JP2002246189A - Lighting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable use during night or in a dark place of a lighting system, using an imaging element and capable of fine detection of a person. SOLUTION: This lighting system is provided with two or more person- detecting means for detecting persons, a selecting means selecting one of a plurality of person detecting means, and a control part for controlling lighting according to a signal from the selected person-detecting means, and the person- detecting means is switched in compliance with the environment. For example, the brightness of the periphery is detected by means of a brightness sensor 9, and if it is bright in the periphery, a person is detected by means of an imaging part 5, while the person is detected by means of a pyroelectric sensor 7, if it is dark in the periphery. By means of a timer, a person is detected with the pyroelectric sensor 7 during the nighttime, while the person is detected by means of the imaging part 5 during the daytime.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lighting device controlled by using an image sensor and a sensor, and is suitably used mainly for a house or an office.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art (Conventional Example 1) FIG. In the figure, 1 is a ballast, 2 is a fluorescent lamp, 3 is a power converter, 4 is a controller, 7 is a pyroelectric sensor, 8 is a power switch, and Vs is a commercial power supply. In the first conventional example, the movement of a person is detected by the pyroelectric sensor 7, and when there is a movement of the person, a pulse-like detection signal is transmitted to the control unit 4. When receiving the detection signal, the control section 4 turns on the power switch section 8, which is normally off. As a result, the lamp 2
Lights up. The control unit 4 has a built-in timer, and starts counting at the same time when the power switch unit 8 is turned on. When the predetermined count ends, the power switch unit 8 is turned off again. However, if the detection signal is transmitted during the counting, the count of the timer is reset and the counting is restarted from the beginning.

(Conventional Example 2) FIG. 11 shows a configuration of Conventional Example 2. In the figure, 1 is a ballast, 2 is a fluorescent lamp, 3 is a power conversion unit, 4 is a control unit, 5 is an imaging unit, and 6 is an image processing unit.
The second conventional example is mainly used indoors, and enables finer detection than the first conventional example. The image of the room is captured by the imaging unit 5, and the number and state of the room are recognized by the image processing unit 6. The control unit 4 receives the result, and variously controls the lamp 2 by the ballast 1. For example, when the number of people in the room is large, the brightness is increased, and when the number of people in the room is small, the brightness is decreased so as to decrease the brightness. The image processing section 6 mainly calculates the difference between images taken at different times and determines the number of persons and the movement based on the change, or an image (background image) with no room occupied in advance at a certain moment. As a main method, a method of determining the number of people and the motion by taking a difference from the image of the above is exemplified. The operation of the control unit 4 is the same as in the first conventional example.

[0004]

In the first prior art, the movement of a person can be detected due to the nature of the pyroelectric sensor, but the stationary state and the type of movement cannot be detected. Further, in the conventional example 2, since the current image sensor uses the luminance distribution of the reflected light as an image, the reflected light, that is, the brightness of a certain level or more is required. Therefore, the conventional example 2 cannot be applied at night or in a dark place. As described above, although the human detection using the imaging element can perform fine detection, there is a problem that it cannot be applied in a dark place or at night.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to provide an illuminating device using an image pickup device that can perform fine human detection even at night or in a dark place. .

[0006]

According to the lighting device of the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, at least two or more person detecting means for detecting a person, and of the plurality of person detecting means, There is provided a means for selecting one, and a control unit for controlling illumination by a signal from the selected person detecting means, wherein the person detecting means is switched according to a surrounding situation. Here, the plurality of human detecting means include, for example, an imaging unit 5 and a pyroelectric sensor 7 as shown in FIG. 1, and the means for selecting the human detecting means is, for example, a brightness sensor 9 and the surroundings are bright. Sometimes, a person is detected by the imaging unit 5,
When the surroundings are dark, switching is performed so that the pyroelectric sensor 7 detects a person. In addition, the means for selecting the person detecting means may be a timer. The timer is switched so that the pyroelectric sensor 7 detects a person at night and the image sensing unit 5 detects the person at daytime.

[0007]

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 shows the configuration of Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a ballast, 2 is a fluorescent lamp, 3 is a power conversion unit, 4 is a control unit, 5 is an imaging unit, 6 is an image processing unit, 7 is a pyroelectric sensor, 8 is a power switch unit, 9
Is a brightness sensor.

The ballast 1 can turn on and off the lamp 2 by turning on and off the power. The power converter 3 converts the commercial power Vs into a DC power and outputs the DC power, and supplies a power voltage required for operating the controller 4 and the image processor 6. The ballast 1 is supplied with commercial power Vs via a power switch unit 8.

The imaging unit 5 is composed of a CCD camera or a CMOS camera, and can output the luminance distribution of the reflected light entering the visual field as image data, and transmits the captured image data to the image processing unit 6. . The image processing unit 6 receives the image data transmitted from the imaging unit 5 and determines the presence status of a person in the room. For example, a method of determining the presence of a person from the difference between two pieces of image data shot with a time difference, or an indoor image (background image) in a situation where no person has been shot in advance and an indoor image (background image) For example, a method of determining the presence state of a person from the difference from the image at the time is used.
When the presence of a person is recognized by such a determination method, a pulse-like detection signal is transmitted to the control unit 4.

The pyroelectric sensor 7 has a detection range equivalent to that of the image pickup unit 5, and responds to movement of a person (change in heat), not only in a dark place or a bright place, and generates a pulse-like signal. Send to 4.
The brightness sensor 9 constantly monitors the brightness of the room, and transmits an analog voltage that changes according to the brightness to the control unit 4. The correlation between the brightness and the analog voltage is set in advance and can be determined by the control unit 4.

The control unit 4 includes an image processing unit 6 and a pyroelectric sensor 7,
The signal from the brightness sensor 9 is input, and the brightness of the room is determined based on the signal from the brightness sensor 9. According to the brightness, one of the image processing unit 6 and the pyroelectric sensor 7 is set to an operation state, and the other is set to a standby state (operation stop).

FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration of the control unit 4. In the figure, 4
1 is a brightness determination unit, 42 is a person detection means selection unit, 43 is a timer, and 44 is a signal output unit. The brightness judging section 41 compares the analog voltage from the brightness sensor 9 with a predetermined reference value, and inputs the judgment result to the human detecting means selecting section 42. The human detection means selection unit 42 sets one of the image processing unit 6 and the pyroelectric sensor 7 to an operation state and sets the other to a standby state (operation stop) according to the judgment output of the brightness judgment unit 41. The timer 43 is a timer that starts counting when the presence of a person is detected by the selected person detecting means. During the timer counting, a signal for turning on the power of the ballast 1 is output from the signal output unit 44. It is configured to be output.

FIG. 4 shows an outline of a method of selecting the human detecting means according to the present embodiment. The horizontal axis in the figure represents the flow of time in a day, and the vertical axis represents the room brightness detected by the brightness sensor 9. The curve is an example of the fluctuation of the room brightness in one day, and if the room brightness is higher than the minimum brightness reference line required for imaging shown in the figure, the person detection by the imaging unit 5 is selected. I do. When the indoor brightness falls below the minimum brightness reference line required for imaging, the detection is switched to human detection by the pyroelectric sensor 7.

The image processing unit 6 and the pyroelectric sensor 7 send a pulse-like detection signal to the control unit 4 only when detecting the presence of a person. When receiving the pulse signal, the control unit 4 starts counting a predetermined time by the built-in timer 43 and simultaneously turns on the power of the ballast 1 (signals from the image processing unit 6 and the pyroelectric sensor 7 are transmitted). If not, turn it off.) Thereafter, the power is turned on while the timer is counting, and the power is turned off when the counting by the timer 43 is completed. When a pulse signal is input again during the timer count, the count of the timer 43 is reset, and counting is started from the beginning.

By adopting the configuration shown in FIG. 5, it is possible to cope with the case where the ballast 1 is a dimming ballast. In this case, the control unit 4 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 6, and is capable of dimming by inputting a dimming signal from the dimming signal output unit 45 to the ballast 1.

According to this embodiment, it is possible to detect a person in a dark place or at night by a simple method by detecting a person in a dark place or at night by using a pyroelectric sensor. At night, human detection can be performed supplementarily, and higher energy saving effect and convenience can be obtained as compared with a configuration including only the imaging element or only the pyroelectric sensor. In addition, since the human sensor is automatically selected by the brightness sensor and one of them is in a standby state, useless power consumption can be suppressed. Further, fine control by the image sensor is performed during the day with a relatively large number of people, and the minimum number of people is detected at night when the number of people is small, so that the convenience is high.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 7 shows the configuration of Embodiment 2. The second embodiment has substantially the same configuration as the first embodiment, and therefore only the differences will be described. In the figure, 1 is a ballast, 2 is a fluorescent lamp, 3 is a power conversion unit, 4 is a control unit, 5 is an imaging unit, 6 is an image processing unit, 7 is a pyroelectric sensor, and 10 is a timer. The difference from the first embodiment is that instead of the brightness sensor 9,
The timer 10 selects the human detection means.
As shown in FIG. 8, a human detection means to be selected in advance according to the time of the timer 10 is set, and the sensor is appropriately selected according to the situation. Thereby, the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained. According to the present embodiment, since the human detection means is selected by the timer, there is an advantage that the configuration can be simpler than in the first embodiment.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 9 shows the configuration of Embodiment 3. In the figure, 1 is a ballast, 2 is a fluorescent lamp, 3 is a power conversion unit, 4 is a control unit, 5 is an imaging unit, 6 is an image processing unit, 8 is a power switch unit, and 11 is an infrared LED. Since the third embodiment has substantially the same configuration as the first embodiment, only differences will be described. The imaging unit 5 can also perform imaging in the infrared region, and can capture an image in the infrared region even at night by irradiating the infrared LED 11 to the imaging target in an auxiliary manner. The infrared LED 11 is turned on / off by a signal from the image processing unit 6. The image processing unit 6 detects the brightness of the room in addition to the human detection. The method of detecting the brightness is not described in detail here. For example, the average brightness of all pixels is calculated, and the brightness value is subjected to a binary determination of bright / dark at a certain threshold value. This enables the image processing unit 6 to perform human detection and brightness determination. Here, when the brightness is determined to be “bright”, imaging is performed as usual, a person is detected by the image processing unit 6, and the same control as in the first embodiment is performed. When the brightness judgment is “dark”, a lighting command is given to the infrared LED 11 from the image processing unit 6,
Illuminate the room. Thus, an infrared image can be obtained even at night, and the image processing unit 6 can detect a person.

According to the present embodiment, the same effects as those of the first embodiment are obtained, and since the means for detecting a person and the means for detecting brightness are the same, the configuration is extremely simplified. In addition, since image data is obtained by infrared rays even at night, finer control than the pyroelectric sensor 7 is possible. Further, since the infrared LED 11 is turned on when necessary and is turned off when it is unnecessary, significant energy savings can be achieved.

(Embodiment 4) FIG.
Shown in In the figure, 1 is a ballast, 2 is a fluorescent lamp, 3 is a power converter, 4 is a controller, 5 is an imager, 6 is an image processor, 9
Denotes a brightness sensor, and 12 denotes a door open / close detecting unit. The present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that a room door opening / closing detecting unit 12 is provided as a person detecting unit. Since the door is always opened when a person enters the room, the person can be reliably detected even at night.

[0021]

According to the invention of claims 1 to 4, it is possible to detect a person in a dark place or at night by a simple method by detecting a person with a pyroelectric sensor in a dark place or at night. Detailed human detection is possible in the middle and auxiliary human detection is possible at night, and higher energy saving effect and convenience can be obtained as compared with the configuration of only the image sensor or the pyroelectric sensor. Also,
The human sensor is automatically selected by the brightness sensor,
Since one is in the standby state, it is possible to suppress wasteful power consumption. Further, fine control by the image sensor is performed during the day with a relatively large number of people, and the minimum number of people is detected at night when the number of people is small, so that the convenience is high.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the human detecting means is selected by a timer instead of the brightness sensor, there is an advantage that the present invention can be implemented with a simple configuration. According to the invention of claim 6, since the means for detecting a person and the means for detecting brightness are the same, the configuration becomes very simple. According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, since image data is obtained by infrared rays even at night, finer control than the pyroelectric sensor is possible. Further, since the infrared LED is turned on when necessary, and is turned off when it is not necessary, significant energy savings can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of Conventional Example 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a control unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a modification of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a control unit according to a modification of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an operation explanatory diagram of Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a second conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 ballast 2 fluorescent lamp 3 power conversion unit 4 control unit 5 imaging unit 6 image processing unit 7 pyroelectric sensor 8 power switch unit 9 brightness sensor

Claims (9)

[Claims] At least two or more person detecting means for detecting a person, means for selecting one of the plurality of person detecting means, and illumination control based on a signal from the selected person detecting means. A lighting device comprising: a control unit; and switching a human detection unit according to a surrounding situation. 2. At least one of a plurality of human detecting means.
The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein one is an image sensor. 3. At least one of the plurality of human detecting means.
The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein one of the lighting devices is a pyroelectric sensor. 4. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the means for selecting the person detecting means is a brightness sensor, and the means for switching the person detecting means is switched according to the surrounding brightness. 5. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the means for selecting the person detecting means is a timer, and the means for switching the person detecting means is changed over time. 6. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the means for selecting the person detecting means is the person detecting means itself. 7. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of human detecting means is a combination of an infrared LED and a near-infrared imaging device. 8. The lighting control by the control unit turns on / off the lighting.
The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the lighting device is turned off. 9. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the lighting control by the control unit is control for dimming the lighting.