World Smart Home Patent Analysis Report (iv)

Technology decomposition: patent layout of control technology for hole through household lighting

1. Technology life cycle analysis

FIG. 1 Growth rate v trend of household lighting technology with a 5-year cycle

V trend formula description: technology growth rate = A /A, where A is the number of invention patent applications (or the number of approvals) in the current year;A represents the cumulative number of invention patent applications (or the cumulative number of approvals) traced back five years.After several years of continuous calculation, the v value increases, indicating that the technology is in bud or growth stage.

As can be seen from Figure 1, the technology was in the rapid development stage from 2006 to 2008, especially in 2011, the technology had breakthrough growth, and the overall number of applications for the technology was still increasing from 2012 to 2016.

2. Analysis of principal applicants

As shown in Figure 2, LG and Samsung still top the list of patent applications in the field of home lighting control technology, as well as MATSUSHITA, SHENZHEN JBT, LAN Rugan and DAEWOO.

Figure 2 Main applicant for home lighting technology

3. Analysis of important patents in the sub-field of home lighting control technology

Home lighting control technology develops relatively late, and accounts for a small proportion of patent literature in the whole field of smart home. The number of important patents screened out is relatively small, and the distribution span of important patent literature in this field is relatively concentrated.Since 2013, companies have attached great importance to the development prospect of this technology field, and increased the research and development of home lighting control technology. Home lighting control technology has entered the growth period, and many key technologies have appeared in this period.Through the research of the technology in this field, the development of home lighting control technology mainly focuses on green lighting, scene setting and convenient control.

In 1998, The American inventor MUELLER and GEORGE G applied for the invention patent (US6528954B1) for the intelligent light bulb, which realized the function of multi-color lighting and rapid selection of color change through the connection of lighting with the environment and computer control.This patent is obviously innovative in furniture lighting control. After its publication, it has been cited 846 times in the world, and its citation frequency is distributed between 2004 and 2015, which has been continuously paid attention to by many companies.COLOR KINETICS INCORPORATED bought the patent in March 1999.COLOR KINETICS INCORPORATED has subsequently applied for a number of patents related to lighting control based on this patent.Among them, the patent applied in 2003 (WO2004023850A2) disclosed a method and system used for lighting, and its related extended patents reached more than 500, which were distributed in 14 countries including the United States, Canada, Germany, South Korea, Japan, China, Spain and Australia.This patent has also been widely cited after its publication, which further demonstrates that COLOR KINETICS INCORPORATED has mastered the core technology in the field of smart bulb technology, and lays a leading position in the field of lighting control.Philips in to realize the importance of smart home lighting control technology, after the 2007 acquisition of COLOR KINETICS INCORPORATED (nasdaq: PCLN - news), and the LED lighting intelligent control technology related patent into philips powerful intellectual property group, for philips provides a comprehensive integrated and powerful solid-state lighting product lines, to ensure its status in the field of high power leds.

After the intelligent color modulation bulb is produced, how to control and adjust the bulb and how to design a high-efficiency energy-saving bulb have become the research and development hotspot of home lighting control technology.Domestic applicant Li Zhe applied for the patent in 2004 (CN1774150A) intelligent combination wall switch, through the use of the wall switch structure combined with infrared sensing technology, accurate judgment of people in and out, memory of the total number of people in and out of the calculation to determine whether there is a person in the room, to achieve a variety of functions and work mode set at will.This patent was applied for earlier in domestic intelligent lighting control technology, and was later cited by Panasonic Intellectual Property Co., LTD.However, due to the applicant's insufficient awareness of patent protection, the patent expires without paying the annual fee after being authorized.

With the popularization of network technology and wireless transmission technology, the number of patent applications for household lighting control technology increased gradually after 2010, and developed rapidly after 2014 and 2015.Many schools, enterprises are home lighting technology research and development.For example, the patent applied by Tianjin University of Technology in 2010 (CN201766739U) and the patent applied by Beijing Nuohe Far East Technology in 2009 (CN101662868A) are used to control the lighting system through wireless communication technology, and have been widely cited after publication.Among them, the patent applied by Beijing Novo and Far East Science and Technology (CN101662868A) discloses an intelligent light control system, which realizes the requirements of short communication distance, small data transmission amount, multiple nodes, flexible networking and low power consumption of wireless system in home environment through Zigbee.The patent was cited by Philips after it was made public.Philips applied for a device and method to operate and debug ZigBee network in 2012, and first laid out the technology of intelligent control system based on ZigBee technology, so as to provide basic guarantee for the development of smart home products.

With the development of wireless technology, remote control of home lighting has become a research hotspot.At the same time, how to conveniently realize the regulation and supervision of intelligent terminal devices has become the focus of many enterprises and schools.The intelligent lighting management system (TW201503758), which was patented by Taiwan Kinken University of Science and Technology in 2013, uses smart terminal devices such as mobile phones and tablets to monitor and control the lighting system through wireless transmission methods such as wifi, so that remote workers can better control the lighting system.

With the emergence of intelligent buildings, precise control of lighting control technology has become the focus of research and development.LG company in 2013, the patent application submitted to the international bureau (WO2014010967, as shown in figure 3) a method of lighting control and lighting control system, through the adoption of wifi, bluetooth and zigbee wireless transmission way, according to the received signal strength lighting device to register the corresponding lighting device, solves the number of families in the apartment, hotel and other buildings adjacent to each other, reduce the interference between the lighting, home lighting control more accurate.The patent has 23 relatives and is mainly distributed in the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, China and other countries.The layout of the patent shows that LG attaches great importance to the patented technology. At the same time, it also indicates that precise control will be the future development direction in smart home control.

FIG. 3 Lighting control method and lighting control system

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