Patents by Inventor Atsuo Nanahara
Atsuo Nanahara has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 10314140Abstract: A lighting control device that controls a lighting device includes: a brightness sensor that obtains brightness information indicating a current brightness of an illuminated surface; a storage that stores a brightness target value for the illuminated surface; a controller; a receiver via which the controller receives an energy-saving signal; and a transmitter that transmits, to the lighting device, a control signal generated by the controller. When the energy-saving signal is not being received, the controller determines a dimming rate for the lighting device based on the brightness target value and the brightness information. When the energy-saving signal is being received, the controller determines an energy-saving brightness target value smaller than the brightness target value by multiplying the brightness target value by a predetermined rate and determines an energy-saving dimming rate for the lighting device based on the energy-saving brightness target value and the brightness information.Type: GrantFiled: May 25, 2017Date of Patent: June 4, 2019Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.Inventors: Yoshinobu Murakami, Atsuo Nanahara
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Patent number: 9867264Abstract: A wireless communication device includes: a wired communication circuit which receives, through a wired connection, an operation signal for controlling each of luminaires from a management device which controls an operation of each of the luminaires; a radio communication circuit which converts the operation signal received by the wired communication circuit and transmits the converted operation signal to each of the luminaires over a radio wave; an infrared ray receiver which receives an infrared ray signal transmitted from outside; and a controller. When the wired communication circuit receives a signal having a predetermined pattern from the management device, the controller transitions to a state for receiving the infrared ray signal, and, based on the infrared ray signal transmitted from outside, transmits a signal relating to communication setting between the radio communication circuit and each of the luminaires to each of the plurality of luminaires via the radio communication circuit.Type: GrantFiled: May 23, 2017Date of Patent: January 9, 2018Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.Inventors: Takashi Yamauchi, Tomomi Hashimoto, Atsuo Nanahara, Yasuyuki Shimizu
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Publication number: 20170347428Abstract: A lighting control device that controls a lighting device includes: a brightness sensor that obtains brightness information indicating a current brightness of an illuminated surface; a storage that stores a brightness target value for the illuminated surface; a controller; a receiver via which the controller receives an energy-saving signal; and a transmitter that transmits, to the lighting device, a control signal generated by the controller. When the energy-saving signal is not being received, the controller determines a dimming rate for the lighting device based on the brightness target value and the brightness information. When the energy-saving signal is being received, the controller determines an energy-saving brightness target value smaller than the brightness target value by multiplying the brightness target value by a predetermined rate and determines an energy-saving dimming rate for the lighting device based on the energy-saving brightness target value and the brightness information.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 25, 2017Publication date: November 30, 2017Inventors: Yoshinobu MURAKAMI, Atsuo NANAHARA
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Publication number: 20170347430Abstract: A lighting control device that controls a lighting device includes: a brightness sensor that obtains brightness information indicating the current brightness of an illuminated surface illuminated by the lighting device; a controller that obtains the brightness information from the brightness sensor; and a transmitter that wirelessly transmits, to the lighting device, a control signal generated by the controller for controlling the lighting device. The controller determines a waiting time based on the brightness information and transmits the control signal to the lighting device via the transmitter after elapse of the waiting time from a predetermined time.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 26, 2017Publication date: November 30, 2017Inventors: Yoshinobu MURAKAMI, Atsuo NANAHARA
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Publication number: 20170347435Abstract: A wireless communication device includes: a wired communication circuit which receives, through a wired connection, an operation signal for controlling each of luminaires from a management device which controls an operation of each of the luminaires; a radio communication circuit which converts the operation signal received by the wired communication circuit and transmits the converted operation signal to each of the luminaires over a radio wave; an infrared ray receiver which receives an infrared ray signal transmitted from outside; and a controller. When the wired communication circuit receives a signal having a predetermined pattern from the management device, the controller transitions to a state for receiving the infrared ray signal, and, based on the infrared ray signal transmitted from outside, transmits a signal relating to communication setting between the radio communication circuit and each of the luminaires to each of the plurality of luminaires via the radio communication circuit.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 23, 2017Publication date: November 30, 2017Inventors: Takashi YAMAUCHI, Tomomi HASHIMOTO, Atsuo NANAHARA, Yasuyuki SHIMIZU
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Patent number: 9750117Abstract: A lighting system includes: a radio remote controller including a command transmitter which transmits a command; a relay including a relay receiver which receives the command and a relay transmitter which wirelessly transmits the command received by the relay receiver; and a lighting device including a command receiver, a storage, and a control circuit which (a) controls a light source according to the instruction included in a received command and stores a command number included in the received command in the storage, if the command number included in the received command does not match a command number stored in the storage, and (b) discards the received command if the command number included in the received command matches the command number stored in the storage.Type: GrantFiled: May 17, 2016Date of Patent: August 29, 2017Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.Inventors: Atsuo Nanahara, Shigeo Gotoh, Tamotsu Ando
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Patent number: 9713234Abstract: A lighting fixture includes a transceiver, a receiver, a storage, and a controller. The transceiver receives a radio command from a radio remote controller for operating the lighting fixture. The receiver receives an infrared command from an infrared remote controller for operating the lighting fixture. The storage stores identification information of the radio remote controller. The controller, if the identification information is stored in the storage, accepts a radio command that includes identification information same as the identification information stored in the storage, among radio commands received by the transceiver, and ignores the infrared command received by the receiver, and if no identification information is stored in the storage, accepts the infrared command received by the receiver.Type: GrantFiled: March 24, 2016Date of Patent: July 18, 2017Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.Inventors: Shigeo Gotoh, Atsuo Nanahara, Shinsuke Nishioka, Tamotsu Ando
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Patent number: 9655216Abstract: A luminaire includes a light source; a wireless communication circuit for communicating with a dimming controller; a storage which stores an identifier of the dimming controller; and a control circuit for dimming light of the light source according to a dimming command transmitted from the dimming coat roller when the luminaire is in a paired state, i.e., a state in which the identifier of the dimming controller is stored in the storage of the luminaire. When the control circuit is in a communication check mode, i.e., a mode for checking whether or not the luminaire is able to communicate with the dimming controller, the control circuit, regardless of whether or not the luminaire is in the paired state with the dimming controller, brings the luminaire into a predetermined illumination state by dimming light of the light source when the wireless communication circuit receives a communication cheek command from the dimming controller.Type: GrantFiled: June 21, 2016Date of Patent: May 16, 2017Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.Inventors: Yoshinobu Murakami, Atsuo Nanahara
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Patent number: 9565746Abstract: A pairing method for causing lighting devices to store identification information of a radio remote controller serving as a master device is provided. The method includes: transmitting a pairing command including the identification information of the radio remote controller repeatedly on a temporary basis by the radio remote controller; determining, for each of the lighting devices, whether or not the lighting device is in an initial state in which identification information of a master device is not stored in the lighting device, at power on; storing the identification information included in the pairing command, if the paring command is received when it is determined that the lighting device is in the initial state in the determining; and causing the lighting device in which the identification information of the master device is stored to operate according to a radio command including the identification information of the master device.Type: GrantFiled: April 5, 2016Date of Patent: February 7, 2017Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.Inventors: Shinsuke Nishioka, Atsuo Nanahara, Shigeo Gotoh, Tamotsu Ando
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Publication number: 20160381769Abstract: A luminaire includes a light source; a wireless communication circuit for communicating with a dimming controller; a storage which stores an identifier of the dimming controller; and a control circuit for dimming light of the light source according to a dimming command transmitted from the dimming coat roller when the luminaire is in a paired state, i.e., a state in which the identifier of the dimming controller is stored in the storage of the luminaire. When the control circuit is in a communication check mode, i.e., a mode for checking whether or not the luminaire is able to communicate with the dimming controller, the control circuit, regardless of whether or not the luminaire is in the paired state with the dimming controller, brings the luminaire into a predetermined illumination state by dimming light of the light source when the wireless communication circuit receives a communication cheek command from the dimming controller.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 21, 2016Publication date: December 29, 2016Inventors: Yoshinobu MURAKAMI, Atsuo NANAHARA
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Publication number: 20160353558Abstract: A lighting system includes: a radio remote controller including a command transmitter which transmits a command; a relay including a relay receiver which receives the command and a relay transmitter which wirelessly transmits the command received by the relay receiver; and a lighting device including a command receiver, a storage, and a control circuit which (a) controls a light source according to the instruction included in a received command and stores a command number included in the received command in the storage, if the command number included in the received command does not match a command number stored in the storage, and (b) discards the received command if the command number included in the received command matches the command number stored in the storage.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 17, 2016Publication date: December 1, 2016Inventors: Atsuo NANAHARA, Shigeo GOTOH, Tamotsu ANDO
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Publication number: 20160302289Abstract: A pairing method for causing lighting devices to store identification information of a radio remote controller serving as a master device is provided. The method includes: transmitting a pairing command including the identification information of the radio remote controller repeatedly on a temporary basis by the radio remote controller; determining, for each of the lighting devices, whether or not the lighting device is in an initial state in which identification information of a master device is not stored in the lighting device, at power on; storing the identification information included in the pairing command, if the paring command is received when it is determined that the lighting device is in the initial state in the determining; and causing the lighting device in which the identification information of the master device is stored to operate according to a radio command including the identification information of the master device.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 5, 2016Publication date: October 13, 2016Inventors: Shinsuke NISHIOKA, Atsuo NANAHARA, Shigeo GOTOH, Tamotsu ANDO
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Publication number: 20160302288Abstract: A lighting fixture includes a transceiver, a receiver, a storage, and a controller. The transceiver receives a radio command from a radio remote controller for operating the lighting fixture. The receiver receives an infrared command from an infrared remote controller for operating the lighting fixture. The storage stores identification information of the radio remote controller. The controller, if the identification information is stored in the storage, accepts a radio command that includes identification information same as the identification information stored in the storage, among radio commands received by the transceiver, and ignores the infrared command received by the receiver, and if no identification information is stored in the storage, accepts the infrared command received by the receiver.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 24, 2016Publication date: October 13, 2016Inventors: Shigeo GOTOH, Atsuo NANAHARA, Shinsuke NISHIOKA, Tamotsu ANDO
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Patent number: 9414464Abstract: The lighting system in accordance with the present invention includes a lighting fixture including a first controller configured to control a light source; and a sensing device. The sensing device includes: an image sensor configured to take an image of a predetermined area; and a second controller having a function of adjusting sensitivity of the image sensor and a function of setting a dimming rate for the light source. The first controller is configured to light the light source at a dimming level according to the dimming rate set by the second controller. The second controller is configured to, when concluding that a condition where no person is present in the predetermined area continues for a predetermined time period, perform an operation of decreasing the dimming rate by a preset value and increasing the sensitivity of the image sensor for a preset time period.Type: GrantFiled: July 2, 2013Date of Patent: August 9, 2016Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.Inventors: Yuto Hidaka, Atsuo Nanahara
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Patent number: 9226365Abstract: The lighting system includes a plurality of controllers each configured to control one or more lighting apparatuses. Each controller is configured to associate a set of coordinates of a position in an image taken by an image sensor thereof with an address of the lighting apparatus selected as a control object of a particular controller out of the other controllers. Each controller is configured to, when a person is detected by the image processing unit thereof, determine the set of coordinates of a position of the detected person; and, when the lighting apparatus associated with the determined set of coordinates is the control object of the particular controller, send a control signal to the particular controller. The particular controller is configured to, upon receiving the control signal, light the lighting apparatus corresponding to the determined set of coordinates.Type: GrantFiled: June 3, 2013Date of Patent: December 29, 2015Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.Inventors: Tetsuya Tanigawa, Atsuo Nanahara, Shinji Matsuda
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Publication number: 20140012400Abstract: The lighting system in accordance with the present invention includes a lighting fixture including a first controller configured to control a light source; and a sensing device. The sensing device includes: an image sensor configured to take an image of a predetermined area; and a second controller having a function of adjusting sensitivity of the image sensor and a function of setting a dimming rate for the light source. The first controller is configured to light the light source at a dimming level according to the dimming rate set by the second controller. The second controller is configured to, when concluding that a condition where no person is present in the predetermined area continues for a predetermined time period, perform an operation of decreasing the dimming rate by a preset value and increasing the sensitivity of the image sensor for a preset time period.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 2, 2013Publication date: January 9, 2014Inventors: Yuto HIDAKA, Atsuo NANAHARA
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Publication number: 20130342112Abstract: The lighting system includes a plurality of lighting devices. Each lighting device includes a light source, an image sensor configured to take an image of a predetermined area, an image processing unit configured to detect presence of a person in the image taken by the image sensor, and a control unit configured to control a light output of the light source in accordance with a detection result produced by the image processing unit. The image sensor of each lighting device is installed in such a manner to have an imaging area which includes at least a part of a lighting area of a particular lighting device out of the other lighting devices. Each lighting device is configured to, upon acknowledging that the image processing unit has detected a change in the light output of the particular lighting device in the image taken by the image sensor, light the light source.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 22, 2013Publication date: December 26, 2013Applicant: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Yuto HIDAKA, Atsuo NANAHARA
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Publication number: 20130342113Abstract: The lighting system includes a plurality of controllers each configured to control one or more lighting apparatuses. Each controller is configured to associate a set of coordinates of a position in an image taken by an image sensor thereof with an address of the lighting apparatus selected as a control object of a particular controller out of the other controllers. Each controller is configured to, when a person is detected by the image processing unit thereof, determine the set of coordinates of a position of the detected person; and, when the lighting apparatus associated with the determined set of coordinates is the control object of the particular controller, send a control signal to the particular controller. The particular controller is configured to, upon receiving the control signal, light the lighting apparatus corresponding to the determined set of coordinates.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 3, 2013Publication date: December 26, 2013Inventors: Tetsuya TANIGAWA, Atsuo NANAHARA, Shinji MATSUDA
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Patent number: 8167453Abstract: An illumination device includes an illumination lamp installed to a device housing, a sensor for use in controlling the lighting operation of the illumination lamp, and a sensor attachment unit through which the sensor is detachably attached to the device housing such that a sensing unit of the sensor is exposed to the outside. The illumination device further includes a decoration member for attachment to the sensor attachment unit when the sensor is not attached to the sensor attachment unit, the decoration member having substantially the same outward appearance as that of the sensor. The sensor and the decoration member are interchangeably attached to the sensor attachment unit.Type: GrantFiled: July 21, 2009Date of Patent: May 1, 2012Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Toshikazu Kawashima, Atsuo Nanahara, Yuichi Ejiri
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Patent number: 7973498Abstract: An illumination control system includes lighting apparatuses connected to a communications line and a number of functional units of plural kinds functioning to detect information from ambient environments of the lighting apparatuses. Each lighting apparatus includes a lamp, an illumination circuit, a communication unit, a control unit, and a unit attaching part to which the functional unit is detachably attached. Each lighting apparatus belongs to one or more of plural groups corresponding to the functional units, the groups being operated based on information detected by the respective functional units. A functional unit having a detecting function corresponding to an operation of each group is attached to each unit attaching part of at least one lighting apparatus of each group, and each communication unit of the at least one lighting apparatus sends the control signal including information detected by the corresponding functional unit to another lighting apparatus in the same group.Type: GrantFiled: February 25, 2009Date of Patent: July 5, 2011Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.Inventors: Toshikazu Kawashima, Junichi Katou, Atsuo Nanahara