Smart Spaces: Smart Lighting ERC Industry – Academia Days
February 11 - 12, 2015
Agenda
Wednesday, Feb. 11
Hilton Garden Inn, Troy, NY
7:30 am – 8:50 am Registration, Continental Breakfast and Networking
8:50 am – 9:00 am Welcome Address, , John Dordick, VP of Research, RPI
9:00 am – 9:15 am Smart Lighting, Trends, Opportunities and Challenges, Robert Karlicek, ERC Director and
Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
9:15 am – 9:30 am ERC Innovation and Industrial Collaboration Program, Silvia Mioc, ERC Director of Industrial
Collaboration and Innovation, RPI and Dennis Bradley, IAB Chair and Manager, GE Lighting
The presentation will give an overview of the various ways industry can interact with the ERC
and the mechanisms in place to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in students.
9:30 am – 10:00 am Autonomous Lighting Controls, Richard Radke, ERC Controls Thrust Leader and Professor,
Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
10:00 am – 10:10 am Light Transport Analysis: Recovering Occupancy Distributions, Kim Boyer, Professor,
Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
We adopt a computer vision inspired approach to interrogating a space to learn the spatial
distribution of its occupants. The smart lighting objective is to adapt the intensity and
spectral distribution of the lighting provided to the space to optimize energy consumption
and the comfort, well-being, and productivity of its occupants. To do so requires knowledge
of where people are in the space, and what their activities may be. In this presentation I will
report our results using distributed inexpensive color sensors, rather than privacy-invasive
cameras or other sensors, to infer high-level information, specifically the room occupancy
distribution. Unlike a camera, a color sensor produces only a few numbers. However, if the
lights in the room are color controllable, we can use the outputs of multiple color sensors
under different lighting conditions to recover the room’s light transport model (LTM). As the
room occupancy distribution changes, the LTM changes with it, and from that we can
establish the mapping from LTM to occupancy distribution.
10:10 am – 10:40 am Break
10:40 am – 11:10 am Digitized Light for High Speed Wireless Communications, Tom Little, Associate ERC Director
and Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept., BU
11:10 am – 11:40 pm Dynamic Optical Beam Control, Linda Schadler, Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems
Engineering Dept., RPI
This talk will discuss the ERC’s latest plans for dynamic optical control, including scalable
photonic crystal processing, flexible materials that provide a means for beam steering, and
materials for dynamic refractive index control. The development of these new materials will
allow rethinking the systems-level design, for example, creating 6" X 6" panels of light with
LEDs on the edges and the ability to mix and shape the light output through both intrinsic
and extrinsic controls. An update on the projects that have lead the center to address these
problems, including electro-wetting experiments, beam steering via MEMS, assembly of dies,
and index of refraction / color converting encapsulants, will also be provided.
11:40 pm – 12:10 pm Student Perfect Pitch Showcase: Finalists to present their research in 90 seconds
12:10 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm Plenoptic Sensor for Smart Lighting Applications, Payman Zarkesh-Ha, Associate Professor,
Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept., UNM
The advent of LED lighting systems with large color gamuts, composed of 5- to 10-LEDs at
different colors, offers the potential of increased lighting efficiency (lowered quantum defect
losses), improved human health and productivity, and visible light communications to
address the explosive growth in digital communications. A plenoptic sensor, providing
spectral, angle of arrival and polarization resolution is required to realize these potentials. To
be viable, the sensor has to be inexpensive, fully integrated with sensor electronics, has to
have a low profile, and can have no moving parts. Conventional color cameras using dyes to
provide a typical 100- to 200-nm color discrimination, matching the human visual system, do
not have the required wavelength resolution nor out-of-band rejection and are angularly
insensitive. Plasmonic structures also have been investigated to provide similar functionality,
but also suffer from high losses and low resolution as a result of the non-ideal metal
dielectric properties across the visible spectrum.
A CMOS-compatible, visible, plenoptic (angle, polarization and wavelength) detector, based
on a grating-coupled waveguide structure, is successfully demonstrated with an angular
resolution of < 1° and a corresponding wavelength resolution of < 5 nm. More detail
simulations and waveguide fabrications is underway. This project is a collaborative effort,
where the simulation is performed at Boston University and the fabrication process is done
at the University of New Mexico
2:00 pm – 2:10 pm Biohazard Detection: Ultra-wide Dynamic Range UV Sensors, Shayla Sawyer, Assistant
Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
The role of this project is to investigate the detection of biohazards within a living space using
the advantages of an LED light source coupled with detectors. Every space in which human
health is of primary concern including offices, hospital rooms, and homes, is a potential
environment to detect and mitigate hazards in a smart room. The system requires sensitive
detectors able to measure fluorescence signals on the order of nW/cm2 in ambient light and
at a distance. Using frequency modulation, which pulses the source LED at a specific
frequency, commercial sensors coupled to that frequency were able to sense 340 nm
fluorescence from a high concentration of microbes to 4.8 ft. in ambient light (8.0 ft. in a dark
room). With use of ultra-wide dynamic range UV sensors (highest responsivity reported to
date) and the frequency modulation technique, both the detection distance and sensitivity in
ambient light will improve significantly.
2:10 pm – 2:40 pm Light Based Circadian Rhythm Regulation for Human Health, John Wen, Professor, Electrical
& Computer Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
2:40 pm – 2:50 pm Lighting and Sleep, Lee Brown, Professor of Medicine and Director, University of New Mexico
Center for Sleep Medicine
2:50 pm – 3:00 pm From spaceflight lighting to the patient bedside, George Brainard, Professor, Department of
Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University
3:00 pm – 3:10 pm The Bright and Controllable Future of Horticultural Lighting, Tessa Pocock, Research
Scientist, Smart Lighting ERC, RPI
Modern horticultural growth facilities are automated with the use of robots and
environmental sensors and control systems. However the sensing and control of the
standard high pressure sodium fixtures is still quite rudimentary. Solid state lighting presents
an opportunity to take control and automate the light environment in order to regulate plant
growth and metabolism. An overview of the state of lighting systems in horticulture with a
view to the future will be presented.
3:10 pm –3:20 pm ERC Educational program, Ken Connor, Director of Education and Professor, Electrical,
Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
3:20 pm – 3:30 pm Elevator Pitch Competition Winner Announcement
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3:30 pm – 3:45 pm
3:45 pm – 4:45 pm
4:45 pm – 5:45 pm
5:45 pm – 5:55 pm
5:55 pm – 6:00 pm
Break
Poster Session I: Odd Numbers
Poster Session II: Even Numbers
Proceed to Dinner
Introduction: Robert Karlicek, ERC Director and Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems
Engineering Dept., RPI
6:00 pm – 6:30 pm Dinner Keynote: Shirley Cole, CREE Canada, President
6:30 pm Dinner
Thursday, Feb. 12
RPI, Low Center of Innovation, 7th floor, Suite 7015, Troy, NY
8:30 am – 10:30 am Laboratory Tours
Autonomous Controls and Visible Light Communications Testbeds and Demos
For updates: http://smartlighting.rpi.edu/events/smart-spaces-2014.shtml or Silvia Mioc, [email protected]
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