Aircraft Occupant Tracking Lighting System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft cabin lighting systems struggle to balance occupant comfort during overnight flights by minimizing light disturbance for sleeping passengers while ensuring flight attendants and other passengers can navigate safely without fully dimming or turning off lights, which can disturb resting passengers.
Innovation Solution
An aircraft lighting system that uses sensors to detect occupant presence and movement, generating control signals to dynamically illuminate specific areas around moving occupants, such as overhead lights and floor path lighting, to provide safe navigation while minimizing overall cabin lighting impact on sleeping passengers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If cabin lighting is completely dimmed or turned off to minimize disturbance to sleeping passengers, then passenger comfort during sleep is improved, but safety and ease of operation for flight attendants and passengers navigating the cabin deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing targeted illumination only in specific areas where occupants are present or moving, rather than illuminating the entire cabin. The system uses sensors to detect occupant locations and activates lighting fixtures only in those specific zones, creating localized lighting conditions that provide navigation safety where needed while maintaining darkness elsewhere to respect sleeping passengers.
Solution Approach 2:
The lighting system performs self-service by automatically detecting occupant presence and movement through sensors, then autonomously adjusting lighting levels and locations without requiring manual control. The system serves itself by monitoring cabin conditions and making real-time lighting adjustments to balance safety and comfort requirements dynamically.
2Ease of operation
If cabin lighting is kept at maximum intensity to ensure visibility for navigation, then ease of operation for flight attendants and passengers is improved, but comfort for sleeping passengers deteriorates due to light disturbance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cabin lighting into multiple independent controllable zones or fixtures. Instead of treating the cabin as a single lighting unit, the system divides it into separate segments that can be independently controlled based on real-time occupancy data, allowing different lighting levels in different areas simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The lighting system transitions from static, fixed lighting levels to dynamic, real-time adjustable lighting. The system continuously monitors occupant movement and automatically adjusts lighting intensity and location in response to changing cabin conditions, enabling the lighting to adapt between providing maximum visibility and minimizing disturbance as needed.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If selective lighting is provided only in areas where occupants are present, then comfort for sleeping passengers is improved by minimizing light disturbance, but device complexity increases due to sensors and control systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing the lighting system to perform multiple functions through a single integrated architecture. The same sensors and control mechanisms that detect occupant presence for lighting control also serve safety monitoring and navigation assistance functions, reducing overall system complexity compared to having separate dedicated systems for each function.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for providing an occupant tracking lighting system including a first light, a second light and a third light within an aircraft cabin including detecting, by a sensor, a location and a velocity of a moving occupant, generating, by a processor, a control signal to illuminate the first light and the second light in response to determining that the location is proximate to the first location and that the velocity being towards the second location, and illuminating, by a controller, the first light and the second light in response to the control signal.