KR20190069739A - Apparatus for controlling temperature of vehicle seat using camera - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling a temperature of a vehicle passenger using a camera and a method thereof and, more specifically, relates to an apparatus for measuring a temperature of a vehicle passenger using a camera and a method thereof, which can effectively increase and maintain a temperature by relatively comparing a body temperature measured in a camera and a surrounding temperature with an initial temperature of a seat to optimize temperature control of the vehicle seat. The apparatus for measuring a temperature of a vehicle passenger using a camera and the method thereof can measure interior and exterior temperatures of a vehicle, measured in a camera and a temperature measuring device, a temperature of a heating and cooling mat, and body and face temperatures of a passenger, and optimize temperature control of a vehicle seat.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a seat temperature control apparatus for a vehicle,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a temperature control apparatus and method for an occupant of a vehicle using a camera, and more particularly, The present invention relates to a temperature measurement apparatus and method for an occupant of a vehicle using a camera for efficiently raising and maintaining a temperature of a vehicle, a temperature of the inside / outside of the vehicle, a temperature of the heat and a cooling mat measured by the camera and a temperature measuring instrument, And a temperature measuring device for a passenger in a vehicle using the camera for measuring the face temperature and optimizing the seat temperature control in the vehicle, and a method thereof.

The vehicle seat includes a seat portion on which the lower half of the user is seated and a back portion on which the upper portion of the user is contacted. According to the state of the seat seating surface on which the user's lower half type and upper body are directly contacted, The comfort level varies greatly.

In general, a heat and a cooling mat are provided inside the vehicle seat so that heat and cold air can be supplied to the seat.

The passenger operates the heater mat manually when the user is in the vehicle when the ambient temperature of the vehicle is extremely low, and manually operates the cooling mat when the ambient temperature of the vehicle is extremely high. In the conventional heat and cooling mat, The seat occupant can not accurately perceive the degree of comfort with respect to the seating surface of the seat. Therefore, when the switch is operated to operate the heat and cooling mat from time to time, There are disadvantages.

In addition, since the conventional heat and cooling mat operates the heater and the cooling mat only by the operation of the occupant depending on the ambient temperature of the vehicle, the seizure sensation on the seat seating surface of the user may be extremely low. The driver or the user may feel unpleasant to the driver or the user due to the local cooler.

Therefore, the driver or the passenger has to continue to repeat the on / off operation of the heater and the cooling mat during driving.

In addition, since the covering of the vehicle seat also becomes a high temperature or a high-temperature state in the ambient temperature state of the vehicle, there is a problem that the heater and the cooling mat may not be recognized when the heater and the cooling mat are turned on by mistake.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2014-0089013 (July 14, 2014) Korean Patent No. 10-1367620 (2014. 02. 20) Korean Patent No. 10-1612639 (Apr. 14, 2014)

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems of the related art by providing a camera and a temperature measuring device, And a method for controlling the temperature of a seat for a passenger in a vehicle using the camera.

The temperature control device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a temperature measuring unit for measuring the temperature of a passenger's body and an ambient temperature inside the vehicle, and a controller for controlling the heater and the cooling fan of the seat to adjust the temperature of the seat do.

And a database for storing and storing the measured temperatures.

The measurement of the temperature can be performed as the occupant turns on or off the temperature control device. This ensures that data is available for each temperature value at the time the occupant turns the thermostat on or off.

Further, such temperature measurement can be performed at the time of occurrence of another event. For example, this can be performed when the user adjusts the temperature of the heater or changes the fan speed of the cooling fan.

As the measurement data are accumulated, it is possible to determine when the passenger turns on or off from the temperature data when the passenger turns on or off the temperature control device.

In addition to the above events, temperatures can be periodically measured and stored, and an optimum condition region for a passenger can be extracted by searching a temperature region where each temperature value of each accumulated data is distributed most.

Using the above data, the control unit can automatically control the temperature control unit to be turned on or off. That is, it measures the temperatures and compares the measured data with stored database temperatures and automatically turns them on or off. For example, if the current measured temperature is found to be within the set range of the respective temperature data when the temperature data is stored in the database and switched on, the thermostat can be automatically turned on.

The temperature measuring unit includes a face temperature measuring unit for measuring the face temperature of the passenger, an indoor temperature measuring unit for measuring the atmospheric temperature inside the vehicle, a handle temperature measuring unit for measuring the temperature of the hand of the passenger, And a seat temperature measuring unit for measuring the temperature of the in-vehicle seat, wherein the face temperature measuring unit is configured by a camera, and can be installed on the inside and outside of the vehicle, disposed in a position facing the occupant's face, Can measure and measure occupant's face temperature.

In addition, the room temperature measuring unit, the handle temperature measuring unit, and the sheet temperature measuring unit are constituted by a device capable of digitizing temperature measurement data such as a thermometer for measuring temperature, a temperature sensor, and a temperature measuring device.

On the other hand, in order to achieve the optimum sheet temperature condition, it is possible to extract the optimum temperature condition from the temperature data stored in the database and operate the heater or the cooling fan to reach it. Illustratively, the optimum temperature condition can be obtained by calculating the temperature range that is most scattered from the temperature data stored in the database for each temperature data, and using an intermediate value for the temperature data. In a simpler system, only the sheet temperature data may be used as the optimum temperature data. That is, the optimum data for the sheet temperature can be calculated from the database in the manner described above, and the heater and the cooling fan can be controlled to achieve the optimum sheet temperature.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for adjusting a temperature of a seat for a vehicle, the method comprising: measuring a body temperature of a passenger and an ambient temperature of the passenger in accordance with an event or periodically; A temperature measurement data storing step of storing and accumulating the measured temperature data; Extracting temperature data when the vehicle seat temperature regulating apparatus is turned on or extracting optimal temperature data from the temperature measurement data stored in the temperature measurement data storing step and comparing the real time measured temperature data with the extracted data And automatically controlling the heater or the cooling fan of the sheet.

The present invention has the effect of measuring the inside / outside temperature of the vehicle, the temperature of the seat, the body and the face temperature of the occupant measured in the camera and the temperature measuring device, and optimizing the seat temperature control within the vehicle.

1 is a view showing a configuration of a temperature measurement device for a passenger in a car using a camera according to the present invention.
2 is a diagram illustrating an algorithm of a temperature control method for a vehicle occupant using a camera according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to or limited by the embodiments.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of illustrating embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. It is noted that the terms "comprises" and / or "comprising" used in the specification are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the components, steps, operations, and / Or additions.

As used herein, the terms " an embodiment, " " an embodiment, a side, " " an example ", and the like, are not necessarily to be construed as advantageous or advantageous over other aspects or designs .

Also, the term 'or' implies an inclusive or 'inclusive' rather than an exclusive or 'exclusive'. That is, unless expressly stated otherwise or clear from the context, the expression 'x uses a or b' means any of the natural inclusive permutations.

Also, the phrase "a" or "an ", as used in the specification and claims, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, or to the singular form, .

Furthermore, the terms first, second, etc. used in the specification and claims may be used to describe various elements, but the elements should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein may be used in a sense commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Also, commonly used predefined terms are not ideally or excessively interpreted unless explicitly defined otherwise.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. The terminology used herein is a term used for appropriately expressing an embodiment of the present invention, which may vary depending on the user, the intent of the operator, or the practice of the field to which the present invention belongs. Therefore, the definitions of these terms should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view showing a configuration of a temperature control device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an algorithm of a temperature control method according to the present invention.

1, the temperature control device according to the present invention includes a temperature measuring unit (not shown) capable of measuring the temperature of the face of the occupant B, the interior of the vehicle A, the hands of the occupant B and the seat 300 100, controlling the operation of the heater or cooling fan of the sheet 300,

A seat 300 whose temperature is controlled through the control unit 200, a handle 400 which can be grasped by the passenger B by hand, and a temperature measuring unit 100 A database 500 for storing real-time temperature measurement data, and a data analysis unit 600 for analyzing temperature measurement data stored in the database 500.

The data analysis unit 600 may include a display unit 700 that outputs the analyzed data.

The temperature measuring unit 100 includes a facial temperature measuring unit 110, a room temperature measuring unit 120, a handle temperature measuring unit 130, and a sheet temperature measuring unit 140.

The face temperature measuring unit 110 is configured to allow the occupant B to sit on the seat 300 in the vehicle A and to measure the face temperature of the occupant B in accordance with the temperature change of the seat 300, The temperature measurement data is formed so that it can be stored in the database 500.

In addition, it can be installed on the inside and the outside of the vehicle and is arranged to be able to face the face of the passenger B so as to photograph and measure the face temperature of the passenger B in real time, 110 are preferably composed of cameras.

The camera displays a color differently according to a temperature difference, which means a camera that the user can visually observe. The camera stores data information in the database 500 by converting color and temperature measurement data according to the temperature difference into numerical values.

The room temperature measuring unit 120 is installed in the vehicle A to measure the room temperature inside the real time vehicle, and the measured inside temperature data of the vehicle is stored in the database 500.

The hand temperature measuring unit 130 is installed on the handle 400 in the vehicle A and is configured to measure the temperature as the hand of the occupant B is contacted, .

The sheet temperature measuring section 140 is installed in the seat 300 in the vehicle A to measure the temperature of the seat 300 and similarly the measurement data is stored in the database 500. [

In addition, the in-vehicle seat 300 includes a heater and a cooling fan.

Here, the room temperature measuring unit 120, the handle temperature measuring unit 130, and the sheet temperature measuring unit 140 are constituted by a device capable of digitizing temperature measurement data such as a thermometer, a temperature sensor, and a temperature measuring unit for measuring temperature .

The control unit 200 includes an input unit for receiving the on / off of the temperature control device from a passenger or receiving a set value for a heater or a cooling fan of the seat. In addition, the controller 200 controls the temperature of the sheet by controlling the heater or the cooling fan.

The real-time temperature measurement data measured by the temperature measurement unit 100 is stored in the database 500, and the stored temperature measurement data is transmitted to the data analysis unit 600 for analysis.

The measured data is continuously accumulated in the database 500, and the data analyzer 600 can extract the optimum temperature condition from the accumulated data. For example, every time the temperature controller is switched on, the temperature measuring unit 100 measures the temperature and stores the measured temperature in the database 500, and the data analyzer 600 extracts, from the accumulated data, It is possible to extract optimum temperature data to be switched on. To this end, the data analyzer 600 may extract the optimum temperature data by calculating an intermediate value or average value of each temperature data measured and stored at the time of on-time. Thus, when the currently measured temperatures are in agreement with the extracted temperature data or within the set range, the control section can be operated to automatically turn on the temperature control device.

In addition, the data analyzer 600 may extract the temperature region to be most dispersed for each temperature data, and may extract the temperature region as an optimal temperature condition for the temperature data. For example, a temperature range including 90% or more of the temperature data of the sheet may be calculated, and an intermediate value or an average value of the temperature range may be determined as the optimum data for the sheet temperature. The data temperature can be set to control the operation of the heater and cooling fan.

The analyzed data through the data analysis unit 600 is visually outputted through the display unit 700 so that the passenger can confirm the data.

Hereinafter, a temperature measurement method using a camera for a vehicle occupant temperature measurement apparatus will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The temperature measurement method using the camera will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in the figure, the system includes a sheet temperature setting step S10, a vehicle temperature measurement step S20, a temperature satisfaction determination step S30, a temperature measurement data storage step S40, and a temperature measurement data analysis step S50 .

When the passenger B is seated on the seat 300 in the vehicle A and the temperature control device is switched on, the temperature measuring unit 100 is driven.

At this time, the passenger B may perform a sheet temperature setting step S10 for setting a desired temperature through the input means of the control unit 200 to adjust the temperature of the seat 300 to a desired temperature.

When the temperature control device is switched on or the temperature of the seat 300 is set in the seat temperature setting step S10, the seat temperature and the occupant's face temperature, the occupant's hand temperature, The vehicle temperature measurement step S20, which is measured through the temperature measurement unit 100, is performed.

And the data thus measured is continuously stored in the database 500. [ The temperature may be periodically measured and stored in the database 500 in addition to the occurrence of the event that the temperature controller is switched on.

A temperature satisfaction determination step S30 for determining whether the temperature of the passenger is satisfied with the temperature measurement data measured in the vehicle temperature measurement step S20 is performed. For example, it can be determined that the passenger is dissatisfied when the temperature of the vehicle seat is reset, and it can be determined that the seat temperature is satisfied when the seat temperature is maintained for the set time or longer. The temperature data in the case where it is judged satisfactory can be stored in the database 500 as satisfactory data, and can be set to the optimum temperature condition for the occupant using the satisfied temperature data.

At this time, if the occupant is not satisfied with respect to the seat temperature, the handle temperature, and the vehicle internal temperature, and the temperature is reset through the seat temperature setting step (S10), the seat temperature, the occupant's face temperature, the passenger's hand temperature, And stores it when satisfied (S40)

The temperature measurement data stored according to the temperature measurement data storage step S40 is configured to be analyzed through the temperature measurement data analysis step S50 and output through the display unit 700. [

The vehicle temperature measurement step S20 may be performed in a temperature measurement data storage step S40 without passing through the temperature satisfaction determination step S30, and may be determined based on the seat temperature measured by the temperature measurement unit 100, Hand temperature, and interior temperature of the vehicle, and may analyze the data through the temperature measurement data analysis step (S50) and output the data through the display unit (700).

The apparatus described above may be implemented as a hardware component, a software component, and / or a combination of hardware components and software components. For example, the apparatus and components described in the embodiments may be implemented within a processor, a controller, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a digital signal processor, a microcomputer, a field programmable array (FPA) A programmable logic unit (PLU), a microprocessor, or any other device capable of executing and responding to instructions. The processing device may execute an operating system (OS) and one or more software applications running on the operating system. The processing device may also access, store, manipulate, process, and generate data in response to execution of the software. For ease of understanding, the processing apparatus may be described as being used singly, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the processing apparatus may have a plurality of processing elements and / As shown in FIG. For example, the processing unit may comprise a plurality of processors or one processor and one controller. Other processing configurations are also possible, such as a parallel processor.

The software may include a computer program, code, instructions, or a combination of one or more of the foregoing, and may be configured to configure the processing device to operate as desired or to process it collectively or collectively Device can be commanded. The software and / or data may be in the form of any type of machine, component, physical device, virtual equipment, computer storage media, or device , Or may be permanently or temporarily embodied in a transmitted signal wave. The software may be distributed over a networked computer system and stored or executed in a distributed manner. The software and data may be stored on one or more computer readable recording media.

The method according to an embodiment may be implemented in the form of a program command that can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions to be recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and configured for the embodiments or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs; magnetic media such as floppy disks; Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the embodiments, and vice versa.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. For example, it is to be understood that the techniques described may be performed in a different order than the described methods, and / or that components of the described systems, structures, devices, circuits, Lt; / RTI > or equivalents, even if it is replaced or replaced.

Therefore, other implementations, other embodiments, and equivalents to the claims are also within the scope of the following claims.

A: Vehicle B: Passenger
100: Temperature measuring unit 110: Facial temperature measuring unit
120: Indoor temperature measuring unit 130: Handle temperature measuring unit
140: sheet temperature measuring unit 200:
300: Seat 400: Handle
500: database 600: data analysis unit
700:

Claims (7)

A temperature measuring unit for measuring an occupant's body temperature and an ambient temperature inside the vehicle as an event occurs or periodically;
A seat in which a passenger is seated and seated, and in which a heater and a cooling fan are installed;
A database for storing measured data from the temperature measuring unit;
And a controller for controlling the operation of the heater and the cooling fan to adjust the temperature of the sheet according to accumulated data of the database
And a temperature sensor for detecting a temperature of the vehicle seat.
The method according to claim 1,
The event includes a case where the temperature control device or the heater or the cooling fan is turned on. The controller extracts the temperature data for the on-time from the database, and controls the heater and the cooling fan And controls the operation of the fan. The method according to claim 1,
The temperature measuring unit
A face temperature measuring unit for measuring a face temperature of a passenger;
An indoor temperature measuring unit for measuring an ambient temperature inside the vehicle;
A handle temperature measuring unit installed on an in-vehicle handle for measuring a temperature of a passenger's hand;
A seat temperature measuring section for measuring the temperature of the in-vehicle seat
And a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the vehicle seat. The method of claim 3,
Wherein the face temperature measuring unit comprises a camera,
Wherein the temperature sensor is disposed inside or outside the vehicle so as to face the face of the occupant and photographs and measures the occupant's face temperature in real time. The method of claim 3,
The seat temperature measuring unit may include at least one of a room temperature measuring unit, a handle temperature measuring unit, a seat temperature measuring unit, a temperature measuring unit, a temperature sensor, and a temperature measuring unit. And an input means for controlling the temperature of the vehicle seat. Temperature measurements that measure the occupant's body temperature and the ambient temperature inside the vehicle as events occur or periodically
;
A temperature measurement data storing step of storing and accumulating the measured temperature data;
The temperature measurement data is stored in the temperature measurement data storing step.
Or extracts the optimal temperature data, and outputs the real-time measured temperature data
The step of automatically controlling the heater or the cooling fan of the sheet by comparing with the extracted data
Wherein the temperature of the vehicle seat is adjusted. The method according to claim 6,
In the temperature measuring step, the temperature of the occupant, the indoor atmosphere temperature of the vehicle, the temperature of the hand of the occupant,
And the temperature of the base sheet is measured.

Images