A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system may be zoned into one or more zone. The HVAC system may include HVAC components, sensors, and one or more register vents that may include vent dampers (e.g., electronically controllable vent dampers or manually operated vent dampers). Opening and closing of the vent dampers may facilitate creating zones or sub-zones in the HVAC system configuration. An HVAC control system may receive a request for conditioned air in one or more of the zones, determine a damper setting for at least one of the vent dampers, communicate the determined damper setting to a vent damper or user interface, determine which HVAC components should be active, if any, and/or provide controls signals to activate or keep active the HVAC components that are determined to be active.

Systems and methods for controlling an air-conditioning system based on gait recognition. The system includes a communication interface configured to receive sensor data captured of a scene by a sensor. The system further includes a storage configured to store the sensor data and a profile of registered users. The system also includes at least one processor. The at least one processor is configured to identify a human object within the sensor data. The processor is further configured to recognize gait features of the identified human object. The processor is also configured to generate a first instruction controlling the air-conditioning system based on the recognized gait features.

A management device is connected to an apparatus and is configured to manage the apparatus. The management device includes a display unit, a wireless communication unit, and a control unit. The display unit is configured to display information about the apparatus. The wireless communication unit is configured to wirelessly communicate with a mobile terminal. The control unit is configured to, when a distance between the management device and the mobile terminal is shorter than a threshold, adjust display settings of the display unit to display settings of the mobile terminal.

A humidification device and a humidification method are provided. The humidification device includes: an image acquisition module configured to acquire an image of a user skin; a processing module configured to determine a moisture content of the user skin based on the image and determine a spraying amount for humidifying an air based on the moisture content; and a humidification module configured to humidify the air based on the spraying amount.

A radiant air conditioning system for controlling comfortable and healthy indoor environment based on infrared sensing technology is disclosed, which comprises air source heat pump outdoor unit, plate evaporator, circulating water pump, etc. Accurate control of air humidity by installing an indoor dehumidification terminal can reduce the surface temperature of radiant cooling terminal and increase the installed area, which will significantly improve the radiant heat exchange between the terminal surface and the human body surface. Infrared sensor technology, which is adopted to obtain the number of indoor occupants and the required outdoor air flow rate, is integrated with a decoupling control of the indoor humidity and air freshness for the accurate control of outdoor air flow rate, and then the supply outdoor air temperature and humidity are regulated for the accurate control of indoor health level.

A method and system for conditioning an interior area is disclosed. A method includes retrieving environmental conditions regarding the interior area, wherein the environmental conditions include temperature, humidity, and air speed; retrieving outdoor environmental conditions; generating a field of environmental conditions at a plurality of points within the interior area; estimating clothing insulation of a user based on the outdoor environmental conditions; calculating a thermal comfort of the user to determine a predicted mean vote; and operating a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system based on the calculated thermal comfort.

In some examples, a device can control an HVAC system within a building. The device includes a memory configured to store an actual configuration of the HVAC system and processing circuitry operably coupled to the memory. The processing circuitry is configured to determine which field wires connect a terminal to the HVAC system. The processing circuitry is further configured to determine an actual configuration of the HVAC system based on which field wires connect the terminal to the HVAC system and determine a geographic location of the HVAC controller or of the device. The processing circuitry is configured to determine that the actual configuration includes an irregularity based on the determined geographic location and generate an output in response to determining that the actual configuration includes an irregularity.

Occupant thermal comfort may be inferred and improved using body shape information. Height, weight, and shoulder circumference of an occupant of a room may be obtained using a depth sensor. A model may be utilized that is trained on a dataset including information reflecting of occupant comfort within the room versus temperature, the model receiving, as inputs, the height, the weight, and the shoulder circumference of the occupant and environmental information and outputting a comfort class. A temperature set-point for is identified which the room occupant is identified by the model as having the comfort class being indicative of user comfort. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) controls are adjusted for the room to the identified temperature set-point.

An electronic device may include: a first temperature sensor configured to measure a first temperature of body skin; a second temperature sensor configured to measure a second temperature at a position spaced apart from the body skin; and a processor configured to estimate skin heat loss based on the first temperature and the second temperature, and to determine a target ambient temperature for controlling an ambient temperature based on the first temperature and the skin heat loss.

A temperature control device (e.g., a thermostat) may be configured to control an internal heat-generating electrical load so as to accurately measure a present temperature in a space around the temperature control device. The temperature control device may comprise a temperature sensing circuit configured to generate a temperature control signal indicating the present temperature in the space, and a control circuit configured to receive the temperature control signal and to control the internal electrical load. The control circuit may be configured to energize the internal electrical load in an awake state and to cause the internal electrical load to consume less power in an idle state. The control circuit may be configured to control the internal electrical load to a first energy level (e.g., a first intensity) during the awake state and to a second energy level (e.g., second intensity) that is less than the first during the idle state.