GB2487065A

GB2487065A - Public lighting system using wireless communication

Info

Publication number: GB2487065A
Application number: GB1100123.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ian David Wigglesworth
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2011-01-06
Filing date: 2011-01-06
Publication date: 2012-07-11
Also published as: GB201100123D0

Abstract

A public lighting system, e.g. street lighting, comprises lighting units L1-L9 which detect pedestrian or vehicle movement and are connected wirelessly so that they can share information. If movement is detected and the direction can be established then a range of light units can be illuminated for the benefit of the moving object before eventually timing out. The lighting units may be illuminated in advance of and to the rear of a moving object. External wireless devices can be used to connect to individual lighting units for the purposes of setting configuration data, obtaining operational information or forced activation of a range of lighting units e.g. for emergency services or highway maintenance..

Description

Public Lighting System Public lighting units are controlled by timers or light detectors such that they are illuminated irrespective of whether a vehicle or pedestrian actually requires them to be on. This is unnecessarily costly to the providers of the public lighting.

To overcome this the present invention proposes the use of lighting units which detect pedestrian or vehicle movement with the lighting units connected wirelessly to adjacent units. Information is passed between the lighting units such that the direction of movement of the pedestrian or vehicle can be established. Once this is known a range of lights can be wirelessly activated either in advance of the moving object or in advance and to the rear of the object.

Use of this system will result in lighting units only being illuminated when they are actually required. This will result in energy cost savings to the provider of the lighting system. Furthermore once the lighting units are equipped with the ability to receive and transmit wireless information then this will enable the provider of the lighting system to perform remote configuration and monitoring of the units.

This invention will now be described solely by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 shows the movement of an object causing a set of lights to be illuminated in advance of the object.

Detection of Movement ofijç..Qj'jçct Lighting units are assigned a unique identifier (id) and are positioned such that the unique identifiers of adjacent units increase or decrease by one.

At Time = Ti in Figure 1 movement is detected by lighting unit Li. This causes the immediate illumination of the lighting unit. The unit transmits a movement message (MOV) to indicate that it has detected movement and an identifier unique to the unit.

Other units close by receive this MOV message and store the received information. The details are stored for a specific period of time after which they are deleted.

At Time T2 in Figure 1 the object has moved to where an adjacent unit L2 detects its movement. Once this unit detects movement and as it holds a stored MOV message then the unit checks its own id against the stored message id. The unit determines the direction of movement of the object to be either in the direction of ascending unit id's (if the stored event id is less than its own id) or in the direction of descending unit id's (if the stored event is greater than its own id).

Qçjcction of Direction oLMovemept Once the L2 unit has detected directional movement it transmits a directional movement message (DMOV) to indicate this situation. This DMOV message includes the direction (ascending or descending), the id of this unit and a counter of the number of units required to be illuminated.

Units close to the unit detect this DMOV message.

&eceivintDirction4 Movement Messages from Adjacent Units Unit L3 detects this DMOV message. L3 checks if the DMOV message is from an adjacent unit, the source id is less than the id of this unit, the direction is ascending and the counter is greater than zero then the unit is illuminated (if it isn't already) and the DMOV message re-transmitted but with the source id set to that of this unit and the counter decremented by one.

If the DMOV message is from an adjacent unit, the source id is greater that the id of this unit, the direction is descending and the counter is greater than zero then the unit is illuminated (if it isn't already) and the DMOV is re-transmitted but with the source id set to that of this unit and the counter is decremented by one.

The DMOV message is then received by unit L4 and processed in a similar manner to as described above and propagated amongst the range of lighting units L3 to L7 in Figure 1.

In this way detection directional movement at L2 causes illumination of units L2 -L7 in figure 1.

Subsequently the object moves to where it is detected by unit L3 as shown in Figure 1 at Time = T3. As this unit has already received a MOY signal from L2 at Time 12 then it is able to determine the directional movement as described for L2 at Time = T2 and generate a DMOV message in a similar way. This is transmitted and processed as before and results in the illumination of units L3 -L8 in figure 1.

Receiving Directional Movement Messages from No Adjacent Units If a DMOV message is received from a non-adjacent unit it is saved and a timer started with a pre-configured timeout value. If a DMOV message is received from an adjacent unit whilst the timer is running then it is processed as described above and the saved DMOV message discarded.

Otherwise after the timer has expired if no adjacent DMOV message has been received then this is indicative of the failure of the adjacent unit. The saved non adjacent DMOV message is processed as if it were an adjacent DMOV message except that any re-transmission occurs with the counter decremented by the difference between this unit's id and the saved message unit id. Only the first non-adjacent DMOV message is stored -subsequent non-adjacent DMOV messages are discarded.

Lighting Units Timiozit of illumination Once a lighting unit has been illuminated for whatever reason it will be switched off after a pre-configured timeout period as shown for Li at Time = T3 in Figure 1.

illumination of a Rqnge oJLightitg Units Before and After the MovintObject In some situations -for example where the moving object is a pedestrian it may be desirable for the system to illuminate a range of lighting units both in advance and to the rear of the moving object.

In this situation the lighting units will be configured to transmit DMOV messages with a direction indicating both ways.

Lighting units which receive DMOV messages with a direction set to indicate this situation will process the messages as described previously except that they will not consider the ascending or descending nature of the received message id relative to their own. They will just receive and re-transmit the messages with decremented counters -provided the counter is greater than zero.

Use of external wireless devices Once individual lighting units are equipped to exchange information by wireless means then it will also be possible to connect via an external wireless device to a single unit.

Rather than direction of movement being the trigger for illumination of the units this trigger could be as a result of the use of a subscriber wireless device. Otherwise the system would operate in the same way as described above.

The provider of the lighting units may use a wireless device to inject configuration settings (e.g. timeout periods, number of units to illuminate after an initial DMOV etc) at a certain location and have the settings propagate through the network of units.

The provider of the lighting units may use a wireless device to collect operational information (e.g. operational state, usage statistics) from a certain location. This may result in the collection of information from a number of units via a single point as the request and associated responses may propagate through the network of units from and back to that point for collection by the wireless device.

A wireless device connected at a single point may be used to activate or deactivate a section of the lighting network such that it is illuminated irrespective of object movement. This may be to aid emergency services or for highway maintenance purposes.

Claims

Claims 1. Wireless connection of lighting units whereby information is exchanged between lighting units.
2. Wireless controlled illumination of a range of lighting units which are illuminated in advance of a moving object using information exchanged according to claim 1.
3. Wireless controlled illumination of a range of lighting units which are illuminated in advance of and to the rear of a moving object (e.g. for pedestrian use) using information exchanged according to claim 1.
4. Wireless control of lighting units according to claim 2 and 3 in which activation is conditional upon a subscriber wireless device.
5. Wireless configuration of lighting units whereby configuration information is set by an external device which has connected wirelessly to an individual lighting with information transferred to that unit and subsequently propagated between lighting units according to claim 1.
6. Wireless propagation according to claim 1 of lighting units operational information (including unit failure) requested from and received by an external wireless device which has connected to an individual lighting unit.
7. Wireless control of lighting units (e.g. for emergency services, highway maintenance) whereby a range of lighting units may be illuminated for a required period of time by means of information exchanged between lighting units according to claim I using an external wireless device connected to an individual lighting unit.