Apparatus and Methods to Control Polychromatic Light Sources for Interactive Illumination

In illustrative implementations of this invention, a lighting system comprises a plurality of LEDs, fluorescent lights, incandescent lights, a processor, a sensor node and a human-computer interface. The sensor is adapted to be moved by a user and placed in the location that a user wants to illumine. The LED lights are adapted to emit pulse-width modulated (PWM) light, controlled by signals from the processor. The lighting system is adapted to optimize parameters (such as efficacy or color rendering index) selected by the user, subject to certain constraints (such as desired illuminance or color temperature). According to principles of this invention, if a sensor is moved, attenuation may be measured and the inverse square law may be used to determine how constraints in an optimization algorithm need to be updated.