THREE DIMENSIONAL BUILDING CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD
The system helps facility managers and other users to efficiently navigate through a building or complex of buildings, and quickly gather information for (and control) individual building systems or groups of systems. A method includes displaying an image representing at least a portion of a building, wherein at least part of the image is a three-dimensional representation; and displaying a representation of a device associated with the building, wherein the representation of the device is selectable through the user interface.
1 . A method comprising:
displaying, by a computer-based system for displaying a representation of a device and via a user interface, an image representing at least a portion of a building, wherein at least part of the image is a three-dimensional representation; and
displaying, by the computer-based system via the user interface, the representation of the device associated with the building, wherein the representation of the device is selectable through the user interface.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the portion of the building represented by the image includes one or more of a plurality of floors of the building.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying, by the computer-based system via the user interface, information regarding one or more parameters associated with the device in response to the selection of the representation of the device, wherein the parameter associated with the device includes one or more of:
a lighting status;
a lighting level;
a load shedding status;
a lighting power density;
a lighting power consumption;
an occupancy status;
a comparative energy trend;
a temperature level;
a humidity level;
a coverage range of a sensor; and
a carbon dioxide level.
4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising facilitating, by the computer-based system via the user interface, configuration of the device in response to the selection of the representation of the device.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least part of the image is alternately viewable as a two-dimensional representation or a three-dimensional representation.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further includes one or more of the following by the computer-based system via the user interface:
tilting the image in response to a selection through the user interface;
rotating the image in response to a selection through the user interface;
increasing a scale of the image in response to a selection through the user interface; and
decreasing a scale of the image in response to a selection through the user interface.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the image includes a three-dimensional representation of the entire building.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the image includes a three-dimensional representation of at least a portion of a plurality of buildings.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a first part of the image is a three-dimensional representation, and wherein a second part of the image is a two-dimensional representation.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the portion of the image that is a three-dimensional representation includes a vanishing point in an x-axis of the image and a vanishing point in a y-axis of the image, and does not include a vanishing point in a z-axis of the image.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the portion of the building represented by the image includes a plurality of floors of the building.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the representations of the plurality of floors are separated by a spacing larger than a spacing between the actual floors of the building.
13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising receiving, by the computer-based system via the user interface, a selection of a floor from the plurality of floors represented in the image.
14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising animating the image, by the computer-based system via the user interface, in response to the selection of the floor.
15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising displaying the image at a reduced level of detail when the image is animated, and displaying the image at an increased level of detail when the image is stationary.
16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the three-dimensional representation Includes:
identifying a visible feature of the building to display in the three-dimensional representation; and
identifying an invisible feature of the building to omit from the three-dimensional representation.
17 . The method of claim 16 , identifying the visible feature and the invisible feature includes analyzing the feature along a z-axis of the feature.
18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein displaying the three-dimensional representation further includes generating a three-dimensional representation of the visible features in layers, each layer corresponding to a class of features for the building.
19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a boundary line in the foreground of the image is of substantially equal thickness as a boundary line in the background of the image.
20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the image includes a feature of the building.
21 . The method of claim 20 , further comprising alternatively displaying and hiding the feature, by the computer-based system via the user interface, in response to input received by the computer-based system via the user interface.
22 . A system comprising:
a processor for displaying a representation of a device;
a user interface coupled to the processor; and
a non-transitory memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions for:
displaying, via the user interface, an image representing at least a portion of a building, wherein at least part of the image is a three-dimensional representation; and
displaying, via the user interface, the representation of the device associated with the building, wherein the representation of the device is selectable through the user interface.
23 . An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system for displaying a representation of a device, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:
displaying, by the computer-based system via a user interface, an image representing at least a portion of a building, wherein at least part of the image is a three-dimensional representation; and
displaying, by the computer-based system via the user interface, the representation of the device associated with the building, wherein the representation of the device is selectable through the user interface.