Presence-Based Space Control for Activity-Specific Environments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Office spaces often fail to optimize environmental settings for specific activities due to user unawareness of optimal settings, complexity in adjusting multiple control systems, and differences in control interfaces across spaces, leading to suboptimal use of affordances like lighting, temperature, and sound.
Innovation Solution
A system that automatically adjusts environmental characteristics based on trigger events such as user presence and activities, using a server to control lighting, temperature, sound, and air circulation, allowing for optimized settings for various activities and phases within a space without requiring users to manually adjust multiple devices or understand different control interfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users manually adjust multiple control systems to optimize environmental settings, then optimal environmental conditions can be achieved, but user burden and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically detects user presence and activity type, then autonomously adjusts lighting, temperature, and sound settings without requiring manual user intervention. The space serves itself by using sensors and algorithms to determine and implement optimal environmental configurations based on detected usage patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors space usage through sensors and adjusts environmental settings in real-time based on detected activities. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures environmental conditions remain optimized by responding to changing usage patterns and user presence.
2Reliability
If multiple control systems are provided for different activities, then environmental optimization is possible, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A single integrated system performs multiple control functions by detecting different activity types and automatically configuring appropriate environmental settings. The system handles lighting, temperature, sound, and other environmental controls through one unified platform that adapts to various usage scenarios including individual work, collaboration, and resting activities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple separate control systems into a single integrated system that manages all environmental affordances. By merging lighting control, temperature control, sound control, and other systems into one unified platform, the complexity of managing multiple independent systems is reduced while maintaining comprehensive environmental optimization capabilities.
3Illumination intensity
If lighting and environmental settings are always at maximum intensity, then visibility and alertness are improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts lighting intensity and other environmental settings based on real-time detection of user presence and activity type. Rather than maintaining fixed maximum settings, the system adapts lighting levels to match actual usage patterns, providing high intensity when needed for focus or presentation and reducing intensity during resting activities or when spaces are unoccupied.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes environmental parameters including lighting intensity, temperature, and sound levels based on detected activity phases. Lighting intensity is adjusted as a variable parameter rather than a fixed setting, allowing the system to optimize between visibility requirements and energy conservation by transitioning between different intensity levels according to usage patterns.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for facilitating space experiences for at least a first space user and for at least first and second different spaces, the method comprising the steps of storing first and second space experience specifications for the first and second different spaces, respectively, wherein the first and second space experience specifications indicate space affordance settings for the first and second spaces, respectively, sensing a trigger event associated with at least one of the first and second different spaces, where the sensed trigger event is associated with the first space, using the first space experience specification to control the first space affordances and where the sensed trigger event is associated with the second space, using the second space experience specification to control the second space affordances.