Air-conditioning control system
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air conditioning systems automatically adjust the environment to reduce stress levels, which may not align with the user's intention to maintain focus or productivity, leading to decreased work efficiency.
Innovation Solution
An air-conditioning control system that measures body movement and derives heartbeat-related parameters to determine the user's stress level, allowing the system to adjust the environment based on the user's intended use of the space, such as maintaining a strained state for focus or increasing strain for refreshed states.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the air conditioning system automatically adjusts the environment to reduce stress levels, then the person's stress level decreases and they feel refreshed, but the person's work efficiency declines when they need to maintain focus
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the control strategy based on real-time detection of the person's stress state and their intended use of the space. When the person intends to focus, the system maintains strained state rather than automatically reducing stress. When the person intends to rest, the system promotes relaxed state. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by making the stress adjustment behavior flexible rather than fixed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback from both the person's physiological state (stress level detection) and their explicit intention (use information input). This dual feedback mechanism allows the system to adjust the environment in alignment with both the person's current state and their goals, preventing the automatic stress reduction that would harm work efficiency while maintaining the ability to reduce stress when appropriate.
2Extent of automation
If the system automatically operates to make a person feel refreshed, then the person's stress level is reduced, but the system ignores the person's intention to maintain focus
Solution Approach 1:
The system obtains the person's intended use information in advance, before automatically adjusting the environment. This preliminary action of acquiring intention data allows the system to anticipate the person's needs and avoid automatic operations that would contradict their goals, such as reducing stress when the person intends to focus.
Solution Approach 2:
The system's automatic operation level is dynamically adjusted based on the detected stress state and intended use. When the person intends to focus, the system suppresses automatic stress-reducing operations. When the person intends to rest or when stress is excessively high, the system enables automatic operations. This dynamic control resolves the contradiction between automation and adaptability.
3Ease of operation
If the air conditioner controls operation to change heartbeat-related parameters, then the stress level is adjusted, but the control strategy must adapt to different uses of the space
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different control strategies to different heartbeat-related parameters based on the detected stress state and intended use. For example, when the person intends to focus and is in a strained state, the system maintains parameters that support focus. When the person intends to rest, the system adjusts parameters to promote relaxation. This localized, targeted control approach achieves precision without requiring complete overhaul of the control system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adjusts environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, air flow) based on the detected stress state and intended use. By changing these physical parameters in response to physiological feedback, the system achieves precise stress level control. This parameter-based approach maintains operational simplicity while achieving the desired adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
An air-conditioning control system provides an appropriate environment in accordance with a stress level of a person in a room and a use of a space in which the person stays. A deriver derives heartbeat-related parameters based on a body movement of the person. A determiner determines a stress level of the person at a current moment, based on the heartbeat-related parameters. A receiver receives a use of the space for the person. A CPU for appliance control (i) selects a heartbeat-related parameter to be changed, depending on the received use and the heartbeat-related parameters, and (ii) controls operation of the air conditioner to change the selected heartbeat-related parameter to be changed.