Luminaire with ambient sensing and autonomous control capabilities

• US 9,433,062 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2015
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Express Imaging Systems, LLC
• Original Assignee: Express Imaging Systems, LLC
• Inventors: Reed, William G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Tung X
• Application Number:
  US14/950,823
• Publication Number:
  US 20160081162A1
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: 315149-159, 315/291, 315/307, 315/308, 315/312, 340/901, 340/910, 340/317, 340/931, 340/933
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/10 Controlling the intensity of the light
• 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 47/16 by timing means
• 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 number of luminaires can be communicably coupled and networked. Some or all of the luminaires may be equipped with a number of sensors including motion sensors. Upon detecting motion of an object in the vicinity of a luminaire, the luminaire can increase the luminous output of the lighting subsystem in the luminaire and communicate a targeted or broadcast output signal to some or all of the remaining luminaires in the network. The output signal may variously contain data indicative of one or more parameters related to motion of the object (direction of travel, velocity, etc.) or one or more parameters related to the increased luminous output of the luminaire. Responsive to the receipt of an output signal generated by another luminaire, the luminaire may autonomously adjust the luminous output of the lighting subsystems responsive to an event detected by the other luminaire.

Claims

1. An illumination system, comprising:

a luminaire including at least one light source;

a controller to provide a signal output that autonomously adjusts a luminous output level of the at least one light source, the controller including at least one processor;

a sensor communicably coupled to the controller to provide a signal that includes information indicative of an occurrence or a lack of occurrence of a defined event; and

at least one set of machine executable instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to;

determine whether the sensor is in at least one of;

an operational mode or a failure mode;

wherein responsive to a determination that the sensor is in the failure mode, the processor provides the signal output based at least in part on at least one value determined by the processor until a subsequent determination by the processor that the sensor is in the operational mode; and

wherein responsive to a determination that the sensor is in the operational mode, the processor provides the signal output based at least in part on the information included in the signal provided by the at least one sensor until a subsequent determination by the processor that the sensor is in the failure mode.

2. The illumination system of claim 1 wherein the sensor includes at least a photosensitive transducer, the information included in the signal provided by the sensor includes information indicative of an occurrence of a change in an ambient atmospheric light level corresponding to at least one of:

a sunrise event or a sunset event, and the at least one value determined by the processor includes data indicative of at least one expected astronomical event.

3. The illumination system of claim 2 wherein the at least one expected astronomical event comprises at least one of an expected sunrise event, or an expected sunset event.

4. The illumination system of claim 1 wherein the at least one value determined by the processor includes at least one of:

a retrieved value corresponding to at least one of;

an expected occurrence of a sunrise event at the geolocation of the illumination system or an expected occurrence of a sunset event at the geolocation of the illumination system;

or

a calculated value corresponding to at least one of;

an expected occurrence of a sunrise event at the geolocation of the illumination system or an expected occurrence of a sunset event at the geolocation of the illumination system.

5. A controller to provide a signal output to adjust the luminous output level of at least one luminaire light source responsive at least in part to at least one of:

a sensor signal that includes information indicative of an occurrence or lack of occurrence of a defined event, or at least one value determined by the controller, the controller comprising;

at least one processor; and

at least one machine executable instruction set that when executed by the at least one processor causes the processor to;

determine whether a sensor providing the sensor signal is in at least one of;

an operational mode or a failure mode;

wherein responsive to a determination that the sensor is in the failure mode, the processor provides the signal output based at least in part on at least one value determined by the processor until a subsequent determination by the processor that the sensor is in the operational mode; and

wherein responsive to a determination that the sensor is in the operational mode, the processor provides the signal output based at least in part on the information included in the signal provided by the at least one sensor until a subsequent determination by the processor that the sensor is in the failure mode.

6. The controller of claim 5 wherein the controller further comprises the sensor.

7. The controller of claim 5 wherein the sensor includes at least a photosensitive transducer, the information included in the signal provided by the sensor includes information indicative of an occurrence of a change in an ambient atmospheric light level corresponding to at least one of:

a sunrise event or a sunset event, and the at least one value determined by the processor includes data indicative of at least one expected astronomical event.

8. The controller of claim 7 wherein the at least one astronomical event comprises at least one of a sunrise event, or a sunset event.

9. The controller of claim 5 wherein the at least one value determined by the processor includes at least one of:

a retrieved value corresponding to at least one of;

an expected occurrence of a sunrise event at the geolocation of the illumination system or an expected occurrence of a sunset event at the geolocation of the controller;

or

a calculated value corresponding to at least one of;

an expected occurrence of a sunrise event at the geolocation of the illumination system or an expected occurrence of a sunset event at the geolocation of the controller.