Lighting control interface

Abstract

A lighting control interface consisting of a touch pad matrix, a housing, different faceplates having unique graphical designs, and a control circuit. The touch pad matrix has a plurality of conductive touch pads. The faceplate has a plurality of faceplate areas which are used to designate various lighting commands and each faceplate can represent a unique collection of lighting control functions. The control circuit is electrically coupled to the touch pad matrix and is programmed to support the functionality represented by a particular faceplate design by ascribing the appropriate lighting control functions to the individual touch pads. The control circuit includes an oscillator which is coupled to each touch pad in turn and a microcontroller which monitors the frequency of the oscillating circuit when connected to the various touch pads. When a user places a finger on a touch pad, the frequency of the associated oscillations decreases and this decrease in frequency is detected by the microcontroller. Upon detecting the activation of a touch pad, the microcontroller determines which faceplate area has been selected by the user by mapping the touch pad location to the associated faceplate. The microcontroller also detects slow, long and double activations of the faceplate where necessary. A corresponding lighting signal is generated by microcontroller and provided by the lighting control interface either for local dimming purposes of for use within a larger networked lighting environment.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.