Fraunhofer ItaliaAutomation systems seem to be a promising approach in the building sector for efficiently managing the building’s operational system, by reducing energy consumption and increasing occupant comfort indoors. smARtENA aims to test IoT services for detecting indoors comfort and users behavior, analyzing data with an Artificial Intelligence algorithm and informing users by means of advanced digital user interfaces. IoT services make it possible to easily interact with the building energy system, optimize control on the basis of indoors data, extract frequent operating patterns and detect anomalies in building operation.
In particular, two demonstrators are being developed as part of smARtENA:
- Crowd and evacuation control: thermal imaging will make it possible to recognize user patterns and predict occupancy and movement within an indoors space. Using thermal images has the advantage of avoiding the privacy issues attendant on the use of conventional cameras.
- Monitoring data visualization: developing innovative approaches for visualizing monitoring data via digital interfaces. In particular, a user friendly tool and Mixed Reality application have been developed for visualizing the data provided by sensors. The user friendly tool is used by end users to view the most important information, prompts for user feedback and give users feedback to improve their perception of comfort. The MR application is an innovative concept that makes it possible to visualize measurement data in a geometrical context and, with its multi-user interface, multiple users can explore the data together, both on- and off-site.