Air conditioners are being developed with more features and intelligence. Adding millimeter wave radar technology to air conditioners can enable new functions like the prescence, number, and location of humans so the device can adjust operation accordingly. This can reduce energy loss and enhance the product value.

• Presence Detection: mmWave can detect people present in the room, and can enable automatic shut off when there is no person detected in the room or living area for a long time. This avoids the air conditioner having to be turned ON all the time and thus helps save electricity and reduce carbon emissions.

• Localization and People Counting: By detecting the location of people, the device can automatically adjust the air outlet of the air conditioner to blow in the specific direction where people are present, this makes the experience more customer centric and efficient. For example, when the day is hot, adjust the air outlet to a place where people gather, or at night, adjust the air outlet so that the air does not blow directly towards people as shown in Figure 3-2.
  Figure 3-2 Localization using mmWave

• Vitals Sensing and Sleep Monitor: Another potential use case is to detect vitals information (breathing and heart rate), adjust air flow, and provide alerts by detecting the sleeper's posture and motion at night. The device can provide feedback on sleep quality (as seen in Figure 3-3), which can be very important data for the elderly.
  Figure 3-3 Vital sensing using mmWave

• Gesture Recognition: By detecting different gestures (up to down, left to right, push, pull, etc.), we can adjust air conditioning functions, such as temperature, wind speed, etc. as seen in Figure 3-4.
  Figure 3-4 Gesture recognition using mmWave