JP2002143129A - Strain sensor unit belt for making movement of thigh correspondent to walking - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a strain sensor unit belt which is inexpensive to obtain hip joint angle information from the movement of the thigh, is easily attachable and detachable and lessens the burden to be exerted on a user. SOLUTION: This strain sensor unit belt is designed to detect the movement of the thigh and to makes this movement correspondent to pseudo walking by using the resultant data. The belt consists of an easy attachable and removable waist belt, two strain sensor unit fixing parts which are freely movably disposed at this waist belt and the strain sensor units which are respectively fixed to the two strain sensor unit fixing parts. The strain sensor units consist of a rectangular strip shape elastic plates integrated with the strain sensors. The one-side ends of the elastic plates are fixed to the fixing parts and the other-side ends are formed as free ends. Further, the free ends are so arranged as to come into contact with the front of the thigh at all times in wearing the waist belt.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a belt with a strain sensor unit, and more particularly to a strain sensor unit belt suitable for converting the movement of a thigh into an electric signal corresponding to pseudo walking.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As one field of research on virtual reality (VR), a simulator for moving in a virtual space has been studied. Familiar ones include flight simulators, virtual skiing, and racing games. These move in a virtual space by operating a handle, a joystick, or the like.

[0003] The most common method of human movement is to use feet. In addition to the flight simulators described above, recently, many simulators for walking in a virtual space have been developed. Currently developed walking interfaces can be classified into treadmill type, foot pad type, slide type, and others according to the method of canceling the user's movements that occur during walking movement (Noma, Miyazato, Nakatsu: “Active Development of walking sensation presentation device corresponding to walking motion ", Transactions of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan, p.
p.407-415, 1999. ).

[0004] The treadmill type is a method of canceling a user's walking motion by a belt mechanism, and has an advantage that it is not necessary to attach the device to the user's body, but the walking method is limited to the driving direction of the belt. In addition, extra space and cost are required for the belt device, and there are drawbacks that the visual field under the foot is obstructed when the entire circumference image is presented by a projector or the like. In addition, there is a stepper type that puts both feet on two pedals and lifts the pedals according to the movement of the subject's feet. However, since a powered machine is used, it is large and expensive, as in the case of the treadmill type. ,
There is a problem of restricted view of the feet.

[0005] In the case of the body-mounted type, there is a method in which the left and right legs are alternately slid on the floor by wearing a roller skate-like body, and the amount of movement of the feet at that time is measured to perform spatial movement. Is a sliding motion different from walking, and the likelihood of falling increases when the friction with the floor is small, which is unsuitable in terms of safety and the like, especially for elderly people for rehabilitation purposes. The above-mentioned drawbacks can be solved by using a stepping motion that does not involve actual movement, in addition to the fact that the motion for spatial movement is close to walking, and the motion of the user can be detected in real time.

[0006] The stepping action can be detected by attaching a pressure sensor to the sole of the foot. However, in this case, the contact force information is not obtained during the swing phase, and the contact force changes depending on the gait, and is not necessarily proportional to the walking speed, so that it is difficult to continuously estimate the walking speed in real time. There was a disadvantage that it was. This disadvantage can be solved by using hip joint angle information that can be measured continuously and reflects both stride and pitch.

As described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-111998, a strain sensor can be used as one method of obtaining hip joint angle information in this case. Not only was it expensive, costing several hundred thousand yen, but it also had to be fixed using adhesive tape or the like beside the waist, making it difficult to use. Therefore, the present inventors have studied a strain sensor unit that is more inexpensive and easy to use.As a result, an inexpensive sensor commercially available as a strain gauge is attached to a strip-shaped resin plate, and one end of the resin plate is attached to a waist belt. When the other end is a free end and the free end is arranged so as to be always in contact with the front of the thigh, it has been found that hip joint information can be extracted from the movement of the thigh, and the present invention has been reached.

[0008]

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to obtain hip joint angle information from thigh movement.
It is to provide an inexpensive strain sensor unit belt.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a strain sensor unit belt for obtaining hip joint angle information that can be easily attached and detached and reduces the burden on a user.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above objects of the present invention are as follows.
A strain sensor unit belt for detecting movement of the thigh and supporting pseudo walking using the obtained data, wherein the belt is an easily attachable / detachable waist belt, and the belt is movably disposed on the waist belt. A strip-shaped elastic plate comprising two strain sensor unit fixing portions and strain sensor units fixed to each of the two strain sensor unit fixing portions, wherein the strain sensor unit is integrated with the strain sensor. And one end of the elastic plate is fixed to the slide portion and the other end is a free end, and the free end is arranged so as to always contact the front surface of the thigh when the waist belt is worn. This is achieved by a strain sensor unit belt for adapting the movement of the thigh to walking.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The waist belt used in the present invention is a belt used for ordinary pants, work clothes, etc., and its material is not particularly limited. In the present invention,
The belt is provided with two movable slide portions. The shape and material of the slide portion are not particularly limited, but it is necessary that the slide portion have a material and shape capable of fixing an end of an elastic plate integrated with a strain sensor described later. Such a fixing portion is, for example, a thin box-shaped plastic rectangular parallelepiped, which lacks a pair of opposing side surfaces, from which a band can be freely inserted and removed, but is not limited thereto. For example, a resin plate, a metal plate, or the like that is folded so as to have a U-shaped cross section may be used. The fixing portion is slidable with respect to the belt in the case of the rectangular parallelepiped shape, but is detachable from the waist belt in the case of the U shape.

The strain sensor used in the present invention may be any one that can convert the degree of bending into an electric signal with good reproducibility, and may be appropriately selected from known strain sensors, but is inexpensive and easy to use. From the viewpoint, it is preferable that the conductive wire is manufactured by folding a long conductive thin wire and bonding, vapor-depositing, or printing it on the surface of a resin plate or the like. When the conductive thin wire portion provided in this manner is bent, the conductivity changes depending on the degree of distortion at that time. Therefore, by taking out this change as a voltage change, the degree of distortion can be detected as an electric signal. Can be.

In the present invention, the strip-shaped elastic plate (sensor unit) integrated with the strain sensor means a PVC having a strain sensor on at least one surface of the strip-shaped elastic plate.
It is an elastic plate that can be appropriately selected from known plastics and rubbers such as polyester and a metal plate having an insulating layer on the surface. This strain sensor, as described above,
When a conductive thin wire is previously attached to a resin plate or the like, the resin plate or the like may be attached to the strip-shaped elastic plate using an adhesive or the like. The resin plate or the like may be a strip-shaped elastic plate.

In the present invention, it is preferable to dispose the strain sensors on both sides of the strip-shaped resin plate from the viewpoint of compensating the influence of the temperature and the like and improving the accuracy of the strain measurement. Further, it is preferable that the strain sensor be covered with a resin film or the like or sandwiched between resin plates or the like so that the detection portion of the strain sensor is not exposed.
Further, the entire sensor unit may be stored in a bag through a lead wire.

[0014] The fixing of the sensor unit to the fixing part is as follows.
One end of the strip-shaped elastic plate of the sensor unit may be attached to the front or back surface of the fixing portion by an adhesive, a bolt, a crimping device provided on the back surface of the buckle of the belt, or any other means appropriately selected from known means. . This fixing is performed so that the free end, which is the other end of the strip-shaped elastic plate, is always in contact with the front surface of the thigh when the strain sensor unit belt of the present invention is worn. Such a fixation can be performed by inclining the free end of the sensor unit so as to enter the inside of the waist belt and / or by providing a convex portion in contact with the thigh inside the free end. . The convex portion can be appropriately designed from the viewpoint of, for example, preventing the pants from being damaged or causing the user to feel unnatural, when the user wears the strain sensor unit belt of the present invention and steps on it. In particular, the shape is preferably a rod shape, a ship bottom shape, or a hemispherical shape.
Such a convex portion can be attached to the free end of the strip-shaped elastic plate later using an adhesive or the like, but may be integrally formed at the time of manufacturing the strip-shaped elastic plate.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view showing a use state in which a strain sensor unit belt of the present invention is mounted, and FIG. 2 is a side view. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a strain sensor unit belt, 2 denotes a fixed portion, 3
Is a strain sensor unit. The fixing portion is arranged so as to be movable anywhere on the waist belt. From the viewpoint of preventing damage, it is preferable that the sensor such as a strain gauge is disposed near the fixing portion where the deflection is not too large. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a strain sensor unit using a strain gauge. Reference numeral 4 in the figure is a strip-shaped elastic plate, 5 is a base resin sheet of a strain gauge, 6
Is a conductive thin wire. Examples of the conductive fine wire include a metal wire such as copper, aluminum, silver, and gold, a deposited film, and the like, and a dried film of a conductive paste.

When the user wears the strain sensor unit belt of the present invention and steps on it, the free end of the strain sensor unit bends in accordance with the movement of the thigh. In accordance with this bending, the strain gauge in the strain sensor unit is deformed, so that the conductive thin wires and the like in the sensor are shortened or expanded and contracted. If the conductive wire is shortened, the cross-sectional area of the wire becomes larger, so the electrical resistance decreases,
When the wire is stretched, the cross-sectional area of the thin wire becomes smaller, so that the electric resistance increases. By detecting the change in the electric resistance, an electric signal corresponding to the change in the hip joint angle can be obtained from the movement of the thigh at the time of stepping on the foot, and this signal can be used as pseudo walking data.

[0017]

The strain sensor unit belt of the present invention can be easily attached and detached, and does not give a burden to the user since the user does not feel any unnaturalness by wearing the belt. In addition, since a commonly used strain sensor can be used, it is inexpensive, and is particularly useful in a virtual reality related industry that converts a stepping into a pseudo walking.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view in which a strain sensor unit belt of the present invention is mounted.

FIG. 2 is a side view on which a strain sensor unit belt of the present invention is mounted.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing an example of a strain sensor unit of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of a plan view of a strain sensor unit having a convex portion at a contact portion with the thigh as viewed from the convex portion side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Strain sensor unit belt 2 Fixed part 3 Strain sensor unit 4 Strip-shaped elastic plate 5 Base resin sheet of strain gauge 6 Conductive thin wire 7 Sensor 8 Convex part

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A strain sensor unit belt for detecting movement of a thigh and using the obtained data to cope with pseudo walking, wherein the belt is an easily attachable / detachable waist belt, and moves to the waist belt. It is composed of two freely displaced strain sensor unit fixing portions, and strain sensor units fixed to each of the two strain sensor unit fixing portions, and the strain sensor unit is integrated with the strain sensor. One end of the elastic plate is fixed to the slide portion and the other end is a free end, and the free end is always in contact with the front surface of the thigh when the waist belt is attached. A strain sensor unit belt for associating the movement of the thigh with walking, wherein the belt is arranged as described above. 2. The elastic plate is fixed to the sliding portion so that the free end of the elastic plate always contacts the thigh so that the free end is located inside the waist belt when the waist belt is worn. The strain sensor unit belt according to claim 1, wherein the movement of the thigh corresponds to walking. 3. The strain sensor unit belt according to claim 1, wherein the elastic plate has a hemispherical convex portion at a portion in contact with the thigh at a free end. 4. The projection has a rod shape, a ship bottom shape or a hemisphere shape,
The strain sensor unit belt according to claim 3.