Occupancy detection system and method having automatic adaptation capabilities

Abstract

An occupancy detection system includes a motion detector, one or more sound detectors and a lighting controller configured to turn on and off one or more lighting devices in a defined area based on detected occupancy states. Lighting control circuitry determines occupancy states based on motion detector output signals and sound detector output signals, and further controls associated lighting devices to be turned ON or OFF in accordance with determined occupancy states and an automatically adaptable timeout period. The timeout period is automatically adjusted in accordance with newly recorded time stamps for lighting status changes, based on a second order occupancy distribution analysis such as a Gaussian probability distribution function, with an occupancy curve adjusted for each newly recorded set of time stamps and the timeout period being adjusted according to the mean and variance of the occupancy curve.