Patent Application
20180242427
This application claims the benefit of GB Patent Application GB1702595.8, filed Feb. 17, 2017, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure is related to smart luminaires. It is particularly applicable, but in no way limited, to luminaire components designed to incorporate a sensor arrangement into a downlight, including incorporating a sensor arrangement into or associated with a lens in a downlight.
Luminaires or light fixtures, which include or are connected to a motion sensor are known, and these are particularly useful for causing a lamp in the luminaire to illuminate when a person is present. This is a convenient way of saving energy when an area is unoccupied, for eliminating light switches inside buildings, and for lighting pathways etc outside at night.
A similar approach has also been developed for thermostats, which include or are connected to a motion sensor or light sensor. These collect data on the day length, habitation status and energy usage. However there is generally only one thermostat in a house, or in one particular industrial or commercial area, so coverage by any sensor associated with a thermostat is very limited.
Intruder alarm systems, which utilise sensors of various types are also known. The sensors include PIR detectors, pressure switches, and switches that detect opening of doors and windows. Each of these sensors has a specific function and they are usually connected to an alarm controller.
LED Downlight fittings or downlighters are a form of lighting unit becoming more and more widely used as light sources in domestic and commercial environments. They offer significant energy savings when compared with traditional incandescent lighting, whilst being particularly neat and unobtrusive in their appearance, since almost the entire downlight fitting is concealed behind a ceiling or other suitable panel or surface, whilst giving out a pleasing light. They also have the advantage that they may be used in considerable numbers to light an area, and therefore potentially offer significantly more comprehensive area coverage than a thermostat or a stand alone intruder alarm sensor.
Luminaires including downlights that incorporate sensors are described in GB Patent Application No. GB2526440A, the entire text of which is hereby incorporated by reference, and is intended to form an integral part of this disclosure to the extent that it is consistent with this disclosure. The arrangements shown and described in GB Patent Application No. GB2526440A are complex, and may be difficult to incorporate into downlights and relatively expensive to manufacture. It must be appreciated that the market for downlights is very competitive and price sensitive.
The embodiments described in the present disclosure overcome or mitigate some or all of the disadvantages outlined above.
This disclosure relates to ‘smart’ luminaire components and complete ‘smart’ luminaires that contain detectors that sense information about their local environment and which communicate this information to a processor. These luminaires offer a way of collecting data about the environment in which they are situated. This overcomes the problems associated with a dedicated sensor in a particular location, such as a thermostat which only covers a limited area, because a building or house will contain many luminaires of different types, each capable of gathering data. The data gathered by the luminaires described herein may include a much higher granularity than data collected by other approaches, and is therefore more useful. The use of communication protocols such as ZigBee, Wi-Fi, 6LoWPAN Bluetooth® or Bluetooth LE between the sensor arrangement and/or the luminaire and a remote gateway leads to improved designs, which are simpler and less expensive to manufacture.
According to an aspect, a luminaire component for use in a luminaire is provided. In this context, the term ‘luminaire component’ has a broad meaning and refers to any component, or combination of components, suitable for incorporation into any form of luminaire. The luminaire component may include an LED module including an LED light source on a first printed circuit board (PCB). The first PCB may include a front face on which the LED module is located. According to an aspect, the luminaire component includes an optical system/lens for focusing light emitted by the LED module. The lens may incorporate an outwardly extending flange. The luminaire component may further include a sensor arrangement that incorporates one or more sensors. The sensor arrangement may be located between the LED module and the outwardly extending flange of the lens such that at least one sensor is forward facing and views the environment through the flange of the lens. By physically separating the sensor arrangement from both the lens and from the LED module this simplifies construction, reduces cost, and allows maximum flexibility. Accordingly, a luminaire can be constructed without any sensors, or with one or more of a variety of sensors, depending on a customer's requirements simply by varying just the sensor arrangement component. All other components can remain the same.
There are a number of optical systems that can be used to focus light from an LED and typically current LED luminaires use lenses.
According to an aspect, the luminaire component further includes a connection mechanism/means adapted to connect the sensor arrangement to the LED module PCB. This connection mechanism provides power to the sensor arrangement and conveys data gathered by the sensor arrangement. It can also provide two-way data transfer if required. The connection mechanism can take a wide variety of forms, as determined by the appropriate design expert. For example the connection mechanism could comprise a plurality of male and female pin connectors, or one or more electrical contact points.
In an embodiment, the sensor(s) that view the environment through the flange of the lens view the environment through an aperture in the flange. In this context the term ‘aperture’ has a broad meaning. The flanges around these lenses are generally opaque or frosted. An aperture can take the form of a substantially transparent window or gap in the frosted flange, a physical hole in the flange, or a small substantially transparent optical lens such as a convex lens built into the flange in order to spread the sensor detection angle. In an embodiment, the transparent element in the flange includes a convex lens in front of the sensor arrangement in order to spread the sensor detection angle.
According to an aspect, the sensor arrangement includes at least one rearward facing sensor adapted to view light emitted by the LED module. Although the rearward facing sensor may be outside the main body of the lens, sufficient light may escape in order to monitor characteristics of the light emitted by the LED module.
The sensor arrangement may be mounted on a second PCB. By providing a second PCB mounted in front of and, in an embodiment, away from the first LED carrying PCB, it is possible for the first time to introduce new functionality into a luminaire, such as by incorporating one or more data communication devices onto the second PCB. According to an aspect, this second PCB is substantially annular and thus follows the profile of the annular flange around the outside of the lens.
It will be understood that embodiments of the present disclosure also extends to include luminaires, including downlight luminaires, incorporating a luminaire component according to the present disclosure.
In an embodiment, the lens is substantially frustoconical in cross-section with an outwardly extending flange around the perimeter of the front of the lens.
The sensor arrangement may include a first sensor array directed substantially away from the luminaire for detecting information about the environment below the luminaire. The sensor arrangement may further include a second sensor array directed substantially toward the LED light source in the luminaire for detecting information about the operation of the light source.
In an embodiment, the second sensor array detects a luminous flux of light emitted by the luminaire and alternatively or additionally the second sensor array detects the colour temperature of light emitted by the LED light source.
In an embodiment, the first and the second sensor arrays are both mounted on the second PCB.
Embodiments of the present disclosure also extend to include a luminaire incorporating a luminaire component as described herein. The luminaire may include a downlight or a lamp.
According to an aspect, the sensor includes one or more from the group of sensors comprising: proximity sensors, including capacitive, capacitive-displacement, conductive, magnetic, optical, thermal, and sonar sensors; motion sensors, including passive infrared (“PIR”) motion detectors, ultrasonic, microwave, and tomographic motion detectors; acoustic sensors including microphones; charge-coupled detectors; low-resolution digital cameras; thermopiles; thermocouples; carbon dioxide sensors; water-vapour detectors; flow meters; and pressure sensors, field-strength sensors for magnetic and electrical fields.
According to an aspect, the environmental characteristic measured by the sensor include; changes in temperatures, gasses exhaled by human beings and other living creatures; types of sounds or sound patterns; changes in ambient light due to moving objects; changes in pressure within an environment due to opening and closing of doors, windows, or motion of large objects through the air; and other such pressure changes; rate of flow of water, natural gas, and other gasses; and temporal changes in field strength.
In an embodiment, the LED module includes one or more LEDs.
Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward a luminaire component which includes a sensor or sensors, an LED light source, a lens, and optionally a processor or processors for processing data from the sensor
The data collected by the sensor/(s) may be collected and stored. According to an aspect, the data is processed to perform one or more functions, including to control how a luminaire or a lamp in a lighting fixture operates, to monitor the status of the luminaire/lamp, and to control other remote equipment.
Embodiments of the present disclosure allows a smart-home environment to include a number of intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices. These smart-home devices are able to intercommunicate and are integrated together within the smart-home environment. The smart-home devices may also communicate with cloud-based smart-home control and/or data-processing systems in order to distribute control functionality, to access higher capacity and more reliable computational facilities, and to integrate a particular smart home into a larger, multi-home or geographical smart-home-device-based aggregation.
In general, smart-home devices may include one or more different types of sensors, one or more controllers and/or actuators, and one or more communications interfaces that connect the smart-home devices to other smart-home devices, routers, bridges, hubs and gateways within a local smart-home environment, various different types of local computer systems, and to the Internet, through which a smart-home device may communicate with cloud-computing servers and other remote computing systems. Data communications are generally carried out using any one or combination of a large variety of different types of communications media and protocols, including wireless protocols, such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Bluetooth, BLE and various types of wired protocols, including CAT6 Ethernet, HomePlug and other power line communication (PLC) protocols, and various other types of communications protocols and technologies. Smart-home devices may themselves operate as intermediate communications devices, such as repeaters, for other smart-home devices. The smart-home environment may additionally include a variety of different types of legacy appliances and devices and which lack communications interfaces and processor-based controllers.
According to an aspect, the luminaire components include components suitable for use in luminaires for indoor use, such as bathroom lighting, cabinet and display lighting, commercial lighting, downlighting, emergency lighting, low level lighting, strip, flex and modular lighting, surface lighting, track lighting, uplighting, marker lights, and wall luminaries. These may further include fire rated downlighting, downlighting, LED flat panels, LED high bays, pendant lights, spotlights, track systems, bulkheads, LED strip, LED signage modules, wall lights, recessed ground lighting, suspended lighting, ceiling lights, commercial lighting, lamps, bulbs and indoor luminaire accessories.
According to an aspect, the luminaire components also include components suitable for use in luminaires for outdoor use, such as flexible outdoor lighting options including ceiling/canopy lighting, coastal lighting, floodlighting, low level lighting, pathway lighting, recessed ground lighting, spotlighting, strip, flex and modular lighting, walkover lights, wall lighting, wall washing and grazing solutions. These may further include outdoor bulkheads, outdoor wall lights, outdoor LED strip, LED signage modules, pathway lighting, wall washers, floodlighting, outdoor spotlights, submersible & coastal lighting, outdoor low level lighting, outdoor recessed ground lighting, outdoor ceiling/canopy lighting.
As would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, embodiments of the present disclosure include complete luminaires incorporating the luminaire components described herein, such as the types of luminaires listed above, as well as lamps (bulbs).
A more particular description will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments thereof and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, exemplary embodiments will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
Various features, aspects, and advantages of the embodiments will become more apparent from the following detailed description, along with the accompanying figures in which like numerals represent like components throughout the figures and text. The various described features are not necessarily drawn to scale, but are drawn to emphasize specific features relevant to some embodiments.
The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to limit the scope of the description or the claims. To facilitate understanding, reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate like elements common to the figures.
Luminaire assemblies in the form of downlights having a separate light emitting portion and a separate power/control portion are described in GB Patent Application No. GB1617719.8 (Aurora Limited), the entire text of which is hereby imported by reference in its entirety, and forms an integral part of this disclosure to the extent that it is consistent with the present disclosure. Referring to
According to an aspect and as illustrated in
There may be several variations of this plug and socket arrangement that might be adopted by a person skilled in the art. For example, the connecting cable could have a plug at one end and a socket at the other end, with a corresponding socket and plug in the respective portions. According to an aspect, the connecting cable may be permanently connected at one end to either the light emitting portion 11 or the power/control portion 12, with a plug or socket at the other end of the connecting cable.
The end result of these various connecting cable arrangements may be such that the power/control portion 12 and the light emitting portion 11 can be completely separated from each other in a disassembled configuration and attached together in an assembled configuration as and when required. As illustrated in
Separating the power/control portion 12 of the downlight from the light emitting portion 11 in use also serves to reduce the overall temperature of the product as the two main heat sources are separated and not contributing to one another, and therefore the total running temperature of the product is reduced. The result of this new design is a downlight, and particularly a fire rated downlight, which has an attached driver, which can also be taken off to reduce the overall height of the fitting. Fire rating may be achieved by the strategic placement of intumescent material (not shown) within the collar region 21 illustrated in
Embodiments of the present disclosure may include a forward facing sensor 70, which may be a part of a multi-part luminaire component shown more clearly in
According to an aspect and as illustrated in
In order to provide power to the sensor PCB 77 and thus to the sensor 70, and to receive data collected by sensor 70, a connection mechanism/means or connector is provided between the two PCBs. In an embodiment and as illustrated in
As illustrated in
Having a sensor array that faces toward the LED light source provides a particularly important functionality where the lumen output or colour temperature of the luminaire is critical. This could for example be in a retail environment where product lighting is critical. Thus the individual status of each luminaire in a chosen group of luminaires which have these backward facing sensors can be reported on a real time basis. If the performance of one or more luminaires falls below a set threshold, or fails completely, a warning can be given that a particular lamp needs to be changed, specifying exactly which lamp is faulty. This avoids the need for regular inspections of the luminaires and for the requirement to take detailed measurements of lumen output, colour temperature or CRI of each lamp in a grouping.
It may be possible, based on the individual information from a backward facing sensor in a particular luminaire, that the control IC in a particular LED light engine can “overdrive” that LED, thus increasing its light output. This will of course be at the expense of the lifetime of that LED, which will be reduced as a consequence.
This new functionality has a further important application. LED luminaires have a predicted lifetime. However, this is usually a prediction of the average time to complete failure, or to a certain percentage level of performance, but to date this has not been based on factual measurements of luminaires operating in a particular or specific working environment. Using data collected from these backward facing sensors actual data can be collected on the life of LED light engines operating in a particular working environment, and this can be used to provide much more accurate predicted lifetimes.
In summary, a feature of the dual sensor arrangement is that not only is it possible to obtain information about the environment below or around the luminaire, but it also possible to monitor characteristics of the lamp itself, for example, the intensity of the light output of the luminaire. In particular, it is now possible to measure the luminous flux of the lamp and the quality of the light output, for example the colour temperature of the output.
An advantage of this is that the intensity of the light output of the LED light engine can be controlled over its useful life by adjusting the current/voltage supplied to the LED within the lamp. In addition, the colour temperature can be maintained within a certain range. For example, if the lamp comprises two (or more) LED's of differing colour temperature, the intensity of each can be adjusted so as to give a substantially constant required colour temperature output.
According to an aspect, sensor 70, 170 includes devices able to sense information about the local environment of luminaire, including proximity detectors, passive infrared (“PIR”) motion detectors, other types of motion detectors, daylight sensors, microphones or other types of acoustic detectors, charge-coupled detectors (“CCD”) or low-resolution digital cameras, ambient temperature sensors, thermopiles or thermocouples, carbon dioxide sensors, water-vapour detectors, pressure sensors, and various types of field-strength sensors that sense magnetic and electrical fields. Proximity detectors include a wide variety of different types of sensors, including capacitive, capacitive-displacement, conductive, magnetic, optical, thermal, sonar, and other types of sensors. PIR motion-detector sensors detect abrupt changes in temperatures based on infrared radiation emitted by living creatures. Other types of motion detectors include ultrasonic, microwave, and tomographic motion detectors. Audio detectors can detect sound and Acoustic detectors can detect various types of sounds or sound patterns indicative of the presence of human beings. Low-resolution cameras and CCD devices may detect changes in ambient light, including changes in ambient light due to moving objects. Thermopiles and thermocouples can be used to detect changes in temperature correlated with the presence of human beings and other living organisms. Similarly, carbon dioxide and water vapour detectors may detect gases exhaled by human beings and other living creatures, and methane detectors may detect gases present in, for example, mine workings. Pressure sensors may detect changes in pressure within an environment due to opening and closing of doors, windows, motion of large objects through the air, and other such pressure changes. Flow meters may detect the rate of flow of water, natural gas, and other gasses and liquids that flow under positive control by human beings. Field-strength sensors may detect temporal changes in field strength correlated with presence of human beings or motion of human beings through an environment.
It will be understood that the data collected by the sensor/(s) 70, 170 and sensor 82, 182 must be stored and processed. This can be done at a number of locations. These include, but are not limited to, within the luminaire by including the necessary processing function within the luminaire, remotely in a hub, or in the so-called ‘cloud’. Data can be transmitted from the luminaire to the required destination/s) using a wide variety of known techniques and protocols such as PLC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, BLE, ZigBee, DALI or the like.
These connections and components of
While foregoing describes various embodiments of the disclosure being applicable to downlight luminaires and the like, it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, that these embodiments can be applied to other shapes and types of luminaires.
The present disclosure, in various embodiments, configurations and aspects, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/or apparatus substantially developed as depicted and described herein, including various embodiments, sub-combinations, and subsets thereof. Those of skill in the art will understand how to make and use the present disclosure after understanding the present disclosure. The present disclosure, in various embodiments, configurations and aspects, includes providing devices and processes in the absence of items not depicted and/or described herein or in various embodiments, configurations, or aspects hereof, including in the absence of such items as may have been used in previous devices or processes, e.g., for improving performance, achieving ease and/or reducing cost of implementation.
The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.
In this specification and the claims that follow, reference will be made to a number of terms that have the following meanings. The terms “a” (or “an”) and “the” refer to one or more of that entity, thereby including plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. Furthermore, references to “one embodiment”, “some embodiments”, “an embodiment” and the like are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features. Approximating language, as used herein throughout the specification and claims, may be applied to modify any quantitative representation that could permissibly vary without resulting in a change in the basic function to which it is related. Accordingly, a value modified by a term such as “about” is not to be limited to the precise value specified. In some instances, the approximating language may correspond to the precision of an instrument for measuring the value. Terms such as “first,” “second,” “upper,” “lower” etc. are used to identify one element from another, and unless otherwise specified are not meant to refer to a particular order or number of elements.
As used herein, the terms “may” and “may be” indicate a possibility of an occurrence within a set of circumstances; a possession of a specified property, characteristic or function; and/or qualify another verb by expressing one or more of an ability, capability, or possibility associated with the qualified verb. Accordingly, usage of “may” and “may be” indicates that a modified term is apparently appropriate, capable, or suitable for an indicated capacity, function, or usage, while taking into account that in some circumstances the modified term may sometimes not be appropriate, capable, or suitable. For example, in some circumstances an event or capacity can be expected, while in other circumstances the event or capacity cannot occur—this distinction is captured by the terms “may” and “may be.”
As used in the claims, the word “comprises” and its grammatical variants logically also subtend and include phrases of varying and differing extent such as for example, but not limited thereto, “consisting essentially of” and “consisting of.” Where necessary, ranges have been supplied, and those ranges are inclusive of all sub-ranges therebetween. It is to be expected that variations in these ranges will suggest themselves to a practitioner having ordinary skill in the art and, where not already dedicated to the public, the appended claims should cover those variations.
The terms “determine”, “calculate” and “compute,” and variations thereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any type of methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.
The foregoing discussion of the present disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. The foregoing is not intended to limit the present disclosure to the form or forms disclosed herein. In the foregoing Detailed Description for example, various features of the present disclosure are grouped together in one or more embodiments, configurations, or aspects for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. The features of the embodiments, configurations, or aspects of the present disclosure may be combined in alternate embodiments, configurations, or aspects other than those discussed above. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the present disclosure requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, the claimed features lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment, configuration, or aspect. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of the present disclosure.
Advances in science and technology may make equivalents and substitutions possible that are not now contemplated by reason of the imprecision of language; these variations should be covered by the appended claims. This written description uses examples to disclose the method, machine and computer-readable medium, including the best mode, and also to enable any person of ordinary skill in the art to practice these, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope thereof is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB1702595.8 | Feb 2017 | GB | national |
