700088354
FIELD OF INVENTION v -~ - 700088354 .
The invention generally relates to system and methods for testing building management devices which control lighting of a premise and more particularly to automating the testing of the building management devices.
BACKGROUND
Building Management Systems comes with a lot of controlling units. These controlling units /controllers/building management devices change the intensities of light in different levels in order to achieve a desired illumination in a room. These different patterns are termed as "scenes" in lighting terminology. To test the controllers for different scenes, a tester connects different loads (lamps) to the controller and runs through a set of test cases which cover exhaustively every possible scene in the firmware of the controller.
In building automation, the controller governs the various lighting in the entire premises. This can range from ON/OFF to different light intensities in specific corners of the building. For this, various scenes and lighting profiles are programmed in the firmware of the controller. The firmware is exhaustive in its own way in dealing with all the lighting requirements of the premises. But the firmware in the controller needs to go through rigorous Black Box Testing as a part of their quality check. The black box testing of the firmware can be considered as End of Line Testing as well, where in we need to check the controller for each and every combination of lighting intensities.
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The black box testing is being done manually wherein a tester will press and program the controller using a human machine interface (HMI). The tester connects loads (lamps) to the outputs of the controller and check the intensities of the loads using a luminance/flux meter. This kind of manual testing will take 3-4 weeks to exhaustively coverall possible combination of lighting conditions. The manual testing may also incur some errors as it has human intervention. The black box testing includes testing of various test scenarios which take the loads to different light intensities for different period of time.
The present invention is directed to automate mundane manual testing of the building management devices and overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
^Exemplary embodiments of the invention disclose a method and system for automated testing ."of building management devices used for controlling lighting in a building. According to an embodiment of the invention, a system and method for automated testing of building management devices using an image capturing device is disclosed. According to an exemplary embodiment, the disclosed system and method captures a plurality of images of one or more scenes using the image capturing device wherein each scene includes a building management device with a plurality of loads connected to the building management device. One or more region of interests (ROIs) for each of the plurality of loads are identified in the captured images. The one or more ROIs for the plurality of loads are processed wherein the processing of the ROIs for the plurality of loads includes converting the grayscale values of the one or more ROIs into corresponding luminance values. A mean of the luminance values of the one or more

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ROIs is calculated and the mean is converted to an intensity value. The intensity value is validated by comparing the intensity value with a predefined intensity value.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description when read with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote.corresponding parts throughout the several views:
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of a process for automated testing of a building management device used for controlling lighting in a building, according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; and
Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary system for automated testing of a building management ^device used for controlling, lighting in a building, according to one embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. In
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addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.
According to embodiments of the invention, a system and method for automated testing of building management devices used for controlling lighting in a building is disclosed.
FIG. I illustrates a block diagram of the process 100 for automated testing of building management devices used for controlling lighting in a building according loan embodiment of the invention. According to an embodiment, the building management device may be referred to as a controller. The terms controller and building management device may be used interchangeably. At step 102, a plurality of images of one or more scenes is captured using an image capturing device. According to an embodiment, the image capturing device may be a camera. According to another embodiment, each of the one or more scenes may include a building management device with.a plurality of loads connected to the building:tnanagement device. According to yet another embodiment, the camera may be a smart camera capable of running image processing algorithms. The smart camera may have image processing algorithms running on FPGA of the camera. According to further embodiment, the camera captures images of the loads with a speed of 40 frames/second. According to a further embodiment, the camera captures the images in real time.
According to an embodiment, the image processing device may send the captured images to an application running on a computer. According to another embodiment, the application may be a test application used to test the intensities of the plurality of loads controlled by the building management device. According to an exemplary embodiment, the test application may run on
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a windows machine over a real time engine. According to another embodiment, the image capturing device may be connected to the computer running the test application via Ethernet.
At step 104, one or more ROIs for the plurality of loads are identified in the captured images. According to an embodiment, the test application may identify the one or more ROIs for the plurality of loads. According to another embodiment, the one or more ROIs may be extracted as separate images.
At step 106, the grayscale values of the one or more ROIs are converted into corresponding luminance values. According to an embodiment, the test application may convert the grayscale values of the one or.more ROIs of the load into corresponding luminance values.
At step 108, a mean of the luminance values of the one or more ROIs is calculated. According to an embodiment, the test application may compute a mean of the luminancevalues of the one or more ROIs.
At step 110, the mean luminance value of the one or more ROIs is converted to an intensity value. According to an embodiment, the test application may use a calibration file to convert the mean luminance value to an intensity value. According to another embodiment, the calibration file may be created using a flux meter. According to yet another embodiment, the calibration file may have data points which calibrate luminance value to intensity value. According to an exemplary embodiment, the test application may use a look up table to convert the mean luminance value to an intensity value.

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At step 112, the intensity value is validated by comparing the intensity value calculated at step 110 with a predefined intensity value. According to an embodiment, the validation process may be performed by the test application. According to another embodiment, the predefined intensity value may be a standard intensity value of the load. According to yet another embodiment, the predefined intensity value may specify a range of intensity values for the load.
According to an exemplary embodiment, a report is generated by the test application with all corresponding intensity values for each of the plurality of loads.
According to an embodiment, all the image processing steps mentioned in Fig. 1 may be performed by a smart camera.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the luminance of the loads may be varied during measurement. According to an embodiment, the luminance of the loads may be . constantly, varied by controlling the current supplied to.it. According to another embodiment, the varied luminance may be continuously recorded.
• FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary system 200 for automated testing of building management device used for controlling lighting in a building, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
The disclosed system 200 may include an image capturing module 202, test application module 204 and display device 208.
The image capturing module 202 may include a camera to capture a plurality of images of one or more scenes. According to an embodiment, each scene may include a building management
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device with a plurality of loads connected to the building management device. According to another embodiment, the camera may be a smart camera. The smart camera may have image processing algorithms running on FPGA of the camera. According to yet another embodiment, the camera captures live images of the loads with a speed of 40 frames/second. The camera may send the captured images to a test application module 204.
The test application module 204 may have a test application running on a windows machine over a real time engine. The test application may be used to test the intensities of the plurality of loads controlled by the building management device.
The test application module 204 may include a processor 206. The processor 206 may identify one or more ROIs for the plurality of loads in the captured images. According to an embodiment, the processor 206 may extract the one or more ROIs as separate images. The processor 206 may .further convert the grayscale values of.the one or. more ROIs of the load into corresponding luminance values.
According to an embodiment, the image processing steps performed by the processor 206 of the test application module can be carried out at the image capturing module 202.
The processor 206 may further calculate a mean of luminance values of the one or more ROIs and convert the calculated mean to an intensity value. According to an embodiment, the processor 206 may use a calibration file to convert the mean luminance value to an intensity value. According to another embodiment, the calibration file may be created using a flux meter. According to yet another embodiment, the calibration file may have data points which calibrate luminance value to intensity value. According to an exemplary embodiment, the processor 206
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may use a pre-defined look up table to convert the mean luminance value to an intensity value. The pre-defined look up table may be pre-calculated using a flux meter. The mean luminance value may be mapped to an intensity value using linear interpolation.
Furthermore, the processor 206 may validate the intensity value by comparing the intensity value with a predefined intensity value. According to an embodiment, the predefined intensity value may be a standard intensity value of the load. According to another embodiment, the predefined intensity value may specify a range of intensity values for the load.
According to an exemplary embodiment, the processor 206 may generate a report with .corresponding intensity values for each of the plurality of loads. According to an embodiment, the processor 206 may display the report on a display device 208 such as but not limited to Cathode ray tube display (CRT), Light-emitting diode display (LED), Electroluminescent display (ELD), Plasma display panel (PDP) etc. According to another embodiment, the display may include a graphical user interface (GUI).
According to yet another embodiment of the invention, the system 200 may generate a summary report listing intensity values for each of the plurality of loads.
In the drawings and specification there has been set forth preferred embodiments of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, these are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. Changes in the form and the proportion of parts, as well as in the substitution of equivalents, are contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.
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Throughout the various contexts described in this disclosure, the embodiments of the invention further encompass computer apparatus, computing systems and machine-readable media configured to carry out the foregoing systems and methods. In addition to an embodiment consisting of specifically designed integrated circuits or other electronics, the present invention may be conveniently implemented using a conventional general purpose or a specialized digital computer or microprocessor programmed according to the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the computer art.
Appropriate software coding can readily be prepared by skilled programmers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the software art. The invention may also be implemented by the preparation of application specific integrated circuits or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventional component circuits, as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. .
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700088355
700088355 We Claim:
I. A method of testing a building management device used for controlling lighting in a
building, the method comprising:
capturing a plurality of images of one or more scenes using an image capturing device wherein each scene includes a building management device with a plurality of loads connected to the building management device;
identifying one or more region of interests for the plurality of loads in the captured images;
processing the one or more region of interests for the plurality of loads in the captured images wherein the processing of the one or more region of interests includes converting . grayscale values of the one or more region of interests into corresponding luminance values;
calculating a mean of the luminance values of the one or more region of interests;
converting the mean luminance value of the one or more region of interests to an intensity.value; and
validating the intensity value by comparing the intensity value with a predefined intensity value.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprises, generating a report with intensity values for the each of the plurality of loads.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the images are captured in real-time.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image capturing device is a camera.
5. A system for testing a building management device used for controlling lighting in a building, the system comprising:
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an image capturing module configured to capture a plurality of images of one or more scenes wherein each scene includes a building management device with a plurality of loads connected to the building management device; and
a test application module configured to process the plurality of images of one or more scenes and generate a test report.
6. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a display component to display the test report.
7. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the test report includes intensity values for the each of the plurality of loads.
8. ■ The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the image capturing module uses an image
capturing device.
9. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the image capturing device is a camera.
10. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the images are captured in real-time.