The present invention relates to an administration system of a pool of lighting devices such as street lamps with which, for example, an urban quarter is equipped.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention generally relates to maintaining lighting devices with which, for example, an urban quarter is equipped.

At present, the detection of defective lighting devices is ensured by a technician who is regularly touring around when the lighting devices are illuminated so as to visually detect the ones which are not or only insufficiently lighted.

When defective lighting devices are detected, a maintenance and/or repair team takes care of all the defective lighting devices so as to maintain or replace the luminous source of these lighting devices.

As it is shown in Figure 4, the lighting devices 100 are typically installed at heights between four and ten meters, and it is thus generally necessary to make use of a hoisting platform 200 and of several technicians for each repair work on a lighting 100 device, even for simply carrying out a diagnostic of a defective lighting device 100.

This maintenance is reflected in repair costs and functioning costs which are very high and which are added to the significant costs which are already represented by the power consumption itself of a park of lighting devices.

For globally reducing the costs of use related to the lighting, the communities apply more and more lighting devices of complicated technologies which are controllable from one central processing unit and include plural gradations of the lighting power as a function of the time period, the season etc.

The entirety of these elements gives reason to complex lighting systems the remote control of which is rendered more difficult by the fact that the identification of the lighting devices is not precise and requires lengthy procedures for ensuring that the central processing unit can reliably recognize the localization and the identification of each lighting device which it controls. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to propose a solution for eliminating above-mentioned drawbacks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

For this purpose, the present invention provides a lighting device comprising a luminous source, characterized in that it is equipped with Li-Fi (light fidelity) type emission means for emitting a signal comprising:

identification data of the lighting device;

data representing the functioning state of the lighting device.

The invention allows realizing a remote diagnostic of the lighting device and its luminous source from the ground in a rapid and more economic manner than by the known solutions. The counting of an entirety of lighting devices and of their functioning state can be carried out in the course of touring around while simply making use of a Li-Fi receiver for transcribing the data contained in the Li-Fi signal emitted by each lighting device. Thus the inspection tours can be more rapid as well as more precise.

The invention also relates to a lighting device as afore-defined in which the identification data include:

- a lighting device identifier and possibly:

data representing the type of the lighting device and/or its luminous source and/or;

data representing constituent parts of the lighting device.

Preferably, the pieces of information representative of the functioning state of the lighting device include:

data indicating that the lighting device exhibits normal functioning or that it shows a functioning error, and possibly:

data representing the controls of the lighting device and/or the luminous source.

The invention also relates to a lighting device as afore-defined in which the signal emitted via Li-Fi moreover contains: data representing the total duration during which the lighting device or the luminous source has worked; and/or

maintenance data such as a value representative of a duration left until replacement of the lighting device or the luminous source.

The invention also relates to a system comprising at least one lighting device as afore-defined as well as a receiver module which includes a Li-Fi receiver member and memory means for receiving and storing the Li-Fi information issued by the lighting device, when this receiver module is provided in the luminous field of said lighting device.

Such receiver can thus be mounted on a municipal vehicle such as, for example, a garbage truck, which allows carrying out inspection tours for identifying the lighting devices and their functioning states without having to mobilize a specialized technician.

The invention also relates to a system comprising at least one lighting device as afore-defined in which the receiver module comprises an electronic tablet or smartphone type mobile device equipped with a Li-Fi receiver member integrated in or connected to this mobile device, and means for further transmitting the data collected in real time by GSM type data transfer connection.

The invention also relates to a system comprising at least one lighting device as afore-defined in which the receiver module includes geo-localization means for associating geo-localization data of the reception location of these data emitted via Li- Fi with all Li-Fi data received.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention of a lighting device communicating via Li-Fi;

Figure 2 schematically shows the relevant components of an inventive lighting device;

Figure 3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 4 shows maintenance of a lighting device according to the prior art. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The idea underlying the invention is a lighting device 10 (see Figure 1) comprising a luminous source which is equipped with data emission means via Li-Fi (light fidelity) for transmitting data which allow identifying the lighting device 10 and detecting its functioning state from this lighting device 10 in a substantially continuous manner and via Li-Fi. The Li-Fi technology consists in wireless transmission of data from a luminous source to a receiver module via luminous flashing lights generated by the luminous source and perceived and decoded by the receiver device. It follows a significant upswing since the LED type luminous sources which can be easily controlled for flashing at relatively high frequencies to emit a signal have become popular.

In practice, the lighting device 10 according to the invention is - as schematically shown in Figure 2 - equipped with diagnosing means 11 which allow determining the functioning state of the lighting device 10 and its luminous source 12 such as its lighting power (characterized by the luminous flux) as well as other functioning parameters, where appropriate. By way of example, the lighting power can be determined on the basis of the electric power consumed by the luminous source 12.

These diagnosing means 11, for example, can further include or be connected to memory elements 15 for maintaining, for example, a continuously updated course of the functioning state of the lighting device 10, for instance hourly over the period of the past twenty-four or forty-eight hours.

These diagnosing means 11 which are integrated in the lighting device 10 also store an identifier of the lighting device 10 which is e.g. a unique identifier stored in the lighting device during its fabrication or else during its putting into service.

The lighting device 10 or the luminous source 12 advantageously can also be provided for being controllable by a network such as a data transmission network to which it is connected. This network can thus be a data transmission network by carrier currents due to which an entirety of lighting devices with which an urban quarter or district is equipped are jointly controlled by a single central processing unit.

Concretely speaking, the central processing unit thus controls each lighting device so that it lights with a power conditioned, for example, by the level of frequentation with pedestrians of the zone lighted by the same, wherein this level of frequentation is issued from a regularly updated data base which is accessed by the central processing unit of the control of the lighting devices. The data emission module 16 via Li-Fi of the lighting device 10 is a control circuit controlling the luminous source 12, for example, such as the LED components so that they are flashing according to a given sequence, at a relatively high frequency so as to transmit the signal to be emitted. The data transmission via Li-Fi is effectuated by means of any modulation adapted to this type of transmission such as the NRZ- OOK modulation.

This signal A is emitted, for example, continuously or else during a certain predetermined time period corresponding to the beginning of or the whole evening. It is understood that the signal A which is emitted via Li-Fi includes a set of data advantageously comprising identification data of the luminous source 12 or the lighting device 10 and data representing its functioning state.

The identification data can comprise, as afore-indicated, an identifier of the lighting device 10, but they can as well comprise data indicative of the type of lighting device 10 and of the components thereof.

The data representing the functioning state of the lighting device 10 can comprise, as afore -indicated, data reflecting its lighting power, but also data which indicate a malfunctioning of the luminous source 12 such as, for example, in the case in which part of the LED lamps by which it is constituted are out of service.

The state of failure or malfunction can be detected by the diagnosing module 11 based on a comparison between the electric power consumed by the luminous source 12 and the electric power which it should consume, taking into account the case resulting from the control instructions which it has received from the central processing unit to which it is linked. More generally speaking, the malfunctioning state can be reflected in an insufficient luminous flux which is evident from a too low electric consumption. Thus the diagnosing means 11 can determine that the lighting device 10 is in a state of malfunction when the electric power which it consumes is deviating with respect to one or more predetermined criteria or still transmitted by the central processing unit. The data transmitted via Li-Fi may also comprise data representing functioning controls of the luminous source 12, data representing the total number of working hours of the luminous source 12 or else data representing the duration of the luminous source 12 still remaining until its end or service life, i.e. its replacement.

The data collection is ensured by a Li-Fi receiving module 20 which allows converting the data emitted by the lighting device 10 in the form of text information, for example, which can be displayed on a screen. Advantageously, the Li-Fi receiving module 20 includes a tablet or smartphone type electronic mobile device which integrates GPS geo-localization means and an external Li-Fi module to which said electronic mobile device is connected.

The module 20 can advantageously be provided for being mounted on a municipal vehicle such as e.g. a garbage truck or any other vehicle which is regularly touring in one or more urban quarters and is equipped with the Li-Fi lighting system according to the invention.

Advantageously and as shown in Figure 3, the receiving module 20 is connected to a mobile phone type network 50 such as a GSM network. During the tour with such module 20, the acquisition is ensured in a fully automated manner: when the module 20 is provided in the lighting field of a lighting device 10, it receives the Li-Fi information which it decodes and which it completes by adding the localization thereof, for example in the form of GPS coordinates. When the data are thus decoded and completed, they can be directly transmitted to a centralized administrative server 60 by GSM transmission.

In particular, the invention offers the following advantages: The invention permits exact identification of the lighting device directly from the ground: It is not necessary to read a reference inscribed directly on the lighting device which would involve making use of a hoisting platform. Thus it is possible to use luminous sources of technologies which are both more complicated and more specific.

The invention permits identifying and localizing each luminous source in an exact manner very quickly for a whole network. It also facilitates the central administration of a set of luminous sources from a central processing unit which directs instructions to the luminous sources via a data transmission network, as there is no more ambiguity concerning the identification and the localization of each lighting device controlled by a central processing unit. In other words, it is no longer required to control a lighting device via the central processing unit to be flashing so that it is identified by a technician.

When the inspection tours are regularly carried out, they allow quick identification of the defective lighting devices due to the fact that in their signal they emit data representing their malfunctions. Hence it is possible to send a repair team directly on the spot, while operation to be carried out has been remotely defined in advance.