GB2422447A - Dawn simulator alarm clock - Google Patents

Abstract

A combined light and audio source comprising: a light controller to control the brightness of the light and audio source volume controller to control the audio source volume. The audio volume is controlled in association with the light brightness such that a change in said light brightness is followed by a change in said audio volume. The brightness and volume may be increased or decreased. Preferably the volume changes over a shorter period than the brightness. The invention is for particular use with an alarm clock.

Description

I

Dawn Simulator This invention generally relates to improvements in dawn simulator alarm clocks.

Dawn simulator alarm clocks mimic a natural sunrise in the morning, allowing the user to wake in a gentler way compared to a sudden noise. They may also mimic a natural sunset assisting the user to fall to sleep at night. They may also be connected to an internal radio or other audio source. We here describe connecting the audio volume to the light level so that as the light fades or increases the audio volume changes in hannony. For example as the light fades out at night the music will play more and more softly assisting the user to sleep.

Thus according to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a combined light and audio source comprising: a light controller to control the brightness of the light; an audio source volume controller to control the audio source volume; and means to change said audio volume control in association with said light brightness such that a change in said light brightness is followed by a change in said audio volume In another aspect the invention provides a dawn simulator comprising an audio control device for controlling an audio output volume and a light control device for controlling a light brightness, the audio control device comprising means for increasing the audio output volume together with increasing the light brightness.

The invention also provides a method of controlling a dawn simulator having an audio control device and a light control device, the method comprising: controlling the volume of the audio device; and controlling the brightness of the light in synchronism with the volume of the audio device.

We also describe a dawn simulator comprising an audio control device for controlling an audio output volume and a light control device for controlling a light brightness, the audio control device comprising means for increasing the audio output volume together with increasing the light brightness.

We further describe a method of controlling a dawn simulator having an audio control device and a light control device, the method comprising: controlling the volume of the audio device; and controlling the brightness of the light in synchronism with the volume of the audio device.

hi the above dawn simulator and associated method it will be understood that "together" and "in synchrony" is to be interpreted as including a phase lead or lag: In preferred embodiments, in a "wake" mode the audio comes on after the light has increased in brightness over a period or to a threshold brightness; likewise in a "sleep" mode the audio quietens only after the light has been dimming for a period or has reached a threshold dimness.

For example, the light dims down from a set level and when at a limit, say 10%, the audio quitens. Preferably during a sleep sequence the light dims and at some threshold, say 10%, 30% or 50% the audio begins to fade down. Preferably the audio continues for a period after the light is out (or in a quiescent or background "night light" condition). On a wake procedure the light bits maximum (which may be a predetermined limit) at the actual alarm time, eg 7am. During the wake sequence the light and audio are preferably out of phase, for example light taking a longer time to fade up (eg 3Oniins) than the audio (eg 30secs).

The invention also provides computer program code to implement the methods and apparatus described herein; this may be provided on a data carrier such as a disk, CD- or DVD-ROM, programmed memory such as read- only memory (Firmware), or on a data carrier such as optical or electrical signal carrier. Embodiments of the invention may be implemented on an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). Thus the code (and data) to implement embodiments of the invention may comprise conventional program code, or microcode or, for example, code for setting up or controlling an ASIC or FPGA or even code for a hardware description language. As the skilled person will appreciate such code and/or data may be distributed between a plurality of coupled components in communication with one another.

These and other aspects of the invention will now be further described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures in which: Figures la and lb show, respectively, curves of brightness, and audio volume against time against a sunset procedure and for a sunrise procedure of a dawn simulator embodying aspects of the present invention; Figure 2 shows a block diagram of a dawn simulator according to an embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 3 shows a block diagram of software for the dawn simulator of figure 2.

Referring to Figure Ia, this shows a graph illustrating an example behaviour of the lamp brightness (diamonds) and audio volume (squares) after the user has enabled the alarm (in this case, at 21:00).

Lamp Behaviour For the first half hour (or other interval, preferably a user selectable period) after the alarm is set, the theoretical lamp brightness fades down linearly. (The actual lamp brightness at which the lamp is driven is related to this theoretical value by a look-up table, to compensate for the non-linear appearance of the brightness.) This fade stops at a "night light" level of 10% in the this example. The user may select whether to have the night light on or off: if it is off, the fade would continue to 0%. The light then remains off, or at the night light level, until "sunrise" begins.

The user may alter (or reset) the lamp brightness manually at any time using the keypad; the brightness preferably then resumes fading (up or down) from its altered value, and the audio may be configured to behave similarly. Such an event is shown at 22:00 in this example. If the alarm is set, and the lamp brightness is increased, then the lamp brightness will slowly fade back to the night light (or zero) level at the same rate as the original "sunset" fade. The same will happen if the user manually adjusts the light level during the initial fade, and this will have the effect of extending the sunset and other events dependent on it.

If the user reduces light level manually (shown at 22:20) then it does not return to the night light level.

Audio Volume Behaviour The user may use the audio features (radio, MP3) at any time, whether or not the alarm is enabled. Once the alarm is enabled, (after an optional delay) the audio volume decreases from whatever level the user has left it at along a profile related to the lamp brightness. In the example above, the volume fades smoothly from the initial level to a background level at 21:20, after the lamp has mostly dimmed. A predetermined or selectable time, eg. 15 minutes after the lamp has completed its initial fade, the volume fades to zero over a few minutes.

In this implementation, the user may choose the duration of the initial lamp fade, which also affects the (delay or) time at which the volume fades for the first time, and also the (delay or) time from the end of the sunset to when the volume fades to zero. The user may also choose whether or not the second fade to zero occurs. Leaving the volume at a background level may help the user sleep in the presence of other background noise.

Unlike the lamp brightness, if the user adjusts volume manually after the automatic fades are completed, then the volume will not fade back to the background level, or zero volume.

Sunrise Procedure The graph of Figure lb shows an example behaviour of the lamp brightness and audio volume when the user has selected an alarm time of 07:00.

In this example, the user has manually controlled the volume to be 10% and the lamp brightness to be 0%, or these values have been set automatically by the device, for example by disabling the night light feature and enabling continuous audio at night.

Starting 30 minutes (a user-selectable period) before the alarm time, the lamp brightness starts to increase. As with the sunset, though this profile is shown as linear in the graph, the power supplied to the lamp need not increase at a constant rate.

At the alarm time, the audio volume increases smoothly to a preset level, and the audio source (radio, MP3) changes from whatever the user was listening to during the night to the preset radio station, MP3 or buzzer sound.

Optionally audio for sleep and/or wake functions may be stored digitally in non-volatile memory, for example Flash memory. This memory may be removeable, for example in one of a variety of removeable data storage formats such as a flash card (eg SD card) or memory stick; the audio may be stored as MP3 data. In embodiments there is a user- selectable plurality of pre-stored sleep (or wake) sounds, such as white noise, waves and the like.

In some embodiments the dawn simulator comprises means (such as audio data storage or other means) to provide binaural beat audio to the user. Broadly speaking this comprises stereo or binaural audio in which frequencies presented to the left and right ears differ have a small frequency difference, in the range of frequencies found in EEG waveforms in humans. This is thought to create an effect in the brain similar to beat frequencies, at frequencies which match, say, human brain alpha, beta, delta or theta frequencies. Preferably, but not necessarily, the audio comprises substantially pure tones, optionally with added noise or other audio information. For example, alpha delta or theta frequencies may be employed to assist sleep and beta frequencies to assist waking.

Snooze The user may wake before the alarm sounds in the morning, perhaps due to the lamp. If the user does not wish to be disturbed by the lamp, then its brightness may be turned down manually. However, in this implementation it continues to get brighter from the manually-set level, either at the same rate as before or at a rate computed to reach 100% brightness at the alarm time. Thus in embodiments the snooze function is implemented by means which enable a user to decrease brightness and/or audio level (preferably both); then, for example, fading (up) may be resumed at a predetermined rate.

After the alarm time if, say, the user turns down the lamp brightness, the audio volume and lamp brightness decrease together, and then increase gradually to their previous levels over the snooze interval, 9 minutes typically.

Friday Night Mode It will be appreciated that the sunset and sunrise modes may be implemented and/or operated independently of one another. For users who wish to use the sunset feature to go to sleep, but not be woken up the next day, the alarm may be enabled by a special procedure (e. g. operating the alarm button twice in succession) to start the sunset.

Referring now to figure 2, this shows a block diagram of a dawn simulator 200. A mains input 202 provides power to a dc power supply 203, preferably incorporating a rechargeable battery or capacitor back-up to maintain power in the event of a mains supply failure. Mains input 202 also provides power to a mains lamp controller 204 which provides a control output to a lamp 206, preferably of a type suitable for dawn simulation. Some examples of particularly useful lights are described in the applicant's co-pending UK Patent Application No. GB 0427744.8 filed 20th December 2004; other light sources include neodymium based lamps, the Solux lamp (www.soluxtli.com), a cool light bulb with a special coating to emit light having a colour temperature of around 4770K, and other daylight lamps.

The dawn simulator 200 is controlled by a micro-controller 208 including working memory (RAM) 208a and permanent program memory (ROM) 208b storing program code for controlling a dawn simulator. Micro-controller 208 may comprise any conventional micro-controller and the program code may be written in any conventional programming language for example C++. Microcontroller 208 interfaces with a user keypad 210 for user set up and control of the dawn simulator and provides an output to an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) controller 212 which in turn drives an LCD display 214 for displaying the time and/or date as well as, in preferred embodiments, user- selectable menu options and the like.

Micro-controller 208 is also configured to control the radio tuner 216 which receives an rf input from antenna 218 and which provides an audio output to an audio driver 220, preferably comprising an audio mixer/equaliser, which provides an audio output to mono or stereo speakers (or headphones) 222.

Micro-controller 208 is also coupled to glue logic 224 which provides a number of interfaces, in preferred embodiments, an interface to a portable audio storage device reader 226, for example comprising an MMC/SD flashcard socket. A removable storage device 228 for example a flash memory card in preferred embodiments stores MP3-toded audio data to provide sleep and/or wake-up sounds for the sunset and/or sunrise modes of the dawn simulator. Additionally or alternatively flash memory 230 may be provided internally, again to provide non-volatile storage of audio data. This audio data is decoded by a decoder 232, for example a stereo MP3 decoder and output to audio mixer/equaliser 220.

Referring to figure 3, this shows a block diagram of software 300 for controlling the dawn simulator 200 of figure 2.

A user interface code module 302 interfaces with user keypad 210 and display 214. In an exemplary embodiment the keypad provides controls for: volume up/down, amp up/down, radio tuning, alarm on/off, and a set-up menu. The set-up menu provides options for setting the time/date, options for setting a pre-set audio wake volume, a pre- set radio wake station, a night light on/off setting (to control whether the audio and/or lamp fade to a low level or to nil at sunset), as well as options for other user-definable parameters which may or may not be implemented as indicated above in the description accompanying figures Ia and lb. Optionally a snooze control may also be provided.

The user interface code module settings are stored in internal memory of the dawn simulator, for example RAM 208a and/or flash 230 of figure 2; the user interface code module also provides alarm control output data to a real time clock code module 304.

This may be implemented entirely in software or a hardware real time clock 208c may be built into micro-controller 208, or some other arrangement may be employed, for example a clock synchronised to radio time-signal data.

The real time clock module 304 provides alarm output data to a mode select or time-of- day code module 306, in a preferred embodiment comprising a data indicating a difference between a current time and the alarm time and data indicating a difference between a current time and when the alarm was turned on (eg sunset). Thus preferably the alarm output data indicates not only when an alarm time has been reached by also when the time is within a pre-determined interval of the alarm time, for example less than half an hour before the off-time at sunset or less than half an hour before the on- time at sunrise (or some other time intervals, which may be different for sunset and sunrise and which may be user-selectable).

The mode select code (or time-of-day) module 306 determines an operating mode of the dawn simulator, for example a normal mode (during the day, between sunrise and sunset), a sunset mode, a night mode, and a sunrise mode. Optionally in preferred embodiments other modes may be identified including an alarm sounding mode (eg maximum light/audio) and/or a snooze mode (to implement a snooze function as previously described).

A mode output 306a indicating the mode is provided to select modules 307ac which select, respectively, a light output limit and ramp rate, an audio output limit and ramp rate, and an audio source, either by means of a lookup table or directly by means of program code. At least some of these parameters are preferably user-controllable. The light and audio select modules 307a-c in turn are coupled to the light and audio fade control modules 308, 310. In this way the behaviour of these modules is in effect made dependent upon the mode in which the dawn simulator is operating so that user operation of keypad 210 may have different effects depending upon the mode. Light and audio fade control modules 308, 310 are also therefore preferably under control of the user by means of user interface code module 302.

The light fade up/down code module provides data for controlling lamp 206 and preferably interfaces with a light brightness look-up table 312 as previously described.

This table may be stored, for example, in ROM 208 or in flash 230. Audio fade up/down module 310 controls the audio level to speaker 222. Optionally light control module 308 provides an audio fade control output to the audio control module 310 for example to allow audio fade up/down to be triggered in response to a light brightness or change in brightness (absolute or percentage).

No doubt many other effective alternatives will occur to the skilled person. For example although embodiments of the invention have been specifically described with reference to dawn simulators it will be appreciated that similar technology may be employed to implement sunset simulation without dawn simulation, as is contemplated by aspects of the invention. In still other applications aspects of the invention may be implemented in an alarm clock radio.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the described embodiments and encompasses modifications apparent to those skilled in the art lying within the spirit and scope of the claims appended hereto.

Claims (15)

1. CLAIMS: 1. A combined light and audio source comprising: a light

   controller to control the brightness of the Iight;an audio source volume controller to control the audio source volume; and means to change said audio volume control in association with said light brightness such that a change in said light brightness is followed by a change in said audio volume.
2. 2. A combined light and audio source as claimed in claim 1 wherein said light controller is configured to gradually increase said light brightness over a first period, and wherein said means to change said audio volume is configured to gradually increase said audio volume over a second shorter period.
3. 3. A combined light and audio source as claimed in claim 2 wherein said first period is at least 10 minutes and wherein said second period is less than 2 minutes.
4. 4. A combined light and audio source as claimed in claim 2 or 3 further comprising a user control for re-dimming said light during said first period.
5. 5. A combined light and audio source as claimed in claim 4 further comprising a user control for setting an alarm time, and further configured to bring said light to full brightness at said alarm time.
6. 6. A combined light and audio source as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein said means to change said audio volume control in association with said light brightness comprises a timer or clock.
7. 7. A combined light and audio source as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein said light controller is configured to gradually decrease said light brightness to a threshold, arid wherein said means to change said audio volume is configured to gradually decrease said audio volume responsive to said light brightness threshold being reached.
8. 8. A combined light and audio source as claimed in claim 6 or 7 wherein said means to change said audio volume is configured to continue said audio for a period after said light has been dimmed to a substantially off condition.
9. 9. A dawn simulator comprising an audio control device for controlling an audio output volume and a light control device for controlling a light brightness, the audio control device comprising means for increasing the audio output volume together with increasing the light brightness.
10. 10. A dawn simulator according to claim 9, wherein the light control device comprises means to increase the brightness of the light responsive to the volume of the audio output.
11. 11. A dawn simulator according to claim 10, wherein the light control device comprises means to increase the brightness of the light in synchronism with increasing the volume of the audio output.
12. 12. An apparatus according to claim 9, the audio device being configured to increase and decrease in volume after a delay following an increase and a decrease in brightness of the light.
13. 13. A method of controlling a dawn simulator having an audio control device and a light control device, the method comprising: controlling the volume of the audio device; and controlling the brightness of the light in synchronism with the volume of the audio device.
14. 14. A method according to claim 13, wherein said controlling the brightness of the light comprises increasing the brightness and wherein controlling the volume of the audio device comprises increasing the volume.
15. 15. A carrier carrying computer program code to, when running, implement the method of claim 13 or 14.