JP6238197B2 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an air conditioner that detects room temperature and a person to control the room temperature, and relates to a sensor control technology that detects the room temperature and a person.

In recent years, air sensors have been equipped with image sensors and temperature sensors to detect the temperature distribution in the room and the actions of people in the room, and control the temperature, direction, and volume of the blown air to improve air conditioning comfort and save energy A harmony machine has been realized.
Said air conditioner is disclosed by patent document 1, for example. Specifically, the air conditioner of Patent Document 1 is equipped with an image sensor that captures image information of the indoor space, detects movement based on the acquired image information, and controls the vertical flap and the left and right that control the vertical direction of the indoor unit. The left and right flaps that control the wind direction of the direction are configured to distribute the airflow as a flap mechanism that freely controls the airflow regardless of the location of the person, and the person's position is identified from the amount of movement of the image information, The direction and distance of blowing air toward the existing area are controlled.
Furthermore, the air conditioner of Patent Document 1 is equipped with a floor temperature sensor that detects the floor temperature of an area that is divided into several parts in the left-right and up-down directions, and according to the floor temperature in the vicinity of the position of the person acquired by the image sensor, A technique for setting an optimal set temperature and controlling the rotation speed of a fan is disclosed.

  In addition, the air conditioner disclosed in Patent Document 2 acquires an indoor thermal image by rotating and scanning an infrared sensor in which eight light receiving elements are vertically arranged in the left-right direction. While detecting the temperature of a wall surface, the position of a person is detected from a change in thermal image data, and air conditioning control of the air conditioner is performed.

JP 2006-220405 A JP 2010-276324 A

As described above, by mounting an image sensor and a temperature sensor, it becomes easy to grasp indoor conditions and detect people, and to perform fine air conditioning management. In particular, Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose that air conditioning control is performed by detecting floor temperature and wall surface temperature. However, if the temperature is controlled by a detected temperature that is different from the ambient temperature of the occupant who affects the sensible temperature, for example, the suction temperature of the indoor unit, it can be determined whether the occupant is comfortably air-conditioned. There was no problem.
An object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner that is comfortable for occupants.

In order to solve the above problem, an air conditioner of the present invention acquires an image capturing unit that acquires a captured image of a room to be air-conditioned, and detects radiant heat in a range substantially the same as the captured image to acquire a temperature distribution image. A temperature detection unit, and a face detection process is performed based on the captured image to calculate a plurality of face positions, and for each of the plurality of persons, a predetermined position is determined from a position corresponding to the face position in the temperature distribution image. The temperature information of the position separated by a distance is acquired, the average value of the acquired temperature information is obtained as the air conditioning control temperature, and the direction in which the person is present from the face position of the person having the maximum value of the acquired temperature information Is calculated, and air-conditioning control is performed based on the temperature information and the direction in which the person is present .

Since the air conditioner to which the present invention is applied can detect the ambient temperature in the vicinity of the occupant, air conditioning suitable for the sensible temperature is possible, and a comfortable air-conditioning environment can be provided to the occupant.
In addition, since air conditioning in the vicinity of a room occupant can be performed, the air conditioning range can be limited, and energy can be saved compared to air conditioning the entire room.

It is a figure which shows the front external appearance of the air conditioner of an Example. It is a sectional side view of the indoor unit 1 of an Example. It is a figure explaining the horizontal scan of the thermopile 27b of the temperature detection means 27. FIG. It is a figure explaining the horizontal scanning of the CCD image sensor 26b of the imaging means 26. FIG. It is a figure explaining the relationship of the rotation angle of CCD image sensor 26b of the imaging means 26, and the thermopile 27b of the temperature detection means 27. FIG. It is a figure which shows the imaging result of the temperature detection means 27. FIG. It is a figure which shows the imaging result of the imaging means. It is a figure which shows an example of the structure of a gear connection in connection with the mechanism of a temperature detection means or an imaging means. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of a 4 node link connection in connection with the mechanism of a temperature detection means or an imaging means. It is a figure which shows the imaging state of the vertical cross section of the temperature detection means 27. FIG. It is a control block diagram of the air conditioner of an Example. It is a figure explaining the parallel operation of the imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27. FIG. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the square which detects a face position and temperature. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the clothing temperature mass which detects a face position and temperature. It is a processing flow figure which detects clothing temperature and performs air conditioning. It is a processing flow figure which detects clothing temperature in case a plurality of people exist, and performs air conditioning. It is another processing flow figure which detects clothing temperature and performs air conditioning.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In each figure and each example, the same numerals are given to the same or similar component, and duplicate explanation is omitted.

  FIG. 1 is a front view showing the appearance of the air conditioner according to the present embodiment. The air conditioner is composed of an indoor unit 1, an outdoor unit 2, and a remote controller 3. The indoor unit 1 and the outdoor unit 2 are connected by a refrigerant pipe (not shown), and the indoor unit is connected by a known refrigerant cycle. Air-condition the room where 1 is installed. Moreover, the indoor unit 1 and the outdoor unit 2 mutually transmit / receive information via a communication cable (not shown).

  The remote controller 3 is operated by the user, and transmits an infrared signal corresponding to the user's operation instruction to the remote controller 3 receiver of the indoor unit 1. The contents of the signal are commands such as an operation request, a change in set temperature, a timer, an operation mode change, and a stop request. Based on these signals, the air conditioner performs air conditioning operations such as a cooling mode, a heating mode, and a dehumidifying mode.

In addition, an imaging unit 26 and a temperature detection unit 27, which will be described in detail later, are provided in front of the indoor unit 1 of the air conditioner.
The indoor unit includes a sensor unit 4 including a room temperature sensor that measures the temperature of air taken into the indoor unit 1, a humidity sensor, and an illuminance sensor. The outdoor unit 2 is similarly provided with an outside air temperature sensor.
Reference numeral 11 denotes an electrical component, which includes a control unit 7 that controls the air conditioner 1. Details will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the indoor unit 1. The housing base 8 accommodates internal structures such as a heat exchanger 9, a blower fan 10, an electrical component 11 (see FIG. 1), a sensor unit 4 (see FIG. 1), an imaging unit 26, and a temperature detecting unit 27. Yes.
The heat exchanger 9 has a plurality of heat transfer tubes, heats the air taken into the indoor unit 1 by the blower fan 10 with a refrigerant flowing through the heat transfer tubes, and heats or cools the air. It is configured. The heat transfer tube communicates with the above-described refrigerant pipe (not shown) and constitutes a part of a known refrigerant cycle (not shown).

The left and right wind direction plates 13 are rotated by a motor (not shown) for the left and right wind direction plates 13 according to an instruction from the control unit 7 (see FIG. 8) with a rotation shaft (not shown) provided at the bottom as a fulcrum. The
The vertical wind direction plate 14 is rotated by a motor (not shown) for the vertical wind direction plate 14 with pivot shafts (not shown) provided at both ends as fulcrums according to instructions from the control unit 7 (see FIG. 8). Is done.
The front panel 15 is installed so as to cover the front surface of the indoor unit 1, and is configured to be rotatable by a motor (not shown) for the front panel 15 with the lower end as an axis. Incidentally, the front panel 15 may be configured to be fixed to the upper end or may not be able to rotate.

When the blower fan 10 shown in FIG. 2 rotates, the room air is taken in from the front surface of the indoor unit 1 through the air suction port 17 and the filter 16, and the air exchanged by the heat exchanger 9 is blown out. Led to. Further, the air guided to the blowout air passage 18 is adjusted in the wind direction by the left and right wind direction plates 13 and the up and down wind direction plates 14 and is sent to the outside from the air blowing port 19 to air-condition the room.
That is, the amount of blown air is controlled by the rotation speed of the blower fan 10, the left and right blowing directions are controlled by the rotation of the left and right wind direction plates 13, and the upper and lower blowing directions are controlled by the rotation of the upper and lower wind direction plates 14.

The image pickup means 26 is, for example, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) image sensor 26b (see FIG. 3B), and is installed at the lower center of the front panel 15 in the left-right direction. In addition to this, an infrared sensor may be used.
Further, the temperature detection means 27 is a thermopile 27b (see FIG. 3a) composed of, for example, 1 × 1 pixel, 4 × 4 pixel, and 1 × 8 pixel in the horizontal and vertical directions, and is a lower portion of the front panel 15 at the center in the horizontal direction. Is installed. In this embodiment, a case where a thermopile 27b composed of 1 × 8 pixels is used will be described. In addition, thermography may be used.

The imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 are installed such that the optical axis 36 of the lens faces downward with respect to the horizontal line 37 by a predetermined angle so that the room in which the indoor unit 1 is installed can be appropriately imaged. It has become. The angle at which the imaging unit 26 faces downward is substantially the same as the angle at which the temperature detection unit 27 faces downward.
When the detection ranges in the vertical direction of the imaging unit 26 and the temperature detection unit 27 are different, the upper ends of the detection ranges are aligned. Alternatively, the lower ends may be aligned.

The angle of view in the horizontal direction of the image pickup means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 is substantially the same angle. Alternatively, one may be larger than the other, and a substantially equivalent angle of view may be obtained by changing the angle of view by turning. The imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 are provided so as to be positioned in the horizontal direction or the vertical direction.
In addition, it is desirable that the image pickup unit 26 and the temperature detection unit 27 be provided close to a position where space can be detected, such as the front central portion or the upper front portion of the indoor unit 1. Thereby, the deviation | shift amount of the acquired image of the imaging means 26 and the acquired image of the temperature detection means 27 can be made small.
Further, the imaging means 26 or the temperature detection means 27 may be at the upper end of the front panel 15 so that a wider range of the room can be seen with the same angle of view.

  Next, imaging by the imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3a and 3b. The imaging means 26 is constituted by a CCD image sensor 26b having 640 × 480 pixels, and the temperature detecting means 27 is constituted by a thermopile 27b having 1 × 8 pixels. A lens is provided in front of the CCD image sensor 26b and the thermopile 27b, and a field image is formed on the sensor.

  The detection element of the thermopile 27b is a heat receiving element arranged one-dimensionally. As shown in FIG. 3a, scanning is performed in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the detection elements by rotating the thermopile 27b with the arrangement direction of the detection elements as a rotation axis. Thereby, a two-dimensional radiant heat image of 8 pixels can be acquired in the vertical direction. The number of pixels in the scanning direction (horizontal direction) of the acquired image will be described later.

  The CCD image sensor 26b is a two-dimensional image pickup device. In order to widen the acquired image range of the image pickup means 26, as shown in FIG. 3B, the CCD image sensor 26b has the vertical direction of the CCD image sensor 26b as the rotation axis. Rotate to scan in the horizontal direction. Thereby, a captured image larger than the number of pixels in the horizontal direction of the CCD image sensor 26b can be obtained.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between the rotation angles of the CCD image sensor 26b of the image pickup means 26 and the thermopile 27b of the temperature detection means 27. Here, the CCD image sensor 26b has an angle of view of 60 °, the thermopile 27b has an angle of view of 5 °, and the imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 have the same angle of view with a horizontal direction of 150 °. It is assumed that an image of the visual field is acquired.

  A solid line in FIG. 4 indicates a single imaging angle range of the CCD image sensor 26b, and a dotted line indicates a single detection angle range of the thermopile 27b. As shown in the figure, in order to obtain an acquired image having an angle of view of 150 °, the thermopile 27b acquires a radiant heat image in the central left and right range of 75 ° for each rotation angle of 5 °, and the CCD image sensor 26b. The image acquisition may be performed by performing imaging at three rotation angles of 45 ° to the left and right of the center.

5a and 5b are diagrams showing the imaging results of the imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 that have taken images under the above conditions. The imaging means 26 can acquire an image having a field angle of 150 ° in the horizontal direction and a number of pixels of 1600 × 480. The temperature detection unit 27 can acquire a thermal image having a field angle of 150 ° in the horizontal direction and a pixel number of 30 × 8.
At this time, since there are overlapping areas in the captured image by the imaging unit 26, the image acquisition with the above-described number of pixels is performed by appropriately deleting or averaging.

The number of pixels of the acquired image is an example, and it is needless to say that various selections can be made depending on the angle of view to be acquired and the type of the CCD image sensor 26b and the thermopile 27b to be used.
At first glance, it seems that the resolution of the thermopile 27b is low, but if it is an application for measuring the temperature distribution in the room for air blow control of the air conditioner as in the embodiment, the above resolution is sufficient. Can be done. Of course, it is needless to say that high resolution is desirable.

  Next, a mechanism for rotating the thermopile 27b or the CCD image sensor 26b will be described. 6a and 6b are diagrams showing an outline of the mechanism. Here, it is assumed that a stepping motor 42 is used as a drive source for rotating the thermopile 27b or the CCD image sensor 26b.

In the mechanism shown in FIG. 6a, the rotating shaft that rotates the thermopile 27b or the CCD image sensor 26b and the drive shaft of the stepping motor 42 are connected via a gear. Even a stepping motor 42 with a small number of steps can obtain a desired rotation angle by selecting a gear ratio.
In the mechanism shown in FIG. 6b, the rotary shaft that rotates the thermopile 27b or the CCD image sensor 26b and the drive shaft of the stepping motor 42 are connected by a four-bar link, and the rotary motion can be converted into a swing motion.

  When the drive shaft is connected by the above-described gear or link, an error may occur in the rotational position accuracy due to gear backlash or link “play”. For this reason, it is desirable that the rotation direction at the time of imaging of the thermopile 27b or the CCD image sensor 26b at the time of imaging should be one direction so that an error in the rotation angle due to “play” does not occur. Further, an adjustment amount for absorbing “play” may be obtained in advance, and adjustment may be performed when the rotation direction is reversed.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an imaging state of a vertical cross section of the temperature detection unit 27. As described above, the thermopile 27b of the temperature detecting means 27 is composed of eight elements in the vertical direction. The radiant heat in the region 1 to 8 in FIG. 7 is detected by the heat receiving element. As can be seen from FIG. 7, the upper and lower sides of the imaging result correspond to the indoor wall and floor, respectively.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a control circuit of the air conditioner according to the embodiment.
The CCD image sensor 26b of the image pickup means 26 and the thermopile 27b of the temperature detection means 27 are independently rotated by the sensor scanning control unit 50. From the output signals of the CCD image sensor 26b and the thermopile 27b, the temperature distribution generation / determination processing unit 5 generates a two-dimensional radiant heat image and a captured image shown in FIGS. 5a and 5b.

The temperature distribution generation / determination processing unit 5 analyzes the two-dimensional captured image and the radiant heat image, and calculates the layout state, the presence / absence of a person, the number of persons, the activity rate, and the temperature distribution.
Then, the air conditioning temperature / wind direction processing unit 6 calculates the calculation result, the input values of the outside air temperature sensor control unit 51, the room temperature sensor control unit 52, the humidity sensor control unit 53, the illuminance sensor control unit 54, the remote control control unit 55, With reference to the set values by the remote controller 3 that communicates, the control amount such as the temperature / air volume and direction of the air is determined.
Based on the instruction from the air conditioning temperature / wind direction processing unit 6, the device control unit 7 controls the compressor driving unit 22 b, the outdoor unit fan motor driving unit 24, the four-way valve driving unit 34, and the motorized valve driving unit 35 of the outdoor unit 2. In addition to controlling the refrigerant cycle for cooling and heating, based on the instructions of the air conditioning temperature / wind direction processing unit 6, the up / down air direction plate driving unit 14b, the left / right air direction plate driving unit 13b, and the blower fan driving unit 10b. To control the blowing direction and air volume of cooling air and heating air.
Further, the air conditioning temperature / wind direction processing unit 6 sets the operation state of the sensor scanning control unit 50.

  The temperature distribution generation / determination processing unit 5, the air conditioning temperature / wind direction processing unit 6, and the device control unit 7 are realized by a program process by a microprocessor.

One specific processing contents of the embodiment will be described technique.
First, a procedure for generating a captured image and a temperature distribution image by the imaging unit 26 and the temperature detection unit 27 that can independently perform an imaging operation will be described. In this embodiment, a method for reducing the difference in imaging timing by operating the imaging unit 26 and the temperature detection unit 27 in parallel will be described. However, when the air-conditioned room can be regarded as a stationary state (such as not considering the movement of a person). Alternatively, the imaging unit 26 and the temperature detection unit 27 may alternately perform imaging.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the parallel operation of the image pickup means 26 and the temperature detection means 27. Description will be made based on the relationship between the rotation angles of the image pickup means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 in FIG.
The thermopile 27b of the temperature detecting means 27 is driven at a constant rotational angular velocity at 30 detection points in FIG. 4 and images (signal detection) at a constant interval. On the other hand, the CCD image sensor 26b of the image pickup means 26 performs a rotation operation for every 10 detection points of the thermopile 27b. The timing of imaging (signal detection) of the CCD image sensor 26b is set to the center of the range of 10 detection points of the thermopile 27b. As a result, the difference between the timing of image capturing and temperature detection is reduced.

More specifically, when the thermopile 27b is at a rotation angle of 1 to 9 shown in FIG. 4, the CCD image sensor 26b is at a position where the rotation angle is 1, and the rotation angle of the thermopile 27b is a position where the rotation angle is 5. Then, the CCD image sensor 26b is imaged.
Next, when the rotation angle of the thermopile 27b reaches the position of 10, the CCD image sensor 26b is driven to the position of the rotation angle 10. Then, when the rotation angle of the thermopile 27b reaches the position 15, the CCD image sensor 26b is imaged.
Further, when the rotation angle of the thermopile 27b reaches the 19th position, the CCD image sensor 26b is driven to the rotation angle 19 position. Then, when the rotation angle of the thermopile 27b reaches the position 26, the CCD image sensor 26b is imaged.

  With the above procedure, the imaging results shown in FIGS. 5a and 5b can be obtained. As described above, the figure is an image of the same field of view taken by the imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27. Although the matrix sizes are different due to the difference in resolution between the imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27, the coordinate positions have a corresponding relationship. Therefore, the temperature of the specific coordinate in FIG. 5b can be obtained by referring to FIG. 5a.

10a and 10b show an example in the case where one person is present in the room, and the imaging results of the imaging means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 are described in an overlapping manner. However, in the imaging result of the imaging means 26, the grid display is omitted.
The detected mass of the human body is detected from the captured image of the imaging means 26 using, for example, a known face search technique, the image center coordinates of the detected face are obtained, and the temperature detection means corresponding to the coordinates. 27 is the position of the imaging result.

The temperature at the face detection position (the mass where the human body is detected) shown in FIG. 10a becomes the face surface temperature. In general, since it is considered that the ambient temperature of a person is close to the clothing temperature, as shown in FIG. 10b, in the imaging result of the temperature detection means 27, the temperature of the cell below the face detection position (the cell detecting the human body) is It can be regarded as the ambient temperature (in FIG. 10b, expressed as a mass from which the temperature is extracted). Since the image pickup means 26 and the temperature detection means 27 of the present embodiment are rotated and scanned in the horizontal direction and take an image, the lower square of the detected face is worn, but if it is scanned in a different direction, It is not limited to the lower side. Further, in FIG. 10b, it is 1 square below, but is not limited to 1 square.
If the face detection position is the lowest square in the imaging result, the temperature of that square is taken as the clothing temperature.

  The air-conditioning temperature / wind direction processing unit 6 performs air-conditioning control of the temperature / air volume / wind direction using the clothing temperature obtained above as the air-conditioning control temperature. Further, the direction of the person may be calculated from the face detection position, and the air flow and the wind direction may be controlled by driving the blower fan and the left and right wind direction plates.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of the above-described processing when the temperature distribution generation / determination unit 5 and the air conditioning temperature / wind direction processing unit 6 are realized by a program of a microcomputer.
As described above, first, the imaging unit 26 and the temperature detection unit 27 are operated in parallel to acquire a captured image and a temperature distribution image (S201), and then face detection processing is applied to the captured image of the imaging unit 26 to perform face detection. Detection is performed and the face position on the captured image is calculated (S202). Then, the face position of the temperature distribution image corresponding to the detected face position on the picked-up image is calculated (S203), and the temperature is acquired using the cell immediately below the face position of the temperature distribution image as clothing (S204). Further, the direction of the face position of the temperature distribution image is calculated (S205). Then, the temperature, air volume, and direction of the air conditioning are controlled based on the acquired clothing temperature and the direction of the face position (S206).

This embodiment is an example where there are a plurality of people in the room. Each face position is detected from the captured image, and the clothing temperature and face direction of each person are obtained. Then, let the average value of each person's clothing temperature be the control temperature of the air conditioning, and direct the conditioned air toward the person with the highest clothing temperature, or let the person with the highest clothing temperature have longer air-conditioning air blowing time Control the wind direction plate. FIG. 12 shows the processing flow.

  In the present embodiment shown in the flowchart of FIG. 12, the processes of S202 to S205 in the flowchart of FIG. 11 are repeated for the number of people whose faces are detected from the captured image acquired in S201 (S207). The average value is obtained (S208), the direction of the face position of the person with the highest clothing temperature is obtained (S209), and the air conditioner temperature and the direction of the face position of the person with the highest clothing temperature are obtained. The air volume and direction were controlled (S210).

In the embodiment example above, an example has been described for imaging the imaging unit 26 and the temperature detecting means 27 is operated in parallel, if the room where the air conditioner can be regarded as quiescent (like without considering the movement of people) is As shown in FIG. 13, the imaging unit 26 and the temperature detection unit 27 may alternately perform imaging in order.

  Specifically, first, a captured image is acquired by the imaging unit (S211), face detection processing is performed based on the acquired captured image, and a face position on the captured image is calculated (S212). Then, the rotation angle and the face direction of the corresponding thermopile are calculated from the face position on the captured image (S213). Next, the thermopile is driven to the calculated rotation angle to obtain the temperature (S214), and the clothing temperature is obtained with the clothing positioned one below the face position (S215). Then, the temperature, air volume, and wind direction of the air conditioner are controlled based on the acquired clothing temperature and the direction of the face position (S216).

  In the above embodiment, the face detection process is performed on the captured image. However, the data of the region of the captured image corresponding to the region lower than the specific temperature of the temperature distribution image may be masked. According to this, since the area for face detection can be limited, the amount of data processing can be reduced.

  The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above-described embodiment, and any configuration can be used as long as the functions shown in the claims or the functions of the configuration of the present embodiment can be achieved. Is also applicable.

5 Temperature distribution generation / determination processing unit 6 Air conditioning temperature / wind direction processing unit 7 Device control unit 10b Blower fan drive unit 13b Left / right air direction plate drive unit 14b Upper / lower air direction plate drive unit 26b Imaging device CCD (imaging unit)
27b Temperature detection means thermopile (temperature detection unit)
50 Sensor scanning controller

Claims (1)

An imaging unit for acquiring a captured image of a room to be air-conditioned;
A temperature detector that detects radiant heat in a range substantially the same as the captured image and obtains a temperature distribution image, and
Face detection processing is performed based on the captured image to calculate the face positions of a plurality of people,
For each of a plurality of people, temperature information at a position away from the position corresponding to the face position in the temperature distribution image by a predetermined distance is acquired,
An average value of the acquired temperature information is obtained as an air conditioning control temperature,
The direction in which the person is present is calculated from the face position of the person having the maximum value of the acquired temperature information,
The air conditioner is characterized in that air-conditioning control is performed according to the temperature information and the direction in which the person is present.