Apparatus and method for power management of a system of indicator light devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9466213-B2
Application number	US-201615013869-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 2, 2016
Priority date	May 3, 2011
Publication date	Oct 11, 2016
Grant date	Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

Indicator light devices are useful in many applications for indicating properties of physical spaces respectively associated therewith and in physical proximity thereto. The indicator light devices are network-enabled and self-powered, and capable of participating in coordinated power-managed operation to provide a sufficient service life and lower installation and replacement costs. The indicator light devices may be used with or without associated sensors. The various embodiments described herein use various power management techniques singly or in combination to greatly increase the service life of self-power indicator light devices without diminishing their effectiveness in the application. These techniques include operating only the indicator light devices associated with the physical spaces having properties of interest, operating the indicator light devices with synchronized flashing, operating the indicator light devices in accordance with the detection of specific conditions, relevant time operation, in-vicinity activation, and ambient light responsiveness.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system with energy management of visual capacity indicators for a facility, the system comprising:
a controller;
a plurality of indicator light devices (ILDs), wherein each ILD of the plurality of ILDs is connected via a network to the controller, each ILD of the plurality of ILDs is associated with a physical location and is configured to activate or deactivate a light source associated with each of the physical locations, and each ILD is coupled to at least one presence detector, wherein, for each of the ILDs in the plurality of ILDs, the corresponding at least one presence detector is configured to detect whether each of the physical locations associated with the ILD is occupied;
a counting module operably coupled to the controller and configured to monitor an available supply of unoccupied physical locations in the plurality of physical locations;
a non-transitory computer-readable medium operably coupled to the controller, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises a program of instructions that, when executed by the controller, cause the controller to perform operations to conserve power for the ILDs, the operations comprising:
receive an available supply signal from the counting module, the available supply signal representing the available supply of unoccupied physical locations in the plurality of physical locations;
determine, based on the received available supply signal, whether a percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied meets a predetermined occupancy threshold;
receive a presence signal from each of the presence detectors coupled to each of the ILDs in the plurality of ILDs, the received presence signals identifying which of the physical locations is occupied;
if the percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied meets the predetermined occupancy threshold, selectively activate, for each ILD of the plurality of ILDs, the light source associated with each of the physical locations that is not occupied; and,
if the percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied does not meet the predetermined occupancy threshold, deactivate all of the light sources of all the ILDs in the plurality of ILDs.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the each of the physical locations comprises at least one parking space of a parking facility.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the ILDs in the plurality of ILDs is operably coupled to at least one sound source indicator.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a clock module operably coupled to the controller and configured to determine, based on the received available supply signal, a slow time of the day during which the percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied is not likely to meet the predetermined occupancy threshold, and to deactivate the at least one light source of each ILD of the plurality of ILDs during the determined slow time of the day.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein each ILD of the plurality of ILDs further comprises a network module in operable communication with the controller.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network comprises a wireless network.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operation to activate the light source of each ILD of the plurality of ILDs further comprises synchronously flashing at least one of the light sources that is associated with one of the physical locations that is not occupied.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operation to activate the light source of each ILD of the plurality of ILDs further comprises coordinating flash patterns for at least one light source that is associated with one of the physical locations that is not occupied.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise to determine, based on the received presence signal, whether a percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied meets a predetermined occupancy threshold.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a self-powered source coupled to each ILD of the plurality of ILDs.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the presence detectors is selected from the group consisting of: a magnetometer, an ultrasonic sensor, and a camera.

12. A system with energy management of visual capacity indicators for a facility, the system comprising:
a controller;
a plurality of indicator light devices (ILDs), wherein each ILD of the plurality of ILDs is connected via a network to the controller, each ILD of the plurality of ILDs is associated with a physical location and is configured to activate or deactivate a light source associated with each of the physical locations, and each ILD is coupled to at least one presence detector, wherein, for each of the ILDs in the plurality of ILDs, the corresponding at least one presence detector is configured to detect whether each of the physical locations associated with the ILD is occupied;
a non-transitory computer-readable medium operably coupled to the controller, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises a program of instructions that, when executed by the controller, cause the controller to perform operations to conserve power for the ILDs, the operations comprising:
determine whether a percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied meets a predetermined occupancy threshold;
if the percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied meets the predetermined occupancy threshold, selectively activate, for each ILD of the plurality of ILDs, the light source associated with each of the physical locations that is not occupied; and,
if the percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied does not meet the predetermined occupancy threshold, deactivate all of the light sources of all the ILDs in the plurality of ILDs.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the each of the physical locations comprises at least one parking space of a parking facility.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein each ILD of the plurality of ILDs further comprises a network module in operable communication with the controller.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the network comprises a wireless network.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the operation to activate the light source of each ILD of the plurality of ILDs further comprises synchronously flashing at least one of the light sources that is associated with one of the physical locations that is not occupied.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the operation to activate the light source of each ILD of the plurality of ILDs further comprises coordinating flash patterns for each of the light sources that is associated with one of the physical locations that is not occupied.

18. The system of claim 12 , further comprising a self-powered source coupled to each ILD of the plurality of ILDs.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receive a signal from each of the presence detectors coupled to each of the ILDs in the plurality of ILDs, the received signals identifying which of the physical locations is occupied.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the operation to determine whether a percentage of all of the physical locations that are occupied meets a predetermined occupancy threshold is further based on the received signals.

21. A system with energy management of visual capacity indicators for a facility, the system comprising:
a controller;
a plurality of indicator light devices (ILDs), wherein each ILD of the plurality of ILDs is connected via a ne

Assignees

• Banner Eng

Inventors

• Fayfield Robert T
• Marjamaa Roman York

Classifications

• G08G1/142 Primary

  external to the vehicles · CPC title

• G08G1/146

  where the parking area is a limited parking space, e.g. parking garage, restricted space · CPC title

• G06F1/3206

  Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality · CPC title