Location-Specific Lighting Control via Local User Connection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing personalized lighting systems face challenges in open-plan offices and shared spaces where users can change locations frequently, leading to unpredictable user identification and erratic lighting changes due to the unreliable nature of wireless signal recognition methods.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method that combines location-specific and user-specific information through a dedicated connection, using location-specific equipment such as docking stations to store and transmit control information to luminaires, ensuring accurate and effortless personalized lighting by establishing a reliable local connection between user-specific devices and location-specific equipment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If wireless signal recognition methods are used for user identification, then the system can detect users automatically, but the identification becomes unpredictable and unreliable in open-plan offices with frequent location changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces location-specific equipment as an intermediary device that mediates between users and luminaires. This equipment is fixed at specific locations and establishes reliable local connections (e.g., via Bluetooth Low Energy) to identify users who are physically present at that location, rather than relying on wireless signals from any device in the vicinity. The intermediary validates the connection by checking location-specific information, ensuring that only authorized users at the correct location can control the lighting.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a copy of the authentication mechanism at each location through location-specific equipment. Instead of having the luminaire directly authenticate users wirelessly, each location has its own equipment that stores location-specific information and performs authentication locally. This distributed copying of authentication functionality ensures that each location independently verifies user identity, preventing erroneous identification that occurs when a single wireless signal is detected across multiple locations.
2Measurement precision
If location-specific equipment with local connections is used, then user identification accuracy improves, but the device complexity and system setup requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The location-specific equipment is designed to perform multiple functions: it stores location-specific information, manages wireless connections with users, communicates with luminaires, and handles authentication. By consolidating these functions into a single universal device at each location, the system avoids the need for separate complex components for each function, thereby reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high identification accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The location-specific equipment automatically performs authentication and user identification without requiring manual intervention or complex configuration. The system self-configures by establishing local connections with users and automatically verifying their identities against stored location-specific information. This self-service capability reduces the complexity of system setup and maintenance, as the equipment handles authentication autonomously once deployed.
Data Source
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AI summary
Control information is generated for controlling one or more luminaires of a lighting system. A piece of location-specific information is stored, and a piece of user-specific information is received. These are combined into a message containing control information for at least one of said luminaires, and transmitted in the purpose of controlling said at least one of said luminaires. Said location-specific information is stored in a piece of location-specific equipment that is used at a particular location within an area that is served by said lighting system and contains a number of specific locations that are to be illuminated according to personal preferences of users. Said step of receiving a piece of user-specific information is performed when a local connection is established between said piece of location-specific equipment and a user-specific device that is the originator of said user-specific information.