Portable electric lamp with a system of wireless communication

• US 10,178,743 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2016
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zedel
• Original Assignee: Zedel
• Inventors: Bortolotti, Raphael, Marie, Christophe
• Primary Examiner(s): Hammond, Crystal L
• Application Number:
  US15/235,721
• Publication Number:
  US 20160353560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: F21L 4/00 Electric lighting devices with self-contained electric batteries or cells
• CPC Class Codes: F21L 4/027 the light sources being a LED
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 14/003 by interposition of elements with electrically controlled variable light transmissivity, e.g. liquid crystal elements or electrochromic devices
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 23/04 the elements being switches safety devices F21V25/00
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 23/0435 activated by remote control means
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 33/0064 Health, life-saving or fire-fighting equipment
• CPC Class Codes: F21Y 2115/10 Light-emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/36 using visible light sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/12 using optical feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/105 in response to determined parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/11 by determining the brightness or colour temperature of ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 : via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 : Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

A portable lamp, such as a headlamp, comprising wireless bidirectional communication means for exchanging configuration instructions, parameters and/or data with at least one mobile information processing system. This mobile processing system establishes a downlink for the transmission of said configuration instructions, parameters and/or data to the lamp. The lamp can establish an uplink for the transmission of configuration instructions, parameters and/or data from the lamp to said mobile information processing system.

Claims

1. A portable lamp comprising

a light source for generating at least one light beam;

a control module for controlling a brightness and a geometry of said light beam;

a battery for supplying said light source;

a light sensor for measuring the brightness of said light source;

first bidirectional wireless communication circuits for exchanging commands, parameters and/or configuration data with at least one mobile information handling system, comprising;

a receiving unit for establishing a downlink communication channel for transmitting said commands, parameters and/or configuration data to the lamp;

a transmitting unit for establishing an uplink communication channel for the transmission of commands, parameters and/or lamp configuration data to said mobile information handling system

wherein the uplink communication channel is configured to receive values representative of measured brightness, the mobile information handling system is configured to determine a brightness and a proper diffusion coefficient to use, and the downlink communication channel is configured to transmit commands for controlling and adjusting the brightness and the diffusion coefficient.

2. The portable lamp according to claim 1, wherein said receiving and transmitting circuits are configured for establishing a communication with at least one other lamp located in a local neighborhood.

3. The portable lamp according to claim 2, wherein said communication circuits are configured for establishing an ad-hoc network wherein each of the lamps and or the mobile systems receive an identifier.

4. The portable lamp according to claim 3, wherein said ad-hoc network uses group addresses for simultaneously addressing several lamps and/or mobile information handling systems belonging to a same group.

5. The portable lamp according to claim 4 wherein said uplink transmissions and/or downlink transmission are intended for all devices of a same group.

6. The portable lamp according to claim 4 wherein the group addresses are used for the transmission of a group command generated by said mobile system and transmitted to all lamps of said group.

7. The portable lamp according to claim 1 wherein it comprises means for detecting the state of charge of the battery, said state of charge being transmitted to said mobile system via the uplink communication channel.

8. The portable lamp according to claim 1 wherein it comprises a sensor for sensing the light, said information being transmitted to said mobile system via the uplink communication channel.

9. The portable lamp according to claim 8 wherein said sensor operates in the visible range and/or infra-red.

10. The portable lamp according to claim 1 wherein the uplink communication channel is used to transmit a information representative of the power and/or an information representative of the geometry of the beam.

11. The portable lamp according to claim 1 wherein the lamp comprises an electrically controlled diffusion device controlled by said second information received from the mobile system.

12. The portable lamp according to claim 1, wherein said first and second information are dependent on the distance between the lamp and a lamp located in a neighborhood, said distance being determined by means of an estimate of the RSSI of the received signal of this neighboring lamp.

13. The portable lamp according to claim 1, wherein the first bi-directional communication is based on a Bluetooth or WiFi communication.

14. The portable lamp according to claim 1, wherein said portable lamp is a headlamp having one or more LED diodes.

15. A method of controlling the operation of a portable lamp having a light source for generating at least one light beam, control means for controlling luminosity and a geometry of said light beam, and a battery for supplying said light source, said method comprising the steps of:

establishing a bidirectional and wireless communication between the lamp and a mobile information handling system, comprising a downlink communication channel to the lamp and an uplink communication channel to said mobile information handling system;

said downlink communication channel is used for the transmission of said commands and/or configuration data to the lamp; and

said uplink communication channel is used for the transmission of the lamp operating parameters to said mobile processing system information

wherein the uplink communication channel receives values representative of measured brightness, the mobile information handling system determines a brightness and a proper diffusion coefficient to use, and the downlink communication channel is configured to transmit commands for controlling and adjusting the brightness and the diffusion coefficient.

16. The method according to claim 15 wherein it comprises the steps of:

detecting the state of charge of the lamp'"'"'s battery charge status;

transmitting said state of charge of the battery to the mobile information handling system.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein it comprises the steps of:

detecting the brightness facing the lamp by means of a photosensor;

transmitting to said mobile information handling system an information representative of said brightness sensed by the photosensor.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein said mobile information handling system uses the brightness information supplied by the lamp for generating said first and second information.

19. The method according to claim 15 wherein the lamp brightness is controlled by a first information received from said mobile information handling system via the downlink communication channel.

20. The method according to claim 15 wherein the geometry of the beam generated by the lamp is controlled by a second information received from said mobile information handling system via the downlink communication channel.

21. A method according to claim 15 wherein the bidirectional communication is organized according to an ad-hoc network wherein each of the lamps and the or mobile information handling systems receive an identifier, said ad-hoc network using group addresses to simultaneously address multiple lamps belonging to a same group.

22. The method according to claim 21 wherein said mobile system receives the state of charge of the battery provided by each lamp of said group and generates said first information for each lamp of said group in accordance with said states of charge so as to ensure a predefined lifetime for the whole group of lamps.

23. The method according to claim 15 wherein said mobile information handling system uses the state of charge of the battery supplied by the lamp and generates said first information according to said state of charge so as to ensure a predetermined lifetime for the lamp.

24. The method according to claim 15 wherein said mobile system detects an emergency situation and transmits on the downlink communication channel to the lamp an alert control controlling the generation of an alarm light signal.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the emergency situation results from the GPS data used to determine a bifurcation where the lamp holder may departs from a predetermined path or get lost.

26. A programming code comprising a computer program intended to be stored in said mobile information handling system, said program being adapted to implement the methods steps of claim 15.

27. A mobile processing system wherein it is adapted to the implementation of the or of the methods defined in claim 15.