Lighting an environment through a light valve

Abstract

A system may include a light valve exposed to incident light from an external light source. The light valve may independently modulate multiple wavelength bands of the incident light that are transmitted through the light valve and into an environment that the system illuminates. A control system can operate the light valve to control a spectral distribution of light transmitted through the light valve.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A lighting system comprising:
 a light valve configured to receive incident light on a first side of the light valve, the first side being outside an environment to be illuminated, the light valve independently filtering a plurality of wavelength bands of the incident light to produce from a second side of the light valve illumination of the environment.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the light valve independently filters at least five different wavelength bands. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the light valve is further positioned to receive at least a portion of the incident light from a natural light source. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the natural light source is the sun. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a mounting structure to mount the light valve in a light passage through a barrier that is part of a building containing the environment, the incident light being from a second environment on a side of the barrier opposite from the environment. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the environment to be illuminated comprises an interior space in the building, and the barrier is one of a wall, a ceiling, and a floor of the interior space. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the second environment is an exterior space outside the building containing the environment to be illuminated. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein:
 the environment to be illuminated comprises a first room in the building; and   the second environment comprises a second room in the building.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a broadband source configured to provide at least a portion of the incident light. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the broadband source includes one or more light sources selected from a group consisting of a High-Intensity Discharge (HID) lamp, a halogen lamp, a laser, a source of collimated light, and a source of polarized light. 
     
     
         11 . The lighting system in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a control system connected to operate the light valve to control a spectral distribution of the illumination.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the control system is operable to select a script from among a plurality of scripts that describe different illumination schemes and to control respective modulations of the wavelength bands in accordance with the script selected. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the control system comprises a communication interface to communicate with one or more lighting elements that cooperate with the system to illuminate the environment. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11 , further comprising a sensor selected from a group consisting of a temperature sensor, a motion sensor, an occupancy sensor, a chemical sensor, and an environmental condition sensor. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11 , further comprising a sensor, wherein the control system selects operating parameters of the light valve based on measurements from the sensor. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the sensor measures spectral content of the illumination. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the sensor measures one or more characteristics of the incident light. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 15 , further comprising a learning system executed by the control system, wherein the learning system processes data from the sensor and adapts the operating parameters of the light valve based on a characteristic learned from the data. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the control system modifies intensity or spectrum of the illumination transmitted through the light valve to warn of a sensed condition. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the control system modifies the illumination based on sensed activity of one or more users in the environment.