Air purifier with selective cleaning feature

[0001] The present invention relates generally to the field of air purifiers, and more particularly to an air purifier having a control system providing a selective cleaning feature that detects when an ambient space is unoccupied and provides for increased fan speed and associated increased air filtration during periods of time in which the ambient space is determined to be unoccupied.

[0002] The growing effect of pollution and global warming are increasing the need for air purifiers to improve indoor air quality. Typical air purifier products use a fan to drive intake air from a room through filtration media, such as high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, to remove harmful airborne particulates from the air, and then exhaust cleaned, filtered air back into the room.

[0003] Conventional air purifiers include a manually-operated ON/OFF switch and are designed to run continuously when the switch is set to the ON position. Some conventional air purifiers have manually-adjustable (e.g., LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH) fan speeds that can be used to manually increase or decrease the fan speed. The fan speed setting impacts the amount of air purification, with the HIGH fan spend setting providing greatest air cleaning. However, relatively higher fan speeds result in relatively higher noise, which can be unpleasant, distracting, or overwhelming to persons in the room. Accordingly, the fan speed may be manually adjusted by a person present in the room to lower the fan speed, with the desired result of reducing noise, and the undesirable result of reducing air cleaning. Some air purifiers may allow for making of a manual adjustment to fan speed from a remote location, e.g., via a smartphone app in communication with the air purifier.

[0004] Some conventional air purifiers have controls systems that allow for monitoring of the “dirtiness” of the air, automatic adjustment of the fan speed to increase fan speed and filtration on an as-needed basis. Accordingly, for example, when a level of fine particulate matter is elevated in the room, a conventional purifier may resultingly increase its fan speed in order to increase the airflow through the HEPA filter and hence increase the filtration rate. However, the amount of noise generated during this increased fan speed period is usually disturbing to the user, who can use the device functions to manually limit the maximum fan speed and/or decibels generated, which resultingly decreases the filtering efficiency.

[0005] Some currently available air purifiers include a particle sensor to show the user what the air quality is in their home by way of certain standards, such as air quality index (AQI). AQI is generally known as a function of the amount of particles in the air having a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM 2.5). In the USA, standards for correlation between AQI and PM 2.5 are used, and user's need to use trial and error to reach a desired AQI.

[0006] Many human activities in a room tend to elevate AQI (decrease air quality) for short periods of time. Those activities include cooking, smoking, playing physical games/sports, etc. Accordingly, it is helpful to keep baseline room AQI at a relatively low levels, to minimize the eventual peak values that will be reached during such activities.

[0007] Yet other currently available air purifiers have an “Auto” fan speed feature. Such feature uses a simple if/then function to set fan speed based on certain thresholds in AQI. For example, such a feature may function as follows: if AQI is between 0-50, then set fan speed to low; if AQI is between 51-100, then set fan speed to medium, or if AQI is over 101, then set fan speed to high. The problem with such features is that each air purifier manufacturer uses different thresholds of AQI ranges. That is, each manufacturer has their own air quality ranges for good, medium or bad air qualities and for low, medium, or high fan speeds. For example, some companies market how quiet their air purifier is, but they achieve quietness by increasing the permissible particulate threshold levels. The result may be an air purifier that is so quiet that it does not remove an effective amount of the harmful air particles. Because such information is not shared with the consumer, the consumer does not know whether the air purifier is, in fact, effective.

[0008] What is needed is an air purifier that can determine when an ambient space is unoccupied, and provide for increased fan speed and associated increased air filtration during periods of time in which the ambient space is unoccupied, to reduce baseline AQI and avoid disturbances caused by high fan speeds.

[0009] The present invention provides an air purifier that can determine when an ambient space is unoccupied, and provide for increased fan speed and associated increased air filtration during periods of time in which the ambient space is unoccupied, to reduce baseline AQI and avoid disturbances caused by high fan speeds. Such preventive action is beneficial during following periods when the room is occupied because in the case of isolated rooms (all windows and door closed most of the time) the cleaning process is cumulative in nature.

[0016] Generally, operation of air purifiers to improve air quality, in a relatively short period of time, involves operation of the air purifier's fan at a higher fan speed, which necessarily results in increased noise that can be disturbing to room occupants. In other words, increased air purification is desirable but is typically associated with increased noise/noise pollution. The present invention provides an air purifier that can determine when an ambient space is unoccupied, and that provides for increased fan speed and associated increased air filtration during periods of time in which the ambient space is unoccupied, to provide for overall improved air quality while also avoiding disturbances to room occupants caused by higher fan speeds used for increased air filtration performance.

[0017] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustrating an exemplary air purifier 100 having a control system providing a selective cleaning feature in accordance with an exemplary embodiment the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the exemplary air purifier 100 can include a housing 10 supporting a motorized fan 20 for drawing inlet air (ambient room air) into the housing 10 and through a filter 30, such as a HEPA filter comprising HEPA filtration media, and then exhausting the filter/purified air from the housing 10 using such other electrical and/or other components that are typical of air purifiers, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

[0018] The exemplary air purifier can further include a control system 40 that includes a speed controller 50 operatively connected to the fan 20 (or more particularly, the fan's motor), to provide a suitable signal to the fan motor to control the fan and thus the speed of the fan's blade. The control system 40 may include a printed circuit board supporting electrical components that implement suitable logic for controlling the fan 20.

[0019] The control system 40 can ensure a sufficient airflow through the filter media 30 to reduce the density of particulate pollution in the indoor airspace in light of generally unknown and uncontrollable external disturbances such as outdoor pollution density, room occupancy activities, cooking, etc. The performance of the air purifier control system 40 can be effectively limited by hardware capabilities of the device in terms of achievable CADR, filter efficiency, sensor selectivity and sensitivity as well as by the extent of the external disturbances. The control system 40 can be composed of hardware level and software level layers. With respect to the hardware level, the control system 40 can rely primarily on the AQI particulate sensor 60 and fan speed controller 50. However, additional sensors/actuators such as a proximity sensor, a pressure sensor or a gas sensor might be included to further improve the performance of the air purifier 100. With respect to the software level, the control system 40 can be implemented as an executable entity in a dedicated microcontroller integrated circuit (IC). The control algorithm can perform discrete-event functions such as starting/stopping the fan when commanded by the user or in response to particular threshold levels of indoor pollutants. As another higher level of control, the air purifier may implement a feedback controller, which allows a proportional acceleration of the fan in response to measured indicators of pollution. Generally, the control software of the air purifier 100 can be a composition of various loops of control dedicated to various functions requested by the device.

[0020] In this exemplary embodiment, the control system 40 can include an AQI sensor 60 for determining air quality on an air quality index (AWI) scale as a function of particulate matter distribution observed in the ambient air by the AQI sensor. The exemplary AQI sensor 60 can detect the mass density of particles within a specific range of aerodynamic diameters. Typical particle size thresholds employed are 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 micrometers. AQI is obtained according to the established international standards. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the AQI sensor 60 may include any suitable hardware, such as an optical-based particle counter exploiting Mie scattering theory, where a laser emits a testing impulse towards the testing chamber put on the path of particulate dense air flow, and consequently the scattered light is detected by one or several detectors. There are other more accurate means to infer the particle distribution in the air such as mass collectors or spectrometers, and any suitable hardware may be used. However, optical-based sensors are often deemed most suitable for use in domestic air-purifiers. In this exemplary embodiment, the speed controller 50 of the control system 40 is configured to vary fan speed according to predetermined logic, as a function of air quality data obtained by the AQI sensor 60, e.g., in a manner consistent with approaches in the prior art. In this example, the speed controller 50 can be configured to determine a suitable fan speed as a function of AQI sensor data such that the fan speed is relatively higher (for relatively more air filtration/air cleaning) when the AQI sensor 60 indicates a relatively low level of air quality (e.g., high level of particulate matter) and such that the fan speed is relatively lower (for relatively less air filtration/air cleaning) when the AQI sensor indicates a relatively high level of air quality (e.g., low level of particulate matter). Various sensors and techniques for determining/varying fan speed are known in the art, and any suitable sensors, logic and/or techniques may be used for this primary determination of fan speed consistent with the present invention.

[0021] In accordance with the present invention, the control system 40 can further include an occupancy-aware controller 70. The occupancy-aware controller 70 is generally responsible for determining when a room or similar environment of the air purifier is unoccupied by humans, and for providing a suitable signal to the speed controller 50 so that the determination of room occupancy can be used as an additional factor in determining/varying fan speed, consistent with the present invention. More particularly, the occupancy-aware controller 70 provides what may be referred to as a “housekeeping mode” function that provides for relatively higher fan speeds (and thus increased air purification performance) during periods in which the room/environment of the air purifier is determined not to be occupied by one or more humans, to avoid disturbances to nearby humans that would be caused by the relatively higher fan speed.

[0022] By way of example, the occupancy-aware controller 70, acting in concert with the speed controller 50, may cause the fan 20 to be controlled to provide a higher fan speed than would otherwise be determined to be appropriate based on the AQI sensor 60 and/or other sensors apart from consideration of room occupancy as determined by the occupancy-aware controller 70, e.g., when the room is determined to be unoccupied.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 1, the exemplary occupancy-aware controller 70 can include a presence sensor 80, for detecting when humans are in proximity to the air purifier, e.g., in the same room, and a CO₂ sensor 90, for determining CO₂ levels in the ambient air. In some embodiments, the CO₂ sensor 90, and an output from the CO₂ sensor, may also be considered by the speed controller for determination of a suitable fan speed apart from the functionality of the occupancy-aware controller 70.

[0024] The presence sensor 80 may be any suitable sensor, such as an infrared sensor, Bluetooth® receiver, a lidar sensor and/or a radar sensor. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, such sensors are usable to determine whether one or more humans are present in the vicinity of the air purifier. By way of example, the presence sensor 80 may include a doppler radar sensor, and the speed controller 50 (or a sub-controller component of the occupancy-aware controller 70) may use data received from the doppler radar sensor to analyze a phase delay in a detected by a doppler radar signal that is determined by suitable logic to be indicative of a presence of one or more humans in the vicinity of the air purifier. By way of example, this doppler radar approach works particularly well for detecting motion of large objects around the purifier device, but has limitations, for example, with respect to smaller and/or immobile objects, such as a slow-moving or sedentary human.

[0025] The CO₂ sensor 90 may be an infrared-based photo-sensor or alternatively a metal oxide semiconductor (MOX) based sensor for volatile organic compounds (VOC) from which the CO₂ is estimated, or other sensor disposed for determining a CO₂ level in ambient air, e.g., outside of or as it passes through the air purifier 100. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, such a sensor is usable to determine whether one or more humans are present in the vicinity of the air purifier as reflected by an increased CO₂ level associated with the presence and expiration of CO₂ by one or more beings in the vicinity of the air purifier. By way of example, the CO₂ sensor 90, and the speed controller 50 (or a sub-controller component of the occupancy-aware controller 70) may use data received from the CO₂ sensor 90 to analyze a gradual increase in ambient CO₂ level that is determined by suitable logic to be indicative of a presence of one or more humans in the vicinity of the air purifier. For example, this can be done by determining carbon dioxide levels in the room above environmental CO₂ levels (which may be determined for example by accessing a public meteorological database for monitoring ambient CO₂ level through time and location), which are often around 411 ppm. If the CO₂ levels are elevated, then it may be considered that at least one human is present. By way of further example, the room's natural ventilation rate/ACH (determined by estimating the asymptotic rate of decrease of CO₂ or VOC gas measured by the respective sensor), room volume (determined by user specified room volume in combination with an automatic room volume correction algorithm based on deviation between predicted and actual time to clean the particulate matter in the room) and/or average CO₂ level associated with human breathing (e.g., a known figure) may be further accounted for to determine a number of occupants in the room, or that at least one occupant is present. Information about the room occupancy state may be useful because speeding up the air purifier's fan would eventually generate elevated levels of acoustic noise, which might be disturbing for the occupants. On the other hand, a simple proximity sensor mounted in the purifier (for example, an RF radar based sensor) to detect proximity may not be enough to ensure that room is unoccupied, because in certain activities, such as sitting or sleeping, the local proximity sensor might not detect any motion in the room. By way of example, this approach works particularly well for detecting motion of large objects around the air purifier device 100, but has limitations, for example, with respect to smaller and/or immobile objects, such as a slow-moving or sedentary human.

[0026] In certain embodiments, only a presence sensor 80 or a CO₂ sensor 90 may be used to determine room occupancy. However, this has some potential disadvantages. For example, if only a doppler radar is used to detect presence and the human occupant is just sitting without moving in the room, then unoccupancy might be wrongly inferred. In such a situation the CO₂ level may slowly rise. On the other hand, relying solely on the CO₂ level to determine the room occupancy may not be sufficiently reliable because accumulation of CO₂ in a large room can be slow and misleading. Accordingly, in a preferred embodiment, multiple sensors are used in the determination of occupancy state (occupied or unoccupied). For example, the occupancy may be judged by a combination of three signals—phase delay detected by doppler radar, carbon dioxide levels in the room above the environment CO₂ levels (e.g., around 411 ppm), and room natural ventilation rates (home ACH). Natural ventilation rate is useful in determining the rate of exchange of air between indoor and outdoor spaces, hence, a certain level of CO₂ detected in the room can indicate different levels of occupancy depending on the home ACH. A relatively high level of CO₂ with a low level of home ACH might indicate no occupancy, while in another situation with a low level of CO₂ but high home ACH might indicate human presence in the room. Use of multiple sensors and indications of occupancy in the occupancy determined may help to more reliability determine the room's occupancy state.

[0027] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram 300 illustrating an exemplary method operation of the exemplary air purifier 100 of FIG. 1. Referring now to FIG. 2, the method can begin with the control system 40 of the air purifier 100 monitoring speed-determinant factors, as shown at 302. This may include, for example, the speed controller 50 monitoring a position of a manually operated fan speed switch and/or receiving data/signals from any of a plurality of sensors of the air purifier, according to the configuration of the air purifier. In the example of FIG. 1, this may involve monitoring of particulate matter via the AQI sensor 60 and/or other sensors.

[0028] Next, the method can involve determining a baseline fan speed, as shown at 304. This may be performed in any suitable fashion, according to the configuration of the air purifier. In the example of FIG. 1, this can involve the speed controller 50 receiving data from at least the AQI sensor and determining a suitable fan speed according to suitable logic and/or programming of the speed controller 50. For example, the speed controller 50 may determine a fan speed suitable (e.g. 70% of maximum speed) for reaching a suitable AQI level within a fixed period of time, e.g., 20 minutes. Next, the method can involve controlling the fan to deliver the desired fan speed (e.g., 70% of maximum speed), as shown at 306. This may involve the speed controller 50 transmitting a certain data or other control signal to the motor or motor controller of the fan 20. Steps 302-306 may be performed in a conventional or generally conventional fashion.

[0029] Next, in the example of FIG. 1, the exemplary method can involve obtaining a proximity logical data signal from the presence sensor 80, as shown at 308. This may involve use of the presence sensor 80, and receipt of a corresponding signal from the presence sensor 80 at the speed controller 50.

[0030] Next, in the example of FIG. 1, the exemplary method can involve obtaining ambient air CO₂ level data signal from the CO₂ sensor 90, and of proximity data from the presence sensor 80, as shown at 310. This may involve use of the CO₂ sensor 90, and receipt of a corresponding signal from the CO₂ sensor 90 at the speed controller 50.

[0031] Next, in the example of FIG. 1, the exemplary method can involve determining room natural ventilation rate (ACH), as shown at 312. This can be determined by estimating CO₂ signal decay rate towards ambient levels through a recursive identification procedure of a first order differential dynamical model for the CO₂ concentration in the room.

[0032] Next, in the example of FIG. 1, the exemplary method can involve determining a room occupancy state (occupied or unoccupied by persons) as a function of the proximity data, CO₂ level data and room ACH rate, as shown at 314. This can be determined by employing a mathematical model for the room occupancy with variables: number of occupants, breathing rate, room ACH and CO₂ level. In this model the breathing rate can be assumed constant, the room ACH can be estimated as described above, and the CO₂ level can be measured by the CO₂ sensor or infrared from the VOC sensor. Hence the only unknown in this model is the number of occupants breathing, which can be determined by an adaptive filtering algorithm that modifies the number of occupants until the predicted CO₂ level by the assumed number of occupants is fit to the measured CO₂ level. In this process the accuracy of the room ACH plays a critical role since it determines the balance between CO₂ source rate and CO₂ sink rate to the environment.

[0033] Next, the method can involve determining the occupancy state, as shown at 316. If the room is not unoccupied (meaning it is in the occupied state), then the method flow continues to 302, at which point the determined baseline fan speed (e.g., 70% of maximum speed) can be maintained or redetermined based on current speed determinant factors, as shown at 302-306.

[0034] However, if it is determined at 316 that the room is unoccupied (meaning it is in the unoccupied state), then the method flow continues to 318, at which point the speed controller 50 determines an increased fan speed. The increased fan speed may be determined in any suitable fashion. For example, this may involve setting the fan speed to a maximum speed (e.g., 100% of maximum speed), applying a predetermined increase to the otherwise-determined fan speed, or determining a suitable higher fan speed for achieving a desired AQI/air purification level in a certain shortened timeframe relative to the timeframe used to calculate the baseline fan speed, according to logic implemented at the speed controller 50.

[0035] Next, the method can involve controlling the fan to deliver the increased fan speed (e.g., 100% of maximum speed), as shown at 320. This may involve the speed controller 50 transmitting certain data or a control signal to the motor or motor controller of the fan 20.

[0036] In this example, the method flow continues to 316, and the increased fan speed is maintained until it is determined at 316 that the room is no longer unoccupied. At that time, the method can return to step 302 and the desired baseline fan speed can be maintained until the room again becomes unoccupied. It will be appreciated that in other embodiments, the method flow may be different. For example, the method may involve maintaining the increased fan speed for a predetermined period of time, or until desired AQI/air purification level is obtained, etc.

[0037] In any case, the present invention provides for occupancy-aware control of fan speed, to cause increase fan speed during periods that the vicinity of the air purifier 100 is determined to be unoccupied, to avoid disturbing occupants in the vicinity of the air purifier with increased noise associated with increased fan speeds.

[0038] In this exemplary embodiment, the operation of the air purifier is dependent on selection of a desired (e.g., optimal) fan speed. Since the fan speed is affected by a lot of modes, a priority chain may be constructed where speed from a lower priority mode is merged with the speed of the current mode and fed to the next high priority mode, as shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 shows a schematic illustrating a state machine 400 for determining fan speed in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The state machine 400 can include a proximity control 410 (used as the occupancy aware controller 70) which can receive input from multiple signals such as a presence signal from radar, a CO₂ signal, and a room ACH signal and can generate a blended (merged) enable signal. The speed controller 50 can be configured as a more complex housekeeper 420 which receives the merged enable signal from the proximity control 410 and can also receive signal inputs representing multiple parameters such as fan reference speed, AQI, current fan speed, and results of a filter test. The merge operation may involve either taking the maximum fan speed between the previous and the current speed or replacing the previous speed with the current speed. The housekeeper 420 can thus generate an updated fan speed which can either be a maximum speed or a replacement of a previous speed with the updated fan speed.

[0039] A selective cleaning operation may be driven by the housekeeper 420 (see FIG. 4) which determines a new speed level based on the room occupancy. FIG. 4 shows a schematic illustrating exemplary states of a control system for determining fan speed (represented as idle, accelerate, active, and decelerate) in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Accordingly, for example, after the room is detected to be in the unoccupied state, the housekeeper 420 can decide what will be the updated speed for the air purifier's fan, e.g., based on the current AQI levels, current fan speed and fan speed reference.

[0040] FIG. 5 is a schematic illustrating operation during the active state of the housekeeper 420 shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 5, two parallel functions can be performed by the housekeeper 420 of state machine 400. First, proximity monitoring can be continuously/repeatedly checked for any change in the room occupancy, in order to be able to interrupt the active mode if someone enters the room. Second, the unoccupied period for the room can be used by the device to trigger some additional calibration tests for the device, which can be performed at maximal speed. This can be a filter life calibration test, which requires speeding up the device to its full speed and measuring the pressure calibration curve. Hence, after a minimal run using the active mode is completed, the filter calibration test can be performed. After this test is completed, the room AQI can be monitored. If the room AQI is close to zero, it is considered that there is no actual need to maintain the increased fan speed during housekeeping mode, and the active mode can be interrupted.

[0041] While there have been described herein the principles of the invention, it is to be understood by those skilled in the art that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is intended by the appended claims, to cover all modifications of the invention which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.