Quantum dimming via sequential stepped modulation of LED arrays
AssigneeLight Prescriptions Innovators, LLC
InventorsWill Shatford, Waqidi Falicoff, William A. Parkyn, Yupin Sun
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Abstract
In one method of and apparatus for varying the luminosity of illumination, each of a plurality of light sources has an on state in which it emits light and an off state in which it does not emit light. Each of the plurality of light sources is switched cyclically between the on state and the off state in a sequence over a cycle period. The switching sequence is selected such that the number of said light sources that are on is uniform over the cycle. The luminosity of the illumination is varied by varying the proportion of each cycle for which each light source is switched on.
Claims20
A method of varying the luminosity of illumination, comprising:
- providing a plurality of light sources, each having an on state in which it emits light and an off state in which it does not emit light;
- switching each of the plurality of light sources cyclically between the on state and the off state in a sequence over a cycle period;
- selecting the switching sequence such that the number of said light sources that are on is uniform over the cycle;
- and
- varying the luminosity of the illumination by varying the proportion of each cycle for which each light source is switched on.
A method of varying the luminosity of illumination, comprising:
- providing a plurality of light sources, each having an on state in which it emits light and an off state in which it does not emit light;
- switching each of the plurality of light sources cyclically between the on state and the off state in a sequence over a cycle period;
- wherein the cycle period is divided into a number of equal steps that is an integer multiple of the number of light sources, the light sources are switched between the on and off states only at the beginning of a step, and different light sources are on during different steps;
- and
- varying the luminosity of the illumination by varying the number of steps within each cycle period for which each light source is in the on state.
An apparatus for providing illumination of varying luminosity, comprising:
- a plurality of light sources, each having an on state in which it emits light and an off state in which it does not emit light;
- and
- a controller operative
- to switch each of the plurality of light sources cyclically between the on state and the off state in a sequence over a cycle period in a switching sequence such that the number of said light sources that are on is uniform over the cycle period;
- and
- to vary the luminosity of the illumination by varying the proportion of each cycle period for which each light source is switched on.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.