EP3003511A1

EP3003511A1 - Device for managing the illumination of the grips of a climbing wall

Info

Publication number: EP3003511A1
Application number: EP14733281.1A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Denis Garnier
Original assignee: X'sin
Current assignee: X'sin
Priority date: 2013-06-06
Filing date: 2014-06-06
Publication date: 2016-04-13
Anticipated expiration: 2034-06-06
Also published as: FR3006797A1; FR3006797B1; EP3003511B1; US9463368B2; WO2014195651A1; US20160136496A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to an illumination management device (1) intended for an artificial climbing wall (2) characterized in that it comprises at least one emission loop (3) arranged so as to be fixed to the rear of the wall (2) and able to emit an electromagnetic field through said wall (2), at least one luminous grip (4) arranged so as to be fixed to the front of said wall (2) and being able to receive an electronic card (6) comprising at least one light source and a reception loop able to receive said electromagnetic field emitted by the associated emission loop (3) so as to convert it into electric current in order to power said light source, and a control housing for said light source being arranged so as to be connected to an electrical network so as to power said emission loop (3) with electric current and able to send commands to manage the illumination of said light source.

Description

ILLUMINATION MANAGEMENT DEVICE

TAKEN OF A CLIMBING WALL

Technical area

The present invention relates to a device for managing the illumination of a climbing wall in order primarily to dynamically mark paths, called paths, to be carried out by the users, said routes being predefined by the manager of said wall depending on the difficulty. desired and / or the level of the user, said management device also to exploit the associated animation capabilities.

Prior art

Climbers have always sought to rate the climbing routes in difficulty. At the appearance of the artificial walls, the courses were traced by placing colors, each course of different colors representing a route with its own degree of difficulty. However, the multiple overlaps of the course and the catch of all colors make the readability of the layouts for the least difficult.

In this regard, we already know plugs provided with lights to be mounted on a climbing wall with usual fastening means. The latter consist of a body comprising an outer portion for supporting a climber and a substantially planar mounting face adapted to cooperate with said climbing wall. The body advantageously comprises an internal compartment made from a transparent or translucent construction material capable of allowing light to pass through. Said light climbing jacks also comprise one or more light sources disposed inside the body or the inner compartment, or close to said jacks or else flush with the surface thereof, said light sources being connected to a power source through power cables disposed behind the climbing wall and passing through said wall through orifices. However, this type of light is not compatible with a renewal of the climbing wall consisting of a change in the position of said plugs either by changing their geographical position on the wall, or by rotation of said plugs around their axis. Indeed, if the position of the light sockets changes, it may be necessary to extend the power supply wiring and new through holes in said climbing wall. These operations are tedious and expensive because it is not always easy to access the back of the climbing wall, once it is put in place. Similarly, it is necessary to mount / disassemble the plugs frequently for cleaning. These operations are then delicate because it is necessary each time to connect / disconnect the plugs to the power supply cables. Finally, the multiplication of orifices may ultimately weaken the climbing wall.

To partially overcome these drawbacks, autonomous light outlets with batteries are known. However, this type of light catches still has several disadvantages. Indeed, on the one hand, these batteries have a limited lifetime requiring a relatively frequent replacement and require to make in the socket itself an important housing for their implementation thus limiting their use in taking significant dimensions and on the other hand, battery recycling is still a delicate environmental problem. Presentation of the invention

The object of the present invention is therefore to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks and to propose a climbing wall illumination device that is easy to set up, autonomous and makes it possible to easily change the course of said climbing wall at a lower level. cost and without complex and expensive operations, said device being adapted to be installed on the majority of existing climbing walls.

According to the invention, it is therefore proposed an illumination management device for an artificial climbing wall remarkable in that it comprises at least one transmission loop arranged to be attached to the back of the wall and able to emit an electromagnetic field through said wall, at least one light socket arranged to be fixed to the front of said wall and being adapted to receive an electronic card comprising at least one light source and a reception loop adapted to receive said electromagnetic field emitted by the associated transmission loop to convert it into electric current for supplying said light source, and a control box of the light source being arranged to be connected to an electrical network to supply electrical power to said loop transmission and being able to send commands to manage the illumination of said light source.

The electronic card advantageously comprises a presence detector of a climber on the associated jack, the presence detector being preferably a flexible blade switch associated with a magnet or an RFID reader associated with a tag, the magnet or the tag is presenting in the form of a bracelet arranged to be worn by a climber.

The electronic card also includes a controller and a microcontroller allowing in particular the management of identification information of the light source and the associated socket.

Advantageously, the electronic card is embedded in the material of the socket.

Even more advantageously, the electronic card is embedded in the material of an independent removable subassembly capable of being inserted into the back of the socket.

The plug or subassembly comprises a portion of flexible material for receiving the electronic card.

The control box includes a power supply for supplying power to said transmission loop and a microcontroller for controlling the proper operation of the illumination management device.

Advantageously, the illumination management device comprises a multiplatform software interface.

For this, the software interface is preferably made in the form of a web server embedded in said control box light sources.

According to a preferred embodiment, the illumination management device comprises at least one interactive terminal for managing the illumination of one or more channels and the control box comprises a connection means allowing the terminal to be connected to the software interface embedded in said housing via a wireless protocol or via cables.

According to an even more advantageous embodiment, the illumination management device comprises a bidirectional connection between the socket (s) and the light source control box making it possible to time and record the time taken by a light source. climber to achieve the chosen path. The bidirectional link preferably uses radio frequencies and the electronic board of the socket and the control box of the light sources each comprise a transceiver.

Brief description of the figures

Other advantages and features will emerge more clearly from the following description of an embodiment of a device for managing the illumination of a climbing wall according to the invention with reference to the appended figures in which:

- Figure 1 is a front view of a plug of an illumination management device of a climbing wall according to the invention;

- Figure 2 is a vertical section of the socket of Figure 1 fixed on a climbing wall;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a climbing wall equipped with a plurality of devices for managing the illumination according to the invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a climbing wall equipped with a plurality of illumination management devices and a software interface terminal;

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a first operating principle associated with a first variant of the climbing wall illumination management device according to the invention;

- Figure 6 is a diagram of a second operating principle associated with a second variant of the climbing wall illumination management device according to the invention.

Best way to realize the technical invention

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the management device 1 for illuminating a climbing wall 2 comprises at least one transmission loop 3 arranged to be fixed to the rear of the wall 2, connected to an electrical network and capable of emitting an electromagnetic field through said wall 2, and a light socket 4 arranged to be fixed to the before said wall 2 by means of fixing means 5 of the bolts or screws for example, said socket 4 being able to receive an electronic card 6 comprising at least one light source 7 and a receiving loop 8 adapted to receive said electromagnetic field emitted by the associated transmission loop 3 and converting it into an electric current for supplying said light source 7.

The term "front" of the climbing wall 2 denotes the face facing the climber when the latter is about to climb said wall 2, and "back" the opposite face.

Because of the frequent removal / repositioning of sockets 4 for cleaning in particular, the use of a magnetic induction power supply is particularly suitable to overcome the disadvantages of wired power supply systems.

The skilled person will have no difficulty in determining the characteristics of the magnetic induction power supply to be implemented depending in particular on the nature and thickness of the wall 2.

For the same reasons, the electronic card 6 is preferably embedded in the resin of the socket 4 in order to make the whole waterproof and robust, said resin being conventionally of the orthophthalic or polyurethane polyester or epoxy type, for example, and becoming hard after molding.

However, insofar as the hard resin plugs do not allow to recover the electronic card 6 at the end of life for recycling, the electronic card 6 may be embedded in a portion of the socket 4 made of "flexible" material , such as silicone for example, the flexible portion is then then itself embedded in a harder resin. This variant embodiment not shown would facilitate the extraction of the electronic card 6, and therefore to consider the recycling thereof.

According to an alternative embodiment not shown, the electronic card 6 is embedded in an independent removable subassembly which will be inserted on the back of the socket 4, the latter comprising a reservation adapted to receive said subset. Moreover, as before, in order to facilitate the extraction of the electronic card 6, the latter may also be embedded in a portion of the subassembly made of "soft" material, such as silicone for example, the flexible portion then being then she herself drowned in a harder resin.

The skilled person will have no difficulty in determining the number and type of electronic components of the electronic card 6, so that they ensure the proper functioning of the socket 4 and are compatible with the chemical, thermal and mechanical constraints related to an integration in said socket 4.

However, to limit the effects of chemical and thermal constraints, the electronic card 6 may, prior to immersion in the socket 4 or in the subassembly, be cast in a protective resin. This resin can also soften the possible mechanical stresses during the solidification of the resin of the catches 4.

The light source 7 is advantageously an LED

(Light Emitting Diode in English, diode electroluminescent in French) able to emit light of several different colors depending on the needs and routes to mark. The use of LEDs also makes it possible to adjust easily the intensity of the luminous flux to adapt the management device 1 to the ambient lighting conditions.

Since the atmosphere near the wall 2 is laden with magnesia dust, each socket 4 is thus easily removable, allowing frequent cleaning in order to ensure the reliability and durability of said management device 1.

With reference to FIG. 3, an emission loop 3 may advantageously be associated with several reception loops 8 and thus with a plurality of sockets 4 for simultaneously supplying a plurality of light sources 7. This configuration allows a great modularity of the wall 2 thanks to the variability the position of the catches 4.

With reference to FIGS. 4 to 6, the management device 1 also comprises a control box 9 able to activate the transmission loops 3 in order to switch on or off the light sources 7 of the sockets 4 and a software interface preferably operating on from an interactive terminal 10 for managing the illumination of one or more channels.

However, the software interface can also be used on other hardware platforms with, for example, functional restrictions depending on the users.

Thus, a version of the mobile phone software interface, of the Smartphone type, will allow an opener to install the sockets alone in order to create new channels.

Likewise, a Smartphone / PC / interactive terminal version will allow you to visualize and choose lanes, and to save various parameters specific to climbers.

A PC version (Personal Computer in English) will be mainly dedicated to the computer of the manager of the climbing room equipped with the management device 1 according to the invention. Finally, the software interface can be used for "announcement" screens placed in different parts of the room to communicate on the technical capabilities and functionality of the management device 1 and to present information on the other channels available in the room.

In order to ensure compatibility between the various platforms, the software interface is preferably made in the form of a web server embedded in said control box 9 of the light sources 7, said control box comprising a connection means 11 enabling at terminal 10 to be connected to the software interface embedded in said housing via a wireless protocol, of the "WIFI" type for example, or via cables of the "ETHERNET" type, for example.

The software interface of the management device 1 makes it possible to graphically scroll the channels and the walls and, if the selected wall is not in use, to illuminate the programmed channels chosen on the wall concerned. The choice of a channel actuates the illumination of the light sources 7 concerned and advantageously an inaccessibility of all other channels using light sources 7 forming part of the chosen path.

The software interface advantageously makes it possible to time and record the time taken by a climber to achieve the chosen route. This last feature requires setting up a presence detector 12 of the climber on the electronic card 6 of the management device 1. The detection of the climber is advantageously of the magnetic type and can be associated with a bracelet comprising a magnet carried by the climber, said magnet modifying the magnetic field near the socket and allowing the detection of the presence of the climber. This detector is preferably a Switch type switch with flexible blade (ILS or REED switch) for its life and reliability.

This feature further requires the establishment of a bidirectional link between the plug (s) 4 and the control box 9 of the light sources 7. This bidirectional link advantageously uses radio frequencies.

With reference to FIG. 5, the electronic card 6 also includes a regulator 13 and a microcontroller 14, in particular for managing the identification information of the light source 7 and the associated jack 4. Indeed, when setting up new outlets 4 on the climbing wall 2 and / or when registering new tracks, the opener makes it possible, thanks to the presence detector 12, to allocate to each socket 4 the registered channel has a unique identifier, said unique identifier making it possible to turn on the light source 7 only as a function of the needs, the chosen channel and the commands of the control box 9.

Similarly, with reference to FIG. 5, the control box 9, which is connected to at least one transmission loop 3, also comprises a power supply 15 for supplying said transmission loop 3 with power and a microcontroller 16 to control the proper functioning of the management device 1.

However, with reference to FIG. 6, to enable the timing function of the path, the electronic card 6 of the socket 4 and the control box 9 also each comprise a transceiver, preferably of the radiofrequency type, respectively 17, 18. Thus, when the climber is detected on the socket 4, the latter sends its unique identifier to the control box 9, with their respective transceivers 17,18. Finally, with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 and with such a configuration, the management device 1 can operate according to at least two principles.

Thus, the first operating principle, shown schematically in FIG. 5, provides three modes of operation: the installation mode, the use mode and the channel programming mode.

When the management device 1 is in installation mode, the transmission loops 3 are activated and the control box 9 sends an order indicating to any socket 4 entering into activity (power up) and detecting a climber to store a unique identifier contained in the order, said unique identifier then serving to respond only to specific orders associated with said unique identifier and sent by the control box 9. The take is then initialized and activated with an identifier and the opener can switch to take 4 next, and so on.

When the management device 1 is in use mode, the control box 9 of the light sources 7 activates the transmission loops 3 and the light sources 7 receive commands by demodulation of the signal received by the reception loop 8. If the order is a broadcast command or contains their identifier then the light sources 7 execute the order and light, otherwise the light sources 7 remain off in standby mode, corresponding to low consumption.

When the management device 1 is in channel programming mode allows an opener to create new channels, the software interface makes it possible to send a "broadcast" command to all the light sources 7 so that they are ready to receive and to memorize the identifier of the channel being programmed, if the presence detector 12 is activated by the opener. When the opener approaches his bracelet comprising a magnet more than three seconds, it is detected, the plug 4 becomes active for the channel being programmed and then stores the channel identifier, contained in the "broadcast" command, in its memory identifiers for which it will have to perform an action. To indicate that it has taken into account its selection, take 4 can take a defined color. As long as channel programming mode is active, the opener can select and deselect a plug by "activating" or not its presence sensor. At the end of channel programming, the software interface sends a "broadcast" command at the end of channel programming in order to place the jacks 4 in use mode. Each socket 4 now knows whether or not it should make an order concerning the programmed channel in question, by searching in its memory for the channel identifier associated with the order it receives. Thus, if the channel identifier is present then it performs the requested action, otherwise it does nothing.

Finally, the second operating principle, shown schematically in FIG. 6, provides four operating modes: the installation mode, the use mode, the channel programming mode and the timing mode. The first three modes of operation are identical to those described above.

On the other hand, when the management device 1 is in timing mode (the only mode that necessarily requires a bidirectional link), preferably of the radiofrequency type, when the climber is detected by the bracelet or the presence of the climber, the socket 4 sends its identifier and the presence information at the control unit 9 of the light sources 7, by radiofrequency link, thanks to their respective transceivers 17, 18. This bidirectional link allows in particular to determine the time between each take 4 and the total duration of the way.

However, insofar as the establishment of a bi-directional radiofrequency-type link would significantly increase the price of a tap 4 and thus of the management device 1, only the catches 4 likely to be in the first position of a course and in the last position of the track will be equipped with the bidirectional link, thus making it possible to carry out the timing of said track. To do this, it will be necessary to identify in the management device 1 the first and last tap of the channel concerned.

Description of other embodiments

According to a variant embodiment not shown, the device for managing the illumination of an artificial climbing wall according to the invention is associated, thanks to a bidirectional connection of the radiofrequency type, to a marker or identification tag (tag RFID) carried by each climber, said tag being preferably in the form of a bracelet.

Indeed, the transmission loop has the ability to communicate bidirectionally with the electronic card of each socket having at least one receiving loop but also with RFID tags and other RFID sensors.

This association allows an automatic identification of the climber by the transmission loop and the control box of the light sources.

The operating principles of the illumination management device and the software interface are not called into question in their basic modes of operation, however the use of said management device is simplified because the passage through the software interface is no longer required.

Indeed, the openers can validate the addition of a catch to a route with the identification tag of the bracelet without having to connect with the software interface.

Similarly, users can choose not to go through the software interface and access a route directly by approaching their identification tag of a take. The routes to which said take belongs him are then proposed automatically and successively.

In addition, any user will see his statistics updated automatically, as soon as he is recognized on a route.

In multi-practice, this provides flexibility of use by automatically managing the update of profiles without return to the interactive terminal.

Possibility of industrial application

The management device 1 of the illumination according to the invention applies more particularly to the marking of the tracks on artificial climbing walls, but it can also be used to ensure the decoration / animation of the climbing room by the use of illumination sequences made for this purpose.

Finally, it goes without saying that the examples of management device 1 of the illumination according to the invention which have just been described are only particular illustrations, in no way limiting the invention.

Claims

1. Management device (1) of the illumination for an artificial climbing wall (2) characterized in that it comprises at least one transmission loop (3) arranged to be fixed to the back of the wall (2) and adapted to emit an electromagnetic field through said wall (2), at least one light socket (4) arranged to be fixed to the front of said wall (2) and being able to receive an electronic card (6) comprising at least one light source (7) and a reception loop (8) adapted to receive said electromagnetic field emitted by the associated transmission loop (3) in order to convert it into electric current for supplying said light source (7), and a control box (9) of the light source (7) being arranged to be connected to an electrical network in order to supply electrical power to said transmission loop (3) and being able to send commands to manage the illumination of said light source (7).

2. Management device (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the electronic card (6) comprises a presence detector (12) of a climber on the socket (4) associated.

3. Management device (1) according to claim 2, characterized in that the presence detector (12) is a flexible blade switch associated with a magnet or an RFID reader associated with a tag, the magnet or the tag is presenting in the form of a bracelet arranged to be worn by a climber.

4. Management device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the electronic card (6) comprises a regulator (13) and a microcontroller (14), in particular for managing the identification information of the light source (7) and the associated socket (4).

5. Management device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the electronic card (6) is embedded in the material of the socket (4).

6. Management device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the electronic card (6) is embedded in the material of an independent removable subassembly adapted to be inserted on the back of the taken 4.

7. Management device (1) according to any one of claims 5 or 6, characterized in that the plug (4) or the subassembly comprises a portion of flexible material in which is embedded the electronic card (6).

8. Management device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the control box (9) comprises a power supply (15) for supplying power to said transmission loop (3) and a microcontroller (16) for controlling the proper operation of the illumination device (1).

9. Management device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that it comprises a multiplatform software interface.

10. Management device (1) according to claim 9, characterized in that the interface software is implemented in the form of a web server embedded in said control box (9) light sources (7).

11. Management device (1) according to claim 10, characterized in that it comprises at least one terminal (10) interactive for managing the illumination of one or more channels and in that the control unit (9 ) comprises a connection means (11) allowing the terminal (10) to be connected to the software interface embedded in said housing via a wireless protocol or via cables.

12. Management device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that it comprises a bidirectional connection between the (the) plug (s) (4) and the control unit (9) light sources (7) making it possible to time and record the time taken by a climber to achieve the chosen path.

13. Management device (1) according to claim 12, characterized in that the bidirectional link uses the radio frequencies and in that the electronic card (6) of the socket (4) and the control box (9) of the light sources (7) each comprise a transceiver, respectively (17,18).