Lighting device having status indication by modulated light

• US 9,131,550 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Schenk, Tim Corneel Wilhelmus, Deixler, Peter, Feri, Lorenzo
• Primary Examiner(s): Owens, Douglas W
• Assistant Examiner(s): King, Monica C
• Application Number:
  US13/263,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20120025740A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,988 Days
• Field of Search: 315/312, 315/291, 315/129
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/59 for reducing or suppressing flicker or glow effects
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/22 with communication between the lamps and a central unit

Abstract

It is presented a lighting device (2) arranged to embed light quality data in light emanating from the lighting device. The light quality data pertains to a status of the lighting device (2), e.g. with respect to its end of operational life. The light may be detected by a monitoring device (3) external to the lighting device (2). The monitoring device (3) can then help to determine the status of the lighting device (2), whereby maintenance operations of the lighting device (2) may be carried out.

Maintenance personnel may thus replace lighting devices and/or light sources in need of maintenance as indicated by the status of each lighting device, before any lighting device in the system has reached an end of operational life.

Claims

1. A lighting system comprising:

at least one lighting device, each including

at least one light source;

an internal clock;

circuitry including a memory for establishing light quality data of said lighting device and for each of the at least one light source;

the light quality data further including a lighting device identifier and a light source identifier;

a controller to control modulated light output of said at least one light source and embedding the light quality data in the modulated light output;

at least one monitoring device for determining a status of the at least one lighting device, the monitoring device being external to said at least one lighting device and comprising

a transmitter operable to transmit a set of instructions to the at least one lighting device to embed the light quality data in the modulated light output;

a sensor arranged to detect incident light from said at least one lighting device,

a processor arranged to determine said status based on the light quality data embedded into said incident light and able to determine associated light quality data for each of the at least one lighting device and each of the at least one light source;

the transmitter operable to transmit a second set of instructions to the at least one lighting device to provide visible indication of an end of life condition;

wherein the controller in the lighting device is responsive to the second set of instructions transmitted by the monitoring device and modifies the light output to visibly blink or switch off in order to be visibly identified.

2. A lighting device having status indication by modulated light, comprising:

a controller operable to control a plurality of lighting devices, the controller including a communication interface, each of the plurality of lighting devices including

at least one light source;

an internal clock;

circuitry including memory for establishing light quality data of said lighting device and for each of the at least one light source, the light quality data including status of electronics in said lighting device;

the light quality data further including a lighting device identifier and a light source identifier;

the controller operable to control modulated light output of each of said plurality of lighting devices and embedding the light quality data in the modulated light output for each of said plurality of lighting devices;

at least one monitoring device for determining a status of the at least one lighting device, the monitoring device being external to said at least one lighting device and including

a transmitter operable to transmit a set of instructions to the at least one lighting device and to receive the embedded light quality data in the modulated light output;

a sensor arranged to detect incident light from said at least one lighting device,

a processor arranged to determine said status based on the light quality data embedded into said incident light and able to determine associated light quality data for each of the at least one lighting device and each of the at least one light source;

the transmitter operable to transmit a second set of instructions to the at least one lighting device to provide visible indication of an end of life condition;

wherein the controller in the lighting device maintains a burning hours counter for the lighting device and limits the embedding of the light quality data in the modulated light output for each of said plurality of lighting devices until after a predetermined amount of burning hours.

3. A method for facilitating maintenance of a plurality of lighting devices in a lighting system, each lighting device being arranged to emit light in which light quality data pertaining to a lighting device status is embedded, wherein the method comprises:

controlling by a controller light output of a plurality of lighting devices, the controller further having a communications interface;

transmitting by a remote monitoring device a set of instructions to the controller a set of maintenance operations instructions for the controller to embed light quality data for each of the plurality of lighting devices in the modulated light output;

modulating the light output of each of said plurality of lighting devices;

embedding light quality data in the modulated light output for each of said plurality of lighting devices;

receiving by the remote monitoring device the light quality data for each of the plurality of lighting devices;

determining, by the remote monitoring device, a status for each of the plurality of lighting devices;

transmitting to the communications interface of the controller the status for each of the plurality of lighting devices;

presenting, where required by each of the plurality of lighting devices, a visual status indicating an end of operational life, said visual status including one of blinking or turning off.