Interactive user interface functionality for lighting devices or system

1. A system, comprising:

intelligent lighting devices, each respective intelligent lighting device comprising:

a light source;

a communication interface configured to enable communication via a network link; and

a processor coupled to control the light source and coupled to communicate via the communication interface and the network link with one or more others of the intelligent lighting devices and configured to control operations of at least the respective intelligent lighting device, wherein:

at least one of the intelligent lighting devices includes a user input sensor configured to detect user activity related to user inputs without requiring physical contact of the user;

at least one of the intelligent lighting devices includes an output component configured to provide information output to the user;

the user is within a vicinity of the user input sensor and the output component; and

one or more of the processors of the intelligent lighting devices is further configured to process user inputs detected by the user input sensor, control lighting and control output to the user via the output component so as to implement an interactive user interface, including to selectively:

control a lighting operation of at least a plurality of the lighting devices as a function of a processed user input; and

obtain and provide information as an output via the output component, in response to a processed user input.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a data communication network at a premises serviced for lighting by the system, the network interconnecting the links to provide data communications amongst the intelligent lighting devices, wherein:

the data communication network is configured to further provide data communications for at least some of the intelligent lighting devices via a wide area network outside the premises, and

the function to obtain the information comprises communicating with an information source outside the premises via the data communication network at the premises and the wide area network.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein one of the intelligent lighting devices includes both the user input sensor and the output component.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the user input sensor is configured to detect audio as the user activity; and

the one or more of the processors configured to process user audio inputs detected by the sensor are configured to detect spoken words in the audio inputs.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the user input sensor is configured to detect an optical input; and

the one or more of the processors configured to process the detected optical input to identify a gesture of a user.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the user input sensor comprises an image detector.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the user input sensor comprises a device configured for detection of direction and intensity of received light.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the output component is configured to provide the information output to the user in an audio and/or visual format.

9. The system as in claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors configured to process user inputs comprises a plurality of the processors of intelligent lighting devices configured to perform the processing in a distributed processing manner.

10. A system, comprising:

intelligent lighting devices, each respective intelligent lighting device comprising:

a light source;

a communication interface configured to enable communication via a network link; and

a processor coupled to control the light source and coupled to communicate via the communication interface and the network link with one or more others of the intelligent lighting devices, wherein:

each processor of a respective intelligent lighting device is configured to control lighting operations of the respective intelligent lighting device;

at least one of the intelligent lighting devices includes a user input sensor configured to detect user activity related to user inputs without requiring physical contact of the user;

at least one of the intelligent lighting devices includes an output component configured to provide information output to the user;

the user is within a vicinity of the user input sensor and the output component; and

the processor of at least one of the intelligent lighting devices is further configured to implement a distributed processing procedure to respond to user inputs detected by the user input sensor, control lighting and control output to the user via the output component, in such a manner that the system provides an interactive user interface via one or more of the intelligent lighting devices.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the distributed processing procedure involves distributing portions of a processing task supporting the interactive user interface processors of a plurality of others of the intelligent lighting devices.

12. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a data communication network at a premises serviced for lighting by the system, the network interconnecting the links to provide data communications amongst the intelligent lighting devices.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the distributed processing procedure involves a distributed server operation involving server functions implemented on a plurality of the intelligent lighting devices and client-server communications through the data communication network with processors of a plurality of others of the intelligent lighting devices.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein:

the user input sensor comprises an audio detector; and

the processor of at least one of the intelligent lighting devices is configured to process input audio via the distributed processing procedure to recognize spoken user inputs.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein:

the user input sensor comprises an optical detector; and

the processor of at least one of the intelligent lighting devices is configured to process detected optical inputs via the distributed processing procedure to recognize gestural user inputs.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the optical detector comprises a camera.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the optical detector comprises a device configured for detection of direction and intensity of received light.

18. The system of claim 10 , wherein the output component is configured to provide the information output to the user in an audio and/or visual format.