Device for determining a temperature in a passenger compartment of a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11458803-B2
Application number	US-201916658952-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2019
Priority date	Oct 24, 2018
Publication date	Oct 4, 2022
Grant date	Oct 4, 2022

Abstract

A device for determining a temperature in a passenger compartment of a vehicle comprising a sensor unit for detecting infra-red radiation and a temperature determining unit. The temperature determining unit may be configured so as, in dependence upon the measurement data provided by the sensor unit, to determine a surface temperature of a predetermined object located in the vehicle passenger compartment and, from the determined surface temperature of the object using a first functional relationship, to determine an air temperature in the vehicle passenger compartment. The temperature determining unit may be configured as an alternative or in addition thereto so as, in dependence upon the measurement data provided by the sensor unit, to determine a surface temperature for at least one passenger compartment occupant, and from the determined surface temperature using a second functional relationship to determine a measurement for the level of personal comfort.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device for determining a temperature in a passenger compartment of a vehicle, said device comprising:
a sensor unit for detecting infrared radiation; and,
a temperature determining unit configured so as, in dependence upon measurement data provided by the sensor unit, to determine a surface temperature of a predetermined object located in the passenger compartment of the vehicle, and from the determined surface temperature of the object using a first functional relationship, to determine an air temperature in the passenger compartment of the vehicle,
wherein the temperature determining unit is further configured so as, in dependence upon the measurement data provided by the sensor unit, to determine a surface temperature for at least one occupant of the passenger compartment, and, from the determined surface temperature of the at least one occupant using a second functional relationship, to determine a measurement for a level of personal comfort,
wherein, so as to determine the measurement for the level of personal comfort, an equivalent temperature of at least one of a face or of a whole body of the at least one occupant is determined, and
wherein the temperature determining unit is further configured so as, using a correction value, to take into consideration at least one or more of an effect according to which;
in a case of an increase in a compartment temperature, after the exceeding a first compartment temperature threshold, the surface temperature of the at least one occupant no longer increases or slowly increases since the at least one occupant increasingly loses heat by means of sweating; or
in a case of a reduction in the compartment temperature, after falling below a second compartment temperature threshold, the surface temperature of the at least one occupant no longer decreases or slowly decreases since the at least one occupant increasingly creates heat by means of shivering.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the temperature determining unit is configured so as to detect at least one of inhomogeneities or asymmetries of a temperature distribution in the passenger compartment to determine the surface temperatures of predetermined objects in different areas of the passenger compartment, and, using the first functional relationship, to determine therefrom respective air temperatures in the different areas of the passenger compartment.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the temperature determining unit is configured so as, in dependence upon the measurement data of the sensor unit, to determine a surface temperature of an object that is located in a close vicinity of the at least one occupant, and to use the surface temperature of the object located in the close vicinity of the at least one occupant as the correction value for determining the measurement for the level of personal comfort.

4. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the second functional relationship further comprises a correction variable for which different values are established depending upon a time of year.

5. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the device is configured so as, in dependence upon the measurement data provided by the sensor unit, to determine a number of occupants in the vehicle.

6. The device as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the temperature determining unit is configured so as, in dependence upon the determined number of occupants, to determine the measurement for the level of personal comfort for a plurality of occupants.

7. The device as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the temperature determining unit is configured to determine the measurement for the level of personal comfort for all occupants.

8. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the sensor unit for detecting infrared radiation comprises at least one of an IR camera or a thermal imaging camera.

9. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the determined surface temperature of the at least one occupant is at least one of a face temperature or a hand temperature.

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Gmbh

Inventors

• Ercan Ayse
• Yildirim Kemal-Edip
• Bader Viktor
• Gores Ingo

Classifications

• B60H1/00742 Primary

  by detection of the vehicle occupants' presence; by detection of conditions relating to the body of occupants, e.g. using radiant heat detectors · CPC title

• B60H1/00807

  the input being a specific way of measuring or calculating an air or coolant temperature · CPC title