KR20240030314A - Apparatus and method for detecting occupants - Google Patents

Abstract

The occupant detection device includes a communication unit that communicates with the outside, a human body detector that detects a human body indoors and outputs a human body detection signal, and a control unit electrically connected to the human body detector. The control unit outputs a sensitivity increase signal to the human body detector and The sensitivity of the human body detector is increased, an occupant confirmation signal is generated according to the human body detection signal output by the human body detector with increased sensitivity, and the occupant confirmation signal is transmitted to the outside through the communication unit.

Description

Occupant detection device and method {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING OCCUPANTS}

The present invention relates to an occupant detection device and method for detecting the presence or absence of occupants in a building when a disaster situation such as a fire or earthquake occurs.

Fire detection equipment installed in buildings focuses solely on notifying people that a fire has occurred so that people can quickly evacuate the fire scene.

Therefore, there is no response plan for people who are unable to escape the scene of the fire due to toxic gases or other reasons after the fire breaks out.

For this reason, firefighters extinguishing a fire may enter a building without being sure whether there are people inside the building. This may result in a waste of manpower to extinguish the fire. Furthermore, there are concerns that problems may arise that could lead to casualties among firefighters.

One aspect of the present invention provides an occupant detection device and method for detecting the presence or absence of occupants in a building to enable rapid evacuation and rapid rescue of people in the event of a disaster such as a fire or earthquake.

An occupancy detection device according to one aspect of the present invention includes a communication unit that communicates with the outside; A human body sensor that detects a human body indoors and outputs a human body detection signal; It includes a control unit electrically connected to the human body sensor, wherein the control unit increases the sensitivity of the human body sensor by outputting a sensitivity increase signal to the human body sensor, and according to the human body detection signal output by the human body sensor with increased sensitivity. An occupancy confirmation signal can be generated and the occupancy confirmation signal can be transmitted to the outside through the communication unit.

The human body sensor may include at least one of a passive infrared (PIR) sensor and a radar.

When receiving a disaster signal through the communication unit or detecting a fire through a fire detector, the control unit may output the sensitivity increase signal to the human body detector.

When the control unit receives a disaster signal through the communication unit or detects a fire through a fire detector, it determines that a disaster situation has occurred, and if there is an occupant in the room immediately before the disaster situation occurs, it sends the sensitivity increase signal. It can be output to the human body sensor.

The control unit may transmit the occupancy confirmation signal to another occupancy detection device connected to a wired or wireless sensor network.

The control unit may generate a sensitivity increase signal that increases the sensitivity of the human body sensor from a short distance to a long distance and/or from a narrow angle to a wide angle for each unit block of the detection area, and output the generated sensitivity increase signal.

An occupancy detection method according to an aspect of the present invention is an occupancy detection method of an occupancy detection device including a communication unit that communicates with the outside and a human body detector that detects a human body indoors, detecting a human body indoors through the human body detector, The presence or absence of occupants in the room is stored, and when a disaster signal is received through the communication unit or a fire is detected through a fire detector, it is determined that a disaster situation has occurred, and the presence of occupants in the room immediately before the disaster situation occurs is determined. In this case, a sensitivity increase signal is output to the human body detector to increase the sensitivity of the human body detector, an occupant confirmation signal is generated according to the human body detection signal output by the human body detector with increased sensitivity, and the occupant is confirmed through the communication unit. This may include transmitting the signal to another occupancy detection device connected to a wired or wireless sensor network and transmitting it to the outside.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the presence and location of occupants in a building can be detected to enable rapid evacuation and rapid rescue of people in the event of a disaster such as a fire or earthquake.

Figure 1 is a control block diagram of an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.
Figure 2 is another control block diagram of an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.
Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating increasing the sensitivity of a PIR sensor in an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating increasing the sensitivity of a radar in an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing that an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment is connected to a mesh network and transmits occupancy information to the outside.
Figure 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of an occupancy detection device according to another embodiment.

Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification. This specification does not describe all elements of the embodiments, and general content or overlapping content between the embodiments in the technical field to which the disclosed invention pertains is omitted. The term 'unit, module, member, block' used in the specification may be implemented as software or hardware, and depending on the embodiment, a plurality of 'unit, module, member, block' may be implemented as a single component, or It is also possible for one 'part, module, member, or block' to include multiple components.

Throughout the specification, when a part is said to be “connected” to another part, this includes not only direct connection but also indirect connection, and indirect connection includes connection through a wireless communication network. do.

In addition, when a part is said to “include” a certain component, this does not mean that other components are excluded, but that it can further include other components, unless specifically stated to the contrary.

Throughout the specification, when a member is said to be located “on” another member, this includes not only the case where a member is in contact with another member, but also the case where another member exists between the two members.

Terms such as first and second are used to distinguish one component from another component, and the components are not limited by the above-mentioned terms. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly makes an exception.

The identification code for each step is used for convenience of explanation. The identification code does not explain the order of each step, and each step may be performed differently from the specified order unless a specific order is clearly stated in the context. there is.

Figure 1 is a control block diagram of an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1, the occupancy detection device may include a human body sensor 10, a communication unit 20, and a control unit 30.

The human body detector 10 is provided indoors of the building.

The human body detector 10 may include a passive infrared (PIR) sensor 11 and/or a radar 12. The human body sensor 10 may be a complex sensor that integrates the PIR sensor 11 and the radar 12 into one.

The PIR sensor 11 detects when a target object exceeding a certain temperature deviation, for example, a human body, moves within the detection area. The PIR sensor 11 includes a sensor chip that detects far-infrared rays emitted from the human body when a human body enters the detection area and emits a current in the form of a sine wave, and a circuit that converts and amplifies the microcurrent emitted from the sensor chip into voltage, It may include a hemispherical Fresnel Lens.

The radar 12 detects the presence and location of a moving human body within the detection area. The radar 12 modulates and transmits a radar signal through a transmission module. The transmission module can transmit a FMCW (Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave) radar signal, which is a frequency modulated signal. The receiving module receives and demodulates the radar signal transmitted from the transmitting module. The radar signal transmitted from the transmitting module is reflected by the human body existing in the detection area, and the receiving module plays the role of receiving this reflected radar signal.

The human body sensor 10 having the above-described configuration detects a human body indoors and outputs a human body detection signal. The human body detection signal may be a signal indicating the presence of a human body indoors.

The communication unit 20 may include one or more components that enable communication with an external device, and may include, for example, a wired or wireless Internet module, a short-range communication module, an optical communication module, etc. The wired and wireless Internet module is a module for wired and wireless Internet access. The wired and wireless Internet module can be configured to transmit and receive wired and wireless signals in a communication network based on wired and wireless Internet technologies. Wireless Internet technologies include, for example, WLAN (Wireless LAN), Wi-Fi (Wireless-Fidelity), Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Direct, DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), WiBro (Wireless Broadband), and WiMAX (Worldwide). Interoperability for Microwave Access), HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced), 5G networks, 6G networks, etc. . The short-range communication module is for short-range communication and includes Bluetooth™, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Infrared Data Association (IrDA), UWB (Ultra Wideband), ZigBee, and NFC (Near Field). Communication), Wi-Fi (Wireless-Fidelity), Wi-Fi Direct, and Wireless USB (Wireless Universal Serial Bus) technology can be used to support short-distance communication. The optical communication module may include an optical transmitter and an optical receiver.

The control unit 30 may include a processor 31 and a memory 32.

The control unit 30 may include one or more processors 31. One or more processors 31 included in the control unit 30 may be integrated into one chip or may be physically separated. Additionally, the processor 31 and memory 32 may be implemented as a single chip.

For example, the processor 31 may include an analog signal/digital signal processor that processes the detection signal obtained by the human body sensor 10, and an image signal processor that processes the PIR data of the PIR sensor 11. It may include a digital signal processor that processes radar data of the radar 12 of the radar 30, and may include a micro control unit (Micro Control Unit, MCU).

The memory 32 may store programs and/or data for the processor 31 to process sensing data from the human body sensor 10 . For example, the memory 32 may store programs and/or data for the processor 31 to process PIR data. The memory 32 may store programs and/or data for the processor 31 to process radar data.

Additionally, the memory 32 may store a program and/or data for the processor 31 to generate an occupancy confirmation signal indicating the presence or absence of an occupant in the room based on the detection data of the human body sensor 10.

The memory 32 can temporarily store PIR data detected by the PIR sensor 11 and radar data detected by the radar 12. Additionally, the memory 32 can temporarily store the results of the processor 31 processing the PIR data and radar data. The memory 32 includes not only volatile memory such as S-RAM and D-RAM, but also flash memory, Read Only Memory (ROM), Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), etc. It may include non-volatile memory.

Figure 2 is a control block diagram of an occupancy detection device according to another embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 2, the occupancy detection device may include a fire detector 40 that detects a fire condition in the room. The fire detector 40 may include a temperature sensor and a proximity infrared (IR) sensor that detect the indoor temperature. The fire detector 40 may output a fire signal when the indoor temperature is higher than a preset temperature. Additionally, the fire detector 40 may include a smoke sensor, a flame sensor, a gas sensor, etc. A fire detector can detect indoor smoke, flames, etc. and output a fire signal. A fire signal may be a signal indicating that a fire has occurred indoors. In addition to the fire detector 40, the PIR sensor 11 of the human body detector 10 can also be used to detect fire. The human body detector 10 and the fire detector 40 may be a composite sensor integrated into one configuration.

The fire detector 40 may be directly connected to the control unit 30, or may be a fire detector 40 within a building connected to a network with the communication unit 20 of the occupancy detection device.

The control unit 30 may generate an occupant confirmation signal (occupant presence signal or occupant absence signal) according to the human body detection signal output by the human body detector 10. The control unit 30 can transmit an occupant confirmation signal to the outside through the communication unit 20.

The control unit 30 increases the sensitivity of the human body detector 10 by outputting a sensitivity increase signal to the human body detector 10 to adjust the sensitivity of the indoor detection area when a disaster situation occurs, and the human body detector 10 with increased sensitivity It is possible to receive a human body detection signal output by , generate an occupant confirmation signal according to the received human body detection signal, and transmit the occupant confirmation signal to the outside through the communication unit 20.

The control unit 30 can make the sensitivity of the human body detector 10 more sensitive in the event of a disaster situation by increasing the sensitivity of the human body detector 10 after the disaster situation occurs compared to the case before the disaster situation occurs, thereby improving indoor human body detection performance. You can do it.

When a disaster situation occurs, the control unit 30 generates an individual scan-type sensitivity increase signal that increases the sensitivity of the human body detector 10 for each unit block of the detection area or for each block of a certain size from a short distance to a long distance and/or from a narrow angle to a wide angle. And, the generated sensitivity increase signal can be output to the human body sensor 10.

When the control unit 30 receives a disaster signal through the communication unit 20, the control unit 30 outputs a sensitivity increase signal to the human body detector 10 to increase the sensitivity of the human body detector 10. You can. Accordingly, the detection area of the human body sensor 10 can be expanded beyond the detection area before the disaster signal is received.

When an indoor fire is detected through the fire detector 40, which detects an indoor fire condition, the control unit 30 outputs a sensitivity increase signal to the human body detector 10 to increase the sensitivity of the human body detector 10, thereby The sensitivity of the detector 10 can be increased. Accordingly, the detection area of the human body sensor 10 can be expanded beyond the detection area before the disaster signal is received.

When a disaster signal is received or a fire is detected, the control unit 30 may determine that a disaster situation has occurred.

If it is determined that a disaster situation has occurred, the control unit 30 determines whether a human body was detected indoors just before the disaster situation occurred, and increases the sensitivity if a human body was detected indoors just before the disaster situation occurred. By outputting a signal to the human body sensor 10, the sensitivity of the human body sensor 10 can be increased.

Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 3, the control unit 30 determines whether a disaster situation has occurred (100). When the control unit 30 receives a disaster signal related to a disaster situation such as a fire or earthquake through the communication unit 20 or detects an indoor fire through the fire detector 40, it can determine that a disaster situation has occurred.

If a disaster situation occurs, the control unit 30 first increases the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 of the human body detector 10 (102). The control unit 30 may increase the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 by outputting a sensitivity increase signal to increase the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11. When the control unit 30 outputs a sensitivity increase signal to the PIR sensor 11, the PIR sensor 11 expands the detection area by increasing the currently set sensitivity according to the sensitivity increase signal.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating increasing the sensitivity of a PIR sensor in an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.

Referring to Figure 4, the detection area before and after increasing the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 is shown.

It can be seen that as the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 increases, the detection area expands from the first detection area (PZ1) to the second detection area (PZ2).

The control unit 30 can make the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 more sensitive in the event of a disaster situation by increasing the sensitivity of the human body sensor 10 after the disaster situation occurs compared to the case before the disaster situation occurs, thereby improving indoor human body detection performance. I order it.

The control unit 30 may increase the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 by outputting a sensitivity increase signal to the PIR sensor 11 to increase the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11. Accordingly, the detection area of the PIR sensor 11 can be expanded from the detection area before a disaster situation occurs.

As the detection area of the PIR sensor 11 is expanded, it is possible to more accurately check whether occupants are present indoors or have escaped from a wider detection area in a disaster situation.

Referring again to FIG. 3, the control unit 30 increases the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 of the human body detector 10 and also increases the sensitivity of the radar 12 of the human body detector 10 (104). The control unit 30 can increase the sensitivity of the radar 12 by outputting a sensitivity increase signal to increase the sensitivity of the radar 12. When the control unit 30 outputs a sensitivity increase signal to the radar 12, the radar 12 expands the detection area by increasing the currently set sensitivity according to the sensitivity increase signal.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating increasing the sensitivity of a radar in an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment.

Referring to Figure 5, the detection area before and after the sensitivity of the radar 12 is increased is shown.

It can be seen that as the sensitivity of the radar 12 increases, the detection area expands from the first detection area (RZ1) to the second detection area (RZ2).

The control unit 30 can make the sensitivity of the radar 12 more sensitive in the event of a disaster situation by increasing the sensitivity of the radar 12 after the occurrence of a disaster situation compared to the case before the occurrence of a disaster situation, thereby improving the performance of detecting human bodies indoors.

The control unit 30 can increase the sensitivity of the radar 12 by outputting a sensitivity increase signal to the radar 12 to increase the sensitivity of the radar 12. Accordingly, the detection area of the radar 12 can be expanded beyond the detection area before a disaster situation occurs.

As the detection area of the radar 12 is expanded, it is possible to more accurately check whether occupants are present or have escaped indoors over a wider detection area in a disaster situation.

Referring again to FIG. 3, the control unit 30 determines whether there is an occupant indoors based on the PIR data detected by the PIR sensor 11 and the radar data detected by the radar 12 (106).

If there is no occupant in the room (106, No), the control unit 30 generates an occupant absence signal indicating that there is no occupant in the room (108), and reports to the outside that there is no occupant in the room. A signal of non-occupancy is transmitted to the outside through the communication unit 20 to notify (110).

On the other hand, if an occupant exists indoors (106, example), the control unit 30 generates an occupant presence signal indicating the presence of an occupant indoors (112), and the communication unit (112) informs the outside that an occupant exists indoors. 20), an occupant presence signal is transmitted to the outside (114).

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing that an occupancy detection device according to an embodiment is connected to a mesh network and transmits occupancy information to the outside.

Referring to FIG. 6, the occupancy detection device 200 may be provided for each household in the building. Each occupant detection device 200 is connected to a wired or wireless sensor network such as a mesh network. For example, the occupancy detection device 200, the sink node 210, and the management computer may be connected through a wireless sensor network to form an occupancy detection system.

The occupancy detection device 200 in a building is composed of a plurality of sensor nodes connected through wireless communication.

Each occupant detection device 200 collects occupant information for each household in the building when a disaster situation occurs and transmits the collected occupant information to the sink node (210). The sink node 210 transmits the received occupant information to the management computer 220 connected to the wired or wireless network. It can also be delivered to the manager's mobile phone or the mobile phones of people in the building.

A sensor node located within a certain distance from the sink node 210 directly transmits occupant information to the sink node 210. However, sensor nodes that are not located within a certain distance from the sink node 210 transmit the collected data to sensor nodes adjacent to the sink node 210. The sink node 210 collects occupant information from sensor nodes and transmits the collected occupant information to the management computer 220.

Therefore, the presence and location of occupants in the building can be identified, enabling quick evacuation and rapid rescue of people in the event of a disaster such as a fire or earthquake.

Figure 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of an occupancy detection device according to another embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 7, the control unit 30 detects the human body indoors through the PIR sensor 11 (300), and the control unit 30 detects the occupants indoors based on the detection result through the PIR sensor 11. The occupancy status indicating presence is stored in the memory 32 (302). In other words, before a disaster situation occurs, the indoor occupancy situation is periodically checked and recorded.

The control unit 30 determines whether a disaster situation has occurred (304).

If a disaster situation occurs, the control unit 30 determines whether there were occupants indoors before the disaster situation occurred (306).

If there were no occupants indoors before the disaster occurred (306, No), the control unit 30 maintains the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 at the current sensitivity value, which is the normal sensitivity value (308), and The normal sensitivity value of (12) maintains the current sensitivity value (310).

Meanwhile, if there were occupants indoors before the disaster occurred (306, example), the control unit 30 increases the sensitivity of the PIR sensor 11 (312) and increases the sensitivity of the radar 12 (312). 314). In other words, if there are occupants indoors just before a disaster situation is recognized, the detection performance of occupants in a disaster situation can be improved by expanding the detection area of the PIR sensor 11 and the detection area of the radar 12. It is possible to more accurately check whether occupants are present indoors or have escaped.

The control unit 30 determines whether an occupant exists in the room based on the PIR data detected by the PIR sensor 11 and the radar data detected by the radar 12 (316).

If there is no occupant in the room (316, No), the control unit 30 generates an occupant absence signal indicating that there is no occupant in the room (318), and reports to the outside that there is no occupant in the room. A non-occupant signal is transmitted to the outside through the communication unit 20 to notify the user (320).

On the other hand, if an occupant exists indoors (316, yes), the control unit 30 generates an occupant presence signal indicating the presence of an occupant indoors (322), and the communication unit (322) informs the outside that an occupant exists indoors. 20), an occupant presence signal is transmitted to the outside (324).

As described above, the present invention can detect the presence and location of occupants in a building to enable rapid evacuation and rapid rescue of people in the event of a disaster such as a fire or earthquake.

Meanwhile, the above-described control unit and/or its components may include one or more processors/microprocessor(s) combined with a computer-readable recording medium storing computer-readable code/algorithm/software. The processor/microprocessor(s) may perform the above-described functions, operations, steps, etc. by executing computer-readable code/algorithm/software stored in a computer-readable recording medium.

The above-described control unit and/or its components may further include a memory implemented as a computer-readable non-transitory recording medium or a computer-readable temporary recording medium. The memory may be controlled by the above-described control unit and/or its components and is configured to store data transmitted to or received from the above-described control unit and/or its components. It may be configured to store data that has been or will be processed.

The disclosed embodiments can also be implemented as computer-readable code/algorithm/software on a computer-readable recording medium. A computer-readable recording medium may be a computer-readable non-transitory recording medium, such as a data storage device capable of storing data that can be read by a processor/microprocessor. Examples of computer-readable recording media include hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), silicon disk drives (SDDs), read-only memory (ROMs), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, and optical data storage devices. etc.

10: Human body sensor 11: PIR sensor
12: Radar 20: Communication Department
30: control unit 31: processor
32: memory

Claims (7)

A communication department that communicates with the outside world;
A human body sensor that detects a human body indoors and outputs a human body detection signal;
It includes a control unit electrically connected to the human body sensor,
The control unit,
A sensitivity increase signal is output to the human body detector to increase the sensitivity of the human body detector, an occupant confirmation signal is generated according to the human body detection signal output by the human body detector with increased sensitivity, and the occupant confirmation signal is transmitted through the communication unit. An occupancy detection device that transmits externally. According to paragraph 1,
The human body detector is an occupant detection device including at least one of a PIR (Passive Infrared) sensor and a radar. According to paragraph 1,
An occupancy detection device wherein the control unit outputs the sensitivity increase signal to the human body detector when receiving a disaster signal through the communication unit or detecting a fire through a fire detector. According to paragraph 3,
When the control unit receives a disaster signal through the communication unit or detects a fire through a fire detector, it determines that a disaster situation has occurred, and if there is an occupant in the room immediately before the disaster situation occurs, it sends the sensitivity increase signal. An occupancy detection device that outputs output to the human body detector. According to paragraph 1,
The control unit is an occupancy detection device that transmits the occupancy confirmation signal to another occupancy detection device connected to a wired or wireless sensor network. According to paragraph 1,
The control unit generates a sensitivity increase signal that increases the sensitivity of the human body sensor from a short distance to a long distance and from a narrow angle to a wide angle for each unit block of the detection area, and outputs the generated sensitivity increase signal. In the occupancy detection method of an occupancy detection device including a communication unit that communicates with the outside and a human body detector that detects a human body indoors,
Detects a human body indoors through the human body sensor,
Stores the presence or absence of occupants in the room,
When a disaster signal is received through the communication unit or a fire is detected through a fire detector, it is determined that a disaster situation has occurred,
If there is an occupant in the room immediately before a disaster situation occurs, a sensitivity increase signal is output to the human body sensor to increase the sensitivity of the human body sensor,
Generates an occupant confirmation signal according to the human body detection signal output by a human body detector with increased sensitivity,
An occupancy detection method comprising transmitting the occupancy confirmation signal to another occupancy detection device connected to a wired or wireless sensor network through the communication unit and transmitting the occupancy confirmation signal to the outside.

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