Occupancy counting by sound

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10354655-B1
Application number	US-201815866659-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 10, 2018
Priority date	Jan 10, 2018
Publication date	Jul 16, 2019
Grant date	Jul 16, 2019

Abstract

System and method examples offer ways to count occupants in an area by sound. A system includes a data network, a light fixture having intelligent driver circuitry coupled to a light source, a lighting control device to control a light output and operations of the light source in an area, and a microphone coupled to the lighting control device. The lighting control device includes programming that configures a processor to control the microphone to sample and detect sound in the area, determine a location of the detected sound relative to a position of the microphone coupled to the lighting control device, and increment an occupant counter to correspond to each newly determined location of sound in the area for a predetermined period of time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a data network;
a light fixture, comprising:
a light source;
intelligent driver circuitry coupled to the light source to provide power to the light source;
a lighting control device coupled to the intelligent driver circuitry to control a light output and operations of the light source in an area; and
a network interface to enable the light fixture to receive communication via the data network;
wherein the lighting control device of the light fixture comprises:
a processor coupled to the intelligent driver circuitry, and the network interface; and
memory coupled to be accessible to the processor, wherein the memory stores programming for execution by the processor and data to be stored or processed by the processor during execution of instructions included in the programming; and
a microphone coupled to the lighting control device,

wherein execution of the programming in the memory configures the processor to:
control the microphone to sample and detect a sound in the area;
analyze the detected sound to determine a sound type and decibel level;
determine, when the detected sound is a predetermined sound type and exceeds a threshold level, a vector of the detected sound relative to a position of the microphone coupled to the lighting control device of the light fixture and an order of sound reception of the sound to the microphone in the area,

wherein the order of sound reception represents a location of an occupant in the area;
store the determined location of the sound in the memory; and
increment an occupant counter to correspond to each newly determined location of sound in the area for a predetermined period of time.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor pod coupled to and accessible to the lighting control device, wherein the sensor pod includes a plurality of sensors arranged to detect aspects of an environment in the area, and a network interface.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the sensor pod further includes a microphone configured to detect a sound in the area, wherein the detected sound received by the microphone of the sensor pod is used to corroborate the location of the detected sound of the microphone coupled to the lighting control device.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the communication between the light fixture and the sensor pod is by a mesh network.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the light fixture further comprises a synchronizing clock coupled to and accessible to the lighting control device and the sensor pod, the synchronizing clock being configured to generate a timestamp signal that is transmitted to the intelligent driver circuitry of the lighting control device and a controller in the sensor pod.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a centralized server coupled to and accessible to the lighting control device, wherein the centralized server comprises a network interface to enable the centralized server to communicate with the light fixture over the data network; and
a synchronizing clock coupled to the centralized server and configured to generate a timestamp signal that is transmitted to the light fixture via the centralized server, wherein data from the light fixture and the microphone is time synced by the centralized server based upon the timestamp signal.

7. The system of claim 6 , further comprising a server outside the area and accessible to the light fixture via the centralized server and a wide area network.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
the network interfaces of each of the centralized server, and the light fixture comprise a wireless transceiver;
the data network is a wireless network formed by the wireless transceivers of the centralized server, and the light fixture, and
the data network is configured to enable data communication within the area and to provide data communication access to a wide area network extending outside the area.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the data communication uses at least one of Wifi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Ethernet, RS485, Zigbee, Z-wave, or LiFi protocol.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the synchronizing clock uses one of a Clock Sampling Mutual Network Synchronization (CSMNS) or Network Time Protocol (NTP) for transmitting the timestamp signal.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of microphones arranged within the light fixture.

12. A method of using sound localization to count occupants, comprising:
controlling a microphone accessible to each of a plurality of light fixtures to sample sound in an area;
analyzing the sampled sound from the microphone accessible to each of the plurality of light fixtures to detect an audio frequency and decibel level of the sampled sound;
calculating, when the audio frequency and decibel levels are at least a predetermined threshold level, location information of the sampled sound, wherein the calculating comprises:
determining a time, intensity, and frequency of the sampled sound in the area;
comparing a phase of the sampled sound using the determined time, intensity and frequency of each sampled sound to determine an order of sound reception of the sound to the microphone in the area, and based on the comparison, provide a noise vector of the sound, wherein the order of sound reception represents a location and voice frequency of an occupant in the area;
incrementing an occupancy counter based on each noise vector; and
storing the order of sound reception information and an identification of the microphone from which the sound is received in a memory.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
continued controlling of the microphone accessible to each of the plurality of light fixtures to detect any additional sound in the area;
determining a noise vector of the additional sound based upon intensity, time and frequency of the additional sound; and
comparing the noise vector of the additional detected sound in the area to the noise vector of the stored order of sound reception information and identification of the microphone from which the sampled sounds were detected,
wherein when the noise vector of the additional detected sound does not match the noise vector of the stored order of sound reception information and identification of the microphone, the occupancy counter is incremented, and
wherein when the noise vector of the additional detected sound matches the noise vector of the stored order of sound reception information and identification of the microphone from which the sampled sounds were detected, the occupancy counter is not incremented.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
receiving at least one of environmental data or sound data from a plurality of sensors arranged within the plurality of light fixtures or arranged within a sensor pod in the area accessible to each of the plurality of light fixtures;
organizing the received at least one of environmental data or sound data into types of data;
performing an analysis on the organized types of data to determine a prior occurrence of the data in the area;
comparing results of the analysis of the organized types of data to the stored order of sound reception information and the identification of the microphone; and
transmitting, when the results of the analysis of the organized types of data are different from the stored order of sound reception information and the identification of the microphone, the results of the analysis of the organized types of data to a processor accessible to the plurality of light fixtures to enhance the comparison of the phase to the time, intensity

Assignees

• Abl Ip Holding Llc

Inventors

• White Sean P
• Kastee Jenish S
• Megginson Daniel M
• Hixon Nathanial W
• Eegholm Niels G

Classifications

• H04L2012/285

  Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators · CPC title

• H04L12/2825

  Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network (access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002) · CPC title

• H04R2430/20

  Processing of the output signals of the acoustic transducers of an array for obtaining a desired directivity characteristic (H04R2203/12 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04R2201/405

  Non-uniform arrays of transducers or a plurality of uniform arrays with different transducer spacing · CPC title

• H04R3/005

  for combining the signals of two or more microphones (specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407) · CPC title