Temperature regulation based on thermal imaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11860039-B2
Application number	US-202217837287-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 10, 2022
Priority date	Jan 31, 2020
Publication date	Jan 2, 2024
Grant date	Jan 2, 2024

Abstract

Systems and techniques are described for using thermal imaging to configure and/or augment temperature regulation operations within a property. In some implementations, a computing device obtains a thermal image of a region of a property. The thermal image identifies at least a surface within the region. A surface temperature of the surface is determined. An ambient temperature for the region is determined based at least on the surface temperature. The one or more temperature controls for the region are adjusted based at least on the ambient temperature.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
maintaining data for a thermal image of a property that depicts a set of one or more surfaces a) in an area of the property and b) that were each predicted as likely to be interacted with by a person from one or more people in the property using a corresponding object classification of an object that includes the corresponding surface;
computing, for a surface in the set of one or more surfaces and using at least some of the data, a corresponding surface temperature;
determining a predicted ambient temperature for the area using at least the surface temperature; and
adjusting one or more temperature controls for the property using at least the predicted ambient temperature.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thermal image comprises an infrared image collected by an infrared camera located in the property.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
predicting that a set of objects corresponding to the set of one or more surfaces are likely to be interacted with by a person using object classifications of the set of objects.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
obtaining historical activity data associated with the property, wherein the historical activity data identifies a set of interactions of the user one or more people with objects included in the property;
determining, using the historical activity data, a respective number of interactions for each object from among the objects included in the property; and
selecting the set of objects using numbers of interactions determined for the objects included in the property.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the object classifications of objects included in the set of objects indicate that the corresponding object represents furniture.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the one or more temperature controls comprises adjusting a set point temperature of a thermostat of the property.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein adjusting the one or more temperature controls further comprises providing, to an HVAC system of the property, an instruction that causes the HVAC system to initiate a temperature regulation operation.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining that the ambient temperature satisfies the set point temperature,
wherein providing the instruction that causes the HVAC system to initiate the temperature regulation operation is in response to determining that the ambient temperature satisfies the set point temperature, and
wherein the temperature regulation operation initiated by the HVAC system to comprises a cooling operation or a heating operation depending on whether the ambient temperature satisfies the set point temperature.

9. A system comprising:
one or more computers; and
one or more storage devices storing instructions that cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
maintaining data for a thermal image of a property that depicts, a set of one or more surfaces a) in an area of the property and b) that were each predicted as likely to be interacted with by a person from one or more people in the property using a corresponding object classification of an object that includes the corresponding surface;
computing, for a surface in the set of one or more surfaces and using at least some of the data, a corresponding surface temperature;
determining a predicted ambient temperature for the area using at least the surface temperature; and
adjusting one or more temperature controls for the property using at least the predicted ambient temperature.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the thermal image comprises an infrared image collected by an infrared camera located in the property.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:
predicting that a set of objects corresponding to the set of one or more surfaces are likely to be interacted with by a person using object classifications of the set of objects.

12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising:
obtaining historical activity data associated with the property, wherein the historical activity data identifies a set of interactions of one or more people with objects included in the property;
determining, using the historical activity data, a respective number of interactions for each object from among the objects included in the property; and
selecting the set of objects using numbers of interactions determined for the objects included in the property.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the object classifications of objects included in the set of objects indicate that the corresponding object represents furniture.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein adjusting the one or more temperature controls comprises adjusting a set point temperature of a thermostat of the property.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein adjusting the one or more temperature controls further comprises providing, to an HVAC system of the property, an instruction that causes the HVAC system to initiate a temperature regulation operation.

16. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
maintaining data for a thermal image of a property that depicts a set of one or more surfaces a) in an area of the property and b) that were each predicted as likely to be interacted with by a person from one or more people in the property using a corresponding object classification of an object that includes the corresponding surface;
computing, for a surface in the set of one or more surfaces and using at least some of the data, a corresponding surface temperature;
determining a predicted ambient temperature for the area using at least the surface temperature; and
adjusting one or more temperature controls for the property using at least the predicted ambient temperature.

17. The storage media of claim 16 , wherein the thermal image comprises an infrared image collected by an infrared camera located in the property.

18. The storage media of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:
predicting that a set of objects corresponding to the set of one or more surfaces are likely to be interacted with by a person using object classifications.

19. The storage media of claim 18 , further comprising:
obtaining historical activity data associated with the property, wherein the historical activity data identifies a set of interactions of one or more people with objects included in the property;
determining, using the historical activity data, a respective number of interactions for each object from among the objects included in the property; and
selecting the set of objects using numbers of interactions determined for the objects included in the property.

20. The storage media of claim 18 , wherein the object classifications of objects included in the set of objects indicate that the corresponding object represents furniture.

Assignees

• Objectvideo Labs Llc
• Object Video Labs Llc

Inventors

• Shayne Ethan
• Madden Donald Gerard

Classifications

• H04N23/23

  from thermal infrared radiation · CPC title

• F24F11/80

  for controlling the temperature of the supplied air · CPC title

• G01J5/025 Primary

  Interfacing a pyrometer to an external device or network; User interface · CPC title

• G01J5/0859

  Sighting arrangements, e.g. cameras · CPC title

• H04N5/33

  Transforming infrared radiation (cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20) · CPC title