JP2001006072A - Device for monitoring life - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To instantaneously announce that vital reaction is lost to a prescribed announcement destination when it is lost by starting the operation of a communication means in response to the output of a vital reaction losing signal and also transmitting a prescribed form announcement signal to a communication line with a communication means. SOLUTION: An issuing part 18 transmits a start signal to a communication part 19 in response to the generation of the vital reaction losing signal. When the starting signal is received, the communication part 19 executes connection to a telephone line 30 by the off-hook operation. The issuing part 18 transmits the telephone number of the announcement destination when data corresponding to an originating sound from the telephone line 30 is received. Then the communication part 19 generates the DTMF signal of the telephone signal, calls the announcement destination, inverts the polarity of the telephone line 30, confirms that a call state with the destination is established and, then, transfers it to the issuing part 18. Thus, when vital reaction is lost, it is instantaneously announced to the prescribed announcement destination.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a living environment for a solitary elderly person who monitors the living condition of a single person without infringing on privacy and reports the fact to the outside when an accident or abnormality occurs. Related to monitoring systems.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In today's aging society, the number of households by solitary elderly is increasing year by year. There have been many miserable incidents, such as accidents and illnesses affecting the elderly living alone, and deaths due to delays in their discovery.

In order to prevent such incidents / accidents, there is a home helper system mainly composed of local governments or private organizations. This is a dispatcher (home helper)
Is a system that visits the residence of a solitary elderly person regularly or at the request of the resident. However, the number of home helpers is limited, and the current situation is that sufficient monitoring and protection cannot be provided for the elderly living alone, which is increasing year by year. In other words, even if a visit is made regularly, the occurrence of an accident or illness cannot be quickly detected if the visit cycle is long. When visiting by request, the request itself becomes impossible. Therefore, a life monitoring device has been developed to constantly monitor the life of a solitary elderly person and to promptly notify the outside when an accident or illness occurs.

[0004] In this device, a mat for converting vibration into an electric signal is laid in a house, and when the electric signal from the mat is continuously lower than a predetermined level for a predetermined time or more, that is, a living reaction is lost, that is, , A signal that the resident has become unable to move through the house due to some event,
In response to the generation of this signal, the telephone line is automatically connected to the telephone line, a telephone number of a predetermined pager is called, and a notification that an abnormality has occurred is made.

[0005]

In the above-mentioned life monitoring device, a mat for detecting vibration is installed at a specific place in a house. Then, a living reaction cannot be detected unless a resident passes through this place. Passing through this particular place does not fit the general resident's life pattern and is unnatural. Therefore, the resident may not pass on the mat for a long time, and there is a high possibility that a false report will occur. There is also a psychological distress that privacy is being violated because someone is constantly monitoring the presence of the mat.

[0006]

Accordingly, the present inventor has paid attention to the fact that a resident always uses a water supply if he or she normally lives, and that the use of water causes vibration to be transmitted to a water pipe. Water is supplied to each house by one water supply pipe plumbed from the water supply, and is further distributed to each water place (kitchen, bathroom, flush toilet, etc.) in the house. Similarly, the wastewater is discharged from each water station into one drain pipe and then discharged to the sewer. Therefore, if the vibration caused by the water flowing through the water supply / drain pipe (water pipe) installed in each house is not detected for a certain period, it is inferred that it may be determined that there is a possibility that some trouble has occurred in the resident's body. However, many experiments confirmed that the technique was appropriate. Based on this result, the following invention was made.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an oscillating electric conversion means for converting running water vibration transmitted to a water pipe into an electric signal, and processing an output signal of the oscillating electric conversion means so that a signal in a predetermined band exceeds a predetermined continuation condition. Life reaction detecting means for outputting a life reaction disappearance signal when detecting that the voltage has continuously dropped below a predetermined level, and communication means for establishing a communication state with a predetermined communication partner by connecting to a predetermined communication line in a timely manner. And a notification means for activating the communication means in response to the output of the life reaction disappearance signal and transmitting a notification signal of a predetermined format to the communication line via the communication means. .

[0008] A second aspect of the present invention is a life monitoring device, wherein the communication means is connected to a telephone line and calls a telephone number of a predetermined partner.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS === Summary of Life Monitoring Apparatus === According to the present invention, tap water is always consumed when a resident is normally working in a dwelling (if there is a living reaction). It is based on the assumption. If the tap water is consumed, the supply / drain pipe (the water pipe) generates vibration caused by the flowing water. if,
If this vibration is continuously interrupted for a long period of time, it can be determined that some kind of situation has occurred in which the resident cannot use the water supply.

Therefore, the life monitoring device of the present invention determines that the resident's life reaction has disappeared when the vibration transmitted to the water pipe has been continued for a predetermined time or more, and the fact is determined by an appropriate data format. The notification is output to.

=== Configuration and Operation of Life Monitoring Apparatus === <Operation for Detecting Disappearance of Life Response> FIG. 1 schematically shows the configuration of a life monitoring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The life monitoring device (hereinafter, device) 1 is installed in a water pipe on a water supply side or a drainage side which is piped separately. In this embodiment, it is set in a water pipe near a water meter. Then, it is operated by a suitable power supply such as a home power supply or a built-in battery.

The vibration sensor 11 is attached to the surface of a water pipe, and converts acoustic vibration transmitted through the water pipe into a weak electric signal (acoustic signal). The acoustic signal output from the vibration sensor 11 is amplified by the amplifier 12, and the frequency filter 13 cuts a signal in a frequency band that is not necessary for discriminating the water flow sound, such as a high-frequency band in the amplified signal. Rectifier circuit 14
Performs envelope detection on the acoustic signal that has passed through the filter 13.
This detection output Vs is compared with a predetermined reference voltage value Vr by the voltage comparator 15. Then, when Vs> Vr, a predetermined voltage (High level: H) signal Vout is output, and when Vs <Vr, a low level (L) Vou is output.
t is output.

The timer 17 counts clock pulses from the clock generation circuit 16 when the Vout signal of the voltage comparator 15 is L, and generates a predetermined signal when counting pulses for a predetermined time. Specifically, the timer 17 stores the number of clock pulses for a predetermined time in a register, and outputs a predetermined pulse signal as a life reaction disappearance signal when counting the pulses. The Vout signal from the voltage comparator 15 is connected to the reset input of the timer 17, and the timer 17 performs an operation of resetting the number of clocks counted when Vout is H. That is, when the running water vibration is lower than the predetermined level for a predetermined time or longer, it is determined that the life reaction has disappeared, and a signal to that effect is output.

<Reporting operation to outside> The notification unit 18 and the communication unit 19 are circuit elements for notifying to the outside that the life reaction disappearance signal has been output. The notification unit 18 stores a predetermined telephone number and report data describing that an abnormal situation has occurred in a built-in memory. In the present embodiment, this telephone number is assigned to the host computer of the business operator that manages / operates the apparatus 1, and the report data includes the ID of the apparatus 1 and a code indicating that the life loss signal has been detected. Contains. Of course, the telephone number may be a telephone at an acquaintance's house of the resident, and the report data may be voice data having a content such as "An abnormality has occurred at Mr. XX's house."

The communication unit 19 branches the signal path from the telephone line 30 to the telephone 20 and the alarm unit and operates according to a control signal input from the alarm unit 18 including a communication interface such as a modem. Then, it mediates data communication between the external computer connected to the telephone line 30 and the alarm unit 18. Next, operations of the alarm unit 18 and the communication unit 19 when a life reaction disappearance signal is actually generated will be described.

First, the alarm unit 18 sends an activation signal to the communication unit 19 in response to the generation of the life reaction disappearance signal. Upon receiving this activation signal, the communication unit 19 connects to the telephone line 30 by an off-hook operation. The alerting unit 18 has a telephone line 30
When receiving the data corresponding to the dial tone from, the telephone number of the report destination is transmitted. The communication unit 19 sets the telephone number D
A TMF signal is generated to call a report destination.

When the communication unit 19 recognizes that the polarity of the telephone line 30 has been reversed and the communication state with the report destination has been established, the communication unit 19 transfers the fact to the notification unit 18. The notification unit 18 retrieves the notification data from the memory and sends it to the communication unit 19. The communication unit 19 converts the notification data into a DTMF signal and sends it to the telephone line 30.

<Correspondence Example on Report Destination> In this embodiment, report data is sent to the host computer of the business operator that operates / manages the apparatus 1. The host computer is provided with a database that enables retrieval of personal data such as an address, a resident's name and age using the device ID as a key. When an incoming call is received from the device 1, the ID in the report data is obtained in response to the incoming call. Then, each data associated with the ID is extracted from the database, and the data and information indicating that an abnormality has occurred are notified to a person who constantly monitors the occurrence of the notification by voice or display. The business operator will take appropriate measures such as dispatching people to the site or arranging an ambulance in accordance with the notification.

=== Modification Example / Application Example === In the above embodiment, the report destination is a computer, but a general subscriber telephone, a mobile telephone, a pager or a facsimile may be used. Then, depending on the form of communication with the report destination, the report data may be converted into voice, text, or image, and may be appropriately selected. In addition, the communication unit may be provided with an interface that can be directly connected to a mobile telephone network such as a PHS instead of a general telephone network. Of course, the communication destination is not limited to communication equipment (telephone, facsimile, computer, etc.) connected to the public network, but may be an available line registered by the operation / administrator of the apparatus such as business radio, Devices connected by a dedicated wired or wireless line may be used.

When the communication destination is a telephone, the functions of the alarm unit and the communication unit may be added to the telephone. A telephone for that purpose can be easily achieved with a slight design change of the internal circuit. For example, the telephone number of the report destination is registered as a speed dial of the telephone, and voice is recorded on a recording tape or a recording IC as report data. Then, the user may input a life reaction disappearance signal, call the registered telephone number, and reproduce the recorded voice.

When the report destination is a telephone at an acquaintance's house, there is a possibility that the communication state cannot be established when the other party is busy or not available. Correspondingly, a plurality of telephone numbers and their priorities can be set as report destinations. Then, a call may be made according to the priority order, and if a call state cannot be established for some reason, the next telephone number may be called according to the priority order.

Further, the notification destination may not be a communication device but may be an alarm device such as a lamp or a speaker installed outdoors. An abnormal situation can be reported by blinking a lamp or outputting a warning sound from a speaker in response to the generation of the life reaction disappearance signal.

[0023]

According to the life monitoring device of the present invention, the living condition of the resident of the dwelling is monitored based on the vibration caused by the flowing water in the water pipe installed in the dwelling. If water is not used for a long time due to
It is possible to immediately notify a predetermined contact that the life reaction has disappeared. The use of water is an indispensable factor in living, and the incidence of false alarms is low.

Further, since this device can be constituted only by inexpensive and small circuit elements such as vibration sensors and ICs, it is inexpensive and does not require a large installation space. Therefore, the penetration rate can be increased, and the lonely death due to an accident or illness can be prevented for many elderly people living alone. Even if unfortunately the life reaction is lost due to sudden death or the like, it is possible to quickly detect and deal with it.

Further, since the device itself is installed in a water pipe, it is not seen in daily life, and it is unlikely that a resident suffers from mental inconvenience that privacy is violated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a life monitoring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Life monitoring device 11 Vibration sensor 12 Amplifier 13 Frequency filter 15 Voltage comparator 16 Clock generator 17 Timer 18 Notification part 29 Communication part

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Abe 471 Onna, Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa F-term in Advanced Circuit Technologies Inc. (reference) 5C087 AA03 AA09 AA10 AA12 AA23 AA32 AA37 AA44 BB03 BB12 BB20 BB74 DD03 DD24 EE18 FF01 FF04 FF10 FF13 FF19 FF20 FF23 GG07 GG23 GG29 GG30 GG31 GG35 GG48 GG66 GG70 GG83 5K048 BA12 DC07 5K101 KK14 KK19 RR12

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An oscillating electric converting means for converting running water vibration transmitted to a water pipe into an electric signal, and processing an output signal of the oscillating electric converting means so that a signal in a predetermined band continuously exceeds a predetermined continuation condition. A life reaction detecting means for outputting a life reaction disappearance signal upon detecting that the life has fallen below a predetermined level; a communication means for connecting to a predetermined communication line in a timely manner to establish a communication state with a predetermined communication partner; A livelihood monitoring device comprising: a notification unit that activates the communication unit in response to the output of the reaction disappearance signal and sends out a notification signal of a predetermined format to the communication line via the communication unit. 2. The life monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said communication means connects to a telephone line and calls a telephone number of a predetermined partner.