Granted Patent B2

US 12,313,722 · App. 18/134,421 · Granted May 27, 2025

Inventor: James P. Steiner (Royersford, PA)

Assignee: Lutron Technology Company LLC

G01S13/04G01J5/0025G05B13/0265G06V10/25G06V40/10

Abstract

Claims (128)

1. A method comprising:

determining locations of one or more occupants in a first coordinate system associated with an occupant detection device;

receiving knowledge about bounds of a region of interest in a space;

determining whether the one or more occupants are within the bounds of the region of interest based on the locations of the one or more occupants;

assigning respective tracking numbers to the one or more occupants upon detecting the one or more occupants in the space;

storing the tracking numbers and the locations of the one or more occupants in memory;

determining a count of a number of occupants in the region of interest based on whether the one or more occupants are within the bounds of the region of interest; and

increasing the count of the number of occupants in the region of interest in response to determining that a current occupant has entered the region of interest.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

converting coordinates of the one or more occupants in the first coordinate system into coordinates of the one or more occupants in a second coordinate system associated with the region of interest;

determining that the one or more occupants are in the region of interest on a condition that the coordinates of the occupants in the second coordinate system are within the bounds of the region of interest; and

determining that the one or more occupants are outside the region of interest on a condition that the coordinates of the occupants in the second coordinate system are outside the bounds of the region of interest.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

determining a relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system; and

converting the coordinates of the one or more occupants in the first coordinate system into the coordinates of the one or more occupants in the second coordinate system based on the relationship.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system comprises an offset between an origin of the first coordinate system and an origin of the second coordinate system.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system further comprises a rotation angle between an axis of the first coordinate system and an axis of the second coordinate system.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

determining the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system during a learning mode.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

determining the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system based on one or more inputs received from a programming device.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

determining the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system based on one or more location markers in the space, the one or more location markers representing the locations of a plurality of corners of the region of interest.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the knowledge about the bounds of the region of interest based on one or more inputs received from a programming device.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the knowledge about the bounds of the region of interest based on one or more location markers in the space, the one or more location markers representing the locations of a plurality of corners of the region of interest.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the knowledge about the bounds of the region of interest during a learning mode.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein, to determine whether the current occupant is within the bounds of the region of interest, the method further comprises:

determining the location of the current occupant in the first coordinate system;

determining the locations of a plurality of corners of the region of interest in the first coordinate system;

determining a plurality of vectors each extending from a respective corner of the plurality of corners of the region of interest towards the current occupant; and

determining whether the current occupant is within the bounds of the region of interest based on whether the vectors are all directed into the region of interest;

wherein the current occupant is determined to be within the bounds of the region of interest when all of vectors are directed into the region of interest, and

wherein the current occupant is determined to be outside the bounds of the region of interest when at least one of the vectors is directed away from the region of interest.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising, for each of the plurality of corners of the region of interest:

determining a first slope of the vector extending from the corner to the occupant, the first slope determined in reference to the first coordinate system;

determining a second slope of a line between the corner and a next corner, the second slope determined in reference to the first coordinate system;

determining whether the first slope is greater than or equal to the second slope;

determine that the vector is directed into the region of interest based on a determination that the first slop is greater than or equal to the second slope; and

determining that the vector is directed away from the region of interest based on a determination that the first slop is less than the second slope.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving and storing the locations of the plurality of corners during a learning mode.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the current occupant has entered the region of interest in response to determining that:

the current occupant is in the region of interest;

the current occupant has the same tracking number as the tracking number stored for a previously identified occupant; and

a last-known location of the previously identified occupant is outside the region of interest.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to update the location of the previously identified occupant stored in memory with the location of the current occupant.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

decreasing the count of the number of occupants in the region of interest in response to determining that the previously identified occupant has left the region of interest in response to determining that:

the current occupant is detected outside the region of interest;

the current occupant has the same tracking number as the tracking number stored for the previously identified occupant; and

a last-known location of the previously identified occupant is in the region of interest.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

determining a location of a doorway of the space during a learning mode; and

deleting the tracking number and an occupant identifier assigned to the current occupant in response to determining that the current occupant is in the proximity of the doorway.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

updating the location of the previously identified occupant with the location of the current occupant.

20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that a previously identified occupant has become stationary in the region of interest in response to determining that the previously identified occupant is no longer detected and a last-known location of the previously identified occupant is in the region of interest.

21. The method of claim 20 , further comprising:

maintaining the count of the number of occupants in the region of interest in response to determining that the previously identified occupant has become stationary in the region of interest.

22. The method of claim 20 , further comprising:

determining that the previous identified occupant has become active again from being stationary in response to determining that:

the current occupant is detected with a tracking number different than the tracking numbers stored by the control circuit; and

the location of the current occupant is the same as the last-known location of the previously identified occupant in the region of interest; and

maintaining the count of the number of occupants in the region of interest in response to determining that the previously identified occupant has become active again.

23. The method of claim 22 , further comprising:

updating the location and tracking number of the previously identified occupant with the location and tracking number of the current occupant.

24. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the current occupant is new to the space and assign an occupant identifier to the current occupant in response to determining that:

a tracking number assigned to the current occupant is different than the tracking numbers stored by the control circuit;

the location of the current occupant is different than the locations stored by the control circuit; and

the location of the current occupant is in the proximity of a doorway of the space.

25. The method of claim 24 , further comprising:

determining the location of the doorway during a learning mode.

26. The method of claim 24 , further comprising:

assigning the occupant identifier to the current occupant further in response to determining that a size of the current occupant exceeds a threshold.

27. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the current occupant is in a masked region of the region of interest; and

excluding the current occupant from the count of the number of occupants in the region of interest.

28. The method of claim 27 , further comprising:

determining the bounds of the masked region based on one or more inputs received from a programming device or based on one or more location markers in the region of interest.

29. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a report of the count of the number of occupants in the region of interest; and

transmitting the report to an external device via a communication circuit.

30. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying one or more sub-regions within the region of interest;

determining a respective count of the number of occupants in each of the one or more sub-regions; and

learning the dimensions of the one or more sub-regions during a learning mode.

31. The method of claim 30 , further comprising:

converting coordinates of the current occupant in the first coordinate system into coordinates of the current occupant in at least one local coordinate system to determine whether the current occupant is in the sub-region associated with the at least one of the local coordinate systems, wherein each of the one or more sub-regions is associated with a respective local coordinate system.

32. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting the presence of the one or more occupants in the space using a second occupant detection device, wherein the second occupant detection device consumes less power than the occupant detection device; and

activating the second occupant detection device in response to determining that the space is vacant; and

activating the first occupant detection device in response to determining that the space is not vacant.

33. A method comprising:

defining a first coordinate system used to identify a location of an occupant in a space;

storing a relationship between the first coordinate system associated with a sensing circuit and a second coordinate system associated with a region of interest of the space, wherein the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system comprises at least one of a rotation angle or an offset vector, wherein the rotation angle is between an x-axis of the first coordinate system and an x-axis of the second coordinate system, and wherein the offset vector is between an origin of the first coordinate system and an origin the second coordinate system;

converting the location of the occupant from the first coordinate system into the second coordinate system based on the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system; and

determining if the location of the occupant in the second coordinate system is within the region of interest.

34. A method comprising:

converting coordinates of one or more occupants in a first coordinate system into coordinates of the one or more occupants in a second coordinate system, wherein the first coordinate system is associated with an occupant detection device and the second coordinate system is associated with a region of interest in the space;

determining that the one or more occupants are in the region of interest when the coordinates of the occupants in the second coordinate system are within bounds of the region of interest; and

determining that the one or more occupants are outside the region of interest when the coordinates of the occupants in the second coordinate system are outside the bounds of the region of interest.

35. The method of claim 34 , further comprising:

determining a count of the number of occupants in the region of interest in the space based on whether the one or more occupants are within the region of interest.

36. The method of claim 34 , further comprising:

receiving the coordinates of the one or more occupants in the first coordinate system from the occupant detection device.

37. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a control device, cause the processor of the control device to:

determine locations of one or more occupants in a first coordinate system associated with an occupant detection device;

receive knowledge about bounds of a region of interest in a space;

determine whether the one or more occupants are within the bounds of the region of interest based on the locations of the one or more occupants;

assign respective tracking numbers to the one or more occupants upon detecting the one or more occupants in the space;

store the tracking numbers and the locations of the one or more occupants in memory;

determine a count of a number of occupants in the region of interest based on whether the one or more occupants are within the bounds of the region of interest; and

increase the count of the number of occupants in the region of interest in response to determining that a current occupant has entered the region of interest.

38. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a control device, cause the processor of the control device to:

define a first coordinate system used to identify a location of an occupant in a space;

store a relationship between the first coordinate system associated with a sensing circuit and a second coordinate system associated with a region of interest of the space, wherein the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system comprises at least one of a rotation angle or an offset vector, wherein the rotation angle is between an x-axis of the first coordinate system and an x-axis of the second coordinate system, and wherein the offset vector is between an origin of the first coordinate system and an origin the second coordinate system;

convert the location of the occupant from the first coordinate system into the second coordinate system based on the relationship between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system; and

determine if the location of the occupant in the second coordinate system is within the region of interest.

39. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a control device, cause the processor of the control device to:

convert coordinates of one or more occupants in a first coordinate system into coordinates of the one or more occupants in a second coordinate system, wherein the first coordinate system is associated with an occupant detection device and the second coordinate system is associated with a region of interest in the space;

determine that the one or more occupants are in the region of interest when the coordinates of the occupants in the second coordinate system are within bounds of the region of interest; and

determine that the one or more occupants are outside the region of interest when the coordinates of the occupants in the second coordinate system are outside the bounds of the region of interest.

Continuity (4)

References Cited (44)