Patent ID: 8515289

Claim:
A lighting system comprising: a light source included in an array to emit illuminating light; a sensor included in the array to sense environmental light from an environment; a controller operatively connected to the sensor to analyze the environmental light that is sensed and operatively connected to the light source to control emitting the illuminating light; wherein the controller analyzes the environmental light to detect or generate data relating to a condition of the environment, the data being transmittable in data light defined by at least one data wavelength, wherein the at least one data wavelength is defined relative to the illuminating light; wherein the data is transmittable by the light source included in the array; wherein the sensor selectively senses a dominant wavelength in the environmental light that is defined by the controller; wherein the sensor selectively senses a plurality of dominant wavelengths in the environmental light; wherein at least a part of the plurality of dominant wavelengths are concatenated to define the data relating to the condition in the environment; wherein the controller receives the data using the sensor; wherein the controller analyzes the data; wherein the controller controls transmitting the data light from the light source; wherein the controller designates at least a part of the illuminating light as a marker light, wherein the light source is selectively operable; wherein the sensor is selectively operable; wherein the illuminating light is selectively emitted from the light source in a plurality of directions; wherein the controller controls the light source to emit the illuminating light including the marker light to the environment; wherein the illuminating light is reflected from a point of reflection in the environment as the environmental light, the environmental light continuing to include the marker light; wherein the environmental light is received by the sensor from the plurality of directions; wherein the sensor senses the environmental light including the marker light; wherein the controller calculates a delay between emitting the marker light and sensing the marker light; and wherein the controller analyzes the delay to determine a distance between the array and the point of reflection.