Abstract: A method of determining a location of a mobile device based on a first location estimation performed using a first location system, the method comprising: obtaining an initial estimate of the mobile device's location based on a second location estimation that is coarser than the first location estimation; using the initial estimate to select a subset of the reference nodes of the first network that are within a defined vicinity of the mobile device's location; and from amongst a database of respective assistance data for each of the wireless reference nodes stored on a server of the first location system, selectively providing the respective assistance data for each of said subset of wireless reference nodes to a localization module on the mobile device, for the localization module of the mobile device to calculate a finer estimate of the mobile device's location.

Abstract: Apparatus for use in one of a plurality of sensors each having a respective transmitter which transmits pulses for sensing, a respective clock which controls timing of the pulses transmitted from the respective transmitter, and a respective receiver which receives echoed instances of the pulses. The apparatus comprises: sensing logic configured to sense a being or object in dependence on the echoed pulses received back by the respective receiver from the respective transmitter, and timing logic configured to compensate for a clock discrepancy between the respective clock and that of one or more others of the sensors. The timing logic does this by using the respective receiver to listen for instances of the pulses from the one or more other sensors, and adjusting the timing of the pulses from the respective transmitter based thereon.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a lighting control analyzer (170), and a corresponding method (600), for determining occupancy behavior in an area (110, 200) illuminated by at least one lighting device (120a-c) controllable by a lighting controller (160). The lighting control analyzer is adapted to receive light settings (d) for control of the at least one lighting device, the light settings being determined by the lighting controller using a lighting control strategy for the area. The lighting control strategy represents a desired illumination of the area, based on presence information associated with the area. The lighting control analyzer is further adapted to determine the occupancy behavior, based on the light settings and the lighting control strategy. The occupancy behavior may comprise normal locations of occupants (401-417), how often occupants are normally located at different locations, and entrance points of the area.

Abstract: A sensor such as a presence sensor for use in a lighting system or other system that adapts to information from a plurality of active presence sensors. If transmissions from the active sensors are uncoordinated, the overall detection performance may be adversely impacted (e.g. due to potential cross-interference), which may make sensing over the detection coverage area defined by a single presence sensor (or the like) become unreliable. The disclosure presents protocols for coordinating transmissions in active sensing systems. The invention may be applied to various active modalities (e.g. ultrasound, RF), for example that find applications in indoor and outdoor lighting controls.

Abstract: A location system comprising: a location network comprising a plurality of reference nodes and at least one controller. Each reference node is operable to transmit a respective beaconing signal from which a respective measurement can be taken by a mobile device for use in determining a location of the mobile device. The at least one controller is configured to control whether and/or how often one or more signals of the location system are transmitted to be used in determining the location of the mobile device, the control being based on feedback from at least one determination of the location of the mobile device relative to the reference nodes.

Abstract: A method (300, 600) of augmenting an illumination perception by one or more wearers of respective head-mountable computing devices (100) each including at least one transparent display module (106) is disclosed. The method comprises determining (320) a desired light condition for said wearer in a space (10), determining an actual light condition (330) for said wearer in said space; and displaying a semi-transparent image on the at least one transparent display module to filter the light passing through the at least one display module in case the actual light condition differs from the desired light condition. In embodiments, the user preferences may be used to perform a global optimization of the light output by one or more (distributed) light sources of a lighting system. Computer program products comprising computer program code for implementing such a method when executed on a suitable processor, a head-mountable computing device and a lighting system are also disclosed.

Abstract: A sensor such as a presence sensor for use in a lighting system or other system that adapts to information from a plurality of active presence sensors. If transmissions from the active sensors are uncoordinated, the overall detection performance may be adversely impacted (e.g. due to potential cross-interference), which may make sensing over the detection coverage area defined by a single presence sensor (or the like) become unreliable. The disclosure presents protocols for coordinating transmissions in active sensing systems. The invention may be applied to various active modalities (e.g. ultrasound, RF), for example that find applications in indoor and outdoor lighting controls.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for managing light settings of a luminaire communicatively connected to a local coordinator. The method, performed by the luminaire, includes steps of providing to the local coordinator a control state of the luminaire (e.g. occupancy status), receiving from the local coordinator a power reduction factor for the luminaire, the factor being based on the control state of the luminaire and on control states provided to the local coordinator by one or more additional luminaires, determining new illuminance settings for the luminaire by applying the received factor to current illuminance settings, measuring luminance within a sensing region of a light sensor of the luminaire while one or more light sources of the luminaire emit light according to one or more operating parameters, and, based on the measured luminance, adjusting the operating parameters to achieve the new illuminance settings.

Abstract: An audio system that includes an ultrasound sensor array which has a plurality of ultrasound sensor elements, and an audio band array which has a plurality of audio band elements. An estimator is configured to generate a presence characteristic of a user in response to ultrasound signals received from the ultrasound sensor array. The presence characteristic may include a position estimate for the user. An audio array circuit is configured to generate a directional response for the audio band array by applying weights to individual audio band signals for the audio band elements. A weight circuit is configured to determine the weights in response to the presence characteristic.

Abstract: A system comprising a localization database mapping reference nodes to zones; and a localization module configured to determine a representative measurement based on a combination of measurements for the nodes of each zone (e.g. RSSIs), and to compare the representative measurements with one another in order to directly determine which one or more of the zones the mobile device belongs to. The system further comprises a lighting database mapping between lamps and zones, configured to receive an index of each of the one or more determined zones from the localization module, and based thereon to directly relate the one or more determined zones to one or more of the lamps in the lighting database; and a lighting access service configured to grant the mobile device with access to control of those lamps on condition of being related to the one or more determined zones by the lighting database.

Abstract: A location system comprising: a location network comprising a plurality of reference nodes and at least one controller. Each reference node is operable to transmit a respective beaconing signal from which a respective measurement can be taken by a mobile device for use in determining a location of the mobile device. The at least one controller is configured to control whether and/or how often one or more signals of the location system are transmitted to be used in determining the location of the mobile device, the control being based on feedback from at least one determination of the location of the mobile device relative to the reference nodes.

Abstract: The invention relates to a disaggregation apparatus for identifying an appliance in an electrical network (2) comprising multiple appliances (3, 4, 5). A voltage meter (7) measures a first change in a mains voltage (V) delivered to the appliances of the electrical network, while an operational state of an appliance is modified, and a second change in the mains voltage, while a switchable load is switched. An appliance determination unit (9) determines the appliance, of which the operational state has been changed, based on the measured first change in the mains voltage, the measured second change in the mains voltage and the resistance of the switchable load. Thus, an appliance can be determined without detecting switching flickers in very short time durations, i.e. high sampling rates and continuous monitoring are not necessarily required. This reduces the technical efforts of the disaggregation apparatus for performing the disaggregation function.

Abstract: In one aspect, a mobile device is located using a signal sent out from the mobile device to nodes of a location network, and the mobile device also sends a tracking preference associated with the signal. This specifies whether a location network is permitted to use the signal to determine the mobile's location, and/or whether a provider of a location related service associated with a location network is permitted to make use of the location. In embodiments the preference may be tagged with the ID of a particular provider. In another aspect, the localization is based on measurements taken by a mobile terminal of signals sent from the nodes, and the nodes also send out an identifier with the signal identifying a provider of a location related service associated with the network. The mobile device can then use this identifier to determine who to share its measurements or location with.

Abstract: A method of synchronizing transmission of signals between two nodes in a network that includes at least another cooperating node. After reception of a clear-to-code signal (CTC) from the one node (B), broadcasting a clear-to-send signal (CTS), which contains at least a timing indication, from the cooperating node (C) to the first node (A) and the second node (B). After reception of the clear-to-send signal (CTS) by the first and second nodes (A,B), a first signal (S1) and a second signal (S2) are transmitted, via the cooperating node (C), respectively from the first node (A) to the second node (B) and from the second node (B) to the first node (A) during at least a common time period depending on the timing indication.

Abstract: Methods for an outdoor lighting network (100) are disclosed. The methods can adaptively control lighting requirements based upon traffic in the outdoor lighting network (100). The adaptive control provides illumination over a certain response range based upon detection of an object (20) and in addition possibly a velocity of the object (20) by a lighting unit (LUs 1-8) equipped with a sensor (12) For the outdoor lighting network (100), the disclosed methods include deciding when a control message should be transmitted to other lighting units (LUs 1-8), selecting one or more control messaging protocols with modes adapted to achieve a response range depending on the velocity of the object (20) and controlling behavior of a light level output of the lighting unit (LU 1-8).

Abstract: A wireless device comprising: a wireless interface for communicating with a network of reference nodes, and a location module configured to obtain a measurement of a respective signal communicated between the wireless interface and each of a plurality of said reference nodes. The location module is also supplied with a respective set of transformed coordinates for each of said plurality of reference nodes, transformed relative to their actual physical coordinates. Using said signal measurements and the transformed coordinates of said plurality of reference nodes, the wireless device then submits information indicative of a transformed location of the wireless device to an interpretation function. Based on the interpretation function, the wireless device is thereby able to access functionality relating to the physical location of the mobile terminal.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to an application server which provides a user of a mobile device with a location based service controlling functionality of an environment external to the mobile device, where the control of the functionality is conditional on an estimated location of the mobile device as estimated by a positioning algorithm. A feedback module is configured to infer a quality of the estimation from the behavior of the user, based on a manner in which the user interacts or attempts to interact with the functionality of the location based service. The feedback module then sends feedback of the inferred quality to the positioning algorithm.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of detecting a failed luminaire and/or light sensor in a lighting system comprising M luminaires and N light sensors. The elements Dsl of an N×M transfer matrix D expresses how each luminaire l affect a light sensor s with respect to sensed light intensity, wherein s=1, 2, . . . N, and l=1, 2, . . . , M.

Abstract: A method and device for visible light communication is disclosed. The method comprises selecting a first sequence and a second sequence of light intensity frequencies to represent a first symbol and a second symbol, respectively, for embedding data. The method comprises further transmitting a light signal. The light signal comprises time periods in which a light intensity of the light signal is sequentially controlled according to the selected sequence of light intensity frequencies. Thereby, a frequency hopping light signal is generated, in which data may be embedded. The light signal may be generated and transmitted by the device comprising a light emitter.

Abstract: Method for transmitting data from a resource-constrained transmitter to a receiver in a wireless network, comprising the following steps:—the resource-constrained transmitter (21a, 21b, 21c) sending a channel request message to the receiver,—in response to the request, the receiver (22) determining communication channel availability based on the result of a sensing step and broadcasting channel information,—the resource-constrained transmitter (21a, 21b, 21c) listening to the information and transmitting data on the corresponding channel, wherein the sensing step is performed by the receiver before or after receiving channel request from the transmitter. The invention also relates to a wireless network.