Systems and method for lighting aisles

• US 8,604,701 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2011
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jason Rasner, Neal R. Verfuerth, Tony Freeman
• Original Assignee: Jason Rasner, Neal R. Verfuerth, Tony Freeman
• Inventors: Verfuerth, Neal R., Freeman, Tony, Rasner, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, ANH Q
• Application Number:
  US13/296,058
• Publication Number:
  US 20120274222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 315/149
• 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 47/17 Operational modes, e.g. switching from manual to automatic mode or prohibiting specific operations
• 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 lighting fixture for aisle lighting in a building includes processing electronics. The processing electronics are configured to cause the lighting fixture to provide increasing levels of illumination in response to state changes associated with sensed motion in the building.

Claims

1. A lighting fixture for energy efficient aisle lighting in a building, comprising:

processing electronics configured to cause the lighting fixture to provide increasing levels of illumination in response to state changes associated with sensed motion in the building, wherein the state changes comprise;

(a) a transition from a no motion state to a local motion state; and

(b) a transition from the local motion state to a sustained motion state.

2. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the lighting fixture is configured to conduct the state transitions without reliance on a remote supervisory controller and without regular user inputs.

3. The lighting fixture of claim 1, further comprising:

a motion sensor in communication with the processing electronics;

wherein the processing electronics transitions from the no motion state to the local motion state in response to estimating motion to be present in an area local to the lighting fixture based on information from the motion sensor.

4. The lighting fixture of claim 3, wherein the processing electronics cause the lighting fixture to provide less than half of the lighting fixture'"'"'s capable illumination output while in the local motion state.

5. The lighting fixture of claim 3, wherein the processing electronics cause the lighting fixture to provide more than half of the lighting fixture'"'"'s capable illumination output while in the sustained motion state.

6. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the state changes further comprise:

(c) a transition from the sustained motion state to the no motion state; and

(d) a transition from the local motion state to the no motion state.

7. The lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the state changes further comprise:

(c) a transition from the sustained motion state to the local motion state; and

(d) a transition from the local motion state to the no motion state.

8. The lighting fixture of claim 1, further comprising:

an RF receiver;

wherein the state changes further comprise;

(c) a transition from the local motion state to a communicated sustained motion state;

wherein the processing electronics are configured to transition from the local motion state to the communicated sustained motion state in response to a reception at the RF receiver indicating sustained motion in a zone associated with the lighting fixture;

wherein the processing electronics cause the lighting fixture to provide more than half of the lighting fixture'"'"'s capable illumination output while in the communicated sustained motion state.

9. A system for energy efficient lighting of an aisle in a building, comprising:

a plurality of lighting fixtures, wherein each of the plurality of lighting fixtures comprises

a motion sensor,

a transceiver, and

processing electronics, and

wherein the processing electronics for each lighting fixture are configured to cause the respective lighting fixture to provide increasing levels of illumination in response to state changed associated with motion sensed by the motion sensor, wherein the state changes comprise (a) a transition from a no motion state to a local motion state; and

(b) a transition from the local motion state to a sustained motion state.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processing electronics are configured to initiate the transition from the local motion state to the sustained motion state when motion is detected with for longer than a predetermined period of time.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the processing electronics are configured to cause the transceiver to transmit a message indicating the transition to the sustained motion state.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing electronics are configured to cause the transition to the sustained motion state in response to receiving a message at the transceiver indicating a transition to the sustained motion state by a nearby lighting fixture.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each lighting fixture is configured to cause the lighting fixture to provide less than half of the lighting fixture'"'"'s capable illumination output while in the local motion state.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein each lighting fixture is configured to cause the lighting fixture to provide more than half of the lighting fixture'"'"'s capable illumination output while in the sustained motion state.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the state changes further comprise:

(c) a transition from the sustained motion state to the no motion state; and

(d) a transition from the local motion state to the no motion state.

16. A method for providing energy efficient lighting of an aisle in a building, comprising:

using a motion sensor and processing electronics coupled to a first lighting fixture to distinguishing between transient motion and sustained motion, wherein distinguishing between the transient motion and the sustained motion comprises determining that motion has been detected in a space for at least a predetermined period of time;

at the first lighting fixture, transitioning from a transient motion state to a sustained motion state in response to a determination of sustained motion; and

at the first lighting fixture, transitioning from a no motion state to a local motion state in response to a determination of local motion.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

transmitting a notification to a nearby lighting fixture that indicates sustained motion has been detected;

responding to receiving the notification, at the nearby lighting fixture, by determining whether to transition into a different lighting state.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the different lighting state is a sustained motion state and wherein the nearby lighting fixture transitions into the sustained motion state when processing electronics of the nearby lighting fixture determines that the received notification was received within a predetermined period of time from a detection of local motion wherein the first lighting fixture and the nearby lighting fixture are configured to transition from the sustained motion state to a local motion state after a second predetermined period of time.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

at the first lighting fixture, counting a ballast re-strike violation when a motion-based transition causes a transition into a sustained motion state within a period of time since the fixture transitioned out of the sustained motion state;

controlling the first lighting fixture to remain in the sustained motion state for a longer period of time than motion-based control would otherwise provide in response to the count of re-strike violations exceeding a pre-set amount.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

tracking the number of times the first lighting fixture transitions from the local motion state to the sustained motion state;

controlling the first lighting fixture to remain in the sustained motion state for a longer period of time than the motion-based control would otherwise provide in response to the number of times the first lighting fixture transitioned from the local motion state to the sustained motion state.