US patent number 6,577,080 is a utility patent called 'Lighting Entertainment System' that covers many entertainment and educational applications of Color Kinetics' core technology. The patent covers the use of lighting tracks encoded into any media, including video, radio, CD, broadcasting and networks, as well as the decoding from that media to provide illumination control. For example, a home theatre system might integrate LED-based lights to generate customized effects that correspond with movies or music.
US patent number 6,608,453 is a utility patent called 'Methods and Apparatus for Controlling Devices in a Networked Lighting System'. The patent covers a method of serially connecting lighting fixtures in a network and the data protocol used to communicate to the lights. For example, a forthcoming Color Kinetics product will take the form of an LED-based strand that can scale to hundreds of thousands of individually controllable light nodes in a sequence. The patent also covers a lighting device that controls the colour generated by an LED-based lighting fixture while also controlling a traditional lighting system, such as a fluorescent orincandescent bulb, enabling LED-based systems to operate with non-LED sources.
"We're thrilled with the continued recognition of Color Kinetics' inventions by the US Patent and Trademark Office," said George Mueller, chairman and CEO of CKI. "These latest additions to our intellectual property portfolio reflect the company's wide-ranging expertise in both current and forward-looking applications of intelligent LED illumination technologies."
(Lee Baldock)
