Patent ID: 8077035

Claim:
A lighting control system for a space equipped with lamps for illuminating the space, comprising a power circuit for supplying power to said lamps, a controllable switch in said power circuit for turning said lamps on and off, an occupancy sensor for detecting motion within said space and generating a motion-detected control signal in response to the detection of such motion, a timer for measuring a time-out interval following the generation of said motion-detected control signal by said occupancy sensor and producing a time-out control signal in response to completion of the measurement of said time-out interval, and a processor receiving said control signals from said occupancy sensor and said timer and programmed to produce a switch-off control signal for said controllable switch to turn said lamps off in response to said time-out control signal, modify said time-out interval by a time-out offset value in response to preselected events, count the number of times said switch-off control signal is produced without the receipt of said motion-detected control signal within a predetermined time following the end of said time-out interval, and decrement said time-out interval by said offset value in response to said count reaching a predetermined value.