Patent ID: 12207374

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various aspects of the present invention are shown. This invention however may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the various aspects of the present invention presented through this disclosure. Rather, these aspects are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the present invention to those skilled in the art. The various aspects of the present invention illustrated in the drawings may not be drawn to scale. Rather, the dimensions of the various features may be expanded or reduced for clarity. In addition, some of the drawings may be simplified for clarity. Thus, the drawings may not depict all of the components of a given apparatus.

The term “LED luminaire” shall mean a luminaire with a light source comprising one or more LEDs. LEDs are well-known in the art, and therefore, will only briefly be discussed to provide a complete description of the invention.

It is further understood that the aspect of the present invention might contain integrated circuits that are readily manufacturable using conventional semiconductor technologies, such as complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology, short “CMOS”. In addition, the aspects of the present invention may be implemented with other manufacturing processes for making optical as well as electrical devices. Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the exemplary aspects as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same references signs will be used throughout the drawings and the following detailed descriptions to refer to the same or like parts.

FIG.1ashows a schematic diagram of a grid100of a plurality of luminaires101a-daccording to an embodiment.

Each of the luminaires101a-din the grid100comprises a light sensor103, preferably a daylight sensor, an acoustic sensor105, a motion sensor107, a controller109supplied with the output signals of said sensors103,105,107, and a wireless interface111for a communication between the controller109and a gateway for forwarding sensor information signals to a central database (not shown inFIG.1a).

The grid100can be arranged in an environment, in particular a building. Since luminaires101a-dare typically evenly distributed over such an environment, equipping each luminaire101a-dwith sensors103,105,107leads to a good coverage of the environment with the sensors. Equipping luminaires with sensors has the additional advantage that no extra planning or commissioning for mounting external sensors in the environment has to be done.

In particular, the wireless interface111is configured to communicate with the gateway, in particular to forward the sensor information signals to the gateway. The gateway can be a wireless gateway.

Preferably, each luminaire101a-din the grid100comprises a light source113, in particular a plurality of LEDs.

Each of the luminaires101a-dcan be a downlight luminaire, a linear luminaire or an area light. In particular, the grid100comprises different types of luminaires at different locations in the environment.

The controller109can be a micro controller unit (MCU).

Preferably, the controller109of each luminaire101a-dis arranged for forwarding the sensor information signals repetitively with a constant or a varying, especially adaptive, frequency. In particular, the controller is configured to control the wireless interface111to forward the sensor information signals.

Preferably, the wireless interface111of each luminaire101a-dcomprises a low-energy, short-range wireless protocol BLUETOOTH® interface.

The sensor information signals can comprise a timestamp, an identifier of the respective luminaire101a-dand a sensor value. Via the timestamp and the identifier, the sensor value can be correlated to a place and time in the environment. In this way, a2D mapping of the sensor values, e.g. anisotropic analog data, can be generated based on data stored in the central database. For instance, the2D mapping shows a noise level or a brightness in the environment at different times during the day.

The acoustic sensor105of each luminaire101a-dcan be a noise detector. In particular, the acoustic sensor105is configured to detect a noise pressure level and/or noise patterns such as voice or burst sounds.

The motion sensor107can be a Doppler based motion sensor, i.e. a sensor that detects motion based on the Doppler Effect. In particular, the motion sensor107is configured to detect a motion intensity.

The light sensor103can be configured to detect a light intensity, e.g. of daylight.

The grid100can comprise multiple luminaires101a-dequipped with the same type and number of sensors. Alternatively, luminaires101a-dof one grid100may comprise different sensors.

FIG.1bshows a schematic diagram of a luminaire101according to an embodiment.

In particular, the luminaire101shown inFIG.1bis an exemplary embodiment of a luminaire101a-bof the grid100, as for example shown inFIG.1a.

The luminaire101comprises the light sensor103, the motion sensor107, e.g. in form of a 24 GHz radar sensor, and the acoustic sensor105, e.g. in form of a digital sound sensor.

The luminaire101can further comprises a temperature sensor301and a power measurement unit303, e.g. for measuring a power consumption by the luminaire101.

Furthermore, the luminaire101can comprises a vibration sensor (not shown), e.g. for detecting vibrations in the ceiling.

Preferably, the sensors103,105,107,301and303are configured to forward sensor values to the controller109. InFIG.1b, the controller comprises a CPU.

The sensor values can comprise amplitudes of detected signals, for instance, a brightness value detected by the light sensor103or a velocity of a movement detected by the motion sensor.

The luminaire101, as shown inFIG.1b, comprises a dimmable LED driver205connected to the light source113, wherein the light source113comprises LEDs. The controller109can be configured to control a dim level of the light source113. The controller109can further be configured to receive information on a voltage or current consumption of the LEDs.

The wireless interface111can be configured to communicate with the controller109via the USART (Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) protocol.

The wireless interface111can be integrated in the luminaire101as a system on a chip (SoC).

The luminaire can further comprise a surge/burst protection unit305.

FIG.2shows a schematic diagram of a method20for grouping the luminaires101a-daccording to an embodiment.

The luminaires101a-dare arranged as a grid100of a plurality of luminaires101a-d. Each of the luminaires101a-dcomprises one or more sensors, in particular the light sensor103, the acoustic sensor105, and/or the motion sensor107.

The method20comprises the steps of:supplying21output signals of said one or more sensors103,105,107to the controller109,forwarding23, preferably wirelessly forwarding, sensor information signals including timestamps and luminaire IDs to the central database,correlating25the sensor information signals over a defined period of time, andgenerating27grouping information based on the correlations found, wherein the grouping information relates to a spatial arrangement of the luminaires101a-d.

The method20as shown inFIG.2further comprises the step of:outputting29the grouping at a user interface.

Preferably, the method20comprises the further step of:generating settings, in particular settings of the luminaires of the grid, based on the correlations found.

In particular, the central database comprises or is connected to a display. The display can be configured to display the user interface.

The correlation 25 and/or grouping27can additionally be generated based on a location of each luminaire101a-d, e.g. based on the luminaire ID, on the neighboring luminaires101a-d, and on a recording time of each sensor value.

By taking into account the sensor values, the type of sensed data, a time resolution, and a special resolution, the luminaires101a-dthat belong to the same usage scene can be identified an grouped efficiently. Further, the grouping can adapt to a detected change in the environment.

Preferably, the controller109is arranged for forwarding the sensor information signals repetitively with a constant or a varying, especially adaptive, frequency.

Preferably, the sensor value represents a parameter value, preferably the amplitude, of the signal at the time of the associated timestamp. For instance, the acoustic sensor periodically, e.g. every 5 seconds, provides the amplitude of a sound level, which can be used to determine if people are present in a certain room.

The sensor information signals can be forwarded, in particular by the wireless interface111, using e.g. the BLUETOOTH® standard. In this way, the emitted sensor information signals can be received with a BLUETOOTH® capable mobile device, e.g. a smartphone, which can act as a gateway device.

The step of correlating25the sensor information signals over a defined period of time can comprise comparing the sensor information, in particular data pattern, of different sensors and/or different luminaires101a-dover time.

The step of generating27grouping information can comprise associating luminaires by data pattern similarities.

Preferably, the step of correlating25comprises the use of a machine learning techniques. The machine learning techniques can comprise supervised learning and/or a k-nearest neighbor computation, preferably to find neighboring luminaires101a-dof the grid100.

Supervised learning can comprise learning a function that maps an input to an output, in particular based on input-output pairs provided as examples.

In particular, the k-nearest neighbor computation is a pattern recognition technique, which comprises generating an output based on an input of k closest training examples, e.g. sensor information signals.

The step of correlating25can further comprise an unsupervised learning procedure and/or a hierarchical clustering method to generate correlation data.

In particular, finding next neighbor luminaries101a-din a grid100is a first approach to group the luminaires101a-d. This task can be realized by applying a supervised learning k-nearest neighbors algorithm. For this estimation, the irregular time series of radar sensors can be used. For every data point from the luminaire101a-dof interest (entry in the respective radar time series), the distances to other data points of luminaires101a-din the same grid100can be calculated and, subsequently, the labels of the k-nearest distances can be stored in a list. This process can be repeated for every luminaire101a-dof the grid100. To identify the e.g. three next neighbors of a luminaires101a-d, the first three most common labels can be taken into account.

Another possible solution to reach the goal of finding next neighbor luminaires101a-dis to use correlations between the regular radar time series (and/or regular lux time series combined in a fusion matrix). To classify the next neighbors of a luminaire101a-d, the luminaires101a-dwith the closest correlation coefficient can be taken into account.

Preferably, to determine which luminaries101a-dare located in the same area/room mainly the two methods, correlation calculation between radar and light sensor time series and following implementation of the unsupervised learning algorithm hierarchical clustering can be applied. In particular, correlation describes the statistical relationship between different variables; more precisely, it indicates the strength and direction of the linear relationship between variables. To separate the luminaires101a-dinto different areas/rooms the correlation matrices of the fusion sensor data can be used as input data to feed a hierarchical clustering algorithm. Because this clustering algorithm can be an unsupervised learning method, no labelled data is necessary.

In particular, this algorithm can group similar objects into groups by generating a hierarchy of clusters. Another possibility is to use the k-means algorithm to cluster luminaires into groups.

FIG.3shows a schematic diagram of a system400comprising a grid100of a plurality of luminaires101a-daccording to an embodiment. In particular, the grid100of the system400shown inFIG.3corresponds to the grid100as shown inFIG.1a.

Each of the luminaires101a-dof the grid100comprises one or more sensors103,105,107. For instance, each luminaire comprises a light sensor103, preferably a daylight sensor, an acoustic sensor105, and/or a motion sensor107.

The system400further comprises a controller109supplied with output signals of said one or more sensors103,105,107, an interface, preferably a wireless interface111, a data processing unit402and/or a central database403.

The interface111can be configured to forward sensor information signals130including timestamps and luminaire IDs to the central database403, wherein the data processing unit402is configured to correlate the sensor information signals130, in particular the sensor information signals130stored in the central database403, over a defined period of time. The data processing unit402can be configured to generate grouping information based on the correlations found, wherein the grouping information relates to a spatial arrangement of the luminaires101a-d.

The system can further comprise a gateway401. The interface of each luminaire101a-dcan be configured to forward sensor information signals130from the sensors103,105,107of the respective luminaires101a-dto the gateway401. The gateway401can be configured to forward the received sensor information signals to the central database403. Preferably, the gateway401is a wireless gateway.

The data processing unit402can be a computer.

The central database403can be a memory of the data-processing unit or of another device. Alternatively, the central database403can be a cloud storage.

FIG.4shows a schematic diagram of a method600for operating a grid100of a plurality of luminaires101a-d.

In particular, the grid100of the plurality of luminaires101a-dcorrespond to the grid100as depicted inFIG.1a. Each luminaire101a-dcan comprise at least one sensor. For instance, each luminaire comprises a light sensor103, preferably a daylight sensor, an acoustic sensor105, and/or a motion sensor107.

The method600comprises the steps of:supplying601output signals of luminaires103,105,107to the controller109,establishing603a communication connection between the controller109and the gateway401, andforwarding605sensor information signals130to the data processing unit402and/or the central database403by means of the gateway401.

All features of all embodiments described, shown and/or claimed herein can be combined with each other.

While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only and not limitation. Numerous changes to the disclosed embodiments can be made in accordance with the disclosure herein without departing from the spirit of scope of the invention. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described embodiments. Rather, the scope of the invention should be defined in accordance with the following claims and their equivalence.

Although the invention has been illustrated and described with respect to one or more implementations, equivalent alternations and modifications will occur to those skilled in the art upon the reading of the understanding of the specification and the annexed drawings. In addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been disclosed with respect to only one of the several implementations, such features may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantage for any given or particular application.