A Physiological-Signal-Based Thermal Sensation Model for Indoor Environment Thermal Comfort Evaluation. 2022

Shih-Lung Pao, and Shin-Yu Wu, and Jing-Min Liang, and Ing-Jer Huang, and Lan-Yuen Guo, and Wen-Lan Wu, and Yang-Guang Liu, and Shy-Her Nian
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.

Traditional heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) control systems rely mostly on static models, such as Fanger's predicted mean vote (PMV) to predict human thermal comfort in indoor environments. Such models consider environmental parameters, such as room temperature, humidity, etc., and indirect human factors, such as metabolic rate, clothing, etc., which do not necessarily reflect the actual human thermal comfort. Therefore, as electronic sensor devices have become widely used, we propose to develop a thermal sensation (TS) model that takes in humans' physiological signals for consideration in addition to the environment parameters. We conduct climate chamber experiments to collect physiological signals and personal TS under different environments. The collected physiological signals are ECG, EEG, EMG, GSR, and body temperatures. As a preliminary study, we conducted experiments on young subjects under static behaviors by controlling the room temperature, fan speed, and humidity. The results show that our physiological-signal-based TS model performs much better than the PMV model, with average RMSEs 0.75 vs. 1.07 (lower is better) and R2 0.77 vs. 0.43 (higher is better), respectively, meaning that our model prediction has higher accuracy and better explainability. The experiments also ranked the importance of physiological signals (as EMG, body temperature, ECG, and EEG, in descending order) so they can be selectively adopted according to the feasibility of signal collection in different application scenarios. This study demonstrates the usefulness of physiological signals in TS prediction and motivates further thorough research on wider scenarios, such as ages, health condition, static/motion/sports behaviors, etc.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D006361 Heating The application of heat to raise the temperature of the environment, ambient or local, or the systems for accomplishing this effect. It is distinguished from HEAT, the physical property and principle of physics.
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D006813 Humidity A measure of the amount of WATER VAPOR in the air. Humidities
D000389 Air Conditioning The maintenance of certain aspects of the environment within a defined space to facilitate the function of that space; aspects controlled include air temperature and motion, radiant heat level, moisture, and concentration of pollutants such as dust, microorganisms, and gases. (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 4th ed) Air Revitalization,Climate Control,Air Conditionings,Air Revitalizations,Climate Controls,Conditioning, Air,Conditionings, Air,Control, Climate,Controls, Climate,Revitalization, Air,Revitalizations, Air
D013696 Temperature The property of objects that determines the direction of heat flow when they are placed in direct thermal contact. The temperature is the energy of microscopic motions (vibrational and translational) of the particles of atoms. Temperatures
D013697 Thermosensing The sensation of cold, heat, coolness, and warmth as detected by THERMORECEPTORS. Temperature Sense,Sense, Temperature,Thermosensings
D014691 Ventilation Supplying a building or house, their rooms and corridors, with fresh air. The controlling of the environment thus may be in public or domestic sites and in medical or non-medical locales. (From Dorland, 28th ed) Ventilations

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