Patent ID: 7849703

Claim:
An air conditioner for a vehicle, for controlling an air conditioning state in a vehicle compartment, comprising: means for changing a passenger set temperature in a vehicle compartment to a value desired by a passenger; means for partitioning values of a plurality of environmental conditions associated with air conditioning in the vehicle compartment into predetermined ranges thereby to form a plurality of areas on a multi-dimensional map which handles the values of the plurality of environmental conditions as variables, the partitioning means being adapted for previously defining one point on the map in each area, as a predetermined point, and for storing therein a control set temperature as a value corresponding to the predetermined point; means for specifying a point on the map defined by detected values of the plurality of environmental conditions, as a detection point for the environmental conditions; means for extracting an area including the detection point as a detection area from the plurality of areas; and means for controlling the air-conditioning state in the vehicle compartment using the control set temperature stored in the partitioning means, wherein when the passenger set temperature is changed by operating the changing means, the partitioning means updates a value of the control set temperature corresponding to the predetermined point of the detection area at a time of the changing operation to a value of the changed passenger set temperature, and stores therein the value of the updated temperature, when the detection point is not any one of the predetermined points, the controlling means interpolates and calculates a control set temperature corresponding to the detection point from the control set temperature stored in the predetermined point of the detection area and the control set temperature stored in the predetermined point of a surrounding area around the detection area, and then controls the air-conditioning state in the vehicle compartment based on the interpolated and calculated control set temperature; and one of the plurality of areas is disposed between the surrounding area and the detection area.