Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
  • H05B41/00—Circuit arrangements or apparatus for igniting or operating discharge lamps
  • H05B41/14—Circuit arrangements
  • H05B41/36—Controlling
  • H05B41/38—Controlling the intensity of light
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
  • H05B39/00—Circuit arrangements or apparatus for operating incandescent light sources
  • H05B39/04—Controlling
  • H05B39/08—Controlling by shifting phase of trigger voltage applied to gas-filled controlling tubes also in controlled semiconductor devices
  • H05B39/083—Controlling by shifting phase of trigger voltage applied to gas-filled controlling tubes also in controlled semiconductor devices by the variation-rate of light intensity

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a device making it possible to decrease the light intensity of an illumination lamp imperceptibly to the eye in order to create a favorable light environment comparable to sunset, even when falling asleep and reinforced by the fact that it frees the user from the worry of turning off the light and that it saves him from being brutally plunged into darkness, associated with a means allowing at any time to bring back the light intensity of the lamp at its initial level in response to sounds meeting the discrimination criteria justifying this reactivation.
• the latter device has the drawback of reactivating the lighting lamp as soon as the sound level exceeds a predetermined threshold.
• the reactivation will therefore be done without distinction of origin or nature of the sound, this is how a door slams, an object which falls, a sneeze and in general any noise whatever its origin will reactivate the lamp as long as its amplitude exceeds the triggering threshold.
• Such a device can even go against the desired goal because the sudden re-ignition can then wake the sleeping person or child.
• the device makes it possible to avoid this drawback, it comprises for this, associated with an automatic dimmer making it possible to decrease over a predetermined time the luminous intensity of a lighting lamp from an initial predetermined level up to at extinction, a sound discrimination means for determining the nature of these sounds in order to bring the light intensity to its initial level in response to sounds meeting the discrimination criteria.
• the discrimination criteria for selecting the sounds justifying bringing the light intensity to its initial level can be the spectrum of these sounds and / or the duration and / or repetition of these sounds.
• the device also comprises a means for adjusting the initial level of the lighting lamp, a means for adjusting the time necessary to obtain the extinction of the lamp and a manual control making it possible to return the light intensity to its initial level.
• the device according to the invention comprises means to compensate for this effect, that is to say that the time necessary for the light intensity of the lamp to go from the initial level to 1 extinction is kept constant whatever the initial level. This is achieved by reducing the rate of decrease in light intensity in proportion to the reduction in light intensity corresponding to the initial level chosen.
• a variant of the device according to the invention makes it possible to reduce the intensity light site of the lamp gradually; has a preaetermlnee speed to the initial predetermined level in response to sounds meeting the discrimination criteria.
• Figure 1 is the block diagram of the present invention.
• Figure 2 is the block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.
• an automatic light dimmer (4) comprising a means for adjusting the initial light intensity of the maximum at extinction (5) and means for adjusting the time necessary to obtain extinction (6).
• This automatic dimmer can at any time bring the light intensity to its initial level determined by the setting (5) when the manual control (7) is actuated or when the sounds collected and transformed into LF signals by the microphone (8) have been able cross the filter (9) whose response curve corresponds to the spectrum of sounds justifying to reactivate the lamp (2) and that once rectified by the detector (10) the duration and / or the repetition of these sounds transformed into LF signals have allowed a sufficient load of the integrator (11).
• the automatic dimmer (4) each time the integrator (11) has reached a sufficient charge or when its charge is maintained, gradually returns the light intensity to the predetermined speed. initial set by (5).
• FIG 2 there is in series with the AC power supply (1) a lighting lamp (2) and the device according to the invention (20).
• the device (20) itself being composed of a noise filter (3), of a direct current supply (12) obtained by rectifying part of the supply current of the lamp (2), this current being low enough not to light the lamp (2), and triac (13) which allows the current flowing through the lamp (2) to be measured.
• the circuit (14) detects the zero crossing of the alternating current, the transistor (15) is made conductive and discharges through the diode (17) the capacitor (16).
• the capacitor (16) is then recharged through the resistors (18) whose value setting (5) makes it possible to determine the initial level of the light intensity of the lighting lamp (2).
• the down-counter (21) is then released and can count down the clock pulses supplied by the oscillator (26).
• the down-counter (21) goes to zero and then generates a pulse on its "zero detect" output which is used to control the initiation of the triac (13) via the transistor (27).
• the content of the counter (25) is zero, the value loaded into the down-counter (21) will also be zero and the delay introduced by the down-counter (21) in the initiation of the triac (13) will be zero.
• the delay between the zero crossing of the alternating current and the ignition of the triac (13) will only be due to the recharging time of the capacitor (16) which thus determines the initial level of the lamp (2).
• the counter (25) is then very slowly incremented by the pulses supplied by the oscillator-divider (28) whose frequency can be adjusted by (6) in order to determine the time necessary to obtain the extinction of the lamp (2) . So that the setting (6) acts on the time to obtain the extinction of the lamp (2) and that this time is independent of the initial level set by (5), the oscillator-divider (28) is blocked by the diode (29) when the output of the inverter (24) is zero, that is to say when the capacitor (15) is recharging.
• the blocking of the oscillator-divider (28) will therefore be proportional to the time necessary for the capacitor (16) to recharge and the counter (25) will be incremented all the more slowly as the initial level of the lamp (2) will be low.
• the counter (25) reaches its maximum capacity, its output 8 goes to logic level one which produces the blocking of the oscillator-divider (28) by holding to zero and the blocking of the down counter (21) by holding to a .
• the lamp (2) will then be kept off and this until the counter (25) is reset to zero.
• the counter (25) can be reset to zero by pressing the key (7) or when the sounds picked up by the microphone (8) are identified as crying or shouting.
• the discrimination criteria chosen to identify crying or shouting are in this embodiment of the present invention, the pitch of the sounds which is highlighted by a high pass filter (9) consisting of the operational amplifier (31) associated with the resistors (32) and (33) and with the capacitor (34), and the duration and frequency of repetition of these sounds highlighted by a semi-integrator (11) consisting of the capacitor (38) associated with the resistors (39) and (40).
• a high pass filter 9 consisting of the operational amplifier (31) associated with the resistors (32) and (33) and with the capacitor (34
• a semi-integrator (11) consisting of the capacitor (38) associated with the resistors (39) and (40.
• the charge time constant of the semi-integrator (11) is chosen so as to authorize the lighting of the lamp (2) if cries or continuous crying lasting at least two seconds which can go up to five seconds for intermittent cries or crying.
• the discharge time constant of the semi-integrator (11) is chosen so as not to cause the lamp (2) to re-ignite if sounds which may have passed through the filter (9) have a duty cycle of less than one tenth.
• the integrator (11) is controlled by the transistor (37) itself controlled by the output of the detector (10) consisting of a comparator which switches in the presence of negative half-waves of the LF signal from the filter (9). The sensitivity of the comparator can be adjusted by the potentiometer (36).
• the counter (25) is an up-down counter which is incremented by the pulses supplied by the oscillator-divider (28) in the absence of shouts or crying in order to obtain the decrease of the light intensity and which counts the pulses supplied by the oscillator-divider (28) in the presence of cries or tears in order to gradually reduce the light intensity of the lamp (2) to the initial level set by (5) at a speed set by (35).
• the device according to the invention is particularly intended to create a relaxing light atmosphere favorable to falling asleep and to avoid stresses due to the dark.

Landscapes

• Circuit Arrangement For Electric Light Sources In General (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

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ID=9289933

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Cited By (1)

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• 1983
  • 1983-06-20 FR FR8310130A patent/FR2547690B1/fr not_active Expired
• 1984
  • 1984-06-19 WO PCT/FR1984/000154 patent/WO1985000264A1/fr not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1984-06-19 EP EP19840902453 patent/EP0144415A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1984-06-19 AU AU30604/84A patent/AU3060484A/en not_active Abandoned

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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