Macro pose based non-invasive thermal comfort perception for energy efficiency

Individual thermal comfort perception gives important feedback signals for energy efficient control of smart buildings. However, there is no effective method to measure real-time thermal comfort status of individual occupant until now. For overcoming this challenge, a novel macro posed based non-invasive perception method for thermal comfort (NIMAP) was presented. The occupant pose images were captured by normal phone camera (computer or cell phone) and the corresponding 2D coordinates can be obtained. Based on this, a novel pose recognition algorithm for thermal comfort, including 12 sub-algorithms, was presented. The 12 thermal comfort related macro poses can be recognized. Further, based on Fanger theory, 369 subjects were invited for subjective questionnaire survey. 3 human occupants participated in the validation of the proposed method and massive data were collected. All the 12 thermal comfort related poses can be recognized effectively.