Building management system that determines building utilization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10965482-B2
Application number	US-201916354874-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2019
Priority date	Oct 24, 2016
Publication date	Mar 30, 2021
Grant date	Mar 30, 2021

Abstract

A building management system and method that determines space utilization in a building. The building management system comprises room utilization sensors, such as occupancy sensors, a gateway that gathers raw occupancy data records from the occupancy sensors, and at least one processor. Each raw occupancy data record comprises an occupancy state associated with a timestamp. The processor is configured for normalizing the raw occupancy data records into normalized occupancy data records each comprising a time segment and an occupancy state indicating whether for a given time segment a room is occupied. The processor is further configured for structuring the normalized occupancy data records by associating each normalized occupancy data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw occupancy data record was collected and associating each space node with a set of tags, each tag defining a single state from a plurality of states. The processor may further receive a selection of a tag from a user interface, split the normalized occupancy data records along the selected tag's states into sets of normalized occupancy data records, for each split set of occupancy data records, calculate at least one occupancy rate, and display a visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the occupancy rates of the selected tag's states.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for determining space utilization in a building comprising the steps of:
retrieving raw occupancy data records from a raw data database, wherein the raw occupancy data records are gathered from a plurality of room utilization sensors, wherein the plurality of room utilization sensors include occupancy sensors each configured for detecting an occupancy state in a room in a building, wherein each raw occupancy data record comprises an occupancy state associated with a timestamp;
normalizing the raw occupancy data records into normalized occupancy data records, wherein each normalized occupancy data record comprises a time segment and an occupancy state indicating whether for a given time segment a room is occupied;
structuring the normalized occupancy data records by associating each normalized occupancy data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw occupancy data record was collected;
associating each space node with a set of tags, each tag defining a single state from a plurality of states;
receiving a selection of a tag from a user interface;
splitting the normalized occupancy data records along the selected tag's states into sets of normalized occupancy data records;
for each split set of occupancy data records, calculating at least one occupancy rate; and
displaying a visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the occupancy rates of the selected tag's states.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each space node is organized in a tree topology with a building node as the root and individual space nodes as children.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the occupancy rates comprise averages of the split sets of occupancy data records, wherein the visualization of space utilization of the building comprises a bar graph comprising bars that compare the occupancy rates.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:
receiving a selection of a first bar from the user interface corresponding to a first set of normalized occupancy data records;
receiving a selection of a second tag from the user interface;
further splitting the first set of normalized occupancy data records along the selected second tag's states into subsets of normalized occupancy data records;
for each split subset of occupancy data records, calculating at least one second occupancy rate; and
displaying a second visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the second occupancy rates of the selected second tag's states.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the occupancy rates comprise changes of averages of the split sets of occupancy data records across time segments, wherein the visualization of space utilization of the building comprises a line graph comprising lines that compare the occupancy rates over time.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the steps of:
receiving a selection of a first line from the user interface corresponding to a first set of normalized occupancy data records;
receiving a selection of a second tag from the user interface;
further splitting the first set of normalized occupancy data records along the selected second tag's states into subsets of normalized occupancy data records;
for each split subset of occupancy data records, calculating at least one second occupancy rate; and
displaying a second visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the second occupancy rates of the selected second tag's states.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the raw occupancy data records are normalized by determining for each given time segment whether a total amount of time a room was occupied during the given time segment exceeds a predetermined minimum occupancy threshold value.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein, for each given time segment and for each given space node, the raw occupancy data records are normalized by:
creating a normalized occupancy data record for the given time segment and given space node;
retrieving raw occupancy data records associated with the given space node with timestamps falling between a start time and an end time of the given time segment;
retrieving a last occupancy data record associated with the given space node from a previous time segment;
determining time intervals during which occupancy states of the retrieved raw occupancy data records indicated that a room associated with the given space node was occupied during the given time segment;
adding the time intervals to determine the total time the room was occupied;
determining whether the total time exceeds a minimum occupancy threshold;
when the total time exceeds the minimum occupancy threshold, setting an occupancy state of the created normalized occupancy data record as occupied; and
when the total time does not exceed the minimum occupancy threshold, setting the occupancy state of the normalized occupancy data record for the given time segment and given space node as vacant.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of tags comprise at least one of a room name tag, a campus tag, a location tag, a building name tag, a floor tag, a department tag, a team tag, a room capacity tag, a room access level tag, an available resource tag, and a purpose tag.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of tags comprise at least one of a department tag comprising department states each identifying a department, a capacity tag comprising capacity states each identifying a maximum room capacity, and an access level tag comprising access level states each identifying employee access level to a room.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of tags comprise a purpose tag comprising purpose states each identifying a type of meeting that can be held in a room.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the purpose states comprise at least one of a presentation room state, an audioconference codec room state, and a videoconference codec room state.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying a building overview gauge comprising:
a bar comprising an ideal measurement area, an acceptable measurement area, and an unwanted measurement area;
a meter that shows on the bar an average occupancy rate of the entire building;
a minimum arrow that shows a minimum average occupancy rate of a space node; and
a maximum arrow that shows a maximum average occupancy rate of a space node.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of issuing alerts when calculated occupancy rates exceed a minimum value or a maximum value.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:
retrieving raw people count data records from the raw data database, wherein the room utilization sensors further comprise people count sensors each configured for counting people in a room, wherein the raw people count data records are gathered from the plurality of people count sensors, wherein each raw people count data record comprises a people count associated with a timestamp;
normalizing the raw people count data records into normalized people count data records, wherein each normalized people count data record comprises a time segment and a people count indicating the number of people present in a room during a given time segment;
structuring the normalized people count data records by associating each normalized people count data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw people count data record was collected;
receiving a selection of a tag from the user interface;
splitting the normalized people c

Assignees

• Crestron Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Donlan Brian
• Jackson Daniel

Classifications

• G06F16/24575

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• G06F16/248

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• G06F16/285

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• H04L12/2803 Primary

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• G06F16/9535

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