INTELLIGENT SHADING OBJECT MOVEMENT BASED ON SUN SENSOR INTENSITY

1 . An intelligent umbrella, comprising:

a light sensor to generate a light intensity measurement;

a motor to move the light sensor about an azimuth axis, the light sensor generating a plurality of light intensity measurements and associated locations;

a controller to receive the plurality of light intensity measurements from the light sensor, and identify a highest light sensor measurement of the plurality of light sensor measurements and an associated location, the controller to generate and communicate a command including the associated location, wherein the motor receives the command and moves the light sensor to the associated location.

2 . The intelligent umbrella of claim 1 , further comprising the controller to generate and communicate instructions to the motor to move the light sensor 360 degrees about the azimuth axis.

3 . The intelligent umbrella of claim 2 , wherein the light sensor generates greater than 100 measurements during movement of the light sensor about the azimuth axis.

4 . The intelligent umbrella of claim 1 , further comprising an additional motor to move the light sensor about an elevation axis, the light sensor generating a second plurality of light intensity measurements and associated elevation locations.

5 . The intelligent umbrella of claim 1 , further comprising the controller to receive the second plurality of light intensity measurements and identify a largest light intensity measurement of the second plurality of light intensity measurements and an associated elevation measurement.

6 . The intelligent umbrella of claim 1 , further comprising the controller to communicate the associated elevation measurement to the second motor, the second motor to move the light sensor to the associated elevation measurement.

7 . A method of positioning a shading element in a shading object comprising:

moving a sun sensor about an azimuth axis;

generating a plurality of sun sensor values for a plurality of locations about the azimuth axis;

capturing a peak intensity sun sensor value and corresponding peak intensity location;

moving the shading element to the peak intensity location about the azimuth axis.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the sun sensor is moved 360 degrees about an azimuth axis.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of sun sensor values is greater than 100 sun sensor values.

10 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising moving a sun sensor about an elevation axis.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising generating a second plurality of sun sensor values for a second plurality of locations about the elevation axis and capturing a peak intensity value and corresponding peak intensity location about the elevation axis from the second plurality of sun sensor values.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising moving the shading element to the corresponding peak intensity location about the elevation axis.

13 . An article, comprising:

one or more processors;

a non-transitory storage medium, comprising computer-readable instructions stored thereon, the computer-readable instructions which when executed cause an umbrella to:

move a light sensor about an azimuth axis;

generate a plurality of light sensor intensity values for a plurality of locations about the azimuth axis;

capture a peak light sensor intensity value and corresponding peak intensity location;

move the shading element to the peak intensity location about the azimuth axis.

14 . The article of claim 13 , wherein the light sensor is moved 360 degrees about the azimuth axis.

15 . The article of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of light sensor intensity values is greater than 100 light sensor intensity values.

16 . The article of claim 13 , further comprising computer-readable instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the umbrella to move a light sensor about an elevation axis.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising computer-readable instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the umbrella to: generate a second plurality of light sensor intensity values for a second plurality of locations about the elevation axis and capture a peak intensity value and corresponding peak intensity location about the elevation axis from the second plurality of light sensor intensity values.

18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising computer-readable instructions which when executed by the processors cause the umbrella to: move the shading element to the corresponding peak intensity location about the elevation axis.

19 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

capturing, utilizing a Global Positioning System receiver, a reference time, a local time, and/or a number of days since start of a year of the shading object;

calculating an azimuth angle and an elevation angle for the shading object based, at least in part, on the captured reference time, the captured local time, and/or the number of days since start of the year; and

moving the shading element to the calculated azimuth angle and the calculated elevation angle.

20 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising:

capturing using a digital compass, a true North reading and determining an direction/orientation reading of the shading object;

calculating an updated azimuth angle and an updated elevation angle for the shading object based, at least in part, on the determined direction/orientation reading; and

moving the shading element to the calculated updated azimuth angle and the calculated updated elevation angle.