Contactless Pairing of Hard-to-Reach Wireless Devices

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Context

At Smart & Green we designed cordless, rechargeable LED luminaires meant to be placed where cables cannot go: floating in swimming pools, hung high in trees, scattered across gardens and hotel terraces. Each luminaire is driven by a wireless control module.

The industry-standard way to pair a wireless device is to press a button on it while the controller listens. That works on a desk. It fails as soon as the device is out of reach — and for these products, being out of reach is the normal operating condition. Re-pairing a lamp after a controller change, a reset or the addition of a new lamp would mean fishing it out of the pool or climbing the tree.

The invention

The method lets the control module take the initiative, so that no action is ever needed on the device itself:

sequenceDiagram
 participant C as Control module
 participant D as Unpaired luminaire
 C->>D: Universal configuration signal (broadcast, reduced power)
 D->>C: Response carrying its unique identifier
 C->>D: Pairing request carrying the controller's unique identifier
 Note over D: Stores the controller identifier → paired

The control module broadcasts a universal configuration signal that every unpaired device recognises.
The signal is sent at reduced power, so only devices physically close to the controller answer. Proximity replaces the button press as the proof of intent, and neighbouring installations are not captured by mistake.
Each unpaired device that receives the signal replies with its own unique identifier.
The controller then sends a pairing request containing its own identifier, which the device stores. From then on it only obeys that controller.

The result is a pairing step that works through water, at height, and on any number of devices at once — without opening, touching or even seeing them.

Patent record


Title	Appairage de dispositifs (Device pairing)
Inventors	Peter Wildhorn, Boris Dupoux
Applicant	IPW Europe
French priority	FR 12 57111, filed 23 July 2012
International application	PCT/FR2013/051750, filed 19 July 2013 — published as WO2014016503 (30 January 2014)
French patent	FR2993731, granted 4 September 2015

The documents cited in the search cover remote binding of luminaires (Nedap), pairing of bidirectional home-automation objects (Somfy) and RF communication systems (SMK). The claims centre on the combination of a universal broadcast, a deliberately reduced emission power and an identifier exchange initiated entirely from the controller side.

Why it mattered

It addresses the central field-support problem of a product line designed to be installed where people cannot easily reach.
It describes proximity-based, controller-initiated onboarding, with a priority date of July 2012.
It follows the venture’s first invention, the modular LED luminaire (French patent FR2976049, 2014).

Sources

WO2014016503 on Google Patents

Modular LED Luminaire

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Concept render — demo image, watermarked & downscaled at build

Overview

Architecture of modular, low-consumption LED lighting modules that plug into one another (male–female connectors carrying the supply), enabling fast assembly from identical parts and industrialisation.

Patent record


Title	Module d’éclairage et dispositif lumineux comportant de tels modules d’éclairage (lighting module and lighting device comprising such modules)
Inventors	Philippe Landry, Boris Dupoux (spelt « Dupous » in the register), Peter Wildhorn
Applicant	IPW Europe
French patent	FR2976049, filed 31 May 2011, granted 31 October 2014, lapsed in 2016 (annual fees not paid)
European application	EP2532944, filed 2012, published December 2012, deemed withdrawn in 2015 — never granted

This was the venture’s first invention; the contactless pairing method (FR2993731) followed in 2012.

Highlights

Design-to-production: from concept to industrialised product.
International supply chain (France & China).
Part of a product line sold to the hospitality sector across 13 countries.
Co-invented during the Smart & Green venture (wireless LED startup).

Patent on Boris Dupoux

Contactless Pairing of Hard-to-Reach Wireless Devices

Context

The invention

Patent record

Why it mattered

Sources

Modular LED Luminaire

Overview

Patent record

Highlights

Sources