JP2002024966A - System to remotely confirm safety at home - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system to remotely confirm safety at home, giving no mental pressure that a person is monitored to an aged person to be monitored as to whether he is safe or not. SOLUTION: This system to remotely confirm safety at home is composed of plural concealed sensors installed in various spots in a house to detect existence of a human body, an in-home communication medium to transmit the detected human body signal of the concealed sensor, an in-home control device equipped with a communicating means outside the house which judges whether or not a person living in the house is safe based on the detected human body signal obtained through the in-home communication medium by a first safety judging means and can communicate the result to the outside of the house through a public network.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for remotely confirming the safety of a person at home, and more particularly, to confirming the behavior of a solitary elderly person in a house to give a sense of security to a family living apart from them, and to provide sickness and accidents in life. The present invention relates to a home safety remote confirmation system capable of promptly reporting an abnormality such as an abnormality at home.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are many cases where elderly people live far away from their families and alone. For example, in a family where the eldest son lived with an elderly parent, the eldest son was relocated to a remote location, but the parent did not want to leave the place he had lived in for many years and chose to live alone. .

[0003] In such a case, the eldest son's family is concerned about the safety of the parents of the elderly and contacts the person on the phone to confirm the safety directly. There was not enough confirmation means.

[0004] In the future, this situation is expected to increase further as the birth rate and nuclear family progress.

[0005] In order to cope with such a situation, a system that can remotely confirm the living situation of the elderly in a house is known.

[0006] For example, there is a system in which a plurality of human body detection sensors are installed in an elderly person's house, and a family can externally check living activity data detected by the human body detection sensors.

Conventionally, as a human body detecting means in such a system, a method of detecting the presence of a person in a detection area of a sensor using a photoelectric sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, or the like has been used.

[0008]

However, in the conventional remote confirmation system for safety at home, there has been no method for installing a human body detection sensor.

For example, a photoelectric sensor used as a human body detecting means detects the presence of a human body by measuring the magnitude of the reflected wave incident on the sensor surface when infrared rays radiated from the sensor surface are reflected on the human body. However, since the sensor surface and the human body cannot be blocked by a wall that does not transmit infrared light, the sensor surface is exposed to the monitored person.

[0010] In the home safety remote confirmation system, human body detection sensors are installed at various places in the house. For the elderly living in the house, the sensor surface is exposed, so that no matter where they go in the house, someone from anywhere. You may be under psychological pressure to be monitored.

Even if an elderly person who is a monitored person has a good understanding of a system for remotely confirming safety at home and is convinced that privacy is protected, sensors can be seen everywhere in the house every day. The effect of this on deep psychology cannot be measured.

[0012] Further, if an attempt is made to install the device in a place as hard as possible for the person to be monitored, a contradiction arises that it becomes difficult to detect a human body.

As described above, there is a problem that a system that cares for the safety of the elderly living alone may adversely affect the elderly mentally.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an elderly person who is confirmed to be at home without the psychological pressure of being monitored. It is to provide a remote confirmation system.

[0015]

Means for Solving the Problems and Functions / Effects In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 comprises a plurality of concealed sensors for detecting the presence of a human body installed at various places in a house; The in-home communication medium for transmitting the human body detection signal of the concealment type sensor, and the safety determination of the person resident in the house based on the human body detection signal obtained through this home communication medium is determined by the first safety determination means, An in-home management device having an out-of-home communication means capable of communicating the result outside the home via a public line, and a home safety remote confirmation system comprising:

According to the present invention, the human body detection sensor is concealed and the sensor surface is concealed from the person to be monitored, thereby realizing a home safety remote confirmation system that does not give the observer psychological pressure of being monitored. .

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the human body detection sensor is a microwave sensor for transmitting ultra high frequency waves.

According to the present invention, since the microwave can pass through a shield other than metal, a concealed sensor can be realized, and the human body detection sensor can be installed in a place where the monitored person cannot see. Becomes

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the microwave sensor includes means for transmitting a radio wave for detecting a human body, means for receiving a reflected wave of the radio wave transmitted by the transmitting means, and the receiving means. And a means for calculating a difference between the frequency of the signal received by the transmitting means and the frequency of the signal transmitted by the transmitting means, and generating a signal corresponding to the difference.

According to the present invention, a moving microwave sensor for detecting a human body can be accurately detected by utilizing the Doppler effect of microwaves. Further, the influence of the reflectance, the ambient temperature, and the like can be ignored.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the frequency of the transmitting means of the human body detecting sensor is 2.45 GHz to 12 GHz.
It is characterized by being.

According to the present invention, the frequency of the transmitting device is set to 2.
By setting the frequency to 45 GHz or more, it becomes possible to extract a Doppler signal for detecting a motion of a human body. In other words, if it is less than this, an accurate Doppler signal cannot be obtained. Further, by setting the frequency to 12 GHz or less, the signal itself is hardly attenuated due to the influence of water vapor and dust in the air, and as a result, accurate detection can be realized.

[0023] The invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that the communication medium for transmitting the human body detection signal from the human body detection sensor to the home management device is a power line or wireless.

According to the present invention, by using a power line or wireless as a communication medium, there is no need to install a dedicated communication line between the human body detection sensor and the home management device, and installation in an existing house becomes more efficient. It's easy.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the home management device is connected to a home network so as to be able to perform information communication, and acquires control information of a home device terminal connected to the home network. It is characterized by being able to.

According to the present invention, it is possible to acquire information on home equipment terminals connected to the home network, and control information on home equipment other than the human body detection sensor can be used for safety confirmation determination.

[0027] The invention according to claim 7 is provided with a second safety judgment means for judging the safety of a person in the house based on the control information of the home equipment terminal. It is characterized in that the safety of the person in the house is comprehensively judged by using the second safety judgment means.

According to the present invention, by adding information of not only the human body detection sensor but also the home equipment terminal originally installed in the home, the life information of the person in the home is further increased, and based on them, comprehensive As a result, an accurate safety judgment can be made.

[0029] The invention according to claim 8 is characterized in that the in-home management device can acquire the information of the seating sensor of the cleaning toilet seat device.

According to the present invention, since the human body detection information can be substituted for the information of the seating sensor of the cleaning toilet seat device, it is not necessary to install the human body detection sensor in the toilet space.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the control information of the home device terminal is external input information of the home device terminal operated by a person.

According to the present invention, the presence information of the person in the house becomes more accurate because it is based on the information of the external input directly operated by the person.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an entry / exit detection means for detecting entry / exit of a human body inside and outside the house based on a human body detection signal of the concealment type sensor.

According to the present invention, it is not necessary to manually make settings for going out when going out, so that going out settings can be made simply and reliably.

[0035]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall view showing the first embodiment of the present invention, and shows, for example, an elderly person living alone. Here, an elderly person is represented by a human body 1, and a dwelling is, for example, a bedroom 9, a living room 10, a kitchen 11, a toilet 12, and an entrance 1.
3. The front entrance 14 is configured.

At the ceiling of each of these bedroom 9, living room 10, kitchen 11, toilet 12, entrance 13 and front entrance 14,
Hidden human body detection sensors 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 respectively
Is installed in a state where it is shielded by ceiling members. In addition,
These human body detection sensors do not necessarily need to be installed behind the ceiling, and can be installed throughout the house if the sensor surface is not exposed because it is blocked by non-metal members such as behind the wall and behind the furniture. is there.

A home management device 8 is installed in the house, and the home management device is connected to a public line 17.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the concealed human body detection sensors 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 showing the first embodiment of the present invention, and shows the configuration of a microwave sensor as an example. I have. The concealed human body detection sensors 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
It comprises a sensor transmitting unit 22, a sensor receiving unit 21, a sensor signal generating unit 19, a human body detection determining unit 20, and a human body detection signal transmitting unit 18.

From the sensor transmitter 22, for example, 10.5
A transmission wave 15 having a frequency of 25 MHz is emitted. If this frequency is 2.45 GHz to 12 GHz, accurate detection can be easily realized.

Further, the sensor receiving section 21 is configured to transmit the transmission wave 15 radiated by the sensor transmitting section 22 to the reflected wave 1 reflected by the object.
6 is received.

The sensor signal generator 19 receives the transmission frequency of 10.525 MHz of the sensor transmitter 22 and the reception frequency of the sensor receiver 21. Then, a difference between these frequencies is obtained, and a signal corresponding to the difference is generated.

The human body detection / judgment means 20 judges the detection or non-detection of the human body based on the signal generated by the sensor signal generation means 19, and transmits the result of the human body detection / non-detection by the human body detection signal transmission means 18. I do. The signal transmitted here includes, in addition to the detection signal of the human body, a sensor determination signal capable of specifying a certain human body detection sensor from the plurality of human body detection sensors. This makes it possible to determine where in the house the signal is transmitted from a sensor installed in the house.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the home management device 8 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The home management device 8 includes a human body detection signal receiving unit 23, an action data storage unit 24, a timer 2
5. It is composed of safety judgment means 26 and out-of-home communication means 27.

In the human body detection signal receiving means 23, the human body detection signal transmitted from the human body detection signal transmitting means 18 of the concealed human body detection sensors 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; Receive information on whether to do or not.

Here, the communication medium 34 between the human body detection signal transmitting means 18 and the human body detection signal receiving means 23 may use a dedicated line. However, if a wireless or electric light line is used, the system is retrofitted to an existing house. Excellent installability in some cases.

The human body detection signal received by the human body detection signal receiving means 23 is stored by the action data storage means. Here, the stored human body detection signal is added with the location information of the human body detection sensor based on the above-described sensor determination signal and the clock information based on the time measured by the timer 25.

Thus, it is possible to know when and where the presence of the human body is detected. For example, the presence of a human body was detected three times by the human body detection sensor installed in the living room between 12:00 and 13:00 yesterday, but no human body was detected by the human body detection sensor in the living room between 12:00 and 13:00 today. Was
And so on.

The safety judgment means 26 judges the safety of the elderly living in the house based on the information stored in the behavior data storage means. The safety information performed by the safety determination means 26 can be confirmed from outside the house via a public line by the outside-of-home communication means 27 and can be reported outside the house.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention having the preceding configuration will be described.

In FIG. 1, transmission waves 15 are steadily radiated from concealed human body detection sensors 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 installed at various places in a house. Since these human body detection sensors are concealed, there is no need to worry about the presence of the human body detection sensors while the elderly person (human body 1) living in the house moves around the house and lives.

Here, for example, when there is no elderly person in the kitchen 11, the transmission wave 15 radiated from the concealed human body detection sensor 4.
Is reflected by stationary objects such as floors and furniture in a house. This reflected wave is received by the human body detection sensor, but the frequency of the reflected wave is the same as the frequency of the transmitted wave because it is reflected from a stationary object. The concealed human body detection sensor 4 transmits a signal of non-human body detection to the home management device 8 by adding a sensor discrimination signal based on the difference between the frequencies of the transmitted wave and the received wave. The in-home management device 8 stores that there is no elderly person in the kitchen during the current time zone.

When the elderly person enters the living room 10 from the bedroom 9, the transmission wave 15 transmitted from the concealed sensor 3 installed in the living room 10 is reflected by the moving body of the human body 1 (elderly person). . The concealed human body detection sensor 3 receives the reflected wave 16 from the human body 1, but the frequency of the reflected wave changes with respect to the frequency of the transmitted wave because the reflection is from a moving object. The concealment type human body detection sensor 3 transmits a human body detection signal to the home management device 8 by adding a sensor determination signal based on the difference between the frequencies of the transmitted wave and the received wave to the home management device 8. The home management device 8
I remember that there is an elderly person in the living room at the current time.

As described above, the in-home management device 8 can store the human body detection and non-detection information of the past various places in the home including the present.

If the elderly are healthy and can perform normal living activities, for example, they cook in the kitchen or use the toilets in the daytime. Is expected to detect a human body.

Therefore, the home management device 8 determines that the elderly are healthy when the human body 1 is detected in various places in the home during the daytime. The family of the elderly can be relieved by remotely receiving information that the elderly are healthy through the public line 17.

On the other hand, if the elderly fall ill, for example, and their physical strength is reduced, they will less likely move around in the house, and the number and range of human body detections in the house will be reduced. Further, when the person becomes bedridden in the bedroom 9, almost no human body is detected by the concealed human body detection sensor 2 installed in the bedroom 9. In addition, for example, when an elderly person falls down in the toilet 12 and dies as it is, it is expected that a human body will not be detected in various places in the house.

In such a case, the home management device 8 determines that the elderly are in an abnormal state. Then, an abnormal condition is notified to the family of the elderly through the public line 17. Conversely, the family can be assured that the elderly parents are fine while there is no such report.

By the way, when an elderly person goes out, each human body detecting sensor in the house does not detect the presence of a human body. There is no problem if the elderly return home immediately, but if the user goes out for a long time such as a trip, there is a risk that the human body in the house does not move for a long time, so that it is erroneously determined that the situation is abnormal.

In order to prevent such erroneous determination, the concealment type human body detection sensors 6 and 7 constitute entrance / exit detection means for detecting the entrance / exit of the human body inside / outside the house, and can judge whether the elderly person goes out or stays at home. .

That is, if the concealment-type human body detection sensor 6 starts detecting the human body within a predetermined time after the concealment-type human body detection sensor 6 starts detecting the human body, the elderly person goes out because the human body moves from the entrance 13 to the front entrance 14. Conversely, if the concealment-type human body detection sensor 6 starts the human body detection within a predetermined time after the concealment-type human body detection sensor 7 starts detecting the human body,
It is determined that the elderly have returned because they moved from 4 to the entrance 13.

This enables the home management device 8 to recognize that the elderly person is out and at home, and that even if there is no detection of a human body in the house for a long time while going out, it is not an abnormality and no erroneous determination is made.

Further, in order to prevent erroneous recognition of going out due to detection of an animal or the like at a front door or a guest, if a human body is detected in a house within a predetermined time after the decision to go out, the going out decision is canceled. Then, the accuracy of the decision to go out increases.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 4 is an overall view showing a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 basically shows an embodiment of the first embodiment.
4 is the same as that of FIG. 1 except that the home network 28 is added and the concealed human body detection sensor 5 installed in the toilet 12 is deleted in FIG.

The home network 28 is connected to the home management device 8.
And a home device terminal are connected so that information communication is possible. FIG.
Then, in addition to the home management device, for example, a water heater 29 and a television 3
0, a kitchen 31, a range hood 32, and a toilet seat with a washing function 33 are connected.

It is possible to communicate state information and control information of an arbitrary device terminal between these device terminals connected to the home network.

As a communication medium of the home network 28, an electric light line is shown in FIG. 4 as an example, but a wireless line or a dedicated line can also be used.

Concealed human body detection sensors 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
Is the same as FIG. 2 showing the configuration of the concealed human body detection sensor according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of a home management device 8 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is basically the same as FIG. 3 showing the in-home management device 8 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, except that a network communication means 35 is added.
Here, if the communication medium or communication protocol with the concealment type human body detection sensor is shared with the communication of the home network, the network communication means 34 can be partially or entirely common with the human body detection signal receiving means 23.

Further, the network communication means 35
The home management device 8 is a water heater 29, a television 30, a kitchen 3
1, information on the range hood 32 and the toilet seat with a washing function 33 can be communicated.

The control information of each device obtained from the water heater 29, the television 30, the kitchen 31, the range hood 32, and the toilet seat with washing function 33 is stored by the action data storage means. Here, to the stored control information, device type information and clock information based on the time measured by the timer 25 are added. Thus, it is possible to know when and which home device terminal operated. For example, the ventilation fan of the range hood 3 installed in the kitchen 11 was operated between 18:00 and 19:00 yesterday, or the seating sensor of the toilet seat 33 with the cleaning function installed in the toilet 12 for the past two days did not turn on. , Etc.

The operation of the present invention having the preceding configuration will be described below.

In FIG. 4, concealed human body detection sensors 23, 4, 6, and 7, which are concealed and installed at various places in a house, are provided.
The operation of transmitting the human body detection information (excluding 5) to the home management device 8 to determine the safety of the elderly is the same as the operation of the above-described first embodiment of the present invention.

In the operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the home management system can further obtain control information of home equipment terminals connected to the home network 28 via the home network 28.

For example, between 20:00 and 21:00, the water heater 2
9 drove, the TV 30 between 18:00 and 19:00
Is turned on, the ventilation fan of the range hood is turned on between 19:00 and 20:00, the toilet seat with washing function 3 between 8:00 and 9:00
For example, the seating sensor 3 is turned on. Accordingly, the home management system 8 determines that the elderly person opened the water faucet in the kitchen 31 and the water heater 29 started operating at each time zone, the TV was turned on to watch the TV in the living room, The range hood was turned on when cooking at 31.
3 and recognizes that the seating sensor has been turned on and stores it.

If the elderly are healthy and can perform normal living activities, it is expected that the above-mentioned home device terminals will be frequently turned on. Conversely, if an abnormality such as an illness occurs in the elderly, the number of times that it is turned on will decrease. Therefore, it is possible to determine the safety of the elderly based on control information such as turning on the operation of the home device terminal.

The home management device 8 comprehensively determines the safety of the elderly by adding the control information of the home device terminal to the human body detection information from the concealed human body detection sensor.

As a result, the accuracy of the determination is increased as compared with the safety determination using only the human body detection sensor. For example, even if the elderly person has arrived in the living room 10 and the concealed human body detection sensor 3 has not detected for some reason, it can be expected that the television 30 is turned on and that the person has come to the living room. In addition, if the concealment type human body detection sensor 3 detects a human body and the television 30 is turned on, the certainty that the user has come to the living room is further increased.

Here, since the judgment that the elderly person has come to the living room or the like is made based on the operation of the original function of the home device terminal (here, the television 30), the act of operating the device for the elderly person is performed. Are not aware that they are being monitored, and do not receive psychological pressure as a result.

Further, by using the control data of the home device terminal, the number of concealed human body detection sensors can be reduced.

For example, when entering the toilet 12, the use of the toilet seat 33 with a washing function is almost expected.
The on / off signal of the seating sensor mounted on the toilet seat with the washing function can substitute for the on / off of the human body detection of the concealed human body detection sensor to be installed in the toilet 12. In addition, even if the sensor surface of the seat sensor is exposed, elderly people who use the toilet seat recognize that this sensor is provided to perform the original function of the toilet seat with a washing function. You are not under any psychological pressure to be specially monitored. This makes it possible to eliminate the concealed human body detection sensor to be installed in the toilet.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a concealed human body detection sensor of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram illustrating a home management device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an overall view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram illustrating a home management device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... human body, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... concealed human body detection sensor, 8 ... house management device, 9 ... bedroom, 10 ... living room, 11
... kitchen, 12 ... toilet, 13 ... entrance, 14 ... entrance front,
15: transmitted wave, 16: reflected wave, 17: public line, 18 ...
Human body detection signal transmission means, 19 ... sensor signal generation means, 2
0: human body detection determination means, 21: sensor reception unit, 22: sensor transmission unit, 23: human body detection signal reception means, 24: action data storage means, 25: timer, 26: safety determination means,
27 ... out-of-home communication means, 28 ... home network, 29
... Hot water heater, 30 ... TV, 31 ... Kitchen, 32 ... Range hood, 33 ... Toilet seat with washing function, 34 ... Communication medium, Network communication means 35

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5C087 AA02 AA03 BB09 BB12 BB18 BB65 BB74 DD03 DD49 EE05 EE08 EE18 FF04 5K048 AA15 BA31 DC07 5K101 KK14 KK19 LL01

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of concealed sensors for detecting the presence of a human body installed at various places in a house, a home communication medium for transmitting a human body detection signal of the concealed sensor, and a human body acquired through the home communication medium. An in-home management device that includes an out-of-home communication unit that can determine the safety of a person resident in the house based on the detection signal by the first safety determination unit and that can communicate the result outside the home through a public line. Home remote safety confirmation system. 2. The remote confirmation of the safety at home according to claim 1, wherein the concealment type sensor is a microwave sensor provided with a sensor transmitting means for transmitting a microwave for detecting a human body. system. 3. The microwave sensor according to claim 1, wherein the microwave sensor receives a signal transmitted from the outside as a radio wave, and obtains a difference between a frequency of a transmission signal of the sensor transmission unit and a frequency of the sensor reception signal. 3. The remote confirmation of safety at home according to claim 2, further comprising: sensor signal generating means for generating a detected signal; and human body detection determining means for determining detection of a human body based on the signal of the sensor signal generating means. system. 4. The sensor transmitting means has a frequency of 2.4.
The home safety remote confirmation system according to claim 2, wherein the frequency is 5 GHz to 12 GHz. 5. The in-home safety remote confirmation system according to claim 1, wherein the in-home communication medium is a power line or wireless. 6. The home management device is connected to a home network so as to be able to perform information communication, and obtains control information of one or a plurality of home device terminals connected to the home network. 6. The remote safety confirmation system for at-home safety according to claim 1, wherein: 7. The in-home management device includes a second safety determination unit that determines the safety of a person in the house based on the control information of the home device terminal. 7. The at-home safety remote confirmation system according to claim 6, wherein the safety of the person in the house is comprehensively determined using the safety determination means of (1). 8. The at-home safety remote confirmation system according to claim 7, wherein the control information of the home appliance terminal is information of a seating sensor of a cleaning toilet seat device. 9. The safety at home according to claim 6, wherein the control information of the home device terminal is external input information of the home device terminal operated by a person. Remote confirmation system. 10. The in-home management device includes an in / out detection unit configured to detect an in / out of a human body inside and outside the home based on a human body detection signal of the concealment type sensor. Home safety remote confirmation system.