Methods, apparatus and systems for providing occupancy-based variable lighting

A lighting method, comprising:

• A) detecting a presence and an absence of an occupant;
• B) generating an occupancy sensor signal based on A), the occupancy sensor signal representative of:
• B1) an active state in which the presence of the occupant is detected;
• and
• B2) an inactive state in which the absence of the occupant is detected;
• and
• D) detecting an ambient light level;
• E) generating an ambient light sensor signal based on D), the ambient light sensor signal representative of:
• F) generating dimmable illumination at a plurality of different dimming levels based at least in part on B) and E), wherein F) comprises:
• F1) generating the dimmable illumination at a first dimming level of the plurality of different dimming levels corresponding to the active state;
• and
• F2) generating the dimmable illumination at a second dimming level of the plurality of different dimming levels corresponding to the inactive state.

A lighting apparatus, comprising:

• a plurality of LED-based light sources to generate dimmable illumination at a plurality of different dimming levels;
• an occupancy sensor to detect a presence and an absence of a person or an object of interest;
• an ambient light sensor to detect an ambient light level in an environment illuminated by the plurality of LED-based light source;
• and
• a state machine, coupled to the occupancy sensor, the ambient light sensor, and the plurality of LED-based light sources, to control the plurality of LED-based light sources, wherein the state machine implements:
• A) an active state in which the plurality of LED-based light sources are controlled to generate the illumination at a first dimming level if the occupancy sensor detects the presence of the person or the object of interest at a given ambient light level detected by the ambient light sensor;
• B) a countdown state in which the plurality of LED-based light sources are controlled to generate the illumination at the first dimming level if the occupancy sensor detects the absence of the person or the object of interest, and a transition delay time has not expired;
• and
• C) an inactive state in which the plurality of LED-based light sources are controlled to generate the illumination at a second dimming level if the occupancy sensor detects the absence of the person or the object of interest and the transition delay time has expired,
• wherein:
• the state machine transitions between A) and B) when the occupancy sensor first detects the absence of the person or the object of interest following detection of the presence of the person or the object of interest;
• and
• at least one of the first dimming level, the second dimming level, and the transition delay time are controllably variable.

A method for controlling a plurality of LED-based light sources to generate dimmable illumination at a plurality of different dimming levels, the method comprising:

• A) detecting a presence and an absence of a person or an object of interest;
• B) detecting an ambient light level;
• C) controlling the plurality of LED-based light sources to generate the illumination at a first dimming level, based on the ambient light level detected in B), if the presence of the person or the object of interest is detected in A), and a transition delay time has not expired;
• D) controlling the plurality of LED-based light sources to generate the illumination at a second dimming level if the absence of the person or the object of interest is detected in A) and the transition delay time has expired;
• and
• E) remotely controlling at least one of the first dimming level, the second dimming level, and the transition delay time.