Patent ID: 8457796

Claim:
A method for predictively controlling environmental conditions of a plurality of occupancy zones in an occupancy space, comprising: detecting occupancy of each of said occupancy zones to determine presence of one or more occupants, comprising: determining a class of each of said occupants, wherein said class is one or more of an animate class, an inanimate class, a human class, or a non-human class; and determining a plurality of attributes of each of said occupants, wherein said attributes further define said determined class of said occupant; storing said detected occupancy of each of said occupancy zones in an occupancy database; determining patterns of occupancy of each of said occupancy zones over a predetermined duration using said occupancy database, wherein said patterns of occupancy is normalized over a predetermined number of days; predicting future occupancy of said occupancy zones based on said determined patterns of occupancy of said each of said occupancy zones; and controlling said environmental conditions of said occupancy zones in said occupancy space based on one or more of said detected occupancy, said determined class and said determined attributes of said occupants, and said predicted future occupancy.