Apparatus and method for schedule based operation of a luminaire
AssigneeExpress Imaging Systems, LLC
InventorsWilliam G. Reed, Dale H. DeGraff, Richard Dolf
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Abstract
An illumination system verifies controls the operation of a luminaire without the use of any photometric data. The illumination system uses data indicative of a current time, date or latitude to determine one or more aspects of a solar event. Such aspects can include a scheduled, predicted or expected time of occurrence of the scheduled solar event. Responsive to the determination of a scheduled, predicted or expected time of occurrence of the scheduled solar event, a control subsystem can adjust the luminous output of a light source.
Claims26
A luminaire, comprising:
- at least one light source;
- and
- a control subsystem to control a supply of power to the at least one light source, the control subsystem including:
- at least one timing circuit to provide a timing signal;
- at least one nontransitory storage media to store geolocation information that specifies at least a position on the Earth at which the luminaire is to operate;
- a controller communicably coupled to the at least one timing circuit and the at least one nontransitory storage media, and that:
- determines using at least the store geolocation information, at least one aspect of a scheduled solar event at the postion on Earth at which the luminaire is to operate;
- and
- generates at least one output signal having at least one characteristic indicative of the determined at least one aspect of the scheduled solar event;
- and
- at least one power controller conductively coupled to the controller, the at least one power controller selectively operable to control a supply of power to the at least one light source responsive to the at least one characteristic of the at least one output signal.
A method of controlling the operation of at least one solid state light source, the method comprising:
- determining an occurrence of a scheduled solar event based at least on geolocation information stored in a non-transitory storage medium, the geolocation information specifying at least a position on the Earth at which the solid state light source is to operate, without any reference to photometric sensing;
- generating at least one output signal having at least one characteristic indicative of the occurrence of at least one aspect of the scheduled solar event;
- and
- adjusting a luminous output of the at least one solid state light source responsive to the at least one characteristic of the at least one output signal.
A luminaire controller, comprising:
- a timing circuit including a persistent power source and at least one of a timer circuit and a real time clock, the timing circuit to provide a timing signal including data indicative of at least one of:
- a current date and a current time;
- an output communicably coupled to at least one power controller, the output to provide at least one output signal having at least one characteristic to the at least one power controller, the at least one characteristic of the at least one output signal adjusted relative to at least one aspect of at least one scheduled solar event;
- and
- at least one non-transitory storage media storing machine executable instructions and geolocation information that specifies a position on the Earth at which the luminaire controller is to operate, wherein the machine executable instructions cause the luminaire controller to:
- determine the at least one aspect of the at least one scheduled solar event based at least in part on the geolocation information stored in the at least one non-transitory storage media;
- and
- adjust the at least one characteristic of the at least one output signal relative to the determined at least one aspect of the scheduled solar event.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.