Vision-Based Contactless Pose Estimation for Human Thermal Discomfort

Junpeng Qian,Bin Yang,Junchi Ren,Xiaogang Cheng,Haibo Li,Zhe Li,Thomas Olofsson

doi:10.3390/atmos11040376

Abstract

Real-time and effective human thermal discomfort detection plays a critical role in achieving energy efficient control of human centered intelligent buildings because estimation results can provide effective feedback signals to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. How to detect occupant thermal discomfort is a challenge. Unfortunately, contact or semi-contact perception methods are inconvenient in practical application. From the contactless perspective, a kind of vision-based contactless human discomfort pose estimation method was proposed in this paper. Firstly, human pose data were captured from a vision-based sensor, and corresponding human skeleton information was extracted. Five thermal discomfort-related human poses were analyzed, and corresponding algorithms were constructed. To verify the effectiveness of the algorithms, 16 subjects were invited for physiological experiments. The validation results show that the proposed algorithms can recognize the five human poses of thermal discomfort.

Highlights

At present, global energy consumption has increased rapidly, of which the energy consumption of commercial and residential buildings accounts for 21% of the world0 s total energy consumption [1].Fifty percent of building energy consumption is related to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems [2]
The main method currently adopted in the air conditioning industry is to provide a constant environment for buildings in accordance with international standards
Studies have shown that even small adjustments to room temperature can have a huge impact on the energy consumption of the entire building [5,6]

Summary

Introduction

Fifty percent of building energy consumption is related to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems [2]. The main method currently adopted in the air conditioning industry is to provide a constant environment for buildings in accordance with international standards This method does not take into account the individual difference and time variability of thermal comfort for building occupants. Studies have shown that even small adjustments to room temperature (such as 1 ◦ C) can have a huge impact on the energy consumption of the entire building [5,6]. If the energy distribution can be combined with the specific environment, it can meet the individual thermal comfort requirements and achieve energy efficiency goals

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion