Sensor fusion for low power occupancy sensing
AssigneeRensselaer Polytechnic Institute
InventorsRobert F. Karlicek, Jr., Arunas Tuzikas, Tianna-Kae Woodstock
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Abstract
A system for detecting occupants in a room is provided. The system includes at least one first sensor configured to establish a background color map of the room in an unoccupied state and to detect color shift data resulting from at least one occupant entering the room, at least one second sensor configured to determine height data of the at least one occupant, and a controller configured to receive the color shift data and the height data and to generate equipment-control signals to operate at least one occupant-centric system.
Claims15
A system for detecting occupants in a room, comprising:
- at least one first sensor configured to establish a background color map of the room in an unoccupied state and to detect color shift data resulting from at least one occupant entering the room;
- at least one second sensor configured to determine height data of the at least one occupant;
- and
- a controller configured to receive the color shift data and the height data and to generate equipment-control signals to operate at least one occupant-centric system,
- wherein the controller is further configured to generate sensor-control signals to power on and operate the at least one second sensor in response to receiving the color shift data from the at least one first sensor.
A method for detecting occupants in a room, comprising:
- detecting, via a first sensor system, the spectral reflectance of the room in an unoccupied state to determine a background color map of the room;
- detecting, via the first sensor system, color shift data resulting from at least one occupant entering the room and changing the spectral reflectance of the background color map;
- communicating the color shift data to a controller configured to generate sensor-control signals in response to receiving the color shift data;
- communicating the sensor-control signals to a second sensor system to power on and operate the second sensor system;
- detecting, via the second sensor system, height data of the at least one occupant;
- communicating the height data to the controller;
- generating, via the controller, equipment-control signals to operate at least one occupant-centric system;
- and
- communicating the equipment-control signals to the at least one occupant-centric systems.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.