System and method for estimating the number of people in a smart building

摘要

This disclosure concerns estimating the number of people within building-based device networks. Increasingly, local area network (LAN) devices are capable of sensing people (e.g. smart appliances). Features of building layout, and physical arrangement of devices provide that only a subset of sensor data patterns can be accounted for by a single user (e.g. simultaneous activation of a smart TV and a motion sensor). Over time, a central controller (e.g. LAN gateway) can gather these building-specific sensor patterns and learn single occupant characteristics for a network (e.g. features or boundaries of single occupant capability). In one embodiment, the central controller generates a single occupancy criterion (e.g. a building-specific test), comprising single occupant characteristics, operable to test a subset of sensor data for single occupancy. The central controller divides devices into a minimum number of groups, such that each group satisfies the single occupancy criterion and estimates the number of occupants accordingly.

主权项

1. A computer implemented method for estimating the number of people in a region within an enclosed space comprising:
obtaining a set of sensor data from a plurality of devices within a network of devices, wherein the set of sensor data comprises for each device in the plurality of devices corresponding sensor data indicative of a measure of occupancy within at least a portion of the region, obtaining a single occupancy criterion comprising a plurality of single occupant characteristics,
wherein the single occupancy criterion functions to identify whether a candidate subset of the set of sensor data can be accounted for by a single occupant,wherein the single occupancy criterion further comprises a test based on the plurality of single occupancy characteristics, and wherein the single occupancy criterion is satisfied by the candidate subset of the set of sensor data when the candidate subset passes the test, processing one or more subsets of the set of sensor data according to the single occupancy criterion,
wherein the processing identifies a set of subsets of devices such that for each subset of devices in the set of subsets of devices the corresponding subset of the set of sensor data satisfies the single occupancy criterion, and such that each device in the plurality of devices is included in at least one subset of devices in the set of subsets of devices, and estimating the number of people in the region within the enclosed space according to the number of subsets of devices in the set of subsets of devices.