Grantee Research Project Results
2020 Progress Report: Sensible Home: Micro-environmental control through wearable personal sensors
EPA Grant Number: SU836940Title: Sensible Home: Micro-environmental control through wearable personal sensors
Investigators: Wang, Julian , Fan, Howard
Institution: University of Cincinnati
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Phase: II
Project Period: February 1, 2017 through January 31, 2019 (Extended to January 31, 2022)
Project Period Covered by this Report: February 1, 2020 through January 31,2021
Project Amount: $75,000
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet - Phase 2 (2016) Recipients Lists
Research Category: P3 Challenge Area - Chemical Safety , Sustainable and Healthy Communities , P3 Awards
Objective:
Our long-term research goal is to bring the human-in-the-loop of residential building controls using personal wearable sensors and lead to new advances in building energy efficiency and indoor comfort. As a step toward this, this P3 Phase II project targets the senior populations who were found to have significant demands regarding indoor comfort and health, develops a reliable integrative comfort model upon wearable sensor data, and determines the methods taking energy saving considerations into account. The experimental testing of the developed prototype consisting of a personal wearable module and a computing module connected to a laptop is planned for a senior living residence, in collaboration with a local non-profit continuing care retirement community. Built upon the theoretical demonstration in Phase I, the ultimate goal of this Phase II project is to improve and verify our concept and prepare it for implementation, in an effort to benefit individual indoor comfort (people), promote economic growth in smart buildings and healthcare (prosperity), and build energy efficiency (the planet).
Progress Summary:
Summary of Outputs/Outcomes
To respond to the limited access to the campus lab and restricted user testing because of the COVID-19 effects, the research team re-designed the data collection system to be coupled with personal mobile devices (e.g., smartphone) and developed wearable sensors, which enable the automatic data collection in individual living settings (e.g., apartment, house). This individualized comfort monitor system includes the hardware components to measure the thermal and visual comfort-related factors and software components to storage, transfer, and process data. Furthermore, a smartphone-based application has been developed to receive the alert message and notify the user to take the comfort-related survey. This smartphone app could control the start of data collection by connecting and turning on the wearable sensors. In order to reduce the frequency of surveys automatically generated from the app and wearable sensor, we also explored the online machine learning techniques for the micro-environmental comfort and control purposes.
Conclusions: In this project year, a new data collection system was developed in response to the pandemic influence. A few pilot user testing works of this data collection system and associated programs have been conducted, and the data measurement and collection effectiveness have been demonstrated. However, the efficiency compared to the conventional indoor comfort surveys has not been examined. Furthermore, we also found that two specific online learning techniques can be helpful to automatically adjust the thresholds pre-designed in this data collection system to further improve the data collection efficiency and effectiveness.
Future Activities:
With the designed system, the research team plans to conduct the remote user study and complete the individualized comfort modeling by the end of the next project year.
Journal Articles on this Report : 6 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 18 publications | 8 publications in selected types | All 8 journal articles |
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Li J, Qi M, Wang J. Designing for microclimatic comfort and health:A rapid prediction model of environmental conditions. Nano Life 2018;8(2):17-32. |
SU836940 (2017) SU836940 (2020) |
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Song Y, Li J, Wang J, Hao S, Zhu N, Lin Z. Multi-criteria approach to passive space design in buildings: impact of courtyard spaces on public buildings in cold climates. Building and Environment 2015;89:295-307. |
SU836940 (2020) SU836164 (Final) |
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Duan Q, Wang J. Thermal Conditions Controlled by Thermostats:An Occupational Comfort and Well-being Perspective. Civil Engineering and Architecture 2017;5(5). . |
SU836940 (2017) SU836940 (2019) SU836940 (2020) |
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Li J, Qi M, Duan Q, Huo L, Wang J. Towards Pedestrian Microclimatic Comfort: A Rapid Predication Model for Street Winds and Pedestrian Thermal Sensation. Nano Life 2018;8(02):1840006. |
SU836940 (2018) SU836940 (2019) SU836940 (2020) |
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Feng Y, Wang N, Wang J. Design of Real-Time Individualized Comfort Monitor System Used in Healthcare Facilities. International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2020 ; (pp. 261-270). Springer, Cham.. |
SU836940 (2020) |
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Wang N, Feng Y, Wang, J. Development of A Spectral Integral Method for Analyzing Solar Effects through Windows on Indoor Thermal Comfort . International Solar Energy Society 2020. |
SU836940 (2020) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Micro-environmental control; wearable sensors; indoor comfort, building energy efficiency; personal factors; healthcare; data sensing and processing.Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractP3 Phase I:
Sensible Home: Micro-environmental control through wearable personal sensors | Final ReportThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- Final Report
- 2019 Progress Report
- 2018 Progress Report
- 2017 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
- P3 Phase I | Final Report
8 journal articles for this project