Patent ID: 8294074

Claim:
A lighting system, comprising: a first solid state light emitting element for emitting a color of light; a second solid state light emitting element for emitting the same color of light emitted from the first solid state light emitting element; an optical processing element coupled to receive light emitted from the first and second solid state light emitting elements, for processing the received light to produce a virtual source of light of said color at a luminous output area of the lighting system; and a control circuit connected to the first and second solid state light emitting elements, wherein the control circuit is configured to implement functions, including functions to: (a) drive each of the first and second solid state light emitting elements to operate at a respective predetermined level; and (b) selectively activate and deactivate function (a) with respect to the first and second solid state light emitting elements to selectively switch the first and second solid state light emitting elements to and from said respective predetermined levels, in combinations to provide a plurality of discrete intensity levels for the virtual source of light of said color at the luminous output area of the lighting system.