Real-Time Closed-Loop Color Control of a Multi-Channel Luminaire Using Sensors Onboard a Mobile Device

Smart homes and Internet of Things are emerging concepts in modern society, with intelligent lighting being an important part of it. Besides providing visual satisfaction through its color-rendering properties, lighting also has other effects on human well-being. In order to exploit the full potential of a smartly lit home, lighting systems need to be equipped with accurate controllers that can control the spectrum and color characteristics of light in addition to conventional ON–OFF and dimming control. However, current commercial smart lighting products with such capabilities need to employ expensive sensors which are still lacking in terms of closed-loop feedback which is imperative for accurate color control of light-emitting diode (LED)-based luminaires. This paper presents a novel approach that uses the camera available on modern smartphones to perform closed-loop color control for lighting systems in smart homes. The algorithm is able to perform multi-channel mixing for any color and also white light at a desired correlated color temperature with high color-rendering index. This approach proves to be very economical and convenient as no external sensors are required and can be performed using any Android smartphone on a compatible LED-based luminaire.