Camera Layout for Occupancy-Based Building Equipment Control

The patent applies multi-functionality by enabling cameras to serve dual purposes: traditional security monitoring and energy consumption optimization. The same camera infrastructure is used for both safety surveillance and analyzing occupancy patterns to control building equipment, eliminating the need for separate sensing systems and reducing overall device complexity.

The system implements self-service by using existing security camera infrastructure to automatically optimize energy consumption. The cameras capture images that are processed by algorithms to detect occupancy, which then automatically triggers equipment control decisions without requiring additional sensors or manual intervention, making the system self-sufficient.

The patent applies local quality by strategically positioning cameras at specific locations where they can optimally capture images of energy-consuming equipment and surrounding areas. Rather than uniform distribution, cameras are placed at heights and angles that maximize their ability to detect occupancy and equipment status, with each camera optimized for its specific monitoring zone.

The system uses partial action by deploying a minimal number of cameras at optimized positions rather than comprehensive coverage. The camera placement and image processing algorithms are designed to extract sufficient occupancy and equipment status information from limited visual data, achieving adequate detection accuracy without requiring extensive camera networks.