Photo: European Patent Office
Automatic climate control systems have been around for a while, but Ferrari has come up with an idea that completely changes everything. Pretty much because it needs absolutely no input from the people inside to keep the cabin as comfortable as possible, that is.
A recently-discovered patent called “Method to control an air conditioning system in a passenger compartment of a road vehicle” describes how a Ferrari car would be able to take your body temperature and then adjust the temperature of the air conditioning system to maintain a cool ride.
It would all be based on thermal cameras, and while the approach is as simple as it could be, Ferrari’s patent describes a highly complex system that can automatically send the cool air exactly where it’s needed.
So in theory, the thermal cameras installed inside the cabin can measure the temperature of every passenger, not only in a single spot but all over the body. For example, if your hands are warmer than your legs because this is where the air conditioning was directed, the system can detect the temperature difference and adjust the flow to cool you off evenly.
What’s more, Ferrari’s systems use sensors that can measure the heat generated by direct sunlight in certain parts of the car and therefore send cool air in that region, all in an attempt to maintain the same temperature in the entire cabin.
Ferrari envisions an army of cameras and sensors whose purpose would be to monitor every single spot of the cabin, measure the temperature, and then instruct the climate control system to act accordingly.
“The control method compromises the step of detecting, by means of the sensor member, a body temperature of at least a part of the body of an occupant of the passenger compartment, and the step of providing (i.e. communicating) such detected body temperature to the air conditioning system,” a summary of how the whole thing would work reads.
Without a doubt, given how much new-gen technology it involves, such a system wouldn’t be cheap, but this isn’t necessarily a surprise given it’s a Ferrari model we’re talking about here.
Nevertheless, it’s important to keep in mind this is just a patent for the time being, so there’s no guarantee it would end up being used on mass-production cars.
It would all be based on thermal cameras, and while the approach is as simple as it could be, Ferrari’s patent describes a highly complex system that can automatically send the cool air exactly where it’s needed.
So in theory, the thermal cameras installed inside the cabin can measure the temperature of every passenger, not only in a single spot but all over the body. For example, if your hands are warmer than your legs because this is where the air conditioning was directed, the system can detect the temperature difference and adjust the flow to cool you off evenly.
What’s more, Ferrari’s systems use sensors that can measure the heat generated by direct sunlight in certain parts of the car and therefore send cool air in that region, all in an attempt to maintain the same temperature in the entire cabin.
Ferrari envisions an army of cameras and sensors whose purpose would be to monitor every single spot of the cabin, measure the temperature, and then instruct the climate control system to act accordingly.
“The control method compromises the step of detecting, by means of the sensor member, a body temperature of at least a part of the body of an occupant of the passenger compartment, and the step of providing (i.e. communicating) such detected body temperature to the air conditioning system,” a summary of how the whole thing would work reads.
Without a doubt, given how much new-gen technology it involves, such a system wouldn’t be cheap, but this isn’t necessarily a surprise given it’s a Ferrari model we’re talking about here.
Nevertheless, it’s important to keep in mind this is just a patent for the time being, so there’s no guarantee it would end up being used on mass-production cars.
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