Vehicle Roof Fan
AssigneeTSI Products, Inc.
InventorStephen William O'Brien
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle roof fan for providing air conditioning to a user of a vehicle. The vehicle roof fan may include a plurality of individually controlled fans. The apparatus includes power management features to limit the power consumption, such as a user presence detector and/or battery threshold monitoring. The plurality of fans may be associated with one or more optical sensors that each control the operation of one or more of the fans based upon the presence of a user. The air conditioning apparatus may also include heating and/or cooling components to modify the air temperature from the apparatus.
Claims15
An air conditioning apparatus for a roof of a vehicle comprising:
- a housing comprising a first housing structure and a second housing structure, wherein the housing is configured to attach to the roof with a lower surface of the first housing structure on an inside of the vehicle and an upper surface of the second housing structure on an outside of the vehicle, wherein the housing has an air outlet in the lower surface and an air inlet comprising an opening between the second housing structure and the first housing structure such that air flows underneath an outer edge of the second housing structure;
- a user interface on the lower surface of the housing configured to facilitate control of the air conditioning apparatus by a user;
- a fan within the housing between the air inlet and the air outlet configured to move the air through the housing from the air inlet to the air outlet;
- a light on the lower surface of the housing;
- and
- an optical sensor operably connected to the fan, wherein the optical sensor is configured to sense distance to an object, wherein the operation of the air conditioning apparatus is modified based upon a determination of whether the distance to the object indicates that the user is present.
An air conditioning apparatus for a roof of a vehicle comprising:
- a housing configured to attach to the roof with a lower surface on an inside of the vehicle and an upper surface on an outside of the vehicle, wherein the housing has an air inlet and an air outlet;
- a control module configured to facilitate control of the air conditioning apparatus by a user;
- a fan within the housing between the air inlet and the air outlet configured to move air through the housing from the air inlet to the air outlet;
- an optical sensor operably connected to the control module, wherein the optical sensor is configured to sense distance to an object, wherein the operation of the air conditioning apparatus is modified based upon a determination of whether the distance to the object indicates that the user is present;
- and
- a replaceable module port.
An air conditioning apparatus for a roof of a vehicle comprising:
- a housing configured to attach to the roof with a lower surface on an inside of the vehicle and an upper surface on an outside of the vehicle, wherein the housing has an air inlet and an air outlet;
- a control module configured to facilitate control of the air conditioning apparatus by a user;
- a fan within the housing between the air inlet and the air outlet configured to move air through the housing from the air inlet to the air outlet;
- an optical sensor operably connected to the control module, wherein the optical sensor is configured to sense distance to an object, wherein the operation of the air conditioning apparatus is modified based upon a determination of whether the distance to the object indicates that the user is present;
- and
- a wireless communication module operatively connected to the control module, wherein the wireless communication module is operable to wirelessly communicate with a remote device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.