阅读说明：本技术 用于显示街道照明水平的系统和方法 (System and method for displaying street lighting levels ) 是由 韩东 张玉婷 S.兰加瓦哈拉 O.P.欧拉勒耶 于 2018-07-24 设计创作，主要内容包括：公开了一种用于监视和实施城市的照明基础设施的大规模性能验证的系统和相应方法。特别地,当前发明将沿城市道路的照明性能测量的测量值和道路的规范要求进行结合。在各种实施例中,当前发明然后就这些规范要求呈现现有道路照明的5个充分性的三维可视化。(A system and corresponding method for monitoring and implementing large-scale performance verification of lighting infrastructure of a city is disclosed. In particular, the current invention combines the measurements of lighting performance measurements along urban roads with the specification requirements of the roads. In various embodiments, the current invention then presents 5 sufficient three-dimensional visualizations of existing road lighting for these regulatory requirements.)

1. A method of visually indicating compliance with lighting requirements of one or more sections of a road surface, wherein the one or more sections include one or more lights, the method comprising:

collecting light measurement data and corresponding GPS-determined locations associated with each collected light measurement;

creating a display depicting one or more sections of the road;

determining a classification for a given section of the road;

obtaining a canonical lux lighting standard for such classification;

determining a level of compliance with the canonical lighting requirement for each segment; and

visually depicting a level of compliance of one or more sections of the road on the display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of adjusting the one or more lights based on the compliance level in the respective segment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of visually depicting comprises shading or color coding to indicate a level of compliance of the one or more segments.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the display is a three-dimensional (3D) display and the step of visually depicting comprises overlaying an indication of at least some of the luminance values on the 3D display, wherein the magnitude of at least some of the luminance values is indicated by vertical lines.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the 3D display indicates a level of compliance of each depicted segment by a linetype or color of a vertical line associated with one or more segments of the road.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining orientations of light poles along a given section of the road and indicating these orientations on the display; and the number of the first and second groups,

indicating on the display a test point relative to the light pole orientation, the test point being required by the code requirement.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining an estimated light intensity value at each test point by performing a weighting function on the light measurement data at least one location, the weighting based on the proximity of the location to the test point.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

using the estimated luminance value determined for the section of the road to depict an average lux reading on the display; and the number of the first and second groups,

providing, on the display, an indication of whether the section of the road meets the lighting lux criteria based on the average lux reading.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

depicting on the display a minimum lux reading of estimated light brightness values determined for a section of the road; and the number of the first and second groups,

providing, on the display, an indication of whether the section of the road meets the lighting lux criteria based on the minimum lux reading.

10. A system for displaying light brightness values measured at locations along one or more sections of the road surface, wherein the one or more sections include one or more lights, the system comprising:

a central processing unit;

a mobile device equipped with a GPS function for obtaining luminance values of one or more sections along a road and positions at which those values are obtained;

a communication system operatively connecting the central processor and the mobile device;

a database comprising classifications of the one or more sections of the road and a canonical lux lighting criterion for each road classification;

a display device for depicting a display of one or more sections of the road; and the number of the first and second groups,

wherein the central processor determines a level of compliance of each section to the canonical lighting requirement and causes the display to visually illustrate the level of compliance of one or more sections of the road.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

the central processor determines the orientation of a light pole along a given section of the road and indicates on the display test points relative to the light pole orientation, the test points being required by the regulatory requirements.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

the central processor determining an estimated light intensity value at each test point by performing a weighting function on the light measurement data at least one location, the weighting based on the proximity of the location to the test point; and the number of the first and second groups,

wherein the estimated light brightness value is used to determine compliance with the specification requirements.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

the display depicts average lux readings using estimated light intensity values determined for sections of the road; and

the display provides an indication on the display of whether a section of the road meets the lighting lux criteria based on the average lux reading.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

the display depicts a minimum lux reading of estimated light brightness values determined for a section of the road; and the number of the first and second groups,

the display provides an indication on the display of whether a section of the road meets the lighting lux criteria based on the minimum lux reading.

15. A computer program product comprising a plurality of program code portions stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium for performing the method of claim 1.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of light management systems, and more particularly to a method and system for monitoring and displaying the level of illumination along a public street. In one embodiment, these levels are displayed relative to the specification requirements of the street(s) being analyzed. In various further embodiments, the present invention presents data in various visual and interactive formats that provide useful tools for lighting design experts and regulatory agencies.

Background

Road lighting is a key infrastructure in urban areas, which has profound effects on many aspects of people's life. Well-lit roads improve driving conditions, safety, and overall quality of life in cities, which have become increasingly populated and traffic crowded. In view of its tremendous utility, the lighting engineering society (IES) and the international commission on illumination have recommended street-specific lighting levels based on traffic and pedestrian usage patterns. Maintaining this extensive infrastructure and ensuring compliance with the standards is critical to the welfare of the citizens.

Disclosure of Invention

As a result, municipalities and street lighting providers typically invest large amounts of capital each year to maintain and improve lighting conditions. A significant number of these costs involve measuring the current lighting conditions on the road in order to assess the actual lighting conditions and ensure that they meet the regulatory standards for the type of road being measured. Due to these large expenditures and the amount of result data involved, there is a need to automate the process and present the results in an efficient and effective manner. In particular, in various embodiments of the current invention, visualization techniques are used to provide an easily identifiable insight to a lighting professional viewing the data.

The current invention combines the measured values of lighting performance measurements along one or more urban roads with the specification requirements of the roads. In various embodiments, the current invention then presents a three-dimensional visualization of the sufficiency of existing roadway lighting with respect to these regulatory requirements.

In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, representative embodiments disclosing specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the claimed invention. However, it will be apparent to one having ordinary skill in the art having had the benefit of the present disclosure that other embodiments according to the present teachings that depart from the specific details disclosed herein remain within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, descriptions of well-known apparatus and methods may be omitted so as to not obscure the description of the representative embodiments. Such methods and apparatus are clearly within the scope of the claimed invention.

Drawings

The above and other exemplary features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

fig. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in which a three-dimensional (3D) visualization of street lighting conditions is displayed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the present invention in which data collection points are depicted across a road width.

Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the present invention, in which compliance with lighting regulations is depicted.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the present invention in which a classification of one or more roads is presented.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the present invention, wherein street light orientation is indicated on the depicted map.

Fig. 6 illustrates an exemplary 3D display provided by the present invention, in which sensor grid points conforming to lighting regulations are automatically generated.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart depicting an exemplary method by which the present invention determines compliance with an illumination standard.

It is to be understood that these drawings are solely for purposes of illustrating the concepts of the invention and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. It will be appreciated that the same reference numerals, possibly supplemented with reference symbols, where appropriate, are used to identify corresponding parts.

Detailed Description

As described above, the present invention relates to a first obtaining a lighting measurement along one or more roads. In various embodiments of the present invention, each of these measurements has at least three values associated with it: two values specify the geographic location coordinates (latitude and longitude) and the value of one lighting measurement (illuminance or brightness). Various means of obtaining this data are contemplated. Where conventional manual measurements have been obtained, a database may be available. Some modern street lighting systems have the ability to approximate a measure of street level from the known location and height of the street light and its lux level. Thus, additional databases may be available with the data. Although these methods can be employed, they do not take into account changes that may occur over time (e.g., reduced street light brightness due to mechanical failure or due to discoloration or aging of the lens cover). Thus, a preferred embodiment of the present invention contemplates that the lighting measurements are obtained by employing sensors on one or more host vehicles that traverse city streets and obtain current light level measurements at discrete points along the road and provide these measurements to a central processing unit. U.S. patent No. 9113514 entitled "Outdoor Lighting Network Light Change/Optimization System," describes such a System, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

By enabling large scale lighting measurements in this way, the current invention can be used to provide insight to cities about their lighting fixtures. That is, by analyzing the illumination levels incident along different roads and matching this information to the road property database, the present invention enables verification that any section of the road does not meet the lighting criteria. Such criteria may include a minimum level of light required in view of the speed limit of the road.

Once the light measurements are taken, various embodiments of the present invention output 3D visualizations of different attributes reflecting the true lighting conditions of the roadway (including but not limited to illuminance, illuminance uniformity, strobing, cycling, luminosity, and other unique attributes of lighting conditions). An example of a visual output is shown in fig. 1, in which a 3D model 110 of a portion of a city is depicted. 3D modeling of cities is well known in the art. The current invention incorporates the light measurements into the city model and plots each measured luminance value as a vertical line 120 in 3D space. In particular, as identified in the portion 105 of the exemplary output, the indicated measurements are taken along a segment of the Alfred · d Musset (Rue Alfred de Musset).

In various embodiments of the invention, the 3D visualization depicts each data point as a vertical line, where the length of each line may be in a fixed ratio to a lighting measurement (such as lux). That is, as shown in FIG. 1, data points with larger lux values will have higher lines and data points with smaller lux values will have shorter lines. This approach may ensure that the visualization of each data point is clearly presented to the user, especially the relationship of the continuously measured data points. Fig. 1 also utilizes shading to help visually distinguish the measured light values. A legend of this shading is provided in the displayed portion 130. In further embodiments, a color associated with a light height may be used for this purpose.

As depicted in FIG. 1, embodiments of the present invention provide an interactive display that allows each vertical line to be clickable to thereby retrieve the original data item. That is, when the user clicks on a line, a pop-up message box 140 is displayed that provides detailed information for the data point. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, latitude, longitude, and measured raw lux values are provided in the displayed portion 140.

Each line represents the lux values collected at this particular location. Therefore, when the optical data sampling rate is high, the distance between two consecutive lines may be very close, which may cause the user to treat a group of lines that are actually close together as a single vertical line. The interactive nature of the display allows the use of the region of interest to be enlarged so that individual discrete lines appear, which allows individual lines to be struck and corresponding light data for the location concerned to be obtained.

In another embodiment of the present work, if there are multiple data measured laterally along the roadway, the data points may be displayed at their measurement locations, as shown in FIG. 2. That is, FIG. 2 shows data points from a more vertical, top-down perspective, where two data traces collected on each side of the road are shown in the output (where items 210 and 220 depict the left and right sides of the road, respectively). It should be noted that while the slightly slanted nature of the depicted lines (e.g., item 120) allows the user to determine their relative height, the use of shading, and particularly the coloring of the lines, enables the user to more easily discern the illumination level of the depicted point.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the lighting conditions of the road are automatically checked to see if they meet or exceed design compliance. A graphic is then presented to indicate the detailed results on the map interface, as illustrated in fig. 3. City officials or lighting company personnel can use these results to adjust lights on the street, either to increase the light to avoid any safety risks, or to dim the light to save energy.

In various embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 3 is derived using a classification of roads and a street lighting design specification for such a classification. In one such embodiment, the user may preset a range of average values of illuminance between two adjacent street lighting poles (where the points labeled L1, L2, … …, L10 depict the light pole orientation). For example, the following range of the road 310 in fig. 3 is set between 7.25 lux and 12.25 lux. The current invention can use all of the data collected between every two consecutive light bars to calculate an average illuminance and compare this average illuminance value to the compliance range. Shading (or coloring) may then be employed to indicate whether each block between two bars is satisfactory for following. By way of example, the legend 320 depicts three types of shading: indicating that the measured illumination is below, meeting, or exceeding compliance ( items 326, 324, and 322, respectively).

Further embodiments of the present invention employ automatically determining the classification of the road and presenting this information in a display as illustrated in fig. 4. In particular, the present invention imports a file containing a list of road names or a list of coordinates associated with each road, and then automatically retrieves detailed information for each road from an online open source. The retrieved information may include, but is not limited to, a road name, a road type (such as a thoroughfare, residential road, etc.), a shape of the road, and a detailed location. In one embodiment of the invention, a 3D map 410 is then generated that annotates the roads on the map with different types of colors or shades (as depicted in legend 420). Typically, each type of road has its corresponding light design requirements. In this case, the classification of the road may then be used to verify that the lighting conditions on a particular road meet its design requirements.

As noted above, various embodiments of the present invention (e.g., fig. 3) display measured lighting levels relative to the position of a light pole existing along a roadway. A further embodiment of the present invention employs automatic introduction of lighting bar position information and presentation of that information in a display as illustrated in fig. 5. In particular, the present invention imports one or more files containing a list of coordinates of the lighting bars. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the present invention may then analyze and map the orientation of the bars (L1-L7, L172-L177) on the depicted map 510. Although not illustrated, it is contemplated that the displayed map may provide an overlay of street names (as illustrated in fig. 4). These features allow a user to quickly and clearly understand the distribution of lighting assets, thereby helping lighting designers to better plan lighting resources.

Various regulatory agencies place specific requirements on the number and placement of sensors relative to street lights in determining the required lighting level. The resulting sensor measurements are then averaged to obtain a light measurement value that is applied against an applicable standard. For example, in the uk, 15 measurement points are required (as specified by TR-28). Some european countries require a minimum of 30 measurement points (according to EN 13201).

Further embodiments of the present invention determine where on the road the location where the required measurements need to be obtained. Fig. 6 is an exemplary display output 610 generated by such an embodiment. It depicts 30 measurement points or sites 615 (between each pair of adjacent street lights (L1-L10)). As illustrated in fig. 6, labeled VA_iAnd VB_iPoints of (A) for indicating the respective lamp positions (L)_i) The width of the road. In various embodiments, the present invention may automatically generate the required grid points and provide the coordinates of each point for further use. In the display depicted in FIG. 6, the determined average (e.g., "58.44 lux") is displayed. Further, as depicted in the display, each section of the road between adjacent pairs of street lights is shaded (or colored) as to whether its determined average meets the applicable criteria. In the example illustrated in fig. 6, all three depicted road sections exceed the specification compliance level.

The above described automatic follow-up checking process will now be described with respect to the flow chart provided in fig. 7. As depicted at step 710, the system continues to collect street lighting data. For each monitored street segment, a determination is made as to the sufficiency of the data (step 720). If the data is not sufficient, the area is marked as "incomplete" and the collection entity is notified accordingly. One possible way to do this is to use a real-time map interface that can indicate which area needs more data. As a result, additional data is acquired, and once sufficient, the region is marked as "completed" (step 730).

As described above, each data point determines latitude and longitude values in addition to the lux level. At step 740, the correct street names and basic information (city, state, country) may be identified based on the raw GPS data (e.g., a captured Road (Google Maps Roads API-Snap-to-Road) feature using the Google Maps Roads API, which provides the functionality to return a best-fit Road geometry (as described in https:// levelers. Google. com/Maps/documentation/Roads/intro) for a given set of GPS coordinates). Using the street names and information obtained from step 740, more detailed street information may be obtained at step 750 by querying external online map providers or databases, such as public Maps (OpenStreetMap, https:// www.openstreetmap.org /), Google Maps (Google Maps), Microsoft Bing Maps (Microsoft Bing Maps), and the like. This data may include information such as road type, width, bicycle friendliness, conditions, one-way, sidewalk, lane, etc. This obtained data (e.g., road type (thoroughfare, residential road, secondary highway, side road, etc.) is then used at step 760 to retrieve applicable light design compliance requirements.

At this point in the depicted method, the system has two sets of available data: (1) lighting data collected on the street and (2) follow data. After calculating the minimum and average values from (1) and comparing to the compliance data (2), the system may report whether each segment between every two light bars meets the compliance criteria (step 790).

In various embodiments, the system may simply use all of the data points collected between the two bars to calculate the average illumination for the segment. To meet compliance standards in most jurisdictions, additional calculations are required, as depicted in 770-780; where the system will first generate a sampling grid (e.g., as depicted by points 615 in fig. 6). As described above, the latitude and longitude of each grid point is known. At step 780, the system will calculate an illumination value for each grid point using a weighted average formula, where the weight is determined by the distance between the grid point and the actual location where the light data was collected. For example, a collected data point closer to a grid point has a higher weight, a data point farther from a grid point has a lower weight, and if the distance of a data point is greater than a certain distance (e.g., 2 meters), the evaluation for that grid point will ignore that data point.

With this method, the illuminance value of each grid point can be estimated based on the illuminance of the surroundings thereof. Then, according to the compliance criteria, the minimum and average illumination for the road segment may be calculated based on the illumination of the determined grid points. Compliance of the road segment with the lighting requirements is then determined from these average and minimum calculations. That is, two types of values are followed that define what must be satisfied:

1. the average lux value for the entire segment region, which is calculated using all grid points in this region. If the average is less than some value defined in the compliance requirement, the segment is not compliant.

2. Minimum lux values for all grid points in the segment region. If the lowest grid point is less than some value defined in the compliance requirement, the segment is not compliant.

Although not illustrated in the drawings to avoid unnecessarily cluttering the drawings, the present invention contemplates various interactive functions that are well known in the art of map display. Such functions include, but are not limited to, various navigation buttons and arrows, zoom in/out functions, drop down menus, help buttons, and the like. Thus, for example, such functionality enables a user viewing the display depicted in fig. 5 to simply scroll to the right to get information about additional light pole orientations not currently shown.

Although several inventive embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and/or structures for performing the functions and/or obtaining one or more of the results and/or advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments described herein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the teachings of the present invention is/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific embodiments of the invention described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto, embodiments of the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventive embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the scope of the present disclosure.

The principles of the present invention are implemented as any combination of hardware, firmware and software. Further, the software is preferably implemented as an application program tangibly embodied on a program storage unit or computer-readable storage medium consisting of components or certain devices and/or combinations of devices. The application program may be uploaded to, and executed by, a machine comprising any suitable architecture. The computer platform may also include an operating system and microinstruction code. The various processes and functions described herein may be either part of the microinstruction code or part of the application program, or any combination thereof, which may be executed by a CPU, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown. In addition, various other peripheral units may be connected to the computer platform such as an additional data storage unit and a printing unit.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood to control over dictionary definitions, definitions in documents incorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the defined terms.

The indefinite articles "a" and "an" as used herein in the specification and in the claims are understood to mean "at least one" unless explicitly indicated to the contrary.

The phrase "and/or" as used in the specification and claims should be understood to mean "one or both" of the elements so combined, i.e., elements that are present in combination in some cases and are present in isolation in other cases. Multiple elements listed with "and/or" should be interpreted in the same manner, i.e., "one or more" of the elements so combined. In addition to elements specifically identified by the "and/or" phrase, other elements may optionally be present, whether related or unrelated to those specifically identified elements. Thus, as a non-limiting example, when used in conjunction with open language such as "including," references to "a and/or B" may refer in one embodiment to only a (optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, only B (optionally including elements other than a); in yet another embodiment, to both a and B (optionally including other elements); and so on.

As used herein in the specification and claims, "or" should be understood to have the same meaning as "and/or" as defined above. For example, when items in a list are separated, "or" and/or "should be interpreted as being inclusive, i.e., including at least one (but also including more than one) element of a number or list of elements, and optionally including additional unlisted items. Terms that are only explicitly indicated as opposite (such as "only one of … …" or "exactly one of … …") or when "consisting of … …" is used in the claims, will be referred to as including several elements or exactly one element in a list of elements. In general, the term "or" as used herein should be construed to indicate an exclusive alternative (i.e., "one or the other but not both") only when preceded by an exclusive term, such as "either," one of … …, "" only one of … …, "or" exactly one of … …. When used in the claims, "consisting essentially of … …," consisting essentially of … … "shall have the ordinary meaning as used in the art of patent law.

As used herein in the specification and claims, the phrase "at least one of" in reference to a list of one or more elements should be understood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more of the elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including at least one of each element specifically listed within the list of elements, and not excluding any combinations of elements within the list of elements. This definition also allows: elements other than the elements specifically identified within the list of elements to which the phrase "at least one" refers may optionally be present, whether related or unrelated to those specifically identified elements. Thus, as a non-limiting example, "at least one of a and B" (or, equivalently, "at least one of a or B," or, equivalently "at least one of a and/or B") can refer, in one embodiment, to the presence of at least one (optionally including more than one) a, the absence of B (and optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to the presence of at least one (optionally including more than one) B, the absence of a (and optionally including elements other than a); in yet another embodiment, to at least one (optionally including more than one) a, and at least one (optionally including more than one) B (and optionally including other elements); and so on.

It should also be understood that, unless explicitly indicated to the contrary, in any methods claimed herein that include more than one step or action, the order of the steps or actions of the method is not necessarily limited to the order in which the steps or actions of the method are recited.

In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitional phrases such as "comprising," "including," "carrying," "having," "containing," "involving," "holding," "constructed with," and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. As stated in the us patent office patent examination program manual, section 2111.03, only the transition phrases "consisting of … …" and "consisting essentially of … …" should be closed or semi-closed transition phrases, respectively.