Apparatus and method of energy efficient illumination using received signals

摘要

Illumination sources are turned ON and turned OFF in response to detected levels of illumination in an ambient environment reaching respective thresholds, which may be user set. The detection of these turn ON and turn OFF events is verified, for instance against expected events or conditions for the particular location, date and/or time. An alert or log entry may be generated if a detected event or condition appears to be invalid. For instance, if an amount of illumination in the environment is different than predicted by a threshold amount or if a time that the event occurs or is detected is different than expected or predicted by more than a threshold amount. A level of illumination may be decreased to some non-zero level after a specified time after turn ON, and increased at some specified time before turnOFF. Use of information from external sources (e.g., satellites, cell towers) may allow times to be using local time, including daylight savings if applicable.

主权项

1. A method of operating an illumination system including at least one light source, the method comprising:
determining by a controller, an expected ambient environment illumination condition for a current location at a defined date and time; comparing by the controller, an actual ambient environment illumination condition detected in the ambient environment at the current location with the determined expected ambient environment illumination condition; in response to determining an existence of a difference between the actual ambient environment illumination condition and the determined expected ambient environment illumination condition, producing by the controller, at least one of a notification or a record indicative of an aberrant event; and receiving a location signal by the controller, the location signal indicative of the current location of the illumination system, wherein determining by a controller an expected ambient environment illumination condition includes determining at least one of an expected time of dusk or an expected time of dawn for the current location based at least in part on the current location indicated by the location signal.