Infrared occupancy sensor

Abstract

An infrared occupancy sensor.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-11 are schematic illustrations of an exemplary embodiment of a control system including an occupancy sensor.

FIGS. 12 a-12b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of the operation of the occupancy sensor of FIGS. 1-11.

FIG. 13 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of time averaged amplitudes of filtered signals for a plurality of center frequencies.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of operating the pre-amplifier of the occupancy sensor of FIGS. 1-11.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of operating the variable bandpass filter of the occupancy sensor of FIGS. 1-11.

FIG. 16 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of the variable bandpass filter of the occupancy sensor of FIGS. 1-11.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of time averaging the amplitudes of signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter of the occupancy sensor of FIGS. 1-11.

FIG. 18 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of the output signals of the variable bandpass filter at a plurality of center frequencies.

FIG. 19 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a time series the output signals of the variable bandpass filter at a particular center frequency.

FIG. 20 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of the time averaged amplitudes of the output signals of the variable bandpass filter at a plurality of center frequencies.

FIG. 21 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of comparing the time averaged amplitudes of the signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter at a plurality of center frequencies.

FIG. 22 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of the time averaged amplitudes of the output signals of the variable bandpass filter at a plurality of center frequencies.

FIG. 23 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of determining occupancy.

FIG. 24 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of the time averaged amplitudes of the output signals of the variable bandpass filter at a plurality of center frequencies.

FIG. 25 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of the time averaged amplitudes of the output signals of the variable bandpass filter at a plurality of center frequencies.

FIG. 26 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of networking occupancy sensors.

FIGS. 27 a-27c is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of remotely controlling and monitoring occupancy sensors.

FIG. 28 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of monitoring the system status of one or more occupancy sensors.

FIG. 29 is an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interface for remotely controlling and monitoring occupancy sensors in a system.

FIGS. 30 a-30c is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of remotely controlling and monitoring a system of occupancy sensors.

FIGS. 31 a and 31b are exemplary embodiments of graphical user interfaces for remotely controlling and monitoring a system of occupancy sensors.

FIGS. 32 a-32b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of remotely controlling and monitoring the profile of occupancy sensors.

FIG. 33 is an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interface for remotely controlling and monitoring the profile of occupancy sensors.

FIGS. 34 a-34c is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of remotely controlling and monitoring the commissioning of occupancy sensors.

FIG. 35 is an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interface for remotely controlling and monitoring the commissioning of occupancy sensors.

FIGS. 36 a-36b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of remotely controlling and monitoring occupancy sensors.

FIG. 37 is an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interface for remotely controlling and monitoring occupancy sensors.

FIGS. 38 a-38c is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of remotely controlling and monitoring the status of occupancy sensors.

FIG. 39 is an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interface for remotely controlling and monitoring occupancy sensors.

FIG. 40 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a duty cycle for occupancy sensors.

FIGS. 41 a-41b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of remotely controlling and monitoring a bandpass filter for an occupancy sensor.

FIG. 42 is an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interface for remotely controlling and monitoring a bandpass filter for an occupancy filter.

FIG. 43 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a bandpass filter engine.

FIGS. 44 a-44b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of searching for quiet bandwidth zones.

FIG. 44 c is a schematic illustration of a quiet bandwidth zone database.

FIG. 45 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of quiet bandwidth zones.

FIG. 46 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of time averaging signals filtered within quiet bandwidth zones.

FIG. 47 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a bandpass filter engine.

FIGS. 48 a-48b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of searching for noisy bandwidth zones.

FIG. 48 c is a schematic illustration of a permissible bandwidth zone database.

FIG. 49 is a graphical illustration of an exemplary embodiment of permissible bandwidth zones.

FIG. 50 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of time averaging signals filtered within quiet bandwidth zones.

FIGS. 51 a-51b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of determining occupancy.

FIGS. 52 a-52b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of determining occupancy.

FIG. 53 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of determining occupancy.

FIG. 54 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of determining occupancy.

FIGS. 55 a-55b is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of networking occupancy sensors.

FIG. 56 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interface for networking occupancy sensors.

FIG. 57 is a flow chart illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a method of networking occupancy sensors.

FIG. 58 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interface for networking occupancy sensors.

FIG. 59 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of an occupancy sensor.

FIG. 60 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of an occupancy sensor.

Claims

1. An occupancy sensor, comprising: an infrared sensor;a variable bandpass filter operably coupled to the infrared sensor; anda controller operably coupled to the infrared sensor and the variable bandpass filter;wherein the controller is adapted to: filter the signals generated by the infrared sensor using the variable bandpass filter, andprocess the filtered signals to determine the presence or absence of an occupant within a defined region.

2. An occupancy sensor, comprising: an infrared sensor;a variable bandpass filter operably coupled to the infrared sensor comprising: a digital potentiometer adapted to control a gain of the bandpass filter;a digital potentiometer adapted to control a tuning of the bandpass filter; anda digital potentiometer adapted to control a ratio of a center frequency of the bandpass filter to a bandwidth of the bandpass filter; anda controller operably coupled to the infrared sensor and the variable bandpass filter comprising: a bandpass filter engine adapted to control the variable bandpass filter;a doppler shift engine adapted to characterize the signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter; andan occupancy sensing engine adapted to characterizations of the Doppler shift engine to determine the presence of absence of the occupant within the defined region;wherein the controller is adapted to: filter the signals generated by the infrared sensor using the variable bandpass filter, andprocess the filtered signals to determine the presence or absence of an occupant within a defined region.

3. The occupancy sensor of claim 2, wherein the bandpass filter engine comprises: a quiet bandwidth search engine for searching a range of frequencies for quiet bandwidth areas that do not include background thermal noise; andwherein the doppler shift engine is adapted to characterize the signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter within the quiet bandwidth areas.

4. The occupancy sensor of claim 2, wherein the bandpass filter engine comprises: a noisy bandwidth search engine for searching a range of frequencies for noisy bandwidth areas that include background thermal noise; andwherein the doppler shift engine is adapted to characterize the signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter that are not within the noisy bandwidth areas.

5. The occupancy sensor of claim 2, wherein the occupancy sensing engine comprises: a determination of possible noise engine for processing signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter to determine if they indicate a possible source of thermal noise;a determination of possible occupancy engine for processing the signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter to determine if they indicate the possible presence of an occupant within the defined region; anda statistical processing engine for processing the indications of possible thermal noise and occupants to determine if the defined region is occupied by an occupant, wherein the statistical processing engine determines that the defined region is occupied by an occupant based upon the frequency of the indications of occupants within the defined region.

6. The occupancy sensor of claim 2, wherein the occupancy sensing engine comprises: a determination of noise engine for processing a subset of signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter to determine if they indicate a source of thermal noise; anda determination of occupancy engine for processing the subset of the signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter to determine the presence or absence of an occupant within the defined region.

7. The occupancy sensor of claim 2, wherein the occupancy sensing engine comprises: a determination of noise engine for processing the signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter within a predetermined time period to determine if they indicate a source of thermal noise; anda determination of occupancy engine for processing the signals filtered by the variable bandpass filter within a predetermined time period to determine the presence or absence of an occupant within the defined region.

8. A method of operating an occupancy sensor, comprising: monitoring thermal energy within a defined region to generate signals representative of the thermal energy within the defined region;filtering the signals using a variable bandpass filter; andprocessing the filtered signals to determine a presence or absence of an occupant within a defined region.

9. A method of operating an occupancy sensor, comprising: monitoring thermal energy within a defined region and generating signals representative of the thermal energy;filtering the signals using a variable bandpass filter;controlling a ratio of a center frequency to a bandwidth of the variable bandpass filter;sweeping the variable bandpass filter upwardly along a range of frequencies;then sweeping the variable bandpass filter downwardly along a range of frequencies;time averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals;comparing the time averaged amplitudes of the filtered signals;determining if a filtered signal indicates a source of thermal noise within the defined region; anddetermining if a filtered signal indicates a presence of an occupant within the defined region.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: searching for quiet bandwidth areas within a range of frequencies that do not include background thermal noise; andtime averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals within the quiet bandwidth areas.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising: searching for noisy bandwidth areas within a range of frequencies that include background thermal noise; andtime averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals not within the noisy bandwidth areas.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising: determining a possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region;determining a possible presence of an occupant within the defined region; anddetermining the presence of an occupant within the defined region as a function of a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of an occupant within the defined region.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising: determining a possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region;determining a possible presence of an occupant within the defined region; anddetermining the presence of an occupant within the defined region as a function of a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of an occupant within the defined region relative to a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising: time averaging an amplitude of a subset the filtered signals.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising: time averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals for a finite time period.

16. A system for operating an occupancy sensor, comprising: means for monitoring thermal energy within a defined region and generating signals representative of the thermal energy;means for filtering the signals using a variable bandpass filter; andmeans for processing the filtered signals to determine a presence or absence of an occupant within a defined region.

17. A system for operating an occupancy sensor, comprising: means for monitoring thermal energy within a defined region and generating signals representative of the thermal energy;means for filtering the signals using a variable bandpass filter;means for controlling a ratio of a center frequency to a bandwidth of the variable bandpass filter;means for sweeping the variable bandpass filter upwardly along a range of frequencies;means for then sweeping the variable bandpass filter downwardly along a range of frequencies;means for time averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals;means for comparing the time averaged amplitudes of the filtered signals;means for determining if a filtered signal indicates a source of thermal noise within the defined region; andmeans for determining if a filtered signal indicates a presence of an occupant within the defined region.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising: means for searching for quiet bandwidth areas within a range of frequencies that do not include background thermal noise; andmeans for time averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals within the quiet bandwidth areas.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising: means for searching for noisy bandwidth areas within a range of frequencies that include background thermal noise; andmeans for time averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals not within the noisy bandwidth areas.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising: means for determining a possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region;means for determining a possible presence of an occupant within the defined region; andmeans for determining the presence of an occupant within the defined region as a function of a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of an occupant within the defined region.

21. The system of claim 17, further comprising: means for determining a possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region;means for determining a possible presence of an occupant within the defined region; andmeans for determining the presence of an occupant within the defined region as a function of a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of an occupant within the defined region relative to a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region.

22. The system of claim 17, further comprising: means for time averaging an amplitude of a subset the filtered signals.

23. The system of claim 17, further comprising: means for time averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals for a finite time period.

24. A computer program for operating an occupancy sensor, comprising program instructions for: monitoring thermal energy within a defined region to generate signals representative of the thermal energy within the defined region;filtering the signals using a variable bandpass filter; andprocessing the filtered signals to determine a presence or absence of an occupant within a defined region.

25. A computer program for operating an occupancy sensor, comprising program instructions for: monitoring thermal energy within a defined region to generate signals representative of the thermal energy within the defined region;filtering the signals using a variable bandpass filter;controlling a ratio of a center frequency to a bandwidth of the variable bandpass filter;sweeping the variable bandpass filter upwardly along a range of frequencies;then sweeping the variable bandpass filter downwardly along a range of frequencies;time averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals;comparing the time averaged amplitudes of the filtered signals;determining if a filtered signal indicates a source of thermal noise within the defined region; anddetermining if a filtered signal indicates a presence of an occupant within the defined region.

26. The computer program of claim 25, further comprising program instructions for: searching for quiet bandwidth areas within a range of frequencies that do not include background thermal noise; andtime averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals within the quiet bandwidth areas.

27. The computer program of claim 25, further comprising program instructions for: searching for noisy bandwidth areas within a range of frequencies that include background thermal noise; andtime averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals not within the noisy bandwidth areas.

28. The computer program of claim 25, further comprising program instructions for: determining a possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region;determining a possible presence of an occupant within the defined region; anddetermining the presence of an occupant within the defined region as a function of a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of an occupant within the defined region.

29. The computer program of claim 25, further comprising program instructions for: determining a possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region;determining a possible presence of an occupant within the defined region; anddetermining the presence of an occupant within the defined region as a function of a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of an occupant within the defined region relative to a frequency of the determination of the possible presence of a source of thermal noise within the defined region.

30. The computer program of claim 25, further comprising program instructions for: time averaging an amplitude of a subset the filtered signals.

31. The computer program of claim 25, further comprising program instructions for: time averaging an amplitude of the filtered signals for a finite time period.