AIR CONDITIONER

• US 20120123593A1
• Filed: 12/15/2011
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: MATSUMOTO, Takashi, WATANABE, Shintaro, KAGE, Hiroshi, KATAOKA, Yoshikuni, HIROSAKI, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,026 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/276
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/56 Remote control
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/63 Electronic processing
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/10 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/00 Control inputs relating to users or occupants
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/10 Occupancy

Abstract

Disclosed is an air conditioner with functions for deciding room shape by determining, based on a temperature difference, information between the room'"'"'s floor and walls occurring during operation, a human body detection position log, and a capacity zone of the air conditioner. In an embodiment, an infrared sensor detects a temperature of an area of the room by scanning the area and a control unit acquires thermal image data of the area scanned by the sensor and then controls the air conditioner based on the thermal image data. The control unit sets a boundary line between a wall and floor of the room at a position on the thermal image data, calculates a temperature difference between vertically adjacent pixels located above and below the boundary, corrects a position of the boundary based on temperature difference, and determines that areas parted by the boundary correspond to the wall and floor, respectively.

Claims

1-14. -14. (canceled)

15. An air conditioner installed in a room, comprising:

an infrared sensor which detects a temperature of an area of the room by scanning the area; and

a control unit which acquires thermal image data of the area scanned by the infrared sensor and controls the air conditioner based on the acquired thermal image data,

wherein the control unit sets a boundary line between a wall and a floor of the room at a predetermined position on the acquired thermal image data, calculates a temperature difference between pixels which are adjacent in a vertical direction among a plurality of pixels located above and below the boundary line, corrects a position of the boundary line based on the calculated temperature difference, and determines that areas parted by the boundary line correspond to the wall and the floor, respectively.

16. The air conditioner according to claim 15, wherein the control unit judges, for each column of pixels aligned in the vertical direction on the acquired thermal image data, whether there are pixels the calculated temperature difference between which satisfies a predetermined condition and, if there are corresponding pixels and the boundary line is not located between the corresponding pixels, the control unit sets the boundary line between the corresponding pixels, thereby correcting the position of the boundary line.

17. The air conditioner according to claim 16, wherein the control unit further corrects, on the acquired thermal image data, the position of the boundary line by averaging the position of the boundary line.

18. The air conditioner according to claim 15, wherein the control unit sets, on the acquired thermal image data, the boundary line at a position defined in accordance with a capacity band of the air conditioner, as the predetermined position.

19. The air conditioner according to claim 15, wherein the control unit sets, on the acquired thermal image data, the boundary line at a position defined in accordance with an installation position of the air conditioner, as the predetermined position.

20. The air conditioner according to claim 15, wherein the control unit further compares one of a position and a square measure of the area determined to be the floor with a limitation range defined in accordance with a capacity band of the air conditioner, and corrects the area based on a comparison result.

21. The air conditioner according to claim 15, wherein the control unit further compares a square measure of the area determined to be the floor with a limitation range defined in accordance with a capacity band of the air conditioner, and enlarges or reduces the area in a depth direction of the room when viewed from the air conditioner, based on a comparison result.

22. The air conditioner according to claim 15, wherein the control unit further detects a human body present in the room from the acquired thermal image data, accumulates a log of a position of the human body, compares the area determined to be the floor with the accumulated log, and corrects the area based on a comparison result.

23. The air conditioner according to claim 15, wherein the control unit further calculates a temperature of the area determined to be the wall from the acquired thermal image data, as a temperature of the wall, detects a human body present in the room from the acquired thermal image data, calculates a distance between the human body and the area determined to be the wall, as a distance between the human body and the wall, and calculates a radiation temperature from the wall for the human body based on the calculated temperature of the wall and the calculated distance between the human body and the wall.

24. The air conditioner according to claim 23, wherein the control unit further calculates a temperature of the area determined to be the floor from the acquired thermal image data, as a temperature of the floor, and calculates, as the radiation temperature, a radiation temperature from the wall and the floor for the human body based on the calculated temperature of the wall, the calculated distance between the human body and the wall, and the calculated temperature of the floor.

25. The air conditioner according to claim 24, wherein the control unit calculates, from the acquired thermal image data, a temperature of an area where the human body is detected, among a plurality of areas into which the floor is divided, as the temperature of the floor.

26. The air conditioner according to claim 25, wherein the floor is divided into the plurality of areas in a right and left direction and a depth direction of the room when viewed from the air conditioner.

27. The air conditioner according to claim 25, wherein the floor is divided into the plurality of areas such that each of the plurality of areas overlaps areas adjacent thereto.

28. The air conditioner according to claim 24, wherein the control unit calculates, from the acquired thermal image data, a temperature of a left wall located on a left side when viewed from the air conditioner, a temperature of a frontal wall located in front of the air conditioner, and a temperature of a right wall located on a right side when viewed from the air conditioner, as the temperature of the wall, and also calculates a distance between the left wall and the human body, a distance between the frontal wall and the human body, and a distance between the right wall and the human body, as the distance between the human body and the wall.

29. The air conditioner according to claim 28, wherein the control unit calculates, from the acquired thermal image data, a distance X_left between the left wall and an installation position of the air conditioner, a distance Y_front between the frontal wall and the installation position, and a distance X_right between the right wall and the installation position, and calculates:

30. The air conditioner according to claim 15, wherein the control unit further detects, of the area determined to be the wall on the acquired thermal image data, a portion that provides a temperature difference of not less than a fixed value from remaining portions of the area, as a window.

31. The air conditioner according to claim 30, wherein the control unit further judges whether there is a temperature difference of not less than a predetermined value between air in the room and an outdoor air and, if there is the temperature difference of not less than the predetermined value between the air in the room and the outdoor air, the control unit detects, of the area determined to be the wall on the acquired thermal image data, a portion that provides a temperature difference of not less than the fixed value from the remaining portions of the area, as the window.

32. The air conditioner according to claim 30, wherein the control unit detects, of the area determined to be the wall on the acquired thermal image data, a portion that provides a temperature difference of not less than the fixed value from the remaining portions of the area continuously for not less than a prescribed time, as the window.