COOLERS"

FIELD OF THE INVENTION: The present invention relates to the field of an evaporative air cooler. More particularly, present invention relates to the control systems of various functions of evaporative air coolers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

An evaporative cooler (also swamp cooler, desert cooler and wet air cooler) is a device that cools air through the evaporation of water. The temperature of dry air can be dropped significantly through the phase transition of liquid water to water vapor (evaporation). This can cool air using much less energy than refrigeration. In extremely dry climates, evaporative cooling of air has the added benefit of conditioning the air with more moisture for the comfort of building occupants. Typically, such coolers are used for residential installation or for industrial installation. The principles of evaporative air-cooling have been exploited for several decades by people of many countries to obtain relief from uncomfortably warm environments. Air coolers are more effective in dry, hot tropical locations. Present day air coolers typically comprise of a body, a water tank, fibre pads (of different possible materials), air moving device (axial or centrifugal or cross flow fans) and water circulation system. A motorized air moving device mounted within the body of the air cooler - with fibre pads on at least one of the sides of the air cooler - blows the cool air from the air outlet (usually at front or top of the air cooler). The loosely woven fibres of the fibre pads are made of hay or cellulose. In case when fibre pads are made of hay, hay wool is filled in the cotton net of the fibre pad l and in the case when fibre pads are made of cellulose, the fibre pad consist of paper and special adhesive with multiple layer of corrugated paper arranged in honeycomb manner. The fibres of the pads are kept wetted using a water distribution system.

Cooling of air using evaporative air coolers is controlled in various ways through various functions installed in said coolers. Normal controlling functions include air speed control (high, medium, low etc), air delivery mode (for example natural, normal, sleep etc), off or on timer, cooling, left/ right swing etc. Additionally, a recent development includes evaporative coolers with ionizer. All these different functions are controlled by electro-mechanical switches or by electronic control panel and remote control. In all such cases, a user has to touch and operate the switches or buttons. However, this leads to mechanical wear and tear, noise and also hygiene issues.

Thus, there is a need to develop an alternate mode of controlling these functions. PRIOR ART:

Existing systems of controlling various functions of the air cooler include controlling through electro-mechanical switches or electronic control panels and often through remote control.

In all these cases, a human hand touch is required to operate and control such functions and a person has to wipe clean and dry his/her hand prior to touching these switches/ buttons etc to operate and control also, multiple persons touching the controls at different time is unhygienic. Also, all there is a usual wear and tear of switches/ buttons/ springs etc components which are touched by human hands for operation and control of the air cooler for electro-mechanical switches, the operation is often associated with noise too.

Thus, there is an unmet need to develop an alternative control system for controlling various functions of the evaporative air coolers specifically, there is a need to develop a gesture control system for evaporative air coolers.

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PRIOR ART: Existing controlling systems for the evaporative coolers suffers from at least one of the following disadvantages:

• Requires physical human hand touch to operate and control such functions.

• Requires ensuring that hand is clean and dry; for which a person has to wipe clean and dry his/her hand prior to touching these switches/ buttons etc to operate and control.

• Multiple persons touching the controlling switches or buttons at different time is unhygienic.

• There are usual wear and tear of switches/ buttons/ springs etc components which are touched by human hands for operation and control of the air cooler for electro-mechanical switches, the operation is often associated with noise too.

• Water proofing of switch is difficult.

• There is risk of getting shock while operating.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION: The primary object of the present invention is to provide a gesture control system for evaporative air coolers for controlling different functions of an evaporative air cooler. Another object of the present invention is to provide a gesture control system for evaporative air coolers for easy command and control over the operations and various functions of the said evaporative coolers, particularly without physically touching component of the said control panel of said evaporative air-cooler.

BREIF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION: Referring to fig. 6, the embodiment of the present invention provides a gesture control system for an evaporative air cooler, mainly comprising:

• Evaporative Cooler components,

· Controller 1,

• Controller 2,

• Recognised gesture output means.

Wherein said evaporative cooler components are the components of existing evaporative coolers for which present controlling system has been developed. Said components mainly include Mains Supply, Power supply or power board, main motor, pump and swing motor. These components mainly are controlled through present gesture control system for an evaporative air coolers.

Said Controller 1 is provided for processing the gesture input while recognising and processing the input so as to impart the gesture's impact in controlling the cooler functions via Recognised gesture output means. Said controller 1 further comprises of:

· Emitting means: which tram its infrared light. There are 2 emitting means that emits IR light one after another. Once IR light is obstructed by any object the strength of the reflected light signal increase one after another, the means reflect more lights to proximity sensor.

· Sensing Chip which is a proximity sensor, which senses the movement of object and compare the light object coming from two different emitters. This data is then multiplexed and then sent for processing through data processing means.

• Data Processing means wherein the data received from sensing chip is acquired in separate data streams as one per emitter. Said multiplexed data is processed to obtain the measurements of signals that are in turn obtained from reflected IR that occur slightly one after another.

• Data Buffer means: The data processed from said data processing means is received here and is buffered to maintain the strength of its signals obtained to deliver the exact output signal strength for segmentation process.

• Segmentation means which selects an adequate threshold level for gesture done using an object.

• Detection means wherein each frame of the signal is analysed.

Said analysed signals are then compared with the pre-set gestures stored in the memory means. Based on which, the present system analysis what kind of gesture is made and to control what.

• Gesture recognition means is provided for recognition of processed gesture to be further sent to the controller 2 for further processing.

Said Controller 2 is provided for receiving and processing the recognised gesture to impart the gesture's impact in controlling the cooler functions by further sending signals to the power board in the cooler for controlling various functions of the cooler via Recognised gesture output means.

Wherein said Power board is the power supply unit is the piece of hardware that's used to converts mains Alternate current to low-voltage regulated Direct Current power for the internal components of PCB.

WORKING OF THE INVENTION Referring to fig. 1 to 5 illustrates the working of present system for controlling various functions of the cooler. Said processes of controlling involves following steps:

1. Start power supply to the cooler.

2. Start the gesture control system. 3. Provide gesture input. Said gesture input includes list of gestures mentioned in table 1

4. The work flow of the system starts with Gesture input. On the base of Gesture input, the light from two emitters get reflected to the proximity sensor. The sensor provides distance measurement using reflected IR light. Received data is further sent for Data processing and segmentation process for analysis and detection of the kind of Gesture made. After recognition of the signal, it sends the commands to the controller 2 to process and provide electrical signals to the power board to perform the task as conveyed through the gesture input.

The preferred gesture inputs and outputs are shown in the below table. Said are explained as illustrative examples and preferred embodiments and any obvious derivation from the same shall fall under the scope and spirit of present invention.

Said preferred illustrative gestures and the outputs are provided herein below:

Gesture Input Functi Output Operation

on

Swipe from left Speed When it detects the said First time swipe: to right gesture, it sends the Motor Run in High command to control the Speed, Second time speeds - High Speed, Med swipe: Motor run in Speed, Low Speed and Med Speed, third OFF. time swipe: motor run in low speed and forth time swipe: motor stop to work. This keeps repeating

Swipe from Pump When it detects the said First time swipe: Right to Left gesture, it sends the Pump ON and

command to control the second time swipe: Pump Function. Pump ON Pump OFF.

and Pump OFF

Hold object and Swing When it detects the said First time hold: Leave in 1 gesture, it sends the Swing ON and second command to control the second time hold:

Swing Function. Swing ON Swing OFF.

and Swing OFF

Hold object Timer When it detects the said If Object Hold for 2 more than 2 gesture, it sends the seconds 1 Hour seconds command to control the timer activated and

Timer Function. Timer ON Hold For 4 seconds 2 for 1, 2,..upto 7 Hours and Hour timer activated OFF and so on up to 7 hours and then OFF

Table 1 : Shows gesture input and output through present system. ADVANTAGES OF THE PRESENT INVENTION:

Present invention imparts following advantages over the prior art:

1. Present system is easy to operate

2. It is more responsive as compared to the prior art.

3. It has low failure rate.

4. It is safer and long lasting.

5. The system is less corrosion sensitive mainly due to the use of capacitive sensing buttons.

6. Since the user don't need to touch the control panel physically, there is no wear and tear of the swatches.

7. User don't have to bother about hands being dirty or wet, the gesture control still will work as well.

8. It has no hygiene issues unlike the prior art.