Lighting and the IoT

The Internet is an interconnected global system of more than 10 billion devices enabling information sharing, services, and commerce. The Internet of Things (IoT) takes this concept to buildings and enterprises to create entirely new value from building technology.

More specifically, the IoT represents any network of physical devices, such as sensors and intelligent controllers, along with software. These networks may collect data from sensors while integrating and automating building systems to a level where they are highly responsive to users.

A strong building block includes a networked lighting control system, which already offers complete functionality as an Internet of lights. In fact, there is a strong potential for the lighting system to serve as an IoT platform. This potential coincides with stronger product development and demand for connected lighting due to complex energy codes and growing utility rebates.

In this scenario, the connected lighting provides a sensor platform installed almost everywhere in the built environment, and may offer wireless communication, bandwidth, intelligence (microprocessing), and software. Data collected by occupancy and light sensors could be shared with other building systems such as HVAC and security.

Additionally, from this starting point, other sensors would be added to measure almost anything the owner wants. Examples include occupancy patterns, temperature, air pressure, vibration, fluid levels, air emissions, traffic, gunshot detection, and more. This data could be fed to thirty-party software for analytics or other building systems for automatic response.

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