Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 21 replies
  • Subscribers 499 subscribers
  • Views 5094 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Would You Be Interested in a Design Challenge on Sensor Integration in Lighting?

rscasny

I spend a good amount of my week in meetings with our suppliers. We talk about what activities that they can bring to element14. And I do a lot of listening about what interests them and try to match it up with what I think its the element14 community. The results of the discussions often bring sponsored activities in the Design Challenge, Roadtest, and Essentials areas of the community, among others. 

One area of interest for our suppliers is lighting. This can include street lighting, indoor lighting and outside lighting. I think the migration from incandescent or fluorescent lighting to LED lighting is one example of their interest. )I hear about Horticulture Lighting more than you think!) They see the benefit of energy savings, while I would say you can do a lot of things with LED lighting. Some of our suppliers are putting out dev kits. So, it's an area of substantial interest.

Currently, I am speaking with a supplier who is interested in sensor integration in lighting. I suppose this phrase can mean various things. For me, it means two things: (1) the ability to run the sensor data output through the lighting system and (2) the ability to have the sensors control the state of the LED in an office or building. It could be something as simple as temp sensors or object detection/human presence sensors that would turn the lights off when no one was in a room for a designated period of time. Of course, there are many other applications or ways one can play with LED lighting. 

I'm trying to get your feedback on your interest in participating in an sensor lighting integration challenge? If you aren't, that's fine. If you are, what would you need, materials-wise.  I'm guessing the materials could include a control board, LED Driver, LEDs, Sensors, Connectors, LED fixtures, etc. 

  • In horticulture indeed there are lots of innovations in led lighting, in greenhouses and vertical farms (plant factories). 

    In horticulture also sensing is a key technology, as experts are working more and more to autonomous greenhouse control.

    So sure the combination of lighting and sensing has huge potential in horticulture.

  • Yes this would be an interesting design challenge. It's probably done already within office buildings but I always wanted to use a LUX sensor in combo with my LED desk lamp. In winter, for example, I would often start the day with the desk lamp on but by mid morning when it's much brighter I wouldn't need it as bright or even on. Hence I had the idea of using a LUX sensor to control LED input power (or use PWM to control) as light levels for comfortable reading tends to be threshold based.

  • I have switched to LED lighting - mostly high temperature (~6000 deg white). For most indoor lighting I am mostly interested in lifespan, which usually means how do they keep the LEDs from getting hot. My big interest in specialized lighting is studio lighting for video and photography. Beyond just needing very bright lights it requires a lot of control over diffusion and shadows. Materials-wise I wouldn't need a lot of controllers, I would be more interested in heatsinks, diffusers and mounting structures.

  • I’m thinking more along the lines of tech-enhanced art these days, so I might try to set up motion or gesture sensors that trigger a series of LED patterns to light up within a painting or sculpture. Or maybe wearable clothing.

  • Most people will probably think in presence detection or lux values to turn on or off the lights.

    When brainstorming, people will came up with the craziest ideas to integrate with led lights. Maybe not just turn them on or off, but probably change the color according to the outside lights or the time of the day. I've seen them with Bluetooth speakers .

    Probably a speaker for listening words to turn them on or off or clapping the hands (always wanted one of those Blush) .

    Let's create that design challenge

  • I'd be interested in a project that  involves a sensor ( or sensor array) that detects light color temperature, and has LEDs of various temperatures to allow mixing control for ambient light. I'm thinking of indirect lighting that is influenced by the color of paint or other objects in the room, or the sunlight color coming in the windows, 

    It could also be used to optimize room temperature lighting for growing plants as well, when no people are in the room. 

  • It would be interesting - I know there are some that are focusing on energy efficiency so they are using ambient lighting sensors to adjust the output of dimmable LED panels. It's a good idea, but how well it works in practice is another thing. Whether there is perceivable modulation of lighting and the response speed would be of interest. I think that something as simple as a lux-meter or even ambient light sensor module could be used to explore the intensity at a work surface under varying conditions of the day. Looking at the communications between sensor and luminaire may also be interesting.

    Colour temperature changing would be interesting too, but I wonder how well that would be implemented. Perhaps knowing sunrise/sunset times and using that without sensors could be enough for just colour temperature changing assuming the luminaire has a mixture of different white LEDs (or full RGB/W).

    I'd be interested, but we'll need 230V-rated luminaires here and any radio-based equipment will need to comply with local laws. I wouldn't imagine you shipping a 1.2m office ceiling troffer all the way down here ...

    - Gough

  • in reply to feiticeir0

    No microphones, I want the system to read my mind. 

  • Yes. In addition to the items you have listed ensure there is license if proprietary software is required. I seem to recall a project in the Community that required vendor software that was licensed and stale dated. 

  • I guess I am interested in a low power LED light that can intelligently turn on when it senses a cat and stays on for a while. Since cats can't figure out how to turn lights on themselves but they don't need much light. It might be interesting if the activity could be remotely monitored.