to the magnitude of the braking force. This gives drivers behind the car an indication of how quickly to respond to a braking car.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Inventor: Maurice Matovich
  • Patent number: 10661704
    Abstract: A vehicle lamp includes: a low beam unit including a first light emitting unit and irradiating light only to region below a cutoff line; a high beam unit including a second light emitting unit and irradiating light to regions around and above the cutoff line; and a lighting controller that controls lighting of the low beam unit and the high beam unit. The lighting controller controls to switch between a low mode in which the low beam unit is turned ON and the high beam unit is turned OFF and a high mode in which the low beam unit and the high beam unit are turned ON, and a first light quantity irradiated by the low beam unit in the high mode is larger than a second light quantity irradiated by the low beam unit in the low mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Assignee: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yuji Yasuda
  • Patent number: 10660181
    Abstract: A controllable silicon light regulation apparatus without a driving power element receives an alternating current (AC) from an AC source comprising a first light emitting diode (LED) source module and a second LED source module. The controllable silicon light regulation apparatus stores specified color temperatures. A difference between adjacent specified color temperatures is 100K. Under a segment dimming mode, the controllable silicon light regulation apparatus sets a segment value and selects a number of the specified color temperatures based on the segment value. A color temperature of the controllable silicon light regulation apparatus is gradually regulated in a loop of target color temperatures based on a counted number of turn-on times in a specified time duration of the AC source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: CHAMP TECH OPTICAL (FOSHAN) CORPORATION
    Inventor: Chin-Che Hung
  • Patent number: 10660187
    Abstract: A lighting system and its method of operation that enables multiple independent light assemblies to be simultaneously controlled. The light assemblies contain a matrix of LEDs that are capable of generating different color profiles throughout a range of intensities. The light assemblies also contain a control module that controls the color profiles and the range of intensities being produced by the LEDs. A custom software application is run on a smartphone. The software application enables manual selection of the color profiles and the range of intensities, and the smartphone generates command signals that are transmitted to the light assemblies for execution. The software application generates a control screen on the smartphone that plots the color profiles against the range of intensities. The color profiles and the range of intensities are selected by touching a point on the control screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Inventor: Brian Zima
  • Patent number: 10660169
    Abstract: Provided is control method and a lighting system having a plurality of lighting elements that includes a power supply for supplying power, a lighting driver having a microcontroller and configured to receive power from the power supply and output power to the plurality of lighting elements for operation thereof, a control system in electrical or wireless communication with the microcontroller, and configured to communicate with the microcontroller, to control an operational mode of the plurality of lighting elements via the lighting driver, wherein the microcontroller is configured to transmit an output reference signal as a control signal, and a peak detection circuit that receives the output reference control signal from the microcontroller, and generates a standby control signal from the output reference control signal received, to thereby operate the plurality of lighting elements in an on or standby mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: CURRENT LIGHTING SOLUTIONS, LLC
    Inventors: Kevin Andrew Candow, Jeffrey Glenn Felty