Macro pose-based non-invasive thermal comfort perception for energy efficiency

Individual thermal comfort perception plays very important roles in smart building and its energy efficiency control. However, there is no effective method to measure real-time thermal comfort of individual occupant until now. For overcoming the challenge of this case, including time-varying, individual difference and difficult to practical apply widely, a novel macro posed-based non-invasive perception method for thermal comfort (NIMAP) was presented. The occupant pose images were captured by normal phone camera (computer or cell phone) and the corresponding 2D coordinates can be obtained. Based on this, a novel pose recognition algorithm for thermal comfort, including 12 sub-algorithms, was presented. Then the 12 different macro poses of thermal comfort can be recognized. Further, based on Fanger’s theory, 369 subjects are invited for subjective questionnaire. Finally, 3 human occupants participated in the validation of the method proposed and massive data was collected. The results is encourage and the 12 poses of thermal comfort all can be recognized effectively