JPH0875216A - Human body detecting method of air-conditioning machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To permit the detection of a human body with good accuracy by a method wherein the data processing of the output signals of a plurality of infrared ray sensors is effected in accordance with a predetermined processing procedure. CONSTITUTION: Signals of night and left infrared ray sensors 2, 3 are amplified respectively to make output waveforms. The pole of the output signal waveform is obtained by output signal waveform processing while the pole of saturated output signals can be obtained approximately by out of a predetermined range input signal processing. Next, various noises are removed by external turbulence detecting and preventing process while the amplitude and frequency, obtained from the pole through amplitude and frequency rank deciding process, are classified into ranks within a plurality of specified ranges. Subsequently, the results of data processings of respective output signals of right and left infrared ray sensors 2, 3 are compared by amplitude and frequency rank comparing process and a human body is decided by respective detecting areas human body detection deciding process whether the human body is in a left sensor detecting area 4, a right sensor detecting area 5 or in a superposed detecting area 6 or not. According to this method, the human body can be detected with good accuracy.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for providing an air conditioner with a human body detecting sensor including a plurality of infrared sensors, capturing the output signals of these human body detecting sensors, and detecting the human body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-134593, a plurality of infrared sensors are provided, and by overlapping a part of the detection areas of each other, an overlapping area is created in addition to the individual detection areas of the infrared sensor. In some cases, it is possible to detect the presence or absence of an object to be detected in an area exceeding the number of infrared sensors.

Further, as disclosed in JP-A-5-187682, a plurality of human body detection sensors are provided in an air conditioner, and the detection ranges thereof are partially overlapped to have a detection area larger than the number of detection elements. In some cases, the number of people is counted according to the detection level of the detection element, and from this result, the wind direction and the air volume are controlled so that the wind direction is directed toward a large number of people for a long time and the air volume is increased. Further, there is a method in which these data are accumulated for a predetermined period of time, the behavior of a person is predicted from the accumulated data, and the air conditioning is started in the expected direction at the expected time.

[0004]

In these conventional methods, it is necessary to devise the amplification circuit of the infrared sensor to prevent the output signal from being saturated. When the amplification circuit is set to the dynamic range, the output level and the number of people are increased. In order to estimate the correspondence of (1), the state of the amplifier circuit must be input as a condition for data processing. When the same human body movement is detected by a plurality of infrared sensors, the output signals cannot be processed at the same timing because the output signals have similar waveforms but different phases.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a data processing method for detecting an element other than the movement of the human body and detecting the human body accurately from the waveform of an output signal containing various electric noises.

[0006]

A data processing method for detecting a human body according to the present invention is to provide a plurality of infrared sensors in an air conditioner and process the output signals of the respective infrared sensors for data processing. Output signal waveform acquisition processing for processing, input signal processing outside the predetermined range that is obtained by approximating the poles of the saturated output signal, disturbance false detection prevention processing to remove various noises, amplitude and frequency obtained from the poles Amplitude / frequency rank determination processing that applies to the ranks of a plurality of specific ranges, amplitude / frequency rank comparison processing that compares the output signals of a plurality of infrared sensors with each other from the determined results, and the detection area of each infrared sensor The process includes a human body detection determination process for each detection region for individually detecting a human body for all overlapping detection regions that partially overlap each other.

[0007]

In the output signal waveform acquisition processing, the waveform of the output signal of the infrared sensor is sampled at regular intervals to obtain the differential coefficient, and when the sign of the differential coefficient changes, the difference between the output values between the polar points is taken as the polar point of the waveform. The output level is used, and the period is calculated from the time difference between the poles and is taken as the frequency. In the input signal processing outside the predetermined range, when the waveform of the output signal is saturated when finding the pole, the middle of the saturated state is approximated as the pole,
In the disturbance erroneous detection prevention process, if the time difference between the poles is particularly small, it is canceled as high frequency noise.

Further, in the amplitude / frequency rank determination processing, the output levels of the output signals of the plurality of infrared sensors are classified according to the number of persons, and the frequencies of the output signals are ranked according to the specific movement of the human body. In the amplitude / frequency rank comparison process, the output signals of the infrared sensors that have been divided into ranks are compared with each other, and in the human body detection determination process for each detection area, the overlapping results partially overlap each infrared detection area from the ranked results. The existence area of the human body and the number of people are determined.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an air conditioner 1 according to the present invention, which is provided with two infrared sensors for detecting a human body, a left infrared sensor 2 and a right infrared sensor 3, and a detection area of each sensor is a floor. In contrast, the left side sensor detects the left side detection area 4, and the right side sensor detects the right side detection area 5.
I am trying.

FIG. 2 shows waveforms of the left infrared sensor 2 and the right infrared sensor 3 after the signal of the infrared sensor when a human body 0.9 m away from the air conditioner 1 is detected is amplified by an amplifier circuit (not shown). Each output signal is shown at the same time. Further, FIG. 3 simultaneously shows respective output signals of the left infrared sensor 2 and the right infrared sensor 3 when a human body at a distance of 2.7 m is detected by the two infrared sensors.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an outline of the human body detecting method, and the human body is detected through the data processing described below. First, the signals of the left infrared sensor 2 and the right infrared sensor 3 are respectively amplified by an amplifier circuit (not shown) to form an output signal waveform. The amplitude and period of this output signal waveform are calculated by the output signal waveform acquisition process 7, and then the period is calculated by the out-of-predetermined-range input signal process 8 even if the output signal waveform is highly saturated. Further, the disturbance error detection prevention processing 9 cancels the output signal of a small cycle below a predetermined level as noise, and the amplitude / frequency rank determination processing 10 divides the amplitude into ranks and makes a judgment in comparison with the number of people, and divides the frequencies into ranks. It is determined whether the person is moving or the human body.

The results of the data processing of the output signals of the left sensor 2 and the right sensor 3 are compared by the amplitude / frequency rank comparison processing 11, and the human body detection determination processing 1 for each detection area is performed.
It is determined by 2 whether the human body is in the left side sensor detection area 4, the right side sensor detection area 5, or the superposition detection area 6.

Next, the process of each data processing will be described in detail. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the outline of the data processing process in the output signal waveform acquisition processing 7. Sample values are input from the respective output signals of the left sensor 2 and the right sensor 3 at a predetermined acquisition cycle, and the latest input signal S (n) and the immediately preceding input signal S acquired in the immediately preceding cycle
and (n-1) are sequentially temporarily stored (step S1),
The difference between S (n) and S (n-1) is taken to obtain a differential value (step S2). Next, the positive / negative sign of the differential value is discriminated (step S3), and it is checked whether the sign is inverted from positive to negative or from negative to positive (step S4). When the sign is inverted, it is determined that the output signal has a pole, and the pole is detected (step S5). When the next pole is detected, the amplitude is obtained from the difference between the values of the respective output signals and the previous pole, and the latest pole is detected. The amplitude is calculated (step S
6) Further, the latest period is calculated by setting a period twice as long as the period between these poles (step S).
7).

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing an outline of data processing in the outside-predetermined-range input signal processing 8. The latest input signal S (n) is input at a predetermined acquisition cycle (step S1).
0), it is checked whether or not it is larger than a predetermined upper limit level (step S11).
2) Similarly, it is checked whether or not it is smaller than a predetermined lower limit level (step S13).
The value is updated to the lower limit level value as the extreme value (step S1)
4). When these states continue (step S1
5) The middle of the beginning and the end is set as the extreme value position and stored in a register such as a microcomputer as a register position (step S16), and the intermediate register position of the extreme value concerning the upper limit level value and the pole concerning the lower limit value are set. By setting the period from the register position in the middle of the value to twice as long as the period (step S17), the latest period can be approximately calculated even when the input signal is saturated.

FIG. 7 shows the disturbance erroneous detection prevention processing 9, S
When the difference between (n) and S (n-1) is taken as the differential value and the sign of the differential value is inverted (step S20), the pole is detected (step S21), and the latest cycle is calculated from the time between the poles. However, when the cycle is smaller than the predetermined level range (step S33), the immediately preceding extreme value is canceled and a new extreme point is detected without updating the extreme value (step S2).
4) When it is larger than the predetermined level range, the extreme value is updated as the extreme point of human body detection (step S2).
5) Cancel a small cycle as noise.

FIG. 8 shows an amplitude / frequency rank determination processing 10, in which a differential value is obtained from the output signals S (n) and S (n-1) to detect a pole (step S30), and a small cycle is canceled as noise. While updating the extreme value (step S31), the latest amplitude is calculated from the level between the extreme points (step S32). Since the output signal of the infrared sensor is almost proportional to the number of people in the detection area, the maximum amplitude is divided into four ranks so as to correspond to cases where the number of people is 0, 1 to 2, 3 to 5, and 6 or more. Thus, the amplitude rank is determined (step S33).

Here, as shown in the activity frequency range of the human body in Table 1, when looking at the state of human motion in terms of frequency, there is a limit of the slow motion of unconscious human actions such as drinking coffee while watching TV. The frequency is 0.3 Hz, and the body movement frequency of normal behavior such as daily walking has a center value of 1 Hz, and the center frequency of limb movement of normal behavior is 5 Hz. The fastest limit of unconscious behavior of humans such as falling is 10 Hz, and the frequencies are also ranked according to Table 1.

[0018]

[Table 1]

Returning to FIG. 8, the latest cycle is calculated from the time between poles (step S34), and the frequency is obtained by taking the reciprocal of the cycle. Similar to Table 1, low frequency noise is used when the frequency is less than 0.1 Hz, unconscious slow action of the human body when the frequency is 0.1 to 0.5 Hz, and normal body movement when the frequency is 0.5 to 3 Hz. When the frequency is 3 to 8 Hz, the movement of the limbs of the normal behavior, when 8 to 13 Hz, the fastest movement of the unconscious behavior, and when it exceeds 13 Hz, the frequency rank range is determined as high frequency noise (step S35). Based on these results, which combination of the amplitude rank and the frequency rank the output signal applies to is compared in the amplitude / frequency rank comparison processing 11 of FIG. 4 to specify the operating condition of the human body.

Next, the processing up to this point is performed for each of the left infrared sensor 2 and the right infrared sensor 3, and the human body detection determination processing 12 for each detection area is performed to determine the operating condition of the human body regarding the areas detected by both. . FIG. 9 shows the human body detection determination processing 12a for each detection area, and checks whether the amplitude ranks of the left and right sensors are both the minimum (step S4).
0), when both are minimum, it is determined that the human body is absent in all of the left infrared sensor detection area 4, the right infrared sensor detection area, and the superposition detection area 6 (step S4).
3). When either one of the amplitude ranks is the smallest, it is determined that the human body is absent in the superimposition region 6 (step S41), and it is determined that the human body is present in a region other than the superposition detection region 6 where the amplitude rank is not the smallest (step S43). .

FIG. 10 also shows the human body detection determination processing 12a for each detection area. It is checked whether the amplitude ranks of the left and right sensors are both the minimum (step S50). When both are the minimum, the human body is similarly detected in all the detection areas. It is determined that there is no sensor (step S51), the left and right sensors have the same amplitude rank other than the minimum rank (step S52), and the left and right sensors have the same frequency rank (step S53). And the amplitude rank are both the same, it is determined that a human body is present in the superposition detection area 6 (step S54), and if there is a human body in either the left or right detection area, the output signals show different waveforms and the amplitude rank and the frequency are different. Since the ranks are not the same, it is determined that no human body is present in both the left sensor detection area 4 and the right sensor detection area 5 (step S55).

In the above description, the case where there are two infrared ray detection sensors has been described, but the same applies to the case where there are a plurality of infrared ray detection sensors.

[0023]

According to the human body detecting method of the present invention, when determining the presence or absence of the human body from the output signal of the infrared sensor as described above, the amplitude and the human body which are classified into ranks corresponding to the number of people obtained by experiments in advance. Since the presence or absence of the human body is determined by applying the amplitude and frequency extracted from the output signal to the frequencies classified according to the behavior states of the human body, even if multiple infrared sensors are provided, circuits, detection distances, detection areas It is not necessary to consider the phase difference of the output signals of the plurality of infrared sensors, which is considered to be caused by the above, and the data processing is simplified.

Further, when the output signal of the infrared sensor is saturated, the intermediate point of the saturated state is approximated to the pole, so that the signal amplifying circuit of the infrared sensor may be relatively simple.
Adjustment is also easy. Since the human body is detected by applying it to the rank-divided amplitude or the rank-divided frequency, the accuracy is high, and the air conditioner can be controlled more finely according to the behavior state of the human body indicated by the center value of the frequency.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a detection region of an air conditioner equipped with two infrared sensors according to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows 0.9 of two infrared sensors according to the method of the present invention.
It is an output signal waveform diagram of a human body at a distance of m.

FIG. 3 2.7 of two infrared sensors according to the method of the invention.
It is an output signal waveform diagram of a human body at a distance of m.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing a data processing process according to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an output signal waveform acquisition process in a data processing process according to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of input signal processing outside a predetermined range in a data processing process according to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of disturbance error detection prevention processing in a data processing process according to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an amplitude / frequency rank determination processing flowchart of a data processing process according to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of human body detection determination processing for each detection area when there is no person in the overlapping area according to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of human body detection determination processing for each detection area when a person is present in the overlapping area according to the method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Left infrared sensor 3 Right infrared sensor 4 Left infrared sensor detection area 5 Right infrared sensor detection area 6 Superimposition detection area 7 Output signal waveform acquisition processing 8 Input signal processing outside predetermined range 9 Disturbance false detection prevention processing 10 Amplitude / frequency rank determination processing 11 Amplitude / frequency rank comparison processing 12 Human body detection judgment processing by detection area

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioner equipped with a human body detection sensor for detecting infrared rays radiated by a human body, the output signal of the human body detection sensor is sampled at a predetermined cycle to obtain a differential coefficient, and the sign of the differential coefficient is changed. Where the pole is the pole and the level difference between the poles is the output level, and the frequency is obtained from the time difference between the poles as the input data, and the output level is divided into ranks for each range corresponding to the number of people, and the frequency of the human body Comparing the input data with those classified into ranks for each level range of a specific frequency corresponding to various operations, and determining that a human body exists when the input data is included in any of those ranks. A human body detection method for an air conditioner. 2. The human body detection method for an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein, when the output signal of the human body detection sensor is saturated, a midpoint of the output signal in the saturated state is set as a pole point. 3. A center value of a specific frequency corresponding to various movements of the human body in the human body detection sensor is 0.3 Hz for the slowest movement of the human body, 1 Hz for the movement of the body during normal movement, and The human body detection method for an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the frequencies are classified into 5 Hz for the movements of the limbs in the action and 10 Hz for the fastest action of the human body.