Patent ID: 8581832

Claim:
An illumination device comprising: a plurality of light sources; light sequencing circuitry coupled to the light sources; a light guide structure for directing light from the plurality of light sources over a surface of a display screen to be illuminated; and a user interface for providing control input to the light sequencing circuitry; wherein the light sequencing circuitry comprises: a logic state machine responsive to the control input to select one of a plurality of available sequencing modes for the plurality of light sources; a code generator operative to generate output signals controlling respective ones of the light sources responsive to the selected one of the sequencing modes; and timing circuitry for defining timing intervals for processing of the control input by the logic state machine to determine the selected one of the sequencing modes and for generation of the corresponding output signals by the code generator; and wherein at least a subset of the timing intervals comprise respective clock sample periods, and further wherein the logic state machine is configured to select a particular one of the plurality of available sequencing modes based at least in part on one or more user input events of a first type occurring within a given one of the clock sample periods, and to determine at least one operating parameter of the selected sequencing mode based at least in part on one or more user input events of a second type detected in at least one additional sample clock period subsequent to the given sample clock period.