JP6447150B2 - Glove-type input device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a glove-type input device used for detecting hand movement and shape and inputting information to an information processing device. Such glove-type input devices are used not only for inputting data to a system using virtual reality, but also for applications in which the device side detects the movement of the body and performs appropriate assistance, such as translation of sign language calls, devices using gestures, etc. It is used in a wide range of fields, such as a system that detects health, dangerous behavior, abnormal behavior, etc. from the operating state of the body or remotely.

  In virtual reality technology, the first product that was put into practical use as a device for transmitting hand movements in a virtual space was called a data glove. In this first practical application, it is possible to detect the bending of each finger by measuring the change in the amount of light passing through the optical fiber provided corresponding to each finger of the glove, that is, to measure the movement of the hand. It was. In addition to the one using this optical fiber, one using a mechanical link (for example, goniometer) or one using an element whose resistance is changed by pressure or bending (for example, liquid conductive ink) has been proposed. I came.

  For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-95804 (Patent Document 1) proposes a method of detecting the bending of a joint by detecting the angle of a rod fixed with the joint interposed therebetween, taking the knee joint as an example. . In JP-A-5-113327 (Patent Document 2), for example, wrists and elbows, a method of detecting the movement of a joint by detecting the bending of a mechanical joint positioned in parallel with the joint part of the body, Similarly, JP-A-7-184882 (Patent Document 5) and JP-A-10-176919 (Patent Document 6) also arrange mechanical joints along the body joints, and from the movement of the mechanical joints to the body A method for detecting joint movement has been proposed.

  In JP-A-5-149706 (Patent Document 3), as in the example using the optical fiber exemplified above, a rod-shaped sensor in which electrical resistance changes due to bending is arranged on each finger, and the movement of the joint of the finger A method for detecting this has been proposed.

  A glove-type input device proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-3465 (Patent Document 4) is applied to each joint portion of a flexible glove and has a resistance value according to the bending amount of a hand or finger joint. Is provided, and a change in the shape of the hand or finger can be detected based on the change in the resistance value of each of the conductive gels.

JP 55-95804 A JP-A-5-113327 JP-A-5-149706 JP-A-6-3465 JP-A-7-184882 JP-A-10-176919

In the technique exemplified above, especially when a mechanical joint is used in the body, the movement of the joint can be reliably detected, but the device becomes large and is originally detected by the load supporting the device itself. The delicate movements that you want to do may be hindered.
The method using an optical fiber or rod-shaped sensor can realize a glove-type sensor that is smaller and lighter than the method of arranging a mechanical joint, but the information detected by the rod-shaped sensor is the total amount of finger movement. Therefore, the movement of each joint is estimated from the total amount. Since movements of individual joints are not captured independently, it is impossible to accurately detect a case where a finger moves unnaturally.

  According to the method of arranging a conductive gel in each joint, it becomes possible to detect the movement of each joint individually, but in the previous example, because the detection unit is large, the elongation outside the bend, which occurs when the joint is bent, And compression inside the bend are simultaneously applied to the detection unit, and as a result of the mixing of both effects, there is a case where it becomes difficult to accurately input a finger shape change. In addition, the wiring for taking out an electric signal from the conductive gel arranged in each joint portion is also bulky.

  In any of these prior application technologies, the glove-type input device, although to a certain extent, must be a glove with a worn-out feeling. An input device was not realized. Further, in any of the prior application techniques, it is necessary to assemble and mount a large number of parts, resulting in a very complicated manufacturing process and a considerable assembly cost.

The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and its purpose is to realize a glove-type input device that has a light wearing feeling, can independently detect the movement of any joint, and is easy to manufacture. There is to do.

The present invention, which has solved the above problems, has the following configuration.
1. A glove-type input device that is worn on a hand to detect the movement and shape of a user's hand, and a conductive ink having elasticity is provided on the outside and / or inside of a glove made of an elastic material. A glove-type input device using a sensing device for detecting movement of a finger joint.
2. 1. A sensing device for detecting movement of a finger joint has a mechanism for detecting a resistance change of conductive ink constituting the sensing device. The glove-type input device described in 1.
3. A plurality of sensing devices for detecting the movement of the finger joint are arranged, and at least each of the joints is independently arranged. Or 2. The glove-type input device described in 1.
4). 1. A sensing device capable of detecting contact with other fingertips is provided at a position corresponding to a plurality of fingertips of the glove-type input device. To 3. The glove type input device according to any one of the above.
5. 3. The sensing device capable of detecting contact with the other fingertip has an electrode formed of conductive ink, and has a conduction detection mechanism by direct contact between the electrodes. The glove-type input device described in 1.
6). 3. The sensing device for detecting contact with the other fingertip has electrodes formed of conductive ink, and has a capacitive coupling detection mechanism between the electrodes. The glove-type input device described in 1.

7). 1. A sensing device for detecting pressure at a position corresponding to a fingertip of the glove-type input device is formed of conductive ink. To 6. The glove type input device according to any one of the above.
8). The sensing device formed on the glove has a conductor portion and a conductor wiring for accessing the sensing device, and the conductor portion and / or the conductor wiring is formed of a conductive ink having elasticity. 1. It is characterized by having To 7. The glove type input device according to any one of the above.
9. 1. The conductive ink is a material that can withstand 1000 times or more of at least 30% repetitive expansion and contraction in a state of being processed into a sheet form having a thickness of 5 μm or more and 300 μm or less. To 8. The glove type input device according to any one of the above.
10. It has an interface with a wrist-worn information processing device. To 9. The glove type input device according to any one of the above.
11. At least a part of the sensing device is formed by printing the conductive ink on a material constituting the glove. -10. The glove type input device according to any one of the above.
12 The conductive ink contains a conductive filler and a binder resin, 65% by mass or more of the binder resin component is a synthetic rubber material, and the alkali metal content in the binder resin component is 4000 ppm or less. It is characterized by 1. To 11. The glove type input device according to any one of the above.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the movement of the finger joint can be detected independently for each individual joint, and a thin and light high-performance glove-type input device can be realized. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mechanism of the input device does not include a metal or rigid mechanical device, so no assembly / adjustment is necessary, and a simple printing method can be applied at low cost for mass production. It is.
In the present invention, it is possible to detect not only forward movement but also backward movement by printing on both sides of the glove. Although simplified in the schematic diagram, more complicated movements can be detected by arranging the expansion and contraction components of the print pattern in the rotation direction and the twist direction of the joint.

It is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

A glove-type input device of the present invention is a glove-type input device that is worn on a hand to detect the movement and shape of a user's hand, and is provided outside and / or inside a glove made of a stretchable material. A sensing device for detecting the operation of the finger joint is formed using a conductive ink having elasticity.
The sensing device for detecting the movement of the finger joint preferably has a mechanism for detecting a change in impedance of the conductive ink constituting the sensing device, and more preferably has a stretchability. As the impedance change, a resistance change, an inductance change, and a capacitance change can be used.
It is preferable that a plurality of sensing devices for detecting the movement of the finger joints are arranged, and it is more preferable that they are arranged independently at least in each joint.

  The glove-type input device of the present invention preferably includes a sensing device capable of detecting contact with other fingertips at a position corresponding to a plurality of fingertips. The sensing device preferably has electrodes formed of conductive ink, and more preferably has a conduction detection mechanism by direct contact between the electrodes or a capacitive coupling detection mechanism between the electrodes.

  A sensing device that detects pressure, a sensing device that detects direct contact, or a sensing device that detects a change in capacitance is formed of conductive ink at a position corresponding to the fingertip of the glove-type input device of the present invention. It is preferable.

  In the glove-type input device of the present invention, the sensing device formed on the glove preferably includes a conductor portion and a conductor wiring for accessing the sensing device, and the conductor portion and / or the conductor wiring. Is preferably formed of a conductive ink having elasticity.

  The conductive ink constituting the glove-type input device of the present invention is preferably a material that can withstand repeated expansion and contraction of at least 30% 1000 times or more when processed into a sheet form having a thickness of 5 μm to 300 μm. .

It is preferable that at least a part of the sensing device of the present invention is formed by printing the conductive ink on a material constituting the glove.
The conductive ink preferably contains a conductive filler and a binder resin, and a synthetic rubber in which 65% by mass or more of the binder resin component is obtained by an emulsion polymerization method in a polymerization temperature range of 0 to 45 ° C. More preferably, it is a material, and the alkali metal content in the binder resin component is more preferably 4000 ppm or less.

  The base material in the glove-type input device of the present invention is a glove made of a stretchable material. For example, gloves can be obtained by resin coating on gloves made of stretchable resin materials, gloves made of stretchable fiber materials such as knit products, and gloves made of fiber materials. Stretchable gloves may be used. The fiber material portion is preferably composed of knitting. The material of the fiber material is not particularly limited.

  As resin materials used for gloves, natural rubber, polyisoprene rubber, styrene butadiene rubber, styrene butadiene thermoplastic elastomer, styrene isoprene thermoplastic elastomer, polybutadiene thermoplastic elastomer, polybutadiene thermoplastic elastomer, polybutadiene rubber, chloroprene rubber, butyl rubber, Halogenated butyl rubber, acrylonitrile butadiene rubber, ethylene / propylene rubber, chlorosulfonated polyethylene rubber, acrylic rubber, urethane rubber, silicone resin, silicone rubber, fluoro rubber, neoprene, viton, hypalon, polyurethane, polyester urethane, polyvinyl chloride, poly Vinylidene chloride polyethylene, polyolefin, halogenated polyolefin, polyvinyl alcohol, ethylene It can be used materials having elasticity at room temperature, such as vinyl alcohol copolymer.

  The resin material used in the present invention is preferably a material that can withstand 10,000 times or more of repeated expansion and contraction of at least 30% when processed into a sheet form having a thickness in the range of 50 μm to 300 μm.

In the present invention, a wiring pattern that causes a resistance change by expansion and contraction is formed by a printing method using a conductive ink material having elasticity on the outside and / or the inside of the glove. In the schematic diagram (FIG. 1), an example is shown in which a pattern that emphasizes resistance change is formed by arranging conductive wirings in a zigzag pattern.
In the present invention, when printing the conductive ink, it is preferable that the glove is put on a flat plate and temporarily flattened before printing.
Printing methods in the present invention include plate printing methods such as lithographic printing, letterpress printing, intaglio printing, stencil printing, ink-jet printing, electrophotography, magnetography, electrostatic printing, plateless printing methods such as thermal transfer, and the like. A foil stamping method can also be used. In the present invention, it is particularly preferable to apply a screen printing method, a gravure printing method, and an ink jet printing method.

  In the present invention, a predetermined pattern may be printed using a conductive ink on a resin material that has been processed into a flat sheet shape in advance, and after cutting, necessary portions may be cut and processed into a glove shape by sewing, bonding, or the like.

  As the conductive ink material having stretchability in the present invention, a polymer type conductive ink composed of a conductive filler and a highly flexible binder component can be used. Here, the term “conductive ink” is used as a term, but it is synonymous with “conductive paste”.

As the conductive filler in the present invention, metal particles such as gold, silver, platinum, rhodium, palladium, copper, nickel, zinc, aluminum, iron, lead, tin, tungsten, silicon, germanium, molybdenum, brass, Alloy particles such as bronze, phosphor bronze, white copper, silver copper, solder, processed metal particles such as silver-coated copper powder, carbon-based conductive particles such as carbon black, graphite powder, carbon nanotubes, fullerene, ITO, IGZO, tin oxide In addition, conductive or semiconductive fillers such as ruthenium oxide, zinc oxide and titanium oxide, and conductive polymer particles such as polyacetylene and PEDOT can be used alone or in combination.
When metal powder is used as the conductive filler, the particle shape of the metal powder is preferably scaly, agglomerated, or fibrous.

  As the highly flexible binder component in the conductive ink of the present invention, a material having elasticity at room temperature can be used in the same manner as a resin component that can be used for gloves. Examples of the highly flexible binder component used in the present invention include natural rubber, polyisoprene rubber, styrene butadiene rubber, styrene butadiene thermoplastic elastomer, styrene isoprene thermoplastic elastomer, polybutadiene thermoplastic elastomer, polybutadiene thermoplastic elastomer, polybutadiene rubber, Chloroprene rubber, butyl rubber, halogenated butyl rubber, acrylonitrile butadiene rubber, acrylonitrile-butadiene-isoprene rubber, ethylene / propylene rubber, chlorosulfonated polyethylene rubber, acrylic rubber, urethane rubber, silicone resin, silicone rubber, fluorine rubber, neoprene, viton, Hypalon, polyurethane, polyester urethane, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride polyethylene, polio Fins, halogenated polyolefin, polyvinyl alcohol, ethylene - vinyl alcohol copolymer such as resin may be used singly or a plurality combination resin composition. As the binder component, a resin component capable of obtaining adhesiveness with a material used for a glove serving as a substrate to be printed is desirable.

  In the present invention, it is preferable to use 65% by weight or more of the non-crosslinked synthetic rubber material of the binder resin. It is preferable to use a rubber material having a Mooney viscosity of the synthetic rubber material in the range of 20 to 100, and further having a Mooney viscosity of 24 to 70. Here, the Mooney viscosity is a parameter of the non-crosslinked rubber defined in ISO 289-1: 2005. When the Mooney viscosity is lower than this range, the hardness of the conductive ink coating film is lowered and the scratch resistance may be lowered. On the other hand, when the Mooney viscosity is too high, the processability at the time of ink preparation is lowered, the dispersibility of the conductive filler is lowered, and as a result, the conductivity of the cured film may be impaired.

  In the present invention, non-crosslinked acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR, abbreviated as nitrile rubber) is preferably used for 65% or more of the binder resin. Moreover, it is preferable to use a nitrile rubber having a nitrile content of 25 to 60%, more preferably 36 to 51%. Here, the nitrile content is a value obtained by converting a composition ratio obtained from NMR analysis into wt%.

  As the non-crosslinked synthetic rubber material used in the present invention, it is preferable to use a rubber polymer or a solution polymer obtained by coagulation, filtration, washing and dehydration of a polymer obtained by emulsion polymerization by salting out. . As a polymerization catalyst in emulsion polymerization, it is preferable to use a water-soluble opener such as an alkali metal persulfate. The rubber material obtained by the suspension polymerization method has many branches, and the dispersibility of the conductive filler tends to decrease.

  The synthetic rubber material of the present invention preferably uses a so-called cold rubber obtained at a polymerization temperature of 45 ° C. or lower, preferably 3 ° C. to 25 ° C., more preferably 5 ° C. to 18 ° C. A rubber material polymerized at a relatively low temperature has few branches, is excellent in the dispersibility of the conductive filler, and increases flexibility, particularly the degree of freedom of deformation when a fine structure is formed. Such characteristics are particularly rapid when the conductive ink cured film is repeatedly expanded and contracted and compressed (since the deformation of the conductive filler is relatively small inside the cured film, the strain concentrates on the resin part), the resin part is quickly deformed and restored. As a result, the repeated stretch durability and the repeated compression durability of the conductive ink cured film are improved.

  The amount of alkali metal contained in the binder resin of the conductive ink used in the present invention is preferably 4000 ppm or less, more preferably 1500 ppm or less, and even more preferably 450 ppm or less. The alkali metal amount is the sum of sodium amount and potassium amount. Such an alkali metal is derived from a residue of the polymerization initiator and an inorganic salt used for salting out, but these are preferably removed by washing as much as possible. When the amount of the alkali metal is larger than this range, the migration resistance of the coating film is lowered. Migration is a phenomenon in which a metal component is deposited between electrodes to which a voltage is applied and eventually leads to a short circuit. The migration is accelerated by the presence of moisture, but the presence of alkali metal results in further acceleration.

  In addition to these components, the conductive ink used in the present invention may contain a solvent, a surface tension adjusting agent, a viscoelastic property adjusting agent, a drying adjusting agent, and the like as necessary.

  The thickness of the printed pattern of the conductive ink forming the sensing device and / or conductor wiring in the present invention is preferably in the range of 0.3 μm to 200 μm, more preferably in the range of 3 μm to 120 μm, and still more preferably in the range of 7 μm to 60 μm. . The printed wiring pattern is coated with an insulating coating as necessary. Also in the insulating coating material, it is preferable to use a coating agent having sufficient stretchability.

  In the present invention, such a pattern can be easily formed on both sides of the glove. It is also possible to place a pattern inside the glove by turning it over after printing.

In the present invention, for example, a sensing device that detects contact with another fingertip can be provided at a position corresponding to the fingertip of the glove. Such a sensing device can use a method based on conduction detection by direct contact between electrodes formed by printing conductive ink. This method is the simplest, but may be affected by fingertip contamination.
In the present invention, as a more preferable method, a sensing device based on detection of capacitive coupling between electrodes can be provided on the fingertip. The sensing device is also preferably formed by a printing method.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, a pressure-sensitive sensing device can be provided on the side corresponding to the palm side of the glove. By providing a pressure-sensitive device at the fingertip, contact pressure information between fingers and contact pressure information between a finger and an object can be obtained. This makes it possible to detect not only the contact with the object but also the tactile sensation such as the hardness of the object.

  In this invention, it is preferable that the conductor wiring for accessing the sensing device formed in the said glove is formed by printing the electrically conductive ink material which has a stretching property. With such a configuration, the conductive material can be unified and the material configuration can be simplified, so that it is possible to easily manufacture at low cost.

The resistance change due to the expansion and contraction of the pattern according to the movement of each joint of the fingers is aggregated near the back, palm, or wrist, and after AD conversion, it is converted to the degree of flexion of each joint by the data processing device. Therefore, the movement of the entire finger is converted into data.
In the present invention, an interface is provided for inputting information relating to flexion and extension of finger joints and information relating to finger contact to wrist-worn information processing devices, so-called wearable devices. Aggregation is preferred. By such a combination, it is possible to add the position information, angle information incorporated in the wrist-worn device, and information on finger movement obtained from the glove-type input device, and to convert the movement of the entire upper limb into data Become.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail and specifically with reference to examples. The evaluation results in the examples were measured by the following methods.

<Nitrile amount>
From the composition ratio obtained by NMR analysis of the obtained resin material, the resin material was converted to weight% based on the weight ratio of the monomers.

<Mooney viscosity>
This was measured using an SMV-300RT “Mooney Viscometer” manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation.

<Amount of alkali metal>
The resin was incinerated, and the resulting ash was extracted with hydrochloric acid. The contents of sodium and potassium were determined by atomic absorption method, and the two were totaled.

<Repeated stretch durability>
(1) Test piece sheet formation
a) In the case of resin material The resin material was heat compression molded into a sheet having a thickness of 200 ± 20 μm, and then punched into a dumbbell mold defined by ISO 527-2-1A to obtain a test piece.
b) In the case of binder resin composition or conductive ink The binder resin composition m or conductive ink is applied to the surface of the silicone rubber sheet with a bar coater, dried and cured at 120 ° C., and then peeled off by ISO 527-2-1A. It was punched into a prescribed dumbbell mold and used as a test piece. In addition, when the thickness of the dry cured film was less than 50 μm, the application and the dry curing cycle were repeated until the required thickness was reached, and the thickness was adjusted to be in the range of 50 μm to 75 μm.
(2) Stretch test The IPC bending tester made by Yamashita Material was remodeled, the reciprocating stroke of the tester was set to 20 mm, the test piece was fixed to the movable plate with a clamp, and the other end was fixed to another fixed end with a clamp. The effective length was adjusted to 66 mm (corresponding to an elongation of 30%) by using a portion having a width of 10 mm and a length of 80 mm in the dumbbell-shaped test piece. The resin material and the binder resin sheet were repeatedly stretched 10,000 times, and the conductive ink dry film was repeatedly stretched 1000 times.
(3) Evaluation ・ The resin material and the binder resin sheet were visually observed for the presence of breakage, chipping, cracks, etc., especially when no irreversible changes were observed, a pass “○”, irreversible changes were observed. If it was, it was judged as a failure “x”.
・ For conductive ink dry film, pass “○” when the rate of change of the sheet resistance value after repeated stretching 1000 times with respect to the initial sheet resistance value is + 10% or less, and when + 10% to + 25% Of “△” and exceeding + 25% was determined as “Fail”.

<Conductivity (sheet resistance, specific resistance)>
The resistance value [Ω] of a 10 mm wide and 80 mm long portion at the center of a dumbbell-shaped test piece defined by ISO 527-2-1A is measured using a milliohm meter manufactured by Agilent Technologies, and tested. The sheet resistance value “Ω □” was determined by multiplying the aspect ratio (1/8) of the piece.
The resistivity [Ω] was multiplied by the cross-sectional area (width 1 [cm] mm × thickness [cm]) and divided by the length (8 cm) to obtain the specific resistance [Ωcm].

<Evaluation of migration resistance>
A test pattern in which two conductor patterns having a width of 1.0 mm and a length of 30.0 mm were parallel with an interval of 1.0 mm was printed and cured on a polyester film to obtain a test piece. When DC5V is applied between the electrodes of the test piece, deionized water is dropped between the conductors, and the time until the electrodes are short-circuited by dendritic precipitates is measured within 60 seconds. X: The case of 60 seconds or more was evaluated as ◯. The amount of deionized water dropped was such that the water droplets covered the electrodes with a width of 8 to 10 mm, and the determination of a short circuit was made by visual observation.

[Production example]
<Polymerization of synthetic rubber material>
In a stainless steel reaction vessel equipped with a stirrer and a water cooling jacket, butadiene 54 parts by weight acrylonitrile 46 parts by weight deionized water 270 parts by weight sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate 0.5 part by weight sodium naphthalenesulfonate condensate 2.5 parts by weight t -Dodecyl mercaptan 0.3 part by weight Triethanolamine 0.2 part by weight Sodium carbonate 0.1 part by weight was charged, and the bath temperature was kept at 15 ° C while flowing nitrogen, and the mixture was gently stirred. Next, an aqueous solution in which 0.3 part by weight of potassium persulfate was dissolved in 19.7 parts by weight of deionized water was added dropwise over 30 minutes, and the reaction was further continued for 20 hours. An aqueous solution dissolved in 5 parts by weight was added to terminate the polymerization.
Next, in order to distill off the unreacted monomer, first, the inside of the reaction vessel was depressurized, and further steam was introduced to recover the unreacted monomer to obtain a synthetic rubber latex (L1) composed of NBR.
Salt and dilute sulfuric acid are added to the resulting latex for aggregation and filtration, and the resin is redispersed in deionized water in a volume of 20 times the volume ratio of deionized water, and washed by repeating filtration. And dried in the air to obtain a synthetic rubber resin R1.

Table 1 shows the evaluation results of the resulting synthetic rubber resin R1.
Thereafter, the same operation was carried out by changing the charged raw materials, the polymerization conditions, the washing conditions, etc., and the resin materials shown in Table 1 were obtained. The abbreviations in the table are as follows.
NBR: Acrylonitrile butadiene rubber NBIR: Acrylonitrile-isoprene rubber (10% by weight of isoprene)
SBR: Styrene butadiene rubber (styrene / butadiene = 50/50% by weight)

[Adjustment of conductive ink]
1.5 parts by weight of a liquid bisphenol A type epoxy resin having an epoxy equivalent of 175 to 195, 10 parts by weight of the stretchable resin (R1) obtained in the production example, a latent curing agent [trade name Amicure PN23, manufactured by Ajinomoto Fine Chemical Co., Ltd.] 0.5 parts by weight was mixed with 30 parts by weight of isophorone and dissolved to obtain a binder resin composition A1. Next, 58.0 parts by weight of fine flaky silver powder [trade name Ag-XF301, 50% particle size 4 to 7 μm, manufactured by Fukuda Metal Foil Powder Industry Co., Ltd.] is added to the binder resin composition A1, and mixed uniformly. The conductive ink C1 was obtained by dispersing in Table 2 shows the evaluation results of the obtained conductive ink C1.

Hereinafter, blending was performed by changing materials, and conductive inks C2 to C9 shown in Table 2 were obtained.

[Production of gloves]
Put a glove made of polyurethane resin on a flat handprint made of a plastic plate with a thickness of 5 mm so as not to cause wrinkles, and use a screen printing machine to apply conductive ink (C1). It printed on the conductive pattern shape shown in FIG. Subsequently, it dried at 80 degreeC for 120 minute (s), and the glove type input device of this invention was obtained. A lead wire was attached to the electrode corresponding to the wrist of the obtained glove-type input device using a conductive adhesive, and the resistance change corresponding to the bending of each joint was read by a multi-channel resistance measuring instrument.

Using the obtained device configuration, first, wearing a glove-type input device in the right hand, with the hand open: The resistance value of each joint equivalent in the “Janken” “par” state, the fist state: Janken The resistance value in the “goo” state is set as the limit value, and the resistance change width of each joint in the meantime is divided into 64 gradations, corresponding to the bending and stretching states of each joint, and the third order of the finger synthesized by CG with software Moved the original image.
The motion of the obtained CG finger was natural, smooth and good. In addition, "Janken" and complex movements such as finger characters could be reproduced.

  Hereinafter, printing was performed by changing the conductive ink, and the suitability of each ink for the glove-type input device was evaluated. The results are shown in Table 2.

[Application example]
In this embodiment, the operation of each finger joint is connected to a multi-channel resistance measuring device to perform signal processing, but data is collected using a wrist-worn input device and transmitted using a wireless device or the like. In this way, it is possible to create a smart input device without a lead wire.
The glove-type input device of the present invention is not only useful as an interface with a virtual reality space etc., but can be combined with finger motion analysis, for example, to enable sign language translators, drive and control of devices with finger signs, etc. Become.

  As described above, according to the present invention, a highly functional and inexpensive glove-type input device can be realized. Although the present specification focuses particularly on the movement of fingers, the basic principle of the present invention can be applied to the purpose of detecting motions involving movements of body muscles and joints. Further, by combining with the communication function, for example, it is possible to monitor the movement and state of the body including the fingers of the worker who is active at a remote place.

Claims (11)

A glove-type input device that is worn on the hand to detect the movement and shape of the user's hand, and contains a conductive filler and binder resin on the outside and / or inside of the glove made of stretchable material. And 65% by mass or more of the binder resin component is a synthetic rubber material, and a conductive ink having stretchability with an alkali metal content in the binder resin component of 4000 ppm or less is used. A glove-type input device in which a sensing device for detecting motion is formed. The glove-type input device according to claim 1, wherein the sensing device for detecting the movement of the finger joint has a mechanism for detecting a change in resistance of the conductive ink constituting the sensing device. The glove-type input device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a plurality of sensing devices for detecting the movement of the finger joint are arranged, and are arranged independently at least in each joint. The glove-type input device according to claim 1, further comprising a sensing device capable of detecting contact with other fingertips at a position corresponding to a plurality of fingertips of the glove-type input device. The glove according to claim 4, wherein the sensing device capable of detecting contact with the other fingertip has electrodes formed of conductive ink and has a conduction detection mechanism by direct contact between the electrodes. Type input device. 5. The glove according to claim 4, wherein the sensing device for detecting contact with the other fingertip has an electrode formed of conductive ink and has a capacitive coupling detection mechanism between the electrodes. Type input device. The glove-type input device according to claim 1, wherein a sensing device that detects pressure at a position corresponding to a fingertip of the glove-type input device is formed of conductive ink. The sensing device formed on the glove has a conductor portion and a conductor wiring for accessing the sensing device, and the conductor portion and / or the conductor wiring is formed of a conductive ink having elasticity. The glove-type input device according to claim 1, wherein the glove-type input device is a glove-type input device. 9. The material according to claim 1, wherein the conductive ink is a material that can withstand 1000 times or more of repeated expansion and contraction of at least 30% in a state where the conductive ink is processed into a sheet form having a thickness in a range of 5 μm to 300 μm. A glove-type input device according to the above. The glove-type input device according to claim 1, comprising an interface with a wrist-worn information processing device. The glove type input device according to claim 1, wherein at least a part of the sensing device is formed by printing the conductive ink on a material constituting the glove. .