LIGHTING SYNCHRONIZATION IN HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES

Description

[0001] The invention relates to a method for synchronizing the lighting of one or more household appliances with a reference lighting, as well as to a computer program product with instructions for carrying out the method with a mobile terminal.

[0002] Many kitchen furniture manufacturers now offer the option of installing ambient lighting in the kitchen, for example, in a kitchen island or on the wall cabinets, in the form of direct / indirect lighting, etc. Household appliances also often feature lighting, for example, to illuminate their interiors and / or control elements, to highlight food stored inside, but also for aesthetic reasons. For example, with extractor hoods, this lighting is often intended to illuminate the cooktop and is therefore particularly prominent, as it is essentially part of the room lighting. Wine coolers are also often placed in the living room.

[0003] Manufacturers ensure consistent lighting within their own furniture or appliance series. However, coordination with appliances or furniture from other manufacturers is not possible. Synchronization with the rest of the kitchen or room lighting is not provided.

[0004] This creates the problem that the color temperatures / intensities between, say, kitchen island lighting and the appliances, and / or even between appliances from different manufacturers, are not synchronized. If there are significant discrepancies, especially in color but also in brightness, the lighting appears inconsistent. This disrupts the overall visual impression of the kitchen and can potentially lead to food appearing different depending on where it is being prepared. This is detrimental to the user.

[0005] Replacing bulbs to achieve the same color temperature is often impossible because the bulbs are often permanently installed. Since replaceable bulbs with a fixed color spectrum are generally only available in fixed gradations, only an approximation, not an optimal match, can be achieved. Replacing bulbs is time-consuming and expensive, and on top of that, the bulbs no longer needed potentially generate electronic waste.

[0006] Manually adjusting the color temperature of light bulbs on household appliances is generally possible, provided the device and light bulb support it. However, this is relatively inconvenient for the user, especially when multiple household appliances need to be adjusted. There is no way to conveniently align the color temperatures and / or light intensities of the reference lighting and household appliances across all systems.

[0007] WO 2020 / 013676 A1 discloses an electronic device for controlling the brightness of a light source and an operating method for the electronic device. Here, an image containing an ambient environment of a light source is captured, information about an exposure of the captured image is obtained, information about a brightness of the ambient environment of the light source is determined based on the exposure information, and a brightness of the light source is controlled based on the determined information about the brightness of the ambient environment.

[0008] The invention therefore addresses the problem of creating a convenient way for users to adapt the lighting of household appliances to a reference lighting in order to ensure uniform lighting.

[0009] According to the invention, this problem is solved by a method having the features of patent claim 1 and a computer program product according to claim 8. Advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention emerge from the subclaims.

[0010] According to one aspect of the invention, a method for synchronizing the lighting of one or more household appliances with a reference lighting is provided, comprising: Recording (101) the reference illumination (2) with a camera of a mobile terminal (1) in order to obtain a target color value and a target light intensity value; connecting (102) the mobile terminal (1) to one of the one or more household appliances; controlling (103) the illumination of the household appliance (3); recording (104) the illumination of the household appliance (3) with the camera of the mobile terminal (1) in order to obtain an actual color value and an actual light intensity value; and adjusting (106) the illumination of the household appliance (3) by means of the mobile terminal (1) in order to match the actual color value and the actual light intensity value to the target color value and the target light intensity value.

[0011] The user doesn't have to live with different color concepts or different colors in the kitchen lighting. Instead, using the invention, they can conveniently adjust their appliances to the color temperature and / or light intensity of, for example, the lighting in a room such as a kitchen or an existing appliance from another manufacturer, so that the overall color concept of the lighting matches. The prerequisite is that the color temperature and / or light intensity of the household appliance can be adjusted via the mobile device, for example, using the manufacturer's app.

[0012] According to one embodiment, the step of adapting comprises: Repeating the steps of controlling (103) and recording (104) for several or all setting options for the lighting of the household appliance (3); determining the correspondence of the actual color value and actual light intensity value with the target color value and target light intensity value for the several or all setting options; determining the setting option which represents a minimum correspondence or the greatest correspondence of the actual color value and actual light intensity value with the target color value and target light intensity value; and setting the lighting of the household appliance (3) to the determined setting option.

[0013] A simple way to determine the closest matching setting is to completely "tune" the color temperature and / or light intensity range of the device being adjusted and find the setting with the closest match to the reference illuminance. Complete tuning prevents only local maximums of the match from being mistakenly identified as global maximums. Alternatively, however, the first maximum found can be used to find an at least acceptable match as quickly as possible, although the match may be less good.

[0014] The analysis or adjustment of the color temperature and intensity can also be carried out using a histogram, e.g. Fourier transformation.

[0015] According to one embodiment, in the step of setting, several household appliances of the one or more household appliances are set.

[0016] If several household appliances are present, it is preferable to determine the best setting for one appliance and then apply the resulting setting to all other household appliances. Alternatively, the procedure described above would also be possible, but more complex, for each appliance to be performed individually.

[0017] According to one embodiment, the reference lighting is the lighting of a room in which the one or more household appliances are installed.

[0018] According to another embodiment, the reference lighting is the lighting of another household appliance whose lighting is not adjustable.

[0019] According to one embodiment, the lighting of the household appliance or household appliances is adjusted by wirelessly transmitting one or more adjustment parameters from the mobile terminal.

[0020] According to one embodiment, the method is carried out for several color temperatures and / or brightnesses of the reference illumination.

[0021] This configuration allows for various reference lighting settings. For example, if the external kitchen island has different color states, such as mood color temperatures, the devices can also be synchronized to several different colors. Examples of this include "party light" or "subtle lighting."

[0022] According to a further aspect of the invention, a computer program product is provided, comprising instructions which, when executed on a mobile terminal, cause the steps of a method as described above to be carried out.

[0023] An embodiment of the invention is shown purely schematically in the drawings and is described in more detail below. It shows Figure 1 shows a system with which the method according to the invention can be carried out; and Figure 2 shows a flow diagram of an embodiment of the method according to the invention.

[0024] In Figure 1A system is schematically shown in which the invention can be used. A mobile device 1 is provided, which has a camera (not shown). This can be, for example, a smartphone or tablet. The room has a reference lighting 2, represented here as a ceiling lamp by way of example. The reference lighting 2 can also be, for example, kitchen island lighting, lighting in an extractor hood, worktop lighting under wall cabinets, or even the lighting of another household appliance without a light source that can be adjusted in terms of color temperature.

[0025] Furthermore, a household appliance 3 is provided which has adjustable lighting. A wine cooler is shown here as an example of the household appliance 3. However, according to the invention, this can in principle be any stationary or permanently installed household appliance which has adjustable lighting. The lighting can, as here, be lighting of an interior of the household appliance 3, but it can also be lighting of operating elements, to highlight food stored therein (such as the wine bottles here), or even lighting for aesthetic reasons. In the case of an extractor hood, the lighting would also be provided to illuminate the hob, i.e. another household appliance.

[0026] The mobile terminal 1 and the household appliance 3 can be connected wirelessly, for example via WLAN, for example using an app from the manufacturer that runs on the mobile terminal 1. According to the invention, several such household appliances 3 can of course also be provided (not shown).

[0027] In Figure 2 A flowchart of an embodiment of the method according to the invention is shown. In step 101, the reference illumination is recorded using the camera of the mobile device in order to obtain a target value for the color temperature and light intensity. In step 102, the device is connected to the household appliance, preferably via a wireless WLAN connection, either directly or indirectly via a cloud connection between the mobile device and the household appliance. This step 102 can, of course, also occur before step 101.

[0028] In step 103, the household appliance's lighting to be adjusted is controlled via the wireless connection; in the simplest case, the lighting is activated. In step 104, the actual color temperature and / or light intensity of the household appliance's lighting is recorded using the camera of the mobile device.

[0029] In step 105, a check is made to determine whether the target and actual values match within a specified range. This range is preferably chosen so that a user cannot detect any relevant difference in the color temperature and light intensity between the reference lighting and the lighting of the household appliance. Essentially identical matching is normally not required. If there is sufficient matching, the method ends in step 106. If multiple household appliances are present, this step also includes sending parameters to the other household appliances to adjust their lighting in an identical manner. For one or all of the household appliances involved, this step can be used to "save" this setting as a favorite setting in the household appliances, so that this setting can always be reproduced, even if the lighting on the household appliance is intentionally or accidentally adjusted.

[0030] If there is insufficient agreement in step 105, the method continues from step 103, where the control is modified to achieve a better agreement. For example, the entire adjustment range of the household appliance's lighting can be "tuned" in this way, with the degree of agreement with the target value being determined for each adjustment option. The optimal setting can then be identified as the one that offers the greatest degree of agreement (global maximum of agreement). This determined setting may, under certain circumstances, be such that the agreement still lies below the specified degree of agreement. However, since the entire adjustment range has been checked, the method can proceed to step 106 in this case, since no further improvement can be achieved.

[0031] To achieve faster, but less precise, tuning, the process described above can alternatively be terminated upon detection of a local maximum of agreement during tuning, provided the agreement at least reaches the specified level. Continuing the process to achieve even better agreement can thus be avoided in favor of shortening the time.

[0032] The analysis or comparison of the color temperature and intensity can be carried out using a histogram, e.g. Fourier transformation.

Claims

1. Method for synchronising the illumination of one or more domestic appliances with a reference illumination, the method comprising: - recording (101) the reference illumination (2) using a camera of a mobile terminal (1) in order to obtain a target colour value and a target light intensity value; - connecting (102) the mobile terminal (1) to one of the one or more domestic appliances; - controlling (103) the illumination of the domestic appliance (3); - recording (104) the illumination of the domestic appliance (3) using the camera of the mobile terminal (1), in order to obtain an actual colour value and an actual light intensity value; and - adjusting (106) the illumination of the domestic appliance (3) by means of the mobile terminal (1) in order to adapt the actual colour value and the actual light intensity value to the target colour value and the target light intensity value.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the adjusting step comprises: - repeating the steps of controlling (103) and recording (104) for a plurality of or all setting options for the illumination of the domestic appliance (3); - determining the compliance of the actual colour value and the actual light intensity value with the target colour value and the target light intensity value for the plurality of or all setting options; - identifying the setting option that represents a minimum compliance or the greatest compliance of the actual colour value and the actual light intensity value with the target colour value and the target light intensity value; and - setting the illumination of the domestic appliance (3) to the identified setting option.

3. Method according to claim 2, wherein in the setting step, the illumination of a plurality of domestic appliances is set to the identified setting option.

4. Method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the reference illumination (2) is the illumination of a room in which the one or more domestic appliances are positioned.

5. Method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the reference illumination (2) is the illumination of another domestic appliance, the illumination of which appliance cannot be set.

6. Method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the illumination of the domestic appliance or the domestic appliances is set by wirelessly transmitting one or more setting parameters from the mobile terminal (1) to the domestic appliance(s).

7. Method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the method is carried out for a plurality of colour temperatures and / or brightnesses of the reference illumination (2).

8. Computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on a mobile terminal (1), cause the steps of a method according to any of claims 1 to 7 to be carried out.