Design and Implementation of a Wireless Sensor Network for Intelligent Light Control

We present the design and implementation of the Illuminator, a preliminary sensor network-based intelligent light control system for entertainment and media production. Unlike most sensor network applications, which focus on sensing alone, a distinctive aspect of Illuminator is that it closes the loop from light sensing to lighting control. We describe the Illuminator's design requirements, system architecture, algorithms, implementation and experimental results. To satisfy the high-performance light sensing requirements of entertainment and media production applications, the system uses the Illumimote, which is a multi-modal and high fidelity light sensor module well-suited to wireless sensor networks. The Illuminator system is a toolset to characterize the illumination profile of a deployed set of fixed position lights, generate desired lighting effects for moving targets (actors, scenic elements, etc.) based on user constraints expressed in a formal language, and assist in the set up of lights to achieve the same illumination profile in multiple venues. After characterizing deployed lights, the Illuminator computes at run-time optimal light settings to achieve a user-specified actuation profile using an optimization framework based on a genetic algorithm Uniquely, it can use deployed sensors to incorporate changing ambient lighting conditions and moving targets into actuation. With experimental results, we demonstrate that the Illuminator handles various high-level user's constraints and generates optimal light actuation profile. These results suggest that our system should support entertainment and media production applications.