Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Michael Martin Scheja

Declan Patrick Kelly

Cornelis Reinder Ronda

Jan Frederik Suijver

Shuang Chen

Rainer Hilbig

Saeed Reza Bagheri

Achim Gerhard Rolf Koerber

Koray Karakaya

Choo Chiap Chiau

Johan Marra

Jun Shi

Bao Wang

Yugang Jia

John Robert McGarva

Rim Helaoui

Mina Deng

Hanqing Cao

Peter Hermanus Bouma

Vikrant Suhas Vaze

Renjun Yu

Wei Chen

John Robert Mcgarv

A particle sensing apparatus is provided for determining particle concentration in a fluid, e.g. air. The apparatus is based on fluid-flow passageway having an upstream inlet to receive the fluid and a downstream outlet to exhaust the fluid. It also includes a recirculation passageway in fluid communication with the fluid-flow passageway. Between them, the fluid-flow passageway and the recirculation passageway define a recirculation loop. A first particle sensor is located in the recirculation loop, and other sensors may also be present at other options. A force applicator is included in the fluid-flow passageway to apply a force to the particles entrained in the fluid. The force is used to direct some or all of the particles into the recirculation loop. This provides a choice between increasing the detection limit or the detection range. A processor determines the concentration of particles in the fluid based on the concentration of particles detected at the first particle sensor.

Particle sensor and particle sensing method

Presented is a humidifier, comprising: a rotatable wick; a means for rotating the wick; characterized in that: the humidifier further comprises a disinfection unit adapted such that different parts of the wick are disinfected when the wick rotates.

Humidifier with disinfection unit

Disclosed is a computer-implemented method () of assigning a task to a mobile communication device () belonging to a pool () of mobile communication devices, wherein each mobile communications device is associated with a trusted owner and is locatable by means of location information, the method comprising generating () a task to be performed; generating a set of task locations at which the task can be performed; receiving () location information for said mobile communications devices; deriving () a location for each mobile communications device from said location information; using the derived location to calculate () a cost score for each mobile communication device, said cost score indicating the cost of the trusted owner of said mobile communication device to reach a target location; and assigning () the task to a selected location in said set and to one of said mobile communications devices, wherein the task is assigned to the one of said mobile communications devices based on the calculated cost scores. A computer program product including program code for executing this method on a computer processor and a system adapted to execute this method are also disclosed.

Task assignment method, computer program product and task assignment system

The present application relates to a method for tracking a user's exposure to air pollutants, comprising receiving pollutant information from a plurality of air quality data sources at one or more user locations, determining a weighting for at least one of the plurality of data sources, the weighting representing quality of the pollutant information from the respective data source, selecting data sources from the plurality of data sources based on the weighting and aggregating pollutant information from the selected data sources to determine the user's exposure over a predetermined period of time.

Tracking exposure to air pollution

A particle sensing system is for sensing particles entrained in a fluid. The system comprises a flow channel having a longitudinal direction along which the fluid is to be passed, a heating arrangement for heating the fluid and thereby applying a positive thermophoretic force on the fluid in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the flow channel and a first sensor for sensing the particles in the fluid after heating by the heating arrangement. The thermophoretic force increases the concentration of the particles at the first sensor.

An air purification apparatus () is disclosed that comprises a flow channel () extending between an inlet () and an outlet (); a pollutant removal structure () and an air displacement apparatus () in the flow channel; a branched sensor channel () including: a first branch () extending between an ambient air port () and a further outlet () in the flow channel between the inlet and the air displacement apparatus; and a second branch () extending between the ambient air port and a further inlet () in the flow channel between the air displacement apparatus and the outlet, the first branch and second branch sharing a branch section; at least one sensor () in the shared branch section; a valve arrangement () in the branched sensor channel adapted to exclusively disconnect the first branch from the flow channel in a first configuration and exclusively disconnect the second branch from the flow channel in a second configuration; and a controller () adapted to control the valve arrangement.

Air purifier

An air treatment system () is provided that comprises an air purifier () arranged to treat a first parameter of ambient air; a controller () arranged to control operation of the air purifier (); and a sensor () arranged to detect a value indicative of the first parameter, and to output sensor data indicative of the value to the controller. The controller () is arranged to determine whether the sensor () and the air purifier () are in a same air space by controlling the air purifier () to operate in a test mode and analyzing sensor data from the sensor () received during the test mode. If the sensor () and the air purifier () are determined to be in the same air space, the controller () is arranged to control the air purifier () to operate in a mode based on sensor data from the sensor ().

Air treatment system

Disclosed is an air purification system () including an air purification apparatus () comprising an air inlet (); an air outlet () for expelling air in a target direction () into a region and including an adjustment mechanism () arranged to adjust said target direction in response to a target direction adjustment signal from a control system for aiming the air outlet at the face of a person in said region; at least one pollutant removal structure () in between the air inlet and the air outlet; and an air displacement apparatus () for displacing air from the air inlet to the air outlet through the at least one pollutant removal structure, and a sensor () adapted to determine a breathing parameter of the person, wherein the air purification apparatus is configured to expel said air as a function of said breathing parameter. A computer program product for configuring such a control system is also disclosed.

Targeted clean air delivery

The invention provides a sensor device which comprises an input flow channel () for receiving a gas flow with entrained matter to be sensed. A thermophoretic arrangement () is used to induce a thermophoretic particle movement from a first, warmer, region () of the input flow channel to a second, cooler, region () of the input flow channel (). A sensor () comprises a particle sensor component at or downstream of the first region () of the input flow channel (). The invention provides the benefit of pre-filtering (e.g. removal of most suspended solids/liquids) without the need for a physical filter that can become blocked.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Michael Martin Scheja