ORBING AND LIGHTING SYSTEMS

• US 20120161643A1
• Filed: 03/01/2012
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WTEC GmbH
• Original Assignee: Redwood Systems, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Henig, Robert, Fowler, David, Stieglitz, Jeremy, Leonard, David, Covaro, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,710,772 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 315/151
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/18 via data-bus transmission

Abstract

A lighting system for areal illumination is disclosed which includes a remote driver and a plurality of fixtures including luminaires, control devices, and/or standalone sensors. The luminaires include a light source whose output light level can be adjusted, a light sensor co-located therewith adapted to measure light received from adjacent fixtures, and a microcontroller capable of transmitting the output of the light sensor over wires to the remote driver. The remote driver is capable of bidirectional communication with the luminaires and provides independently controllable power for the light sources of the luminaires. A movable orb region containing luminaires can also be defined and the light levels of individual luminaires can be set according to their location within the orb region.

Claims

1. A method of controlling light levels in a lighting system comprising:

determining which of a plurality of luminaires are included in an orb region;

setting a light level for each one of the luminaires within the orb region based on a position of a respective one of the luminaires within the orb region; and

causing the orb region to move in response to detection of motion by a motion sensor.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising setting the light level of any of the luminaires that are outside of the orb region to a background intensity level.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the orb region to move comprises causing the orb region to follow a person whose motion is detected by the motion sensor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein setting the light level comprises setting the light level at the center of the orb region to a level greater than that at the perimeter of the orb region.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein setting the light level comprises setting the light level at the center of the orb region to a level less than that at the perimeter of the orb region.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein setting the light level comprises setting the light level for each one of the luminaires within the orb region according to a mathematical function of the position of the respective one of the luminaires within the orb region.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising dividing the orb region into concentric rings, wherein setting the light level comprises setting the light levels of the luminaires located in the concentric rings at levels that vary from highest in a center one of the concentric rings to lowest in an outermost one of the concentric rings.

8. An apparatus for controlling light levels in a lighting system, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of ports configured to connect to a plurality of luminaires over wires; and

a computer configured to;

determine which of the luminaires are included in an orb region;

cause each one of the luminaires located in the orb region to generate a light level based on a position of a respective one of the luminaires within the orb region; and

cause the orb region to move with detected motion such that illumination from the light fixtures in the orb region follows the detected motion.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein a center of the orb region is positioned at a location between the luminaires.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the computer is further configured to truncate the orb region at a wall when a center of the orb region is located within a predetermined distance of the wall.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein a group of the luminaires includes all the luminaires in a room, and the light level of any of the luminaires that are located within the orb region but that are not included in the group of the luminaires is not adjusted with the detected motion.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the orb region has a shape of a circle.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the illumination from the light fixtures in the orb region follows the detected motion through a room.

15. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions for controlling light levels in a lighting system, the computer executable instructions executable with a processor, the computer-readable storage medium comprising:

instructions executable to determine which of a plurality of luminaires are included in an orb region;

instructions executable to determine a light level for each one of the luminaires in the orb region according to a position of a respective one of the luminaires within the orb region; and

instructions executable to cause the orb region to follow at least one of a person or an object through a space, wherein a sensor detects movement of the at least one of the person or the object through the space, and the luminaires in the orb region illuminate the at least one of the person or the object.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the orb region is one of a plurality of orb regions, and wherein the computer-readable storage medium further comprises instructions executable to cause the orb regions to follow two people who move independently of each other, and the orb regions overlap each other to form an overlap region when the two people are within a predetermined distance of each other.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein light levels in the overlap region are set based on a mathematical overlap function that is a combination of a plurality of mathematical functions, and wherein each one of the mathematical functions determines light levels in a corresponding one of the orb regions.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein time constants determine how rapidly the light level of any of the luminaires is increased or decreased, and a first time constant for increasing the light level is set to a value different from a second time constant for decreasing the light level.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the first time constant for increasing the light level in response to detection of motion is higher than the second time constant for decreasing the light level in response to a failure to detect motion.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 further comprising instructions executable to set the light level for each one of the luminaires in the orb region to a predetermined level in response to a failure to detect any activity in the orb region.