US-20260129736-A1 - SYSTEM OF LIGHTS FOR AUTOMATIC COMPLIANCE WITH REGULATORY STANDARDS ASSURANCE

US20260129736A1US 20260129736 A1US20260129736 A1US 20260129736A1US-20260129736-A1

Abstract

A lighting system for an emergency vehicle, the lighting system including one or more light sources, and a processor, where the processor is configured to receive one or more compliance data from each light source of the one or more light sources, receive one or more location data from each light source of the one or more light sources, compare the compliance data and the location data with a compliance standard, determine a compliance minimum and a compliance maximum for one or more characteristics for each light source of the one or more light source, and adjust the one or more characteristics of each light source of the plurality of light sources based on one or more user commands, wherein each light source of the plurality of light sources operates at or above the compliance minimum and at or below the compliance maximum for each light source.

Inventors

Samuel T. Massa
Jesse Whitaker McRae

Assignees

HIVIZ LIGHTING, INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251229

Claims (20)

1 . A lighting system for an emergency vehicle, comprising: a bus; a distributed network of smart light sources, wherein each light source of the smart light sources is communicatively coupled to the bus; and a processor configured to: communicate with the distributed network of smart light sources through the bus; adjust one or more characteristics of each light source of the smart light sources.
2 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein each light source of the smart light sources comprises a microcontroller.
3 . The lighting system of claim 2 , wherein each microcontroller is configured for: determining a color of light the light source is emitting; determining an intensity of the light source; determining a location of the light source; determining a photometry associated with the output of the light source; or a combination thereof.
4 . The lighting system of claim 3 , wherein the location of the light source comprises a zone of the light source, a sub-zone of the light source, or a combination thereof.
5 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristics of each light source comprise a brightness, a color, an intensity, a flash pattern, an operating mode, or a combination thereof.
6 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured for: receiving one or more compliance data from each light source of the smart light sources, receiving one or more location data from each light source of the smart light sources, comparing the compliance data and the location data with a compliance standard, determining a compliance list, wherein the compliance list corresponds to a characteristic of the one or more characteristics for each light source, and restricting user selections based on the compliance list.
7 . The lighting system of claim 6 , wherein compliance data includes a brightness range, a duty cycle, a number of light sources in the same zone, a color, or a combination thereof.
8 . The lighting system of claim 6 , wherein compliance data includes a color range, a brightness range, an intensity range, an operating mode data, or a combination thereof.
9 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the smart light sources are configured for communicating with each other through the bus.
10 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein each light source of the smart light sources located within a zone of the emergency vehicle are configured to communicate with each other through the bus.
11 . The lighting system of claim 10 , wherein each light source of the smart light sources located within a sub-zone of the emergency vehicle are configured to communicate between each other through the bus.
12 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein the lighting system further comprises a user interface communicatively coupled to the bus, wherein the user interface is configured for: accepting one or more user commands as inputs.
13 . The lighting system of claim 12 , wherein the user interface is a touchscreen.
14 . The lighting system of claim 12 , wherein the user interface is configured to display one or more user selections.
15 . The lighting system of claim 12 , wherein the user interface is further configured to: render the one or more user selections representative of a characteristic of a light source that is not at or above the compliance minimum for each light source as unselect-able.
16 . The lighting system of claim 15 , wherein: the processor is further configured to: adjust one or more user selections based on the compliance minimum for each light source of the one or more light sources; and wherein the user interface is further configured to: display the user selections as one or more selectable buttons, wherein every selectable button is representative of a level that is at or above the compliance minimum for each light source.
17 . The lighting system of claim 1 wherein the lighting system further comprises a global positioning sensor (GPS), and wherein the processor is further configured to: communicate with the GPS to determine a location of the emergency vehicle; and determine the compliance standard based on the location of the emergency vehicle.
18 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured for: detecting a missing light source or an inoperable light source; and automatically adjusting a brightness of all light sources of the smart light sources to compensate for the missing light source or inoperable light source.
19 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the smart light sources are located on a lightbar of the emergency vehicle.
20 . The lighting system of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the smart light sources are located remotely from the lightbar of the emergency vehicle.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims the benefit of U.S. Application No. 18/641955, filed Apr. 24, 2024, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein. BACKGROUND On emergency vehicles, such as fire trucks, emergency hazard warning lights are installed both on and around the vehicle. These lights are intended to increase conspicuity and alert traffic to the presence of a hazard or the need to yield right of way when an emergency vehicle is responding. The lights installed are regulated only by a number of national best practice consensus standards, which by themselves, don't carry the weight of law, but by nature of their widespread adoption, often are used as defacto expectation in many civil court cases involving emergency vehicle collisions. By and large, emergency vehicle manufacturers require all customers to purchase vehicles which are either compliant with these standards or sign an acknowledgement of the deviation and an explicit assumption of liability. One such standard is the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) regulations. Example regulations include NFPA 1901, which is used to regulate the manufacturing and design of structural firefighting apparatus, NFPA 1917 which regulates automotive ambulances, NFPA 414 which regulates airport rescue firefighting vehicles, and NFPA 1916 which regulates automotive woodland vehicles. All of these standards have recently been rolled up into a new standard which becomes known as NFPA 1900. In the standard, things such as color, flash rate, peak beam intensity, and beam intensity over time (known as Candela Seconds per Minute) are regulated attributes. The NFPA standards point to other Society of Automotive Engineer's (SAE) standards. The NFPA standard regulates the vehicle, while the SAE standards regulate light fixtures specifically. In the NFPA standards, the apparatus is broken into 4 circumferential zones: A, B, C, and D, and 2 subsidiary zones (upper and lower). For each zone, there are certain combinations of colors which are permissible or forbidden, sometimes correlated against a certain response mode. For instance, while responding, white light is permitted towards the front. Once on-scene (activated by the emergency break), white lights must shut off while facing forward (known as “zone A”) Traditionally, each manufacturer has individual fixtures tested by a photometry lab which provides the raw data that can be used in combination with the layout of the apparatus to ensure compliance of the system of fixtures which are intended to be used. Because every apparatus is different, every system must be individually tested for compliance and evaluated based on the configuration of the apparatus, the lights, and the sub-modules inside of the lights. The fire apparatus manufacturers often do not have the expertise to evaluate the system compliance themselves, and generally rely on the lighting manufacturers to tell them whether or not their systems are “compliant”with the NFPA standards. Colors are regulated by the NFPA standard, then by local states. Further, the intensity of each fixture is measured, often while in a steady burning state. The light fixture's intensity may be measured along a variety of 3 dimensional planes which are used to indicate the beam width and shape. These planes are generally based on a goniophotometer measurement where the light is placed perpendicular on a rotating machine, then angled left/right (“h” plane) in finite degree increments. Then the light fixture is angled up/right plane (“V” plane) in finite increments. Each measurement is plotted on a chart, which tells the intensity in any given angle, while steady burning. There are 19 H-V datapoints which are significant in determining compliance of a fixture, and then of a system. The fixtures individually are validated and considered compliant, the data from the group of fixtures which are intended to be used in the system are added up to see if the total value is at (or above) the threshold. Further, Warning lights are intended to flash. The duty cycle of the flashing light is critical in meeting the photometric requirements set forth in the standard. Each flash pattern has periods of “on” and “off”. When the on periods are a longer proportion of the flash pattern than the off, the light emits more energy. When the off periods are longer than the on, it emits less. The standards specify how much flash energy is required per zone. As such, the photometric energy of a steady burning light can be divided by the duty cycle to determine the number of candela seconds per minute for any given flash pattern. Each pattern is unique and should be validated to ensure accuracy with the mathematical results indicated. Additionally, the NFPA standards have a minimum intensity, but no maximum intensity currently. As such, many fixtures or systems far exceed the minimum system photometry requirements. At night, these oversized systems which are som