US 2,013,271,814 · Filed 2012-04-17
The Smart Glass Controller That Turns Windows Into Dimming Screens
Imagine windows that darken and lighten at the touch of a button, like sunglasses for your house. This invention is the electronic brain that tells smart glass when to switch from clear to tinted, managing the electrical power needed to make that happen automatically.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers an electronic controller device that generates two types of signals to operate optically-switchable windows. What's protected here is the specific way the controller creates a command signal and then converts it into a precisely-shaped power signal that drives the smart glass material itself. The invention includes the ability to vary voltage and current characteristics across different portions of the power delivery, allowing fine control over how the glass transitions between transparent and opaque states.
Why it matters
Smart glass windows that adjust their tint electronically are a growing technology in commercial buildings and high-end homes, reducing energy costs by blocking heat and glare. This controller patent is foundational to making that system work reliably—it's the engineering that bridges human commands (a button press or sensor reading) to the actual glass material's behavior. Patents on control systems like this are valuable because they protect the specific way a company orchestrates the electrical choreography that makes the technology practical.
Real-world use
When you walk into a modern office building and notice the windows automatically dimming as the sun moves across the sky, a controller like this is managing the electrical pulses that make that transformation happen in real time.
Original USPTO abstract
This disclosure provides a window controller that includes a command-voltage generator configured to generate a command voltage signal. The window controller also includes a power-signal generator configured to generate a power signal based on the command voltage signal. The power signal is configured to drive an optically-switchable device on a substantially transparent substrate. In some embodiments, the power-signal generator is configured to generate a power signal having a power profile that includes one or more power profile portions, each power profile portion having one or more voltage or current characteristics.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 2,013,271,814
- Filing date
- 2012-04-17
- Grant date
- Application — not yet granted
- Assignee
- View, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- BROWN STEPHEN C.
- CPC class
- G02F1/163
Want to file your own patent?
If you're dreaming up your own climate-control gadget or home-automation device, run your design through our free patent scanner to see what's already claimed in the smart-home space.
Free patentability scan