JPH0794908B2 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to control of a preset temperature and a wind direction of an air conditioner.

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional air conditioner of this type, as shown in FIG.
It has a direction detecting means 1 for detecting the direction in which the human body is located indoors, and a distance detecting means 2 for detecting the distance from the air conditioner to the human body in which the direction is detected. The position information of the human body is calculated and output based on the detection signal detected by the detection means 2. Then, during operation, the direction in which the human body is present during heating is set as the blowing direction based on the position information of the human body. (For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-143441) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the above configuration, even if the position of the human body can be specified, the position of the specific part of the human body, and
Since the human body condition such as the thermal sensation and the amount of clothes cannot be detected, the user of the air conditioner had to control the temperature by himself. For this reason, when the transition of the thermal sensation is intense, for example immediately after the exercise, it is necessary to re-control many times in a short time, and there is a problem that the handling is lacking.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and measures the skin temperature of a specific part of the human body, and controls a comfortable air conditioner based on the thermal sensation calculated from the measured skin temperature. To aim.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the air conditioner of the present invention is an imaging unit, a human body determination unit that processes a video signal by the imaging unit to determine a human body, and a human body determination unit. Specific part determination means for determining the position of a specific part of the human body such as the face by a signal, tracking means for tracking the human body by a signal from the specific part determination means, and skin of a specific part of the human body by way of the tracking means Skin temperature detecting means for detecting temperature, thermal sensation determining means for determining thermal sensation based on a signal from the skin temperature detecting means, and air conditioning for controlling an air conditioner based on the signal from the thermal sensation determining means. It is provided with a configuration including control means.

Effect The present invention, by the above-mentioned configuration, based on the human body position information in the room, always measures the skin temperature of a specific part regardless of the movement of the human body, determines the thermal sensation based on this, and determines the determined temperature. The wind direction and set temperature of the air conditioner are controlled according to the cooling sensation.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
1 to 3, the air-conditioning apparatus 3 includes an imaging unit 4 including a CCD sensor, a human body determination unit 5 that determines a human body based on a signal from the imaging unit 4, and a signal from the human body determination unit 5. Specific part determination means 6 for determining the position of a specific part of the human body, tracking means 7 for tracking the human body by the signal from the specific part determination means 6, and skin temperature detection including an infrared sensor via the tracking means 7. Device 8
And a thermal sensation determining means 9 for determining thermal sensation based on a signal from the skin temperature detecting means 8. FIG. 3 shows the details of the human body determining means 5. The human body determining means 5 stores the first image storage section 13 for storing the initial image and the second image for storing the images sequentially obtained from the imaging means 4. Memory
14, a comparison unit 15 that compares pixels at the same address in the first image storage unit 13 and the second image storage unit 14, and the comparison unit 15
When the second image storage unit 14 has changed with respect to the first image storage unit 13 by the signal from 1 is set as 1 and when it has not changed, it is set as 0. An image processing unit 16 that replaces pixels with the first image storage unit 13 and performs binarization, and a recognition unit 17 that recognizes a human body by the binarized image obtained by the image processing unit 16 are provided.

The tracking means 7 is two stepping motors 10 and 11 and a mirror driving type tracking means that is driven by the stepping motors 10 and 11 in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. The human body image can always be sent to the skin temperature detecting means 8 including an infrared sensor.

When the air conditioner 3 is operated in the above configuration, the image pickup unit 4 sends the indoor image to the human body determination unit 5. The indoor image is
It is stored in the first image storage unit 13 and the second image storage unit 14. When the human body enters the field of view of the imaging means 4, the second image storage unit 14 captures an image containing the human body, and the comparison unit 15 compares each pixel at the same address with the first image storage unit 13. Then, the image processing unit 16 further creates a binarized image by the signal from the comparison unit 15 binarized by 0 and 1, but at this time, the comparison result judged as noise is removed, and this image is Recognition unit 17 for recognizing whether or not
Determine the human body by.

After that, the specific part determination unit 6 calculates the position of the face from the shape of the image, and transmits the calculated face position information to the tracking unit 7. The tracking means 7 sends it to the skin temperature detection means 8 regardless of the movement of the human body, and measures it at several points. The skin temperature and the thermal sensation have a correlation as shown in FIG. 4, and the skin temperature detecting means 8
The thermal sensation determining means 9 determines the thermal sensation from the skin temperature based on the signal from. The operation condition is determined by the air conditioning control means 18 based on the determined thermal sensation. For example, if it is detected that it is hot during the cooling operation, the wind direction is changed to control the air flow until it is detected that the human body, that is, the occupant who is in the room and is being heated and cooled by the air conditioner is comfortable. As mentioned above,
This air conditioner has the effect of directly detecting the thermal sensation of the occupant and performing more detailed control, thus improving the occupant's comfort.

As another example, for example, tracking a hand instead of a face,
It shows the skin temperature that has the strongest correlation with the thermal sensation and enables fine control.

In addition, the difference in skin temperature between the abdomen, where clothing is expected to be expected, and the face or hand, where clothing is not applied, is detected by the above means, and the greater the amount of clothing, the greater the difference between the clothing surface and the facial skin temperature. Therefore, the amount of clothing can be detected. It is possible to perform finer control based on the clothing amount obtained in this way.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the air conditioner of the present invention, the following effects are obtained.

(1) Since the set temperature and the wind direction are automatically controlled according to the skin temperature, the occupant's thermal sensation can be immediately dealt with.

(2) Since the skin temperature can be measured in a non-contact manner, it is unnecessary for the resident to have any device in his hand, and comfortable habitability can be easily obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged perspective view of an essential part of an air conditioner in an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the same, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of human body judging means, and FIG. 4 is skin temperature and temperature. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional air conditioner showing the correlation with the feeling of an example. 3 ... Air conditioner, 4 ... Imaging means, 5 ... Human body determination means, 6 ... Specific part determination means, 7 ... Tracking means, 8 ...
... Skin temperature detecting means, 9 ... thermal sensation judging means, 10 ... stepping motor, 11 ... stepping motor, 12 ... mirror, 13 ... first image storage section, 14 ... second image storage Section, 15 …… Comparison section, 16 …… Image processing section, 17 …… Recognition section,
18 ... Air conditioning control means.

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-63-143441 (JP, A) JP-A-64-81586 (JP, A) JP-A-57-37642 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means, a human body determination means for processing a video signal from the image pickup means to determine a human body, and a specific part determination means for determining the position of a specific part of the human body based on a signal from the human body determination means. Tracking means for tracking the human body by the signal from the specific part determination means, skin temperature detecting means for detecting the skin temperature of the human body via the tracking means, and determination of thermal sensation by the signal from the skin temperature detecting means An air conditioner comprising: a thermal sensation determining means for controlling the air conditioning apparatus and a control means for controlling the air conditioning apparatus based on a signal from the thermal sensation determining means. 2. A human body determining means, a first image storing portion for storing an initial image, a second image storing portion for storing images sequentially obtained from an image pickup means, and a signal of the first image storing portion. And a comparison unit that performs a comparison calculation of the signals of the second image storage unit, an image processing unit that performs image processing by the signal from the comparison unit, and a recognition unit that recognizes a human body by the signal from the image processing unit. The air conditioner according to claim 1, which is configured.