Daikin Industries, Ltd.

Kazuhisa Shigemori

Takehiko Hiei

Tomomi Sakamoto

Ryuuji Akiyama

Noboru Kobayashi

Masahiro Kobayashi

Masakazu Yoshida

Sayo Toramoto

Tomoaki Ueda

Kenji Masuda

Noriyuki Okuda

Masanori Hasegawa

Masaya Kasai

Kaori Tosa

Sumio Shiochi

Hiroshi Yagi

Chiaki Tsuboi

Kouichi Yamamoto

Yoshiyuki Hama

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.

Air-conditioning control system

A plurality of pulse position candidate extraction units characterize waves included in a vibration signal from a vibration sensor using predetermined specific forms and extract respective sets of pulse position candidates. A frequency distribution calculation unit calculates a frequency distribution of the pulse interval and a frequency distribution of variation in pulse intervals on each of the extracted sets of pulse position candidates. A distribution ratio calculation unit calculates the distribution ratio of a modal class to the total frequency in each of the calculated frequency distributions. A selection unit selects a set of pulse position candidates from among the extracted sets of pulse position candidates using the calculated relative frequencies as indicators for evaluating accuracy of the sets of pulse position candidates.

Biometric information acquisition device

This system correctly obtains a thermal sensation of a person in a room to provide a comfortable environment. A first parameter deriver derives, as a first parameter, a ratio of a low frequency component to a high frequency component in a variation of R-R intervals of a person, based on his/her body movement. A second parameter deriver derives, as a second parameter, any one of a coefficient of variation of R-R intervals, a respiration rate, or a heart rate of the person, based on the body movement of the person. An estimator estimates a thermal sensation of the person, based on the first parameter and the second parameter. A CPU for air-conditioning control controls an air-conditioning capacity of the air conditioner, based on a result of the estimation by the estimator.

A sleep determination apparatus capable of detecting wakefulness of a subject before entering a hypnagogic state with high accuracy is provided. When the subject is not yet in the hypnagogic state, it is determined that the subject is asleep when a detected body movement signal continuously remains below a determination threshold for a predetermined time or longer, and that the subject is awake in other situations. When the subject has entered the hypnagogic state, it is determined that the subject is awake when the detected body movement signal continuously remains above the determination threshold for the predetermined time or longer, and that the subject is asleep in other situations.

Sleep determination apparatus

An operational air conditioning mode is allowed to set to a temperature uniformization mode and a spot air conditioning mode, and is selectively switched between these modes automatically by a control means () or manually. In such an embodiment, a comfortably air-conditioned state is obtained in all the areas of a space to be air-conditioned W during air conditioning performed in the temperature uniformization mode, and the comfort is ensured by intensively air-conditioning the surroundings of a person during air conditioning performed in the spot air conditioning mode. At the same time, since an unnecessary air conditioning is not provided to a region without the presence of a person, energy conservation is improved, for example, and thus the comfort of air conditioning and energy conservation are both achieved.

Air conditioner

Optical measurement apparatus and method therefor

Reaction vessel for optical measurement

Optical measurement apparatus

A thermal environment sensor has a single temperature detector for detecting temperature and producing an output representative of the detected temperature, the temperature detector having, when heated by a predetermined constant power, a convective heat transfer coefficient giving it a wind velocity dependent temperature drop characteristic in close conformity with the wind velocity dependence of the effective temperature drop felt by a human body. A heater is provided for heating the temperature detector, and an electric power supply is connected to the heater for supplying the heater with a constant electric power corresponding to the predetermined constant power, and a temperature estimating circuit is connected to the temperature detector for correcting the output of the temperature detector by a predetermined constant temperature difference for thereby obtaining the effective temperature felt by a human body. Furthermore, a wind velocity estimating circuit is also connect to the temperature detector so that when the temperature detector is alternatingly supplied with a first and a second level of electric power, the absolute value of the wind velocity may be estimated from the heat transfer coefficient of the temperature detector obtained using the temperature of the temperature detector at the first and second levels of power and the respective first and second levels of power.

Thermal environment sensor with means to estimate the wind velocity

A thermal environment sensor has a single temperature detector for detecting temperature and producing an output representative of the detected temperature, the temperature detector having, when heated by a predetermined constant power, a convective heat transfer coefficient giving it a wind velocity dependent temperature drop characteristic in close conformity with the wind velocity dependence of the effective temperature drop felt by a human body. A heater is provided for heating the temperature detector, and an electric power supply is connected to the heater for supplying the heater with a constant electric power corresponding to the predetermined constant power, and a temperature estimating circuit is connected to the temperature detector for correcting the output of the temperature detector by a predetermined constant temperature difference for thereby obtaining the effective temperature felt by a human body.

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Osaka, Japan

Kazuhisa Shigemori