Artificial intelligence air conditioner and control method thereof

An air conditioner comprising:

• a camera that obtains an image of an indoor space;
• an area recognition device that determines, from the image obtained by the camera, a location of an occupant in the indoor space that is separated into a plurality of areas, and the area recognition device distinguishes a living area with respect to the plurality of areas based on a result of determining the location of the occupant;
• and
• an airflow controller that controls airflow of the air conditioner based on the distinguished living area, and
• wherein the area recognition device separates the plurality of areas into a residential living area, a movement living area, and a non-living area,
• the airflow controller controls the airflow differently depending on the residential living area, the movement living area, and the non-living area, and controls airflow for cooling the residential living area first and before cooling the movement living area and the non-living area;
• and
• wherein the area recognition device includes:
• a human body recognizer that determines, from the image obtained from the camera, presence or absence of the occupant and the location of the occupant,
• an area recognizer that distinguishes the living area with respect to the plurality of areas based on a result of determining the location of the occupant, and
• a signal generator that provides an airflow control signal based on the distinguished living area, and
• wherein a direction of airflow is controlled so that airflow is transmitted only toward the resident living area in an intensive cooling/heating mode,
• wherein the direction of airflow is controlled so as to be transmitted only toward the living area in a direct heating and cooling mode,
• wherein the direction of airflow is controlled such that an indirect cooling/heating operation is performed to transmit airflow only to the non-living area and the movement living area, except for the residential living area in an indirect cooling/heating mode,
• wherein the area recognition device accumulates results of determining the location of the occupant to a histogram, and distinguishes the living area with respect to the plurality of areas based on the accumulated results of determining the location of the occupant,
• wherein the histogram is generated in a matrix type in which detection frequency by distances and angles have a plurality of rows and columns.