Sensing and data acquisition

Occupant sensing and data acquisition are essential elements for occupant behavior research. A wide range of different types of sensors has been implemented to collect rich information on occupants and their interactions with the built environment, such as presence, actions, power consumption, etc. This information establishes a foundation to study the physiological, psychological, and social aspects of occupant behavior. This chapter summarizes existing occupancy and occupant behavior sensing and data acquisition technologies in terms of field applications, and develops nine performance metrics for their evaluation. The reviewed technologies focus on both occupants’ presence and interactions with the built environment, and are grouped into six major categories: image-based, threshold and mechanical, motion sensing, radio-based, human-in-the-loop, and consumption sensing. This chapter provides an overview and discussion of different current state-of-the-art and future sensing technologies for researchers.