At first I thought of an illuminated Welcome mat with built-in LEDs and pressure sensors. But foot traffic would bring dirt and water to impair the function of such a device. So this idea is a system of Welcome lights and sensors and a control panel at the entranceway of a home or business. LEDs would light the path and door, and sensors would detect ambient light levels and the presence of persons.

The control panel would be a visual representation of the sytem itself, with wires connecting the individual elements. These could be actual wires or virtual ones such as in the LabView programming environment. The control panel would have icons for the lights and sensors, as well as other items such as clock, calendar, state boxes, and logic blocks (AND, OR, etc). A simple algorithm that turns on all lights when a person approaches at night would be the default system, but the user could implement any algoritm they wish, within the limits of available sytem elements. Other algoritms might include do-not-disturb, party, business open/closed, or a security setting when the resident is away.