Color sensing and illumination with LED lamps

With the advent of light emitting diodes (LEDs) in lamps, new ways of user interaction with LED lamps are becoming possible. We present an LED lamp that can sense and pick up the color from an illuminating object. The principle of employing an LED as a wavelength-sensitive light sensor is employed in designing an RGB (red green blue) LED lamp. A design prototype of such an LED lamp is presented, along with an associated driver protocol, such that it can sense color and illuminate at the picked up color without perceivable flicker. Experimental results are shown to demonstrate the dual function of the RGB lamp in color sensing and illumination at primary RGB colors.