Granted Patent B2

US 12,396,077 · App. 18/014,955 · Granted Aug 19, 2025

Inventor: Thomas Lindner (Stockdorf, DE)

Assignee: Webasto SE

H05B45/20B60Q3/20B60Q3/60

Abstract

Claims (39)

1. An Illuminant device for emitting light of a continuously adjustable colour in a colour space, comprising the following:

at least one illuminant unit comprising a plurality of illuminant elements;

at least one driver unit which is configured to output driver current signals to the illuminant elements of the illuminant unit in such a way that a target colour of the illuminant unit can be set in accordance with the driver current signals;

at least one computing unit, which comprises a storage medium on which a calibration algorithm is stored for calculating the driver current signals necessary for setting the target colour and the computing unit being configured to control the driver unit accordingly so that the driver unit outputs the driver current signals,

wherein the computing unit comprises at least one input interface which is configured to receive colour coordinates for a target colour in the colour space, wherein the computing unit is configured to calculate the driver current signals for setting the target colour taking into account the received colour coordinates and to enable continuous adjustment of all target colours of the colour space.

2. The Illuminant device according to claim 1 , wherein

the illuminant elements are configured as LEDs.

3. The Illuminant device according to claim 2 , wherein

the illuminant units comprise at least one red illuminant element, at least one green illuminant element, and at least one blue illuminant element, and

the light emitted by the illuminant elements mixes to form the target colour, which can be perceived by an observer.

4. The Illuminant device according to claim 3 , wherein

an illuminant housing comprising the illuminant unit as well as the driver unit and the computing unit.

5. The Illuminant device according to claim 4 , wherein

the input interface is a BUS interface.

6. The Illuminant device according to claim 5 , wherein at least one of the driver unit and the computing unit is adapted to individually calculate or output the driver current signals for adjusting or changing the target colour based on at least one of current matching and pulse width modulation (PWM).

7. The Illuminant device according to claim 6 , wherein the storage medium is further adapted to store colour reference data.

8. A Method for operating an illuminant device for emitting light of a continuously adjustable colour in a colour space, the method comprising:

inputting colour coordinates for a target colour in a colour space into an illuminant device;

calculating the necessary driver current signals for generating the target colour by means of a calibration algorithm on a computing unit of the illuminant device; and

outputting the driver current signals by means of a driver unit of the illuminant device to at least one illuminant unit for generating the target colour,

wherein the computing unit is adapted to enable continuous adjustment of all target colours of the colour space.

9. The Method according to claim 8 , wherein

a second input of second colour coordinates for a second target colour to the illuminating device results in a re-execution of calculating the necessary driver current signals, and the driver current signals are adjusted in outputting the driver current signals in accordance with the second target colour to change the light emitted by the illuminant device from the target colour to the second target colour.

10. The Method according to claim 9 , wherein

at least one of: inputting the colour coordinates, calculating the necessary driver current signals, outputting the driver current signals, and the second input of second colour coordinates are performed in each case at runtime.

11. The Method according to claim 10 , wherein the colour coordinates comprises chromatic colour coordinates for at least one of the target colour and luminous intensity values for the target colour.

12. The Method according to claim 11 , wherein

the driver current signals calculated in the illuminant device for adjusting or changing the target colour based on at least one of current adjustment and pulse width modulation (PWM) are adjusted individually for each illuminant element.

13. The Method according to claim 12 , wherein

all colours of a colour space (K) are continuously set as the target colour by inputting corresponding colour coordinates.

14. The Method according to claim 13 , wherein

the calculation of the necessary driver current signals for generating the target colour is carried out by means of a calibration algorithm on a computing unit of the illuminant device taking into account reference data, the reference data comprising manufacturer-side data and/or data records for individual illuminant elements.

15. A system comprising a Processor configured to:

input colour coordinates for a target colour in a colour space into an illuminant device;

calculate the necessary driver current signals for generating the target colour by means of a calibration algorithm on a computing unit of the illuminant device; and

output the driver current signals by means of a driver unit of the illuminant device to at least one illuminant unit for generating the target colour,

wherein the computing unit is adapted to enable continuous adjustment of all target colours of the colour space.

16. The system of claim 15 , further comprising: a Vehicle, wherein the vehicle comprises the processor.

17. The Illuminant device according to claim 1 , wherein the calibration algorithm is adapted to calculate the driver current signals necessary for setting the target colour without prior calibration of the target colour and without calibration values for the target colour being stored on the storage medium of the computing unit.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (27)