SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND/OR CONTROLLING THE AIR QUALITY IN A VEHICLE

Abstract

Provided is a control unit and a system for monitoring in real-time and/or controlling the air quality of a vehicle cabin. Upon receiving input data from various sensors in the cabin of the vehicle, the control unit processes the data and outputs a unified processed/calculated data of all the sensed data from sensors in the cabin that is indicative of the general air quality in the cabin. In addition, the control unit may output instructions of operations that need to be carried out for optimal circulation of the air that results in improvement of the air quality within the cabin. These instructions of operations may be also affected from data that is received by the control unit that is indicative of the air quality in the surrounding of the vehicle.

Claims

1.-46. (canceled)

47. A control unit for monitoring and/or controlling the air quality of a vehicle cabin, the control unit comprising: an input module configured to receive first sensing data indicative of sensed parameters of air within the cabin of the vehicle; processing module configured to process the first sensing data and to generate (i) calculated cabin's air quality data, said calculated cabin's air quality data comprises smoking score indicative of levels of smoking residues or smoking smell being monitored in the cabin, and optionally (ii) operative data based thereon, wherein the calculated cabin's air quality data is indicative of the air quality in the cabin of the vehicle, and wherein the optionally operative data comprises operations for execution of defined actions for improving the air quality in the cabin; and an output module for outputting the calculated cabin's air quality data or the optionally operative data; wherein said processing module is configured for analyzing temporal profile of the first data, recognizing patterns therein indicative of smoking to determine said smoking score.

48. The control unit of claim 47, wherein the input module is configured to receive second data indicative of quality of air outside to the vehicle, and the processing module is configured to process the first sensing data and the second data, and to generate the (i) calculated cabin's air quality data and, optionally the (ii) operative data based thereon.

49. The control unit of claim 48, wherein the second data comprises data indicative of cars traffic in the vehicle's surrounding or data indicative of air pollution in the vehicle's surrounding.

50. The control unit of claim 47, wherein the first sensing data comprises data indicative of size and quantity of particulate matter in the cabin and data indicative of at least one of the following: concentration of volatile organic compound, temperature, humidity, concentration of CO.sub.2, concentration of NO.sub.2 or concentration of O.sub.2.

51. The control unit of claim 47, wherein the processing module is configured to determine the relation between levels of air quality of the cabin and the surrounding of the vehicle.

52. The control unit of claim 47, wherein the operative data comprises operative instructions for circulating the air in the cabin, wherein the circulating the air in the cabin comprises at least one of: opening windows, operating the air condition, or any combination thereof.

53. The control unit of claim 47, wherein the output module is configured to transmit at least one of the calculated cabin's air quality data and the operative data to a device that comprises a display for displaying the operative data for a user and to transmit the operative data to an automatic climate control system of the vehicle to be executed thereby.

54. The control unit of claim 47, wherein the input module is further configured to receive data related to the type of the vehicle and the operative data is generated further based on the data related to the type of the vehicle.

55. The control unit of claim 47, the first data comprises data indicative of at least one of the following: concentration of Formaldehyde, Benzene, Methanol and SO.sub.2 and the processing module is configured to identify types of odors based thereon such that said calculated cabin's air quality data comprises classification of odor types in the cabin.

56. The control unit of claim 47, wherein the processing module is further configured to determine filter data indicative of the filter status of the filter of the air condition system of the vehicle and said output module is configured to output said filter data.

57. The control unit of claim 55, wherein said filter data comprises filter score indicative of the status of the filter of the air condition system of vehicle, upon reaching a selected filter score threshold the output module is configured to output an alert for replacing the filter.

58. A system for mapping air quality, comprising: a receiving module configured to receive the calculated cabin's air quality data from a plurality of control units according to claim 47, wherein said calculated cabin's air quality data further comprises positioning data of each control unit; a mapping module configured to generate an air quality map based on the plurality of said received calculated cabin's air quality data, wherein said mapping module is further configured to transmit said air quality map.

59. The system of claim 58, comprising a display unit for presenting said air quality map.

60. A system for monitoring the air of a cabin of a vehicle, the system comprising: a sensing unit that comprises at least one sensor that is configured to sense the air quality in the cabin and generates the first sensing data based thereon; and a control unit of claim 47.

61. A method for monitoring or controlling the air quality of a vehicle cabin, the method comprising: receiving a first sensing data indicative of sensed parameters of air within the cabin of the vehicle; processing the first sensing data generating (i) calculated cabin's air quality data, said calculated cabin's air quality data comprises smoking score indicative of smoking residues or smoking smell being monitored in the cabin, and optionally (ii) operative data based on the sensing data, wherein the calculated cabin's air quality data is indicative of the air quality in the cabin of the vehicle, and wherein the operative data comprises operations for execution of defined actions for improving the air quality in the cabin; outputting the calculated cabin's air quality data or the operative data; and analyzing temporal profile of the first data, recognizing patterns therein indicative of smoking to determine said smoking score.

62. The method of claim 61, comprising receiving second data indicative of quality of air outside to the vehicle, wherein said second data comprises data indicative of cars traffic in the vehicle's surrounding or data indicative of air pollution in the vehicle's surrounding; and processing the first sensing data and the second data and generating based thereon the (i) calculated cabin's air quality data and, optionally the (ii) operative data.

63. The method of claim 61, wherein the operative data comprises operative instructions for circulating the air in the cabin, said circulating the air in the cabin comprises at least one of: opening windows, operating the air condition, or any combination thereof.

64. The method of claim 61 comprising transmitting the operative data to an automatic climate control system of the vehicle to be executed thereby.

65. The method of claim 61, wherein said calculated cabin's air quality data comprises classification of odor types in the cabin.

66. The method of claim 61, wherein said filter data comprises filter score indicative of the status of the filter of the air condition system of vehicle, and upon identifying a selected filter score threshold outputting an alert for replacing the filter.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0069] In order to better understand the subject matter that is disclosed herein and to exemplify how it may be carried out in practice, embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0070] FIGS. 1A-1C are block diagrams of non-limiting examples of embodiments of the control unit of the present disclosure.

[0071] FIGS. 2A-2B are block diagrams of non-limiting examples of embodiments of the system for monitoring and controlling the air quality of a cabin of a vehicle according to the present disclosure.

[0072] FIG. 3 is a block-diagram of a non-limiting example of the system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0073] FIGS. 4A-4B are flow diagrams of non-limiting examples of embodiments of the method for monitoring and controlling the air quality of a cabin of a vehicle according to the present disclosure.

[0074] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a non-limiting example of an embodiment of a mapping system according to an aspect of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0075] Reference is first made to FIGS. 1A-1C, which are block diagrams of non-limiting examples of embodiments of the control unit of the present disclosure. FIG. 1 shows a control unit 102 for monitoring and/or controlling the air quality of a vehicle cabin, e.g. a cabin of a car. The control unit includes an input module 104 that is configured to receive sensing data SD that is indicative of sensed parameters of the air of the vehicle cabin. The sensed parameters can be derived from one or more sensors such as particulate matter sensor, volatile organic compound (VOC) sensor or specific molecular sensitive sensors (e.g. oxygen, CO.sub.2, NO.sub.2, etc. Thus, the sensing data SD may include raw or processed data that is derived from such sensors.

[0076] The processing module 106 is configured to receive the sensing data SD and process it to generate calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD, which is a summarization of all the sensing data SD into a unified data. For example, the calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD may be a level of the quality of the air in the cabin, which can be also detailed to levels of specific parameters, e.g. the level of smoking smell, human body smell, polluting particles, etc.

[0077] An output module 108 receives the calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD and transmits it to a user's display 110 to be displayed to a user. In this manner, the user, which can be at a remote location from the car, may have real-time status of the quality of air in the vehicle. Accordingly, the user may operate the climate control system of the vehicle to improve the air quality within, whether it is performed when the user is remote from the vehicle or when the user manually operates the climate control system while in the vehicle. The user can monitor the air quality over time and observe the change due to the operations of the climate control system, e.g. tuning the air condition (temperature, venting power), opening one or more windows to a period of time, etc.

[0078] Optionally, the input module may be configured to receive external air quality data EAD indicative of the air quality outside the vehicle, namely at the surrounding thereof. This data may be derived from air pollution monitoring stations that are at the vicinity of the vehicle and/or by weather monitoring stations, etc. This data may also be an average of several monitoring stations that are surrounding the vehicle, and the relevant data from the relevant stations is retrieved according to the real-time location of the vehicle, e.g. according to GPS data of the vehicle or systems of the vehicle that are transmitting the real-time location to the control unit 102. The external air quality data EAD is processed together with the sensing data SD to obtain the optimal operative data OD for improving the air quality in the vehicle, namely whether to circulate the outside air into the vehicle or to what extent.

[0079] In another embodiment of the control unit 102, exemplified in FIG. 1B, the processing module 106 processes the sensing data SD, and in addition to the generation of calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD, generates operative data OD indicative of operations for improving the air quality of in the vehicle, e.g. by controlling the climate control unit of the vehicle. The output module 108 outputs to a user's display 110 the operative data OD and the calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD such that the user may follow the operative data to improve the air quality in the vehicle.

[0080] FIG. 1C is another embodiment of the control unit of the present disclosure, this embodiment differs from that exemplified in FIG. 1B by that the output module 108 is coupled, either by a direct connection or by wireless connection, to a climate control system of a vehicle 112. The climate control system 112 is capable of controlling at least the air condition system and/or the air circulation openings, e.g. windows or tunable circulation openings. The output module 108 is configured to transmit the operative data OD to the climate control system 112 to be executed automatically thereby.

[0081] For example, the operative data may instruct the climate control system 112 to increase the venting power of the vehicle, to lower the temperature of the air condition, to change the mode of air condition circulation to an external circulation and to open two windows of the vehicle half wide open for a period of time of 45 seconds. When the control unit 102 monitors improvement of the air quality in the vehicle above a desired threshold, that may be a default threshold or may be set by a user, the control unit 102 may instruct the climate control system 112 to resume to its regular/previous setting.

[0082] In some embodiments, the input module may receive filter data that is indicative of the air filter condition of the vehicle. The control unit indicate the user the status of the air filter in real-time and alert when it needs to be replaced.

[0083] It should be noted that the examples of FIGS. 1A-1C focus on selected elements of the system while generally describe various configurations of the control unit. Generally, elements from FIGS. 1A-1C may be combined between them to provide the control unit of the present disclosure.

[0084] In the figures throughout the application, like elements of different figures were given similar reference numerals shifted by the number of hundreds corresponding to the number of the figures. For example, element 202 in FIGS. 2A and 2B serves the same function as element 102 in FIGS. 1A-1C.

[0085] Reference is now made to FIGS. 2A-2B, which are block diagrams of embodiments of a system for monitoring and controlling the air quality of a cabin of a vehicle according to the present disclosure. FIG. 2A shows a system 200, which includes a sensing unit 214 that is configured to sense parameters that are indicative of the quality of the air within the vehicle. The sensing unit 214 may include one or more sensors that together generates sensing data SD based on the sensed parameters.

[0086] The control unit 202 of the system includes an input module 204 that is configured to receive the sensing data SD from the sensing unit 214. The processing module 206 processes the sensing data SD and generates calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD based on the sensing data SD that comprises the sensing parameters sensed by the one or more sensors in the vehicle.

[0087] The output module 208 transmit the calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD to a user display 210 to be displayed to a user.

[0088] The embodiment of FIG. 2B differs from that presented in FIG. 2A by (i) detailing the sensors of the sensing unit and (ii) presenting additional capability of the control unit for generating operative data.

[0089] As can be appreciated, the sensing unit 214 comprises particulate matter sensor 216, VOC sensor 218, molecular sensitive sensor 220, e.g. sensor that senses the concentration of CO.sub.2, NO.sub.2, O.sub.2, etc., and temperature and humidity sensor. It is to be noted that these sensors are mere examples of optional combination of sensors and the sensing unit 214 may include any combination of sensors that provide relevant data of the air quality of the interior of the vehicle.

[0090] The temperature and humidity sensors generates temperature and humidity data THD that, in addition of being part of the general sensing data SD is transmitted to the VOC sensor 218, which requires the temperature and humidity data THD for self-calibration to optimize its performances. It is to be noted that the calibration can be performed by the control unit 202, namely that the control unit 202 is configured to receive the temperature and humidity data THD and to calibrate the VOC sensor 218 based thereon.

[0091] The sensing parameters from all the sensors of the sensing unit 214 provide the sensing data SD that is transmitted to the input module 204 of the control unit 202.

[0092] The processing module 206 processing the sensing data SD and optionally the external air quality data EAD that is indicative of the air quality in the surrounding of the vehicle and generates calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD and operative data OD. The operative data OD is transmitted to climate control system of the vehicle 212 to be executed thereby to improve the level of air quality within the vehicle.

[0093] FIG. 3 is additional block-diagram of a non-limiting example of the system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The system 300 includes an array of five sensors—particulate matter sensor, VOC sensor, CO.sub.2 sensor, NO.sub.2 sensor, and temperature and humidity sensor, each transmits its sensed data to an analog to digital converter A2D converter. The data from the converter is transmitted to a micro controller unit MCU that processes the sensed data and transmits the information of the air quality in the vehicle to a receiving client device, e.g. a car infotainment, a web-based dashboard or a mobile device such as smartphone via wireless communication module wireless module. The system further includes indicator in the form of LED array LED I/O. The level of the air quality, which can be divided into two or more levels (for example: level 1—excellent quality, level 2—good quality, level 3—bad quality), may be indicated by a corresponding LED color that is identifiable by a passenger in the car.

[0094] The power to the system may be supplied through a vehicle power outlet such as the car power outlet and the voltage may be converted to meet the voltage requirements of the system.

[0095] FIGS. 4A-4B are flow diagrams presenting non-limiting examples of embodiments of the method according to the present disclosure. FIG. 4A shows a method that includes receiving a first sensing data 430 indicative of sensed parameters of the air within a cabin of a vehicle, e.g. a car. The method further includes processing the first sensing data 432 and generating 434 calculated cabin's air quality data and/or operative data. The method further includes outputting the calculated cabin's air quality data and/or operative data, e.g. displaying it to a user or transmitting it to a climate control system of the vehicle to execute the required actions of the operative data.

[0096] FIG. 4B presents an embodiment of the method that differs from that of FIG. 4A by receiving a second data in addition to the first sensing data 430′, wherein the second data is indicative of the air quality in the surrounding of the vehicle. It further differs by that it includes operating a climate control system 438 of the vehicle based on the operative data.

[0097] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a non-limiting example of an air quality mapping system, according to an aspect of the present disclosure. The mapping system 550 includes receiving module 552 that is configured to receive calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD.sub.i (i=1,2,3 . . . n) and respective positioning data PD.sub.i (i=1,2,3 . . . n) from a plurality of respective control units 502.sub.i (i=1,2,3 . . . n). The mapping system includes a mapping module that is configured to process the received calculated cabin's air quality data CCAD.sub.i together with the positioning data associated with each cabin's air quality data CCAD.sub.i and generate an air quality map AQM based thereon. The air quality map AQM is transmitted to a display unit 510 configured to display the air quality map AQM to a user.