Air blower and control method thereof

Abstract

When blowing out air, an air blower provides a user with feeling of being exposed to natural wind. A control unit of an air conditioner controls a fan motor of the air conditioner so that an airflow speed of a fan of the air conditioner changes over time with a synthesis pattern composed of a plurality of patterns including a sine-wave-like waveform pattern and a hill-like variation pattern having a width of less than a quarter cycle of the waveform pattern and a height of equal to or greater than an amplitude of the waveform pattern for each cycle of the waveform pattern.

1 . An air blower comprising:
 a fan blowing air;   a fan motor driving the fan; and   a control unit controlling the fan motor so that an airflow speed of the fan changes over time with a synthesis pattern composed of a plurality of patterns including a sine-wave-like waveform pattern and a hill-like variation pattern having a width of less than a quarter cycle of the waveform pattern and a height of equal to or greater than an amplitude of the waveform pattern for each cycle of the waveform pattern.   
     
     
         2 . The air blower of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of patterns include, as the variation pattern, two types of variation patterns of which height and occurrence timing in one cycle of the waveform pattern are different with each other. 
     
     
         3 . The air blower of  claim 2 , wherein the variation pattern having a higher height out of the two types of variation patterns reaches a maximum value in a shorter time than the variation pattern having a lower height. 
     
     
         4 . The air blower of  claim 1 , wherein the variation pattern increases a value in two or more stages to reach a maximum value. 
     
     
         5 . The air blower of  claim 1 , wherein the variation pattern maintains a maximum value for a certain time period. 
     
     
         6 . The air blower of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of patterns further include a hill-like first added pattern, having a height of less than the amplitude of the waveform pattern for each cycle of the waveform pattern, of which occurrence timing in one cycle of the waveform pattern is different from the variation pattern, and a valley-like second added pattern, having a height of less than the amplitude of the waveform pattern for each cycle of the waveform pattern, of which occurrence timing in one cycle of the waveform pattern is different from the variation pattern and the first added pattern. 
     
     
         7 . The air blower of  claim 6 , wherein a number of occurrences of the first added pattern and a number of occurrences of the second added pattern are same. 
     
     
         8 . The air blower of  claim 1 , wherein the control unit previously stores, in a memory, control pattern information defining targeted revolutions of the fan per predetermined unit time according to the synthesis pattern, and controls the fan motor for each unit time based on the control pattern information. 
     
     
         9 . The air blower of  claim 8 , wherein the variation pattern maintains a maximum value for equal to or greater than two unit times. 
     
     
         10 . The air blower of  claim 8 , wherein one unit time is equal to or greater than 0.1 seconds and equal to or less than 1.0 second. 
     
     
         11 . The air blower of  claim 1 , wherein a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of the waveform pattern in one cycle is smaller than an average value of the waveform pattern in one cycle. 
     
     
         12 . The air blower of  claim 1  further comprising:
 vertical air vanes provided so as to be swingable and adjusting a vertical direction of airflow from the fan, 
 wherein the control unit stops swinging of the vertical air vanes, if the vertical air vanes are swinging, when starting an operation to control the fan motor so that the airflow speed of the fan changes over time with the synthesis pattern. 
 
     
     
         13 . The air blower of  claim 12 ,
 wherein the vertical air vanes are divided into a left vertical air vane and a right vertical air vane, and   wherein the control unit, when carrying out the operation, fixes angles of the left vertical air vane and the right vertical air vane in a way that the angles are different with each other.   
     
     
         14 . The air blower of  claim 12  further comprising:
 horizontal air vanes adjusting a horizontal direction of the airflow from the fan; and 
 a sensor detecting a position where a human body exists, 
 wherein the control unit, when carrying out the operation, controls angles of the vertical air vanes and angles of the horizontal air vanes so that the airflow from the fan is directed to the position detected by the sensor. 
 
     
     
         15 . A control method comprising:
 controlling a fan motor which drives a fan, so that an airflow speed of the fan changes over time with a synthesis pattern composed of a plurality of patterns including a sine-wave-like waveform pattern and a hill-like variation pattern having a width of less than a quarter cycle of the waveform pattern and a height of equal to or greater than an amplitude of the waveform pattern for each cycle of the waveform pattern.