Occupant tracking

• US 10,165,650 B1
• Filed: 08/21/2017
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IDEAL Industries Lighting, LLC (Ideal Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: CREE Incorporated (Wolfspeed, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fini, Paul, Bessems, Ronald W.
• Primary Examiner(s): A, Minh D
• Application Number:
  US15/681,941
• Time in Patent Office: 491 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/10 Controlling the intensity of the light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/10 Controlling the light source
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/125 by using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

A lighting fixture has a communication interface; a light source configured to provide light output for general illumination; an image sensor configured to capture image information associated of with a field of view; and control circuitry, which is configured to provide a drive signal to the light source to control the light output. In one embodiment, the control circuitry is further configured to, for each object in the field of view, determine if an object in the field of view is an occupant based on the image information; if the object is an occupant, track movement of the occupant within the field of view; and determine a number of occupants in the field of view. The control circuitry may also be configured to provide occupancy information bearing on the number of occupants in the field of view to a remote entity via the communication interface.

Claims

1. A lighting fixture comprising:

a communication interface;

a light source configured to provide light output for general illumination;

an image sensor configured to capture image information associated with a field of view; and

control circuitry associated with the light source and the image sensor and configured to;

provide a drive signal to the light source to control the light output;

for each object in the field of view;

determine if an object in the field of view is an occupant based on the image information; and

if the object is the occupant, track movement of the occupant within the field of view;

determine a number of occupants in the field of view; and

provide occupancy information bearing on the number of occupants in the field of view to a remote entity via the communication interface.

2. The lighting fixture of claim 1 further comprising a secondary sensor associated with the control circuitry, wherein while tracking the movement of the occupant, the control circuitry is further configured to:

determine if the occupant is lost from the field of view;

when the occupant is lost from the field of view, check the secondary sensor for an indication of occupancy; and

if there is the indication of occupancy, resume tracking of the movement of the occupant within the field of view.

3. The lighting fixture of claim 2 wherein if there is no indication of occupancy, communicate with at least one neighboring lighting fixture via the communication interface to determine if the occupant is in a field of view of the at least one neighboring lighting fixture.

4. The lighting fixture claim 3 wherein if the occupant is in the field of view of the at least one neighboring lighting fixture, communicate with the at least one neighboring lighting fixture via the communication interface to facilitate a handoff of tracking of the movement of the occupant to the at least one neighboring lighting fixture.

5. The lighting fixture claim 4 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to provide occupant information that relates to the occupant and is derived from the image information to the at least one neighboring lighting fixture via the communication interface in association with the handoff.

6. The lighting fixture claim 1 wherein while tracking the movement of the occupant, the control circuitry is further configured to:

predict if the occupant is leaving the field of view; and

if the occupant is predicted to be leaving the field of view, communicate with at least one neighboring lighting fixture via the communication interface to facilitate a handoff of tracking of the movement of the occupant to the at least one neighboring lighting fixture.

7. The lighting fixture of claim 6 wherein while tracking the movement of the occupant, the control circuitry is further configured to, if the occupant is not leaving the field of view, resume tracking of the movement of the occupant within the field of view.

8. The lighting fixture of claim 6 wherein to predict if the occupant is leaving the field of view, the control circuitry is configured to:

determine at least one of a location of the occupant within the field of view, a direction of travel of the occupant, and a velocity of travel of the occupant; and

use the at least one of the location of the occupant within the field of view, the direction of travel of the occupant, and the velocity of travel of the occupant to predict if the occupant is leaving the field of view.

9. The lighting fixture claim 6 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to provide occupant information that relates to the occupant and is derived from the image information to the at least one neighboring lighting fixture via the communication interface in association with the handoff.

10. The lighting fixture of claim 9 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine whether the object moving in the field of view is a previously tracked occupant, and if the object moving in the field of view is the previously tracked occupant, resume tracking of the previously tracked occupant.

11. The lighting fixture of claim 9 wherein the control circuitry detects motion in the field of view based on the image information.

12. The lighting fixture of claim 9 further comprising a secondary occupancy sensor that is not an image sensor, wherein the control circuitry detects motion in the field of view based on information provided by the secondary occupancy sensor.

13. The lighting fixture of claim 9 further comprising a secondary occupancy sensor that is not an image sensor, wherein the control circuitry detects motion in the field of view based on the image information and information provided by the secondary occupancy sensor.

14. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to track the movement of a plurality of occupants within the field of view at the same time.

15. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein:

the control circuitry is further configured to detect motion in the field of view caused by the object moving in the field of view; and

determination if the object in the field of view is the occupant is initiated after detecting the motion in the field of view.

16. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

detect motion in the field of view caused by the object moving in the field of view;

determine whether the object moving in the field of view is a previously tracked occupant;

if the object moving in the field of view is the previously tracked occupant, resume tracking of the previously tracked occupant, wherein determining if the object in the field of view is the occupant is initiated when the object moving in the field of view is not the previously tracked occupant.

17. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein the drive signal provided to the light source is based, at least in part, on the image information.

18. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein while tracking the movement of the occupant, the control circuitry is further configured to determine at least one of a location of the occupant within the field of view, a direction of travel of the occupant, and a velocity of travel of the occupant based on the image information.

19. The lighting fixture of claim 1 wherein while tracking the movement of the occupant, the control circuitry is further configured to determine at least one characteristic of the occupant based on the image information.

20. The lighting fixture claim 1 wherein when the occupant is concurrently in the field of view of the image sensor and in a field of view of a neighboring lighting fixture, the control circuitry is further configured to coordinate with the neighboring lighting fixture to determine whether to account for the occupant in the occupancy information or have the neighboring lighting fixture account for the occupant as an occupant in the field of view of the neighboring lighting fixture.

21. A lighting fixture comprising:

a communication interface;

a light source configured to provide light output for general illumination;

an image sensor configured to capture image information associated with a field of view; and

control circuitry associated with the light source and the image sensor and configured to;

provide a drive signal to the light source to control the light output; and

for each object in the field of view;

detect an object moving in the field of view based on the image information;

determine if the object is an occupant;

track movement of the occupant within the field of view;

determine a number of occupants, including the occupant, in the field of view; and

provide occupancy information bearing on the number of occupants in the field of view to a remote entity via the communication interface.