Universal smart lighting gateway

• US 9,686,842 B1
• Filed: 11/04/2016
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gooee Limited (Gooee Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Gooee Limited (Gooee Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Coombes, Simon, Couch, Jonathan, Johnson, Andrew, Silverman, Shmuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Philogene, Haissa
• Application Number:
  US15/344,263
• Time in Patent Office: 228 Days
• Field of Search: 315149, 315153, 315155, 315297, 315307, 315312, 370401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/20 Controlling the colour of the light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/22 using optical feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/24 using electrical feedback from LEDs or from LED modules
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/58 involving end of life detection of LEDs
• 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 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/18 via data-bus transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/185 via power line carrier transmission
• 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 system and method for discovering at least one dimming control protocol installed in a plurality of lighting devices and for controlling a plurality of dimming levels of the plurality of lighting devices are disclosed. The system may include at least one gateway that connects to at least one plurality of luminaires and/or LED'"'"'s, at least one sensor subsystem and at least one power meter. The system and method may exchange information between a plurality of light devices and a self-organized, self-discovering gateway device. The gateway may use one or more known control protocols as an input and is able to handle multiple light devices that support different control protocols. This ability makes the gateway a universal lighting control gateway.

Claims

1. A method of discovering at least one dimming control protocol installed in a plurality of lighting devices and controlling dimming levels of the plurality of lighting devices, the method comprising:

assuming a dimming control protocol installed in a plurality of luminaires, wherein the assuming is performed by at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway, and the plurality of luminaires optionally comprise a plurality of LEDs;

receiving at least one real time sensing measurement from at least one sensor subsystem, the at least one sensor subsystem being physically connected to the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway, wherein the real time sensing measurement is received by the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway via at least one sensor interface;

receiving at least one real time power measurement from at least one power meter, the at least one power meter being physically connected to the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway, wherein the real time power measurement is received by the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway via at least one power interface;

transmitting at least one dimming control command based on the real time sensing measurement and the at least one real time power measurement to generate a result, towards the plurality of luminaires, wherein the dimming control command is transmitted by the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway via at least one dimming control interface during a protocol discovery process;

measuring at least one generated result via the at least one sensor subsystem and/or the at least one power meter, wherein the generated result is measured by the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway;

discovering the at least one dimming control protocol installed in the plurality of luminaires, wherein the at least one dimming control protocol is discovered by the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway; and

controlling a dimming level of the plurality of luminaires, wherein the dimming level is controlled by the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway discovers the at least one dimming control protocol, the dimming control protocol comprising one of 0V-10V, 1V-10V, DALI, and DMX.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor subsystem comprises at least one of a color sensor and at least one environment sensor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one color sensor faces the plurality of luminaires, and the color sensor senses at least one of a color content and a color intensity of the plurality of luminaires.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one environment sensor senses a nearby environment of the plurality of luminaires while facing away from the plurality of luminaires.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one environment sensor comprises a low-resolution image sensor, an ambient light sensor, a temperature sensor, and combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway is connected to at least one network gateway in a backhaul via at least one of a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, and a Mesh BLE radio network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one network gateway is connected to at least one cloud server via the WAN.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway distinguishes between a digital protocol and at least one analog protocol, wherein the digital protocol comprises one of DALI and DMX, and the analog protocol comprises one of 0V-10V and 1V-10V.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway is connected to the at least one power meter via a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter interface.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one protocol agnostic Universal Smart Lighting Gateway utilizes the at least one real time sensing measurement and at least one real time power measurement to correlate between the at least one dimming control protocol, and between the plurality of luminaires.