Camera-Controlled Lighting with Gesture Pointing Area Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern lighting systems lack flexibility in selectively adjusting illumination for different areas within a total illumination area, especially when object recognition is involved, and require prior programming for adapting lighting parameters to identified objects.
Innovation Solution
A camera-controlled lighting system that uses a camera with overlapping field of view to detect objects and hand gestures, calculating a pointing vector to determine a selected area for adjusted illumination, allowing direct control by an operator without prior programming, and includes a processing unit to transform camera coordinates to lighting system coordinates for precise control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If automated object recognition is used to control lighting systems, then object identification capability is improved, but flexibility in selecting and adapting lighting parameters for different objects deteriorates due to requiring advance programming
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables operators to directly control lighting parameters by making hand gestures that are naturally interpreted by the processing unit. The operator serves their own control needs without requiring pre-programmed rules or complex programming interfaces, achieving both automation and flexibility simultaneously
2Manufacturing precision
If lighting systems selectively adjust illumination for different areas, then lighting control precision is improved, but system complexity deteriorates due to requiring multiple lighting zones and coordinate transformations
Solution Approach 1:
The camera serves as an intermediary device that captures the scene and provides coordinate information to the processing unit. This intermediary enables precise area selection and coordinate transformation without requiring complex direct control mechanisms, simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining precision
3Measurement precision
If 3D cameras are used to determine selected areas, then area determination accuracy is improved, but device cost deteriorates compared to 2D camera systems
Solution Approach 1:
The system adds a depth dimension to the camera system, transitioning from 2D to 3D imaging. This dimensional enhancement provides accurate depth information for calculating pointing vectors and determining selected areas, improving measurement precision while the patent acknowledges the associated cost increase
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention is related to a camera-controlled lighting system comprising a lighting system (2) capable of adjusting at least one lighting parameter in a selected area within a total illumination area of the lighting system. The selected area is illuminated differently from the at least one lighting parameter outside the selected area. A camera (3) having a field of view overlapping with the total illumination area captures images based on which the selected area is determined A processing unit (4) is capable of detecting objects in the image captured by the camera (3) and is configured to control the lighting system (2) based on detected objects including a hand making a gesture, wherein the processing unit (4) is further configured to calculate a pointing vector (16) upon detection of a defined hand and finger gesture and an intersection of the pointing vector with an object (11) to determine the selected area