COMMISSIONING LIGHTING SYSTEMS

• US 20110199004A1
• Filed: 02/11/2011
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WTEC GmbH
• Original Assignee: Redwood Systems, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zwanzig, Carl P., Fowler, David, Leonard, David, Henig, Robert, Nulu, Deepak
• Granted Patent: US 8,981,913 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 315/152
• 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 47/115 by determining the presence or movement of objects or living beings
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/195 the transmission using visible or infrared light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/199 Commissioning of light sources
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

Commissioning a lighting system is disclosed. A user can be provided with a pointing device capable of emitting or returning a signal which can be received by detectors co-located with each fixture in the lighting system. The user can add a fixture to a group by aiming the pointing device at the fixture when the fixture is not assigned to the group, and the user can remove a fixture from a group in the same way when the fixture was previously assigned to the group. Additional user gestures are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A lighting system comprising:

a pointing device configured to emit visible light signals;

a plurality of sensors, each one of the sensors being associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of fixtures, each one of the sensors being configured to receive the visible light signals from the pointing device; and

a processor configured to assign at least one of the fixtures to a group of the fixtures in response to receipt of a visible light signal emitted by the pointing device, wherein the visible light signal is received by one of the sensors associated with the at least one of the fixtures.

2. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the visible light signal is a first visible light signal, and the at least one of the fixtures is removed from the group of the fixtures in response to receipt, by the one of the sensors, of a second visible light signal emitted from the pointing device.

3. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the pointing device comprises a flashlight that emits the visible light signals.

4. The lighting system of claim 1 wherein the pointing device comprises a display screen configured to emit the visible light signals.

5. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the visible light signal emitted by the pointing device comprises embedded data that comprises a code identifying the group of the fixtures.

6. The lighting system of claim 1, wherein the pointing device comprises a laser pointer that emits the visible light signals.

7. A tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions for commissioning a lighting system, the computer executable instructions executable with a processor, the computer-readable medium comprising:

instructions executable to receive data from a plurality of sensors, each one of the sensors being associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of fixtures; and

instructions executable to assign a fixture to a group of the fixtures in response to receipt of data from one of the sensors associated with the fixture, the data indicating that the one of the sensors received a signal from a pointing device, the signal comprising at least one of a visible light signal and an audio signal.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 further comprising instructions executable to identify each one of a plurality of groups of fixtures and to direct at least one signal source of at least one of the fixtures in each of the groups to emit a signal that identifies the respective one of the groups.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 further comprising instructions executable to direct fixtures in the group of the fixtures that are capable of emitting a signal to emit a signal that indicates which of the fixtures are in the group of the fixtures.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further comprising instructions executable to receive, from the one of the sensors, both an indication of a light level in a room and the data indicating that the one of the sensors received the signal from the pointing device.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein an identity of the group of the fixtures is encoded in the signal that indicates which of the fixtures are in the group of the fixtures.

12. A method for commissioning a lighting system, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of sensors, each one of the sensors being associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of fixtures;

receiving data with a processor from one of the sensors, the data indicating that the one of the sensors received at least one of a visible light signal and an audio signal from a pointing device; and

assigning a fixture associated with the one of the sensors to a group of the fixtures with the processor in response to receipt of the data from the one of the sensors.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one of the sensors is a first sensor, the group of the fixtures is a first group of fixtures, and the fixture is a first fixture, the method further comprising receiving data with the processor from a second sensor associated with a second fixture that is not a member of the first group of fixtures, determining with the processor that a second group of the fixtures is to be processed in response to receiving the data from the second sensor after at least a predetermined interval has elapsed since any of the sensors received any signal from the pointing device.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising causing, with the processor, the fixtures that are capable of emitting an acknowledgement signal and assigned to the first group of fixtures to emit the acknowledgement signal indicating that a predetermined interval has elapsed.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising causing, with the processor, the fixtures that are capable of emitting an acknowledgement signal and assigned to the first group of fixtures to emit the acknowledgement signal prior to the predetermined interval elapsing, the acknowledgement signal indicating that the predetermined interval will expire.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising determining with the processor that a second group of the fixtures is to be processed in response to detecting a presence of an occupant with one of the sensors not associated with the first group of fixtures.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising determining with the processor that a second group of the fixtures is to be processed in response to receipt, by the processor, of a signal from a control device not associated with the first group of the fixtures, the fixtures comprising the control device, the control device comprising at least one of a dimmer switch and a control switch.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein assigning the fixture associated with the one of the sensors to the group of the fixtures further comprises storing identifiers of members of the group of the fixtures in a distributed hash table.

19. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

receiving a list of a plurality of named groups with the processor; and

associating, with the processor, the fixtures with the named groups in an order indicated in the list of the named groups.

20. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

receiving a list of a plurality of fixture counts with the processor; and

determining with the processor that a commissioning of the group of the fixtures is complete based on whether a number of the fixtures in the group of the fixtures matches one of the fixture counts.