Color Kinetics Incorporated announced the issuance of two new US patents relating in part to LED-based illumination systems designed to generate color-changing effects in enclosures, and to the use of LED-based light sources to convey information about temperature changes of a device.
Patent number 6,888,322, issued on May 3, is directed to a color-changing enclosure where illumination is provided by multicolor LED-based sources. The color-changing device could form part of a neon replacement system, tile light, consumer product, computer, peripheral or accessory, for example.
Patent number 6,883,929, issued on April 26, is directed to generating power for LED-based light sources based on a thermoelectric process called the Seebeck Effect, which allows a temperature differential to generate electricity. For example, the invention may be used in a stove where the temperature of the stove top is conveyed through the color of light emitted by a multicolor LED-based source.
”Color Kinetics continually looks to innovate new technologies and methods that will allow completely new uses of intelligent solid-state lighting, for example, to create dynamic or customizable color changing enclosures,” says George Mueller, chairman and CEO, Color Kinetics. “Beyond the replacement of conventional light sources in traditional applications, we are shaping completely new, intelligent uses of light with exciting market potential.”
Color Kinetics now holds 40 issued patents and has more than 130 patent applications pending that range from core technology and products to high-level control systems, complete lighting systems, applications, environments and methods of use.