It's a gnawing frustration of modern office life. You're sitting quietly — too quietly — in an office or carrel, and suddenly the lights go off. Grrr! Installed to save energy, the room's occupancy detector has determined that no one is around, so it signals the lights to turn off. For 30 years, occupancy sensors have relied primarily on motion detection. But now there's something new, writes the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Bill Scanlon.
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