JP2002312867A - Bathroom - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a bathroom with a human body sensor, which uses a drainage plug provided in a bathtub installed in the bathroom and doesn't bring about erroneous discrimination of the human body sensor and prevents a user from forgetting operation. SOLUTION: The bathroom is provided with a human body detection sensor which monitors a monitor area to detect stop of a human body, the drainage plug through which hot water in the bathtub is drained, a drainage plug open/ close detection means which detects the pen or close state of the drainage plug, and a sensor operation stop or start means which stops or starts the operation of the human body detection sensor in accordance with detection of the open or close state of the drainage plug by the drainage plug open/close detection means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a human body detection sensor which monitors a bathroom, which is a monitoring target area, detects movement of a human body and, when an abnormality occurs, issues an alarm to another person at a remote place. And a drain plug that is opened and closed from a remote position to drain hot and cold water in a bathtub.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a bathing abnormality detecting device in which a notification device is provided in a kitchen, a living room, or the like, and a sensor for detecting a human body is provided in a bathroom, and an alarm is issued to a kitchen or the like when the sensor detects a bathing abnormality. Have been. This sensor is activated when a person enters the bathroom and can detect human body stop.After entering the human body stop detection flow, when a person leaves the bathroom, the sensor becomes inactive and stops detecting human body stop. Has become.

[0003]

However, when a person enters a bathroom to hang laundry, a sensor for detecting a human body is activated by entering the room.
On the other hand, if the laundry is dried successively, it is not possible to detect the exit of the person behind the laundry, and the laundry stops and the person stops moving, so that it is erroneously determined that the movement of the human body has disappeared. there were. That is, if the stop of the movement of the human body is detected during the operation of the human body sensor, an alarm is issued to another person, and there is a problem that an alarm sound is generated even if the person is not in the bathroom. To solve this,
When the laundry is dried in the bathroom, a switch for canceling the operation of the sensor may be provided separately, and the switch may be operated to stop the operation of the human body sensor when entering the bathroom. However, in this method, a switch for canceling the sensor must be separately provided, and there is a problem that the construction is complicated. Also, if you forget to operate when entering the room,
In the past, the operation was erroneous.

[0004] In view of the above problems, the present invention utilizes a drain plug provided in a bathtub installed in a bathroom, and does not cause erroneous determination of a human body sensor and does not forget to operate a bathroom with a human body sensor. The task is to provide

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a bathroom according to the present invention includes a human body detection sensor for monitoring a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, a drain plug for draining hot and cold water in a bath tub, A drain cock opening / closing detecting means for detecting an open state or a closed state of the drain cock, and a sensor operation stopping means for stopping or starting the operation of the human body detection sensor according to the detection of the opening / closing of the drain cock by the drain cock opening / closing detecting means, or The first feature is that a sensor operation start means is provided. According to the first feature, when the operation of the human body detection sensor is stopped or started in response to the detection of the opening and closing of the drain plug, when the hot water in the bathtub is discharged and the drain plug is opened,
When the person is not taking a bath, the operation of the human body detection sensor is stopped, so that it is not erroneously determined that the movement of the human body has disappeared due to the influence of the laundry, and no false alarm is issued. If the sensor operation stopping means or the sensor operation starting means is incorporated in the microcomputer as software, the size of the operating device can be reduced without providing a separate sensor canceling switch. Further, by automatically controlling the operation of the human body detection sensor by detecting the open / closed state of the drain plug, it is possible to avoid forgetting to operate.

Further, the bathroom of the present invention monitors a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, detects a stop of a human body, a drain plug for draining hot water from a bathtub, and detects an open state or a closed state of the drain plug. Drain plug opening / closing detecting means, sensor operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to the detection of the opening of the drain plug by the drain plug opening / closing detecting means, and closing detection of the drain plug by the drain plug opening / closing detecting means. A second feature is that a sensor operation start means for starting operation of the human body detection sensor in response thereto is provided. According to the second feature, in addition to the above features, the operation of the human body detection sensor is started when the closed state of the drain plug is detected, that is, when the bath is in the bathing state with hot water. In addition, the monitoring of the human body and the detection of the stop can be performed without impairing the original function of the human body detection sensor. Further, the bathroom of the present invention, a human body detection sensor that monitors the monitoring area to detect the stop of the human body, and an electric drain plug that drains hot and cold water in the bathtub,
A drain cock opening / closing detecting means for detecting an open or closed state of the drain cock, a sensor operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to the detection of the opening of the drain cock by the drain cock opening / closing detecting means, A third feature is that sensor operation start means for starting the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to detection of the closing of the drain plug by the drain plug open / close detection means is provided. According to the third feature, in addition to the above features, the drain cock is electrically operated, and the drain cock opening / closing detecting means for detecting the open / close state of the motor-operated drain cock is provided, so that the opening / closing operation can be performed easily. Further, the open state or the closed state can be easily detected by utilizing the rotation of the electric motor. Further, the bathroom of the present invention includes a human body detection sensor that monitors a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, an electric drainage plug that drains bathtub hot water, and a drainage plug driving unit that drives and controls the drainage plug. A drain valve opening / closing detecting unit that detects an open state or a closed state of the drain plug, and a sensor operation stopping unit that stops the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to the detection of the opening of the drain plug by the drain valve opening / closing detecting unit. A fourth feature is that sensor operation start means for starting operation of the human body detection sensor in response to detection of the closure of the drain plug by the drain plug open / close detection means is provided. According to this fourth feature, in addition to the above features, the drain plug of the bathtub can be operated from a remote place such as a kitchen by providing the drain plug driving means for driving and controlling the drain plug. Further, the bathroom of the present invention includes a human body detection sensor that monitors a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, an electric drainage plug that drains bathtub hot water, and a drainage plug driving unit that drives and controls the drainage plug. An operation switch for operating the drain cock driving means, provided on a kitchen remote control of a hot water appliance, a drain cock opening / closing detecting means for detecting an open or closed state of the drain cock, and a drain cock opening / closing detecting means Sensor operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to detection of the opening of the drain plug by the sensor, and sensor operation for starting operation of the human body detection sensor in response to detection of the closing of the drain plug by the drain plug opening / closing detection means The fifth feature is that a start means is provided. According to the fifth feature, in addition to the features described above, the drain switch is driven by the operation switch provided on the kitchen remote controller of the hot water device, so that the operation box of the hot water device can be used to separately open and close the drain plug. It is possible to improve the beauty of the kitchen without providing an operation box for the user, and at the time of operation, the drain cock can be controlled with one switch from the kitchen, which is convenient.

The bathroom according to the first to fifth aspects of the present invention is an imaging device for imaging a monitoring area at predetermined time intervals, and area dividing means for dividing a detection area into an entrance area and an area other than the entrance area. A movement amount calculating means for calculating the amount of movement of the human body as a difference between the received light amounts by comparing the two images before and after the predetermined time interval, and detecting whether or not each of the areas divided by the area dividing means has a motion. Motion presence / absence area detection means, motion presence / absence determination means for judging the presence / absence of motion by the motion amount calculation means, and whether or not the area detected by the motion presence / absence area detection means corresponds to a previously specified area. A sixth feature is that a specific area determination unit that is to be determined and a determination unit that determines the motion of a human body by the movement presence / absence determination unit and the specific area determination unit are provided. According to the sixth feature, in addition to the above features, there is provided a motion presence / absence determining means for determining the presence / absence of a motion of a person, and a motion presence / absence area detecting means for detecting a region where a motion has occurred,
By judging the movement of the human body by these two means, it is possible to reliably detect the stop of the movement of the human body after the start of the operation of the human body detection sensor, and it is possible to improve the detection accuracy while preventing erroneous detection.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electric circuit showing one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of an image core circuit constituting one pixel of the image detection unit of the human body detection sensor. FIG. 4 is an electric circuit diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a control flowchart showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of human body monitoring according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of one embodiment showing a relationship among a human body detection sensor, a drain plug, and a hot water device. FIG. 8 is a block diagram of electric control according to another embodiment showing a relationship among a human body detection sensor, a hot water device, and a remote controller. FIG. 9 is an enlarged view of the storage unit. 10A is a diagram showing a current image and a previous image of the object moved toward the lower right, FIG. 10B is a diagram showing the brightness of the previous image for each pixel,
(C) is a diagram showing the brightness of the current image for each pixel. FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a difference image showing a change in brightness at a pixel corresponding to a boundary of an image. FIG. 12 is an electric circuit block diagram showing one embodiment.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of the present invention. A bath 1 and a washing tub 3 are provided inside a bathroom 1. Reference numeral 4 denotes an entrance to the bathroom 1. Reference numeral 5 denotes a human body sensor, which is attached to the upper part of the inner wall surface of the bathroom 1, as will be described in detail later. Specifically, it is attached to the upper part of the bathroom wall surface facing the bathroom wall surface in contact with the longitudinal direction of the bathtub 2. The hot water equipment 40 is operated from a remote position, and a bath remote control 60 installed in a bathroom and a kitchen remote control 70 installed in a kitchen are connected to the hot water equipment 40. In the present embodiment, the human body sensor 5 is attached to the wall surface of the bathroom 1, but is not limited to this example, and may be attached to the ceiling surface of the bathroom 1. The human body sensor 5 has an imaging device using an artificial retina, and includes a human body detection sensor 51 that captures an image of the movement of the human body in the bathroom 1 and performs image processing, and an infrared sensor 52 that detects the human body by detecting heat using infrared rays. are doing.

A bathroom 1 has a bath remote control 60 for remotely controlling the hot water equipment 40, and a kitchen has a kitchen remote control 70 for remotely controlling the hot water equipment 40. Here, the hot water device 40 is a device for heating water such as hot water in a bathtub, and specifically includes a bath kettle with a water heater, a heater with a bath water heater, a hot water heater, a hot water heater, and the like. ing. The hot water equipment may be not only gas-fueled but also oil-fueled. With respect to the connection between the water heater 40, the remote controllers 60 and 70, and the human body detection sensor 51, in FIG. 1, the water heater 40 and the kitchen remote controller 70 are first connected by the cable 41, and then the kitchen remote controller 70 is connected. The bath remote controller 60 is connected with the cable 41, and the bath remote controller 60 and the human body detection sensor 51 are further connected.
Are connected by a cable 41. The remote controllers 60 and 70 for controlling the water heater and the like have a display unit such as a liquid crystal display panel for notifying that there is a bather in the bathroom 1, and the human body sensor 5 detects the bather, When the detection signal is output, the display section may display a light or the like.

On the other hand, a drain plug 130 for discharging the bath water is provided at the bottom of the bathtub 2. This drain plug is composed of an electric drain plug driven by electricity,
The motor for opening and driving the drain plug is connected to the bath remote controller 60 via the connection cord 131. The controller 42 of the water heater 40 and the motor may be directly connected without going through the bath remote controller 60. Specifically, it is as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 4, a drain pop-up 132 made of a wire or the like and opening a drain plug 130 is provided in an apron space on the back surface of the bathtub wall. The drain pop-up 132 is electrically driven by a motor 133. The term “electrically driven” means not only the operation of opening the drain cock electrically and the closing operation of the drain cock manually or hydraulically, but also the operation of opening and closing the drain cock electrically. You may. Specifically, a known interlocking mechanism using a rack and a pinion, or an interlocking mechanism 134 using a spiral wire and a gear may be used. Then, by the rotation of the motor 133, the wire of the drain pop-up 132 is pulled up via the interlocking mechanism 134, and the drain plug 130
Is opened. When the drain plug 130 is closed, the drain plug 130 may be closed by being driven by the motor 133 in the opposite direction. 135 is interlocked with the rotation of the motor 133,
A switch for detecting the open / close state of the switch 30. For example, in the open state of the drain plug 130, the switch 135 is opened,
When the drain plug 130 is in the closed state, the switch 135 is closed so that a signal for opening or closing the switch 135 is input to an operation control unit 136 including a microcomputer described later. Then, this detection state may be displayed on the remote controller.

A motor 13 for driving the drain plug 130
The energization of 3 is performed by the operation control means 136, and the operation control means 136 is provided in the controller 42 of the hot water equipment 40. Operation control means 13
6 is the bath remote control 60 and the kitchen remote control 70 described above.
The bath remote control 60 and the kitchen remote control 70 have an operation switch 13 for operating a drain plug.
7, 138 are provided respectively.

The operation control means 136 is composed of a microcomputer, and includes therein a drain plug driving means 139 for driving and controlling the drain plug 130, and a human body detecting sensor 51.
And a sensor operation stopping means 141 for stopping the operation of the human body detection sensor 51. Here, the operation of the human body detection sensor 51 refers to the function of a sensor that starts imaging at a predetermined interval, performs image processing, calculation, and determines whether the human body is stopped.
The start of the operation means that the operation of the sensor starts, and the stop of the operation means that the operation of the sensor stops. The operation of the human body detection sensor 51 is stopped via the sensor operation stop means 141 by the detection of the opening of the drain plug 130 by the drain plug opening / closing detection means 135. Also, the drain plug 13 by the drain plug opening / closing detection means 135
The operation of the human body detection sensor 51 is started via the sensor operation start means 140 upon detection of the closing of 0.

If there is no movement of the bather for a certain period of time, it is presumed that the bather is sleeping or falling down in the bathtub. If not, the kitchen remote controller 70 may notify other persons such as family members of an alarm by an alarm sound or voice.

A heat exchanger and a burner are built in the hot water equipment 40, and various sensors for control are provided. A hot water supply pipe 46 is connected from the hot water equipment 40 to the bathtub 2. The power for operating the human body sensor 5 is introduced from a power plug 47 of the hot water device 40, and is lowered in voltage and supplied to a low voltage via a transformer (not shown) of the controller 42 of the hot water device 40.

FIG. 2 shows a specific configuration of the human body sensor 5 including a human body detection sensor 51 using an artificial retina chip and an infrared sensor 52. Human body detection sensor 51
Is composed of an imaging device 6 for imaging the monitoring area, and a control device 7 for controlling the imaging device 6 and determining processing information. Further, the control device 7 and the external remote controller 60,
The communication with 70 is performed by a communication unit 53 such as a communication IC described later. And the human body detection sensor 5
1 and an infrared sensor 52 is provided in the same case body,
The control device 7 is shared so as to complement each other when the bathroom 1 is dark.

The image pickup section 8 of the image pickup device 6 has a length of 128 ×
It comprises an image detector 9 having a resolution of 128 horizontal pixels, an imaging lens 10, a scanner 11, a multiplexer 12, and a scanner drive controller 13. The detection processing may be performed on a part of the pixels (128 pixels vertically × 128 pixels horizontally). Each pixel of the image detection unit 9 is represented by monochrome 256 gradations “256 gradations of level 0 (black) to 255 (white)”.

In the image pickup section 8, an image in the bathroom is formed on the image detecting section 9 by the image forming lens 10. The drive of the scanner 11 is controlled by a scanner drive control unit 13, and the scanner drive control unit 13 controls each pixel row of the image detection unit 9 so as to sequentially enter a light receiving state (on state) at regular intervals. . A plurality of electric signals are combined into one electric signal by the multiplexer 12 and amplified by the amplifier 14, and then output as an analog voltage. The conversion from analog data to digital data is performed by the control device 7.

Each pixel of the image detecting section 9 is constituted by a pixel core circuit 17 as shown in FIG. The pixel core circuit 17 includes a light receiving element 18, a charge storage circuit 19, and a sensitivity variable circuit 20.
The reset terminal 22 is connected to the scanner 11, and the photocurrent output terminal 23 is connected to the multiplexer 12.

In FIG. 2, the gain adjustment unit 16 checks the image average value (brightness of the image) in the image output unit 15 and, if the image average value is out of an appropriate range, the amplifier 14 controls the imaging device 6. The gain is adjusted, and the accumulation time of the image detection unit 9 is adjusted by the scanner drive control unit 13 so that the light is adjusted so that an image with appropriate brightness is obtained. This dimming may be performed for each of the divided detection areas described later.

In the imaging device 6 using the artificial retina, the image average value is the gradation (256 gradations from 0 gradation (black) to 255 gradation (white)) in all the pixels constituting the image detecting unit 9. It is an average value and is represented by a value from 0 to 255. The average value of the image is determined by the gain of the amplifier 14 and the accumulation time of the image detector 9.

Then, in FIG. 2, at least an image detecting section 9, a scanner 11, and a scanner driving section 1 which perform image pickup.
3 and the gain adjustment unit 16 are formed by one chip.
This chip is called an artificial retinal chip. A control device 7 is provided at the back surface of the chip. The control device 7 includes a microcomputer as described above, and includes a plurality of detection areas in which detection processing by the human body detection sensor 51 is performed. Area dividing means 2 for dividing into areas
4 etc. are incorporated as software.

More specifically, a point table for processing image information input to the control device 7 is divided into a plurality of areas. That is, the imaging capability range detectable by the human body detection sensor 51 (corresponding to the entire point table)
Is divided into a detection area where image processing is required and a non-detection area where image processing is not performed. That is, the entire imaging capability range is not set as the detection area. As a result, a part of the detection processing area that can be detected is used as a sensor detection area for actually detecting and processing, thereby limiting the processing range of the image and increasing the speed of the image processing.

Further, the detection area is divided into three areas: an entrance area, a washing area, and a bathtub area. The division of the detection area is not limited to this example, and the detection area may be divided into an entrance area and an area other than the entrance area. For example, the washing area and the bathtub area may be set as one area. Here, the entrance area means an area located in the bathroom in the case of a bathroom and near an entrance door to the bathroom. The washing area refers to an area of the floor where the head and body are mainly washed, and the bathtub area refers to an area where the bathtub is located. Image information is sequentially input to the control device for each of the divided regions, and processing such as detection and calculation is performed for each region.

The imaging lens 10, the imaging device 6, and the control device 7 constituting the human body sensor 51 are housed in one case together with the infrared sensor 52, and are mounted on a wall or the like as a human body sensor set. The mounting position may include the entire bathroom 1 including the entrance 4 to the bathroom within the viewing angle as a monitoring area.

Then, the detection output of the imaging device 6 and the detection output of the infrared sensor 52 are input to the judgment means 32, respectively. The determining means 32 comprehensively determines the presence or absence of a bather and the movement of the bather in the bathroom based on the output from the imaging device 6 and the output from the infrared sensor.

The image detected by the artificial retina is processed as follows. The control device 7 for controlling and processing the image includes:
When image information is received at predetermined time intervals from all the pixels constituting the image detection unit 9, and when image information is received at predetermined time intervals, the image information is processed, and the movement of the bather is determined by the determination means 32. .

Next, an image processing method for extracting a motion of a person from an image captured by the imaging device 6 will be described. When receiving the image information at predetermined time intervals, the control device 7 constituted by a microcomputer analyzes the movement of the bather from the image information according to a predetermined analysis algorithm, and monitors the movement of the bather.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 10A, the image (bright image) P of the square object is shifted from the position P1 to the position P2.
Suppose you moved to At this time, if a bright pixel is represented by a symbol B and a dark pixel is represented by a symbol D, the previous image is represented by FIG. 10B and the current image is represented by FIG. The images before and after this are temporarily stored by the image storage unit 115 in FIG. The taken images are sequentially updated so that the latest two images are always stored. Then, the two images are compared by the motion amount calculation means 111 for each of the divided areas, and for each pixel (x, y) of each area, the previous image p
And the received light amount Pn (x, y) of the current image n.
The difference (movement amount) from y) is calculated as follows: D (x, y) = Pn (x, y) -Pp (x, y), and the calculation result can be obtained as a difference image as shown in FIG.

In the difference image shown in FIG.
Pixels where (x, y) are positive are represented by + symbols, and negative pixels are-
Pixels in which D (x, y) is zero are represented by a symbol. By capturing the sum of such differences, it can be determined for each region whether or not there is a motion. This determination is performed by the motion presence / absence determining unit 114. If there is no movement amount, it is determined that there is no movement, and if there is a movement amount, it is determined that there is movement.

On the other hand, the motion presence / absence area detecting means 112 detects whether or not each of the divided areas is a moving area. That is, the captured image captured by the imaging device 6 is read into the control device 7 at regular intervals in the order of the entrance area, the washroom area, and the bathtub area, and a moving area is detected by analyzing the image data. It is like that. For example, a change in the photon voltage due to the movement of a person may be captured, and a region having a change may be regarded as a region having a motion, and the region may be detected. Alternatively, a region with a movement may be detected by capturing a region with the amount of movement described above.

That is, since the amount of motion is calculated for each area, the area where the amount of motion occurs is detected as the area with the motion, and the area where the amount of motion does not occur is detected as the area without the motion. Good. Then, the specific area corresponding determination means 113 determines whether or not the area in which the motion occurs corresponds to the area specified in advance. The specific area means a bathtub area or a washing area in the case of a bathroom, and is an area excluding an entrance area. Specifically, the state transition table is stored in the microcomputer in advance, signals of the presence / absence of movement and the area of movement are input, and the monitoring place is sequentially transitioned so that the area where the current person is located is specified. It is determined whether the area is an area or not.

The human body detection sensor has a sensitivity adjustment circuit for automatically adjusting the sensitivity. The sensitivity is increased when the interior of the bathroom 1 is dark, and is decreased when the interior of the bathroom 1 is bright. This increases the detection accuracy.

Next, determination of whether or not a person has entered the bathroom 1 will be described. In FIG. 5, when a person starts entering the bathroom 1, first, the infrared sensor 52 in a standby state detects a human body and is turned on (step S1), and a timer is set (step S2). When a person is detected in the washing room (step S
3) It is determined that the user has entered the room (step S4).

In this entry determination, the human body detection sensor 5
1 requires a long time for imaging and calculation of the amount of motion, or when the bathroom 1 is dark, the monitoring sensitivity is low. Therefore, the infrared sensor 52 is used in combination, The detection sensor 51 detects a person together, thereby compensating for the weakness of the human body detection sensor 51 and ensuring the entry into the room.

Also, when the user leaves the bathroom 1, the infrared sensor 52 is turned off (No in step S5), and the human body detection sensor 51 does not detect the amount of movement (in step S6). (No), it is determined that the person has left the bathroom 1 (step S7). If only the infrared sensor 52 is stopped at the entrance, it will be turned off, and it may be erroneously determined that the user has exited. This is complemented by the use of sensors.

Then, even when the human body detection sensor 51 does not detect a person in the washing room 3 (No in step S3), if a person is detected in the bathtub 2 (step S3).
8) If both the infrared sensor 52 and the human body detection sensor 51 detect a person within a predetermined time (step S
9, S10), it is determined that the person has entered the room (step S4). After determining that the person has entered the room, the timer may be set so that the detection continuation time of the sensor matches the average bathing time.

The attachment of the human body detection sensor 51 is as follows.
This position is the upper position of the ceiling or wall surface of the bathroom 1, and this position is the optimum position where the movement of a person in the bathroom provided with the washing room 3 and the bathtub 2 can be overlooked in a standard bathroom. Human body sensor 5
Since the human body detection sensor 51 and the infrared sensor 52 constituting the above are housed in one case, it is easy to mount and check.

Next, a connection configuration of another embodiment between members such as a sensor and a remote controller that constitute the entire apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. The bath remote controller 60 and the kitchen remote controller 70 are connected to a controller 90 of a controller in the water heater 40 via a cable 41 of a wired remote controller.

The human body detecting sensor 51 is connected to the cable 41.
Is connected to the bath remote control 60. The bath remote controller 60 is provided with a connection terminal 85 for connecting the cable 41, and supplies power for operating the human body detection sensor 51 from the bath remote controller 60.

The connection between the human body detection sensor 51 and the hot water device 40 or the remote controllers 60 and 70 is not limited to the above example, and is connected to the hot water device 40 via the communication IC from the human body detection sensor 51 as shown in FIG. Kitchen remote control 70
May be connected via the bath remote control 60. Alternatively, the kitchen remote controller 70, the bath remote controller 60, and the hot water device 40 may be connected in this order via the communication IC.

In FIG. 7, a controller 90 of the controller 42 includes a water heater controller 91 for controlling at least the hot water equipment 40, a human body detection sensor 51 and a drain plug 130.
Operation control means 136 for controlling the operation of
In addition, there are provided a notification operation section which operates in response to an abnormality detection signal from the human body detection sensor 51 and operates notification means 61 and 71 such as speakers provided on the remote controllers 60 and 70, and a notification release section for releasing notification by the notification means. It is.

The bath remote controller 60 has an intercom switch serving as notification canceling means 62 for canceling notification, an operation switch 63 for operating hot water equipment,
A display means 64 such as a liquid crystal display panel or a touch panel for performing display is provided. Further, the kitchen remote controller 70 is provided with an intercom switch serving as a notification canceling means 72 for canceling the notification, an operation switch 73 for operating the hot water equipment, and a display means 74 for displaying. In addition, a notification means 6 provided for each remote control for sound notification.
It is recommended that the components 1 and 71 be composed of a speaker and a voice IC.

Further, in FIG.
Is provided with a switch 137 for operating the drain plug driving means 139 of the operation control means 136, and the kitchen remote controller 70 is provided with a switch 138 for operating the drain plug driving means 139 of the operation control means 136. This is for draining the bathtub from a remote location.

FIG. 8 shows a human body detection sensor 51 and each remote controller 6.
0, 70, is an example of a circuit diagram showing a communication connection relationship between the hot water devices 40, and this embodiment is connected using a communication IC. The human body detection sensor 51 includes, in addition to the imaging device 6 described above, a control device 7 and a communication unit 53 including a communication IC for communication.
Is provided. The communication unit 53 includes an analog communication unit 55
And a digital communication unit 56. The analog communication unit 55 is, for example, an ASK (amplitude shift keying).
What is necessary is just to comprise by a method. The digital communication unit 56 may adopt a digital high-speed modulation method such as M16QAM, GFSK, BPSK, etc., in addition to the QPSK (quadri phase shift keying) method.

The bath remote controller 60 has a display means 64, a bath remote controller controller 65,
Analog communication unit 6 similar to the above, which is composed of a communication IC for communication
6. A digital communication section 67 is provided. Further, the bath remote controller 60 has a speaker 61 or the like for an audio IC 6 for information.
8. A PCM codec 69 is provided. This PCM
The codec 69 encodes and decodes audio information and video information by a PCM (pulse code modulation) method such as ADPCM or DPCM.

When the intercom switch 62 of the bath remote control 60 is turned on, a call is made with the speaker of the intercom provided on the kitchen remote control 70. It may also be used as a microphone switch. A connection terminal 85 for connecting the cable 41 is provided on a remote control case of the bath remote control 60.
1, a power supply for operation is supplied to the human body detection sensor 51 via the bath remote control 60 via the kitchen remote control 70 connected to the hot water equipment 40.

Further, the human body detection sensor 51 is provided with a data storage unit 54 including a voice storage unit and an image storage unit described later. The kitchen remote control 70 includes a display unit 74, a kitchen remote control control unit 75, an analog communication unit 76 including a communication IC for analog communication, and a digital communication unit 77 including a communication IC for digital communication, in addition to the operation switch 73 described above. It is provided. In addition, reference numeral 78 denotes an audio IC which is an IC for informing the speaker 71 and the like, and 79 denotes a PCM codec. Further, the intercom switch 62 of the kitchen remote controller 70 is turned on to operate the bath remote controller 60.
In a call state with the speaker of the intercom provided in. It may also be used as a microphone switch. The hot water equipment 40 includes the control unit 90 and the hot water supply control unit 9 described above.
1. In addition to the operation control means 136, an analog communication unit 95 including a communication IC for communication, a transformer 96 for lowering the voltage of a commercial power supply, and the like are provided.

The analog communication section 55 and the digital communication section 56 of the human body detection sensor 51
The analog communication unit 66 and the digital communication unit 67 of the bath remote controller 60 are connected to the analog communication unit 66 and the digital communication unit 67 of the bathroom remote controller 70 via the analog communication unit 76 and the digital communication unit 77 of the kitchen remote controller 70. It is connected to the analog communication unit 95. The cable 41 between these communication units uses a power superimposition type two-core cable,
The signal for the sensor and the control signal for normal hot water supply control may be transmitted in a superimposed manner.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of the data storage section 54 for operating and informing the human body detection sensor.

Referring to FIG. 9, a voice storage unit 101 stores voice data for informing the voice to the notification means 61 and 71 provided on the remote controller.
And so on. The voice storage unit 101 includes, at least, an operation request notification voice storage unit 107 storing voice data for notifying a bather of a request for an operation of moving a body with a message “Please move” to a bather; The alarm notification sound storage unit 108 stores sound data for issuing an alarm to another person when the movement of the person stops and a predetermined time has elapsed. The operation request notification voice storage unit 107 and the notification units 61 and 71 constitute an operation request notification unit.

Reference numeral 102 denotes an image storage unit which stores image display data for displaying an image for human body detection on the display means 61, 71. This image storage unit 102
Is for displaying the functions necessary for the human body detection by an image. For example, an operation image storage unit 103 for storing image data for displaying a screen required for an initial operation of the human body detection on the display means, A stopped image storage unit 104 for storing image data for displaying the state in which the movement has stopped on the display unit, a notification image storage unit 105 for storing image data for displaying an operation request state on the display unit, and other images And a storage unit 106 for storing data necessary for displaying the. In addition, in addition to the above functions, the storage unit also starts “human body detection” when the human body detection sensor 51 starts operating, “ends human body detection” when the operation ends, and “stops human body detection” when the operation stops. To do"
And image data may be stored.

When operating the human body detecting device,
By operating the operation switch of the remote controller in advance, the initial screen image required for the operation is called out from the operation image storage unit 103 of the human body detection sensor 51 on the display means 64, 74 and displayed.
A specific screen is selected from the screen and the operation is started. At the same time, the voice storage unit 101 on the human body detection sensor 51 side
, A part of the voice data is called, and the voice is notified by the notification means 61 and 71 such as speakers.

At the time of bathing, when the drain switch operating switch 138 provided on the kitchen remote controller 70 is operated, the motor 133 is energized via the drain plug driving means 139, and the drain pop-up 132 operates to operate the drain plug 130.
Is closed. Thereafter, the hot water supply operation switch of the remote controller may be operated to supply hot water to bathtub 2. Next, when the entry is determined as described above, as shown in FIG.
In the detection flow for stopping the human body, first, the open / close state of the drain plug 130 is detected. This detection is performed by a drain plug opening / closing detecting means 1
When the drain plug 130 is closed by the drain plug opening / closing detecting means 135 (Yes in step S30), a signal is output from the sensor operation starting means 140 and the human body detection sensor 51 starts operating. Start. Then, as described above, the monitoring area is imaged by the imaging device 6 at predetermined time intervals (step S11), and the previous image and the current image are temporarily stored in the control device 7 (step S1).
2). Next, the difference (movement amount) between the light reception amount of the previous image and the light reception amount of the current image is calculated for each pixel in each region by the movement amount calculation means 111 programmed in the control device 7 (step S13). ). On the other hand, the area where a motion occurs is detected by the motion presence / absence area detecting means 112 (step S14). Further, the start time of the sensor operation may be set by a reservation timer.

The information is sent to the judgment means 32 of the control device 7. In the judging means 32, the specified area corresponding judging means 113 judges whether or not the area in which the movement occurs corresponds to a previously specified area, that is, a bathtub area or a washroom area. Further, in the determination means 32, in parallel with the movement presence / absence determination means 114
It is determined whether or not there is a movement.

When the area where the movement occurs corresponds to the bathtub area or the washroom area (Yes in step S15)
In the case where it is determined that there is no movement by the movement presence / absence determining unit 114 (in the case of YES in step S16), it is estimated that the bather has fallen in the bathroom and the movement of the person has stopped. (Step S1
7). By this stop determination, the process shifts to the above-described notification alarm step.

When it is determined that there is a movement in the bathtub and the washing area (No in step S16), the imaging, calculation and determination are repeated at predetermined time intervals and repeated as described above. is there.

Further, in step S15, if the area where the movement has occurred is other than the bathtub or the washroom area (No in step S15), and it is determined that there is no movement thereafter (Yes in step S18). ), It is determined that the person has left the bathroom (step S20) on the premise that the infrared sensor 52 is turned off (the case of yes in step S19).

Further, the case where the area where the movement occurs is other than the bathtub or the washroom area (in the case of No in step 15) and the movement continues thereafter (step S18)
In the case of "No", it is considered that it is active near the entrance, so the monitoring is continuously performed. As described above, even when the vehicle stops at the entrance area, it is not determined that the vehicle has stopped, so that an erroneous alarm due to erroneous determination does not occur.

When the human body detection sensor 51 detects that the human body has stopped moving (step S17), a signal is output from the determination means 32 and the operation request notification voice storage of the voice storage unit 101 of the human body detection sensor 51 is performed. Read out the information stored in advance corresponding to the stopped scene from the stopped image storage unit 104 of the unit 107 and the image storage unit 102, and transmit the read out information via the analog communication unit 55 and the digital communication unit 56.
The sound is notified to the remote control unit and displayed as an image.

More specifically, the notification may be made, for example, by voice information and a character image saying “There is no movement in the bathroom. Please move”. Since the movement may stop in the bathtub, the movement is requested to the bather to prevent erroneous detection of the human body detection sensor.

If the human body detection sensor 51 detects a movement within the predetermined time, it can be inferred that the bather is alive. On the other hand, the stop state is counted by a counter or the like, and if the stop state continues for a predetermined time, it is determined that the state is abnormal, and a signal is output from the determination unit 32, and the alarm notification sound storage unit 108 and the image storage unit 102 of the sound storage unit 101 are output. Notification image storage unit 105
Then, information stored in advance for notifying another person of the abnormal condition is transmitted via the communication unit 53 through an abnormal state detection signal, and is notified to the notifying units 61 and 71 of each remote controller by voice and the display units 64 and 74. To display the image.

More specifically, the notification is made by voice information such as “Please go to see the bathroom”, a character image, and visual information by blinking of lighting.
Thereby, the abnormality information of the human body by the human body detection sensor 51 can be reliably notified to the family members.

The abnormality detection signal is transmitted as shown in FIG. 8 via a communication unit including a communication IC. That is, the voice storage unit 101 and the image storage unit 10 provided in the human body detection sensor 51
2, the voice and image data are called in accordance with the above-mentioned signals, transmitted to the kitchen remote controller 70 via the analog and digital communication sections 66 and 76, and the notification means 71 such as a speaker provided on the kitchen remote controller 70 and the display means A notification and display are made at 74. Image detection and processing are performed in each area 2 described above.
The response speed for notification and display is increased by performing the processing for each of 9, 30, and 31. Note that the bathtub may be drained immediately after bathing.
When the operation is performed by the switch 137 provided for drainage operation, the drainage may be performed even when the human body is moving.

After the notification, it is necessary to cancel the notification. As a method of canceling the notification, a family member who knows the abnormal state in the bathroom by the notification transmits the intercom of the bathroom remote controller 60 to the interphone of the bathroom remote controller 60. When a call is made and a response is received from the bathroom 1, the bather in the bathroom can be guessed to be in a healthy state. Therefore, the signal from the intercom switch 62 for canceling the notification is transmitted via the cable 41 to the controller 90 of the controller. The notification is canceled via the notification canceling unit 93 inside, and the monitoring flow is set again. Next, when the open state of the drain plug 130 is detected by the drain plug opening / closing detecting means 135 (step S
In the case of No at 30), a signal is output from the sensor operation stopping means 141 to the sensor, and the human body detection sensor 51 stops operating (step S31). As a result, the operation of the human body detection sensor 51 is stopped and the imaging and image processing are not performed even when the laundry is dried in the bathroom when the bath water is not being discharged while the bathtub is being discharged. Erroneously determines that the movement of the human body has disappeared due to the influence of the erroneous alarm. Then, the sensor operation stopping means 14
1 is built in a microcomputer as software, so that the operating device can be downsized without providing a separate sensor canceling switch.
Further, since the detection of the open / closed state of the drain plug 130 is always performed automatically, the stop of the operation of the human body detection sensor 51 can be automatically controlled, so that the operation is not forgotten. Further, in the present embodiment, the detection of the opening / closing of the drain plug is performed during the flow of the human body detection after the entry determination, but the detection may be performed immediately after the entry start.

The above-described embodiment shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to this, and various design changes can be made within the scope. For example, in the present embodiment, an example has been described in which the human body detection sensor and the hot water device are connected by wire, but the present invention is not limited to this example, and can cooperate wirelessly. Further, a CCD camera may be used as the human body sensor. Further, the drain plug for draining the bath water is not limited to the one provided at the bottom of the bath tub, and may be provided in the middle of a circulation path for circulating the hot water equipment and the bath tub through a pump.

[0068]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operation of the human body detection sensor is stopped or started in response to the detection of the opening and closing of the drain plug, so that a false alarm due to the influence of the laundry is not issued. Further, the size of the operating device can be reduced without providing a separate sensor canceling switch. Further, by automatically controlling the operation of the human body detection sensor by detecting the open / closed state of the drain plug, it is possible to avoid forgetting to operate. Further, according to the present invention, when the closed state of the drain plug is detected, that is, when the bathtub is in a bathing state, the operation of the human body detection sensor is started, so that the original function of the human body detection sensor is impaired. Without
It can monitor the human body and detect stoppage. Furthermore, the present invention provides an electric drain cock, and by providing a drain cock opening / closing detecting means for detecting the open / close state of the electric drain cock, the opening / closing operation can be easily performed, and further, the rotation of the electric motor is utilized. Thus, the open state or the closed state can be easily detected. Further, according to the present invention, by providing a drain plug driving means for controlling the drain plug, the drain plug of the bathtub can be operated from a remote place such as a kitchen. Further, the present invention can improve the beauty of the kitchen by driving the drain cock by the operation switch provided on the kitchen remote controller of the hot water equipment, and can control the drain cock from the kitchen with one switch at the time of operation. And convenient. Furthermore, the present invention provides a motion presence / absence determination unit that determines the presence / absence of a human motion, and a motion presence / absence region detection unit that detects a region where a motion has occurred. Stoppage of movement of the human body after the start of operation of the human body detection sensor can be reliably detected, and detection accuracy can be improved while preventing erroneous detection.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electric circuit showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of an image core circuit forming one pixel of an image detection unit of the human body detection sensor.

FIG. 4 is an electric circuit diagram showing one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of human body monitoring according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing one embodiment showing the entire apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing another embodiment showing a communication relationship.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an outline of a storage unit.

10A is a diagram showing a current image and a previous image of an object moved to the lower right, FIG. 10B is a diagram showing the brightness of the previous image for each pixel, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating lightness and darkness of an image for each pixel.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a difference image showing a change in brightness at a pixel corresponding to a boundary of an image.

FIG. 12 is an electric circuit block diagram showing one embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bathroom 2 Bathtub 3 Washing place 4 Doorway 5 Human body sensor 6 Imaging device 7 Control device 9 Image detection part 15 Image output part 17 Image core circuit 24 Area division means 32 Judgment means 40 Hot water equipment 41 Cable 42 Controller 47 Power plug 51 Human body detection Sensor 52 Infrared sensor 54 Data storage unit 55 Analog communication unit 56 Digital communication unit 60 Bath remote control 61 Notification unit 62 Release unit 66 Analog communication unit 67 Digital communication unit 70 Kitchen remote control 71 Notification unit 76 Analog communication unit 77 Digital communication unit 85 Terminal 90 Control unit 101 Voice storage unit 102 Image storage unit 103 Operation image storage unit 104 Stop image storage unit 105 Notification image storage unit 106 Other storage unit 107 Operation request notification voice storage unit 108 Alarm notification voice storage unit 111 Motion amount calculation means 112 Motion presence / absence area detection means 113 Specific area corresponding determination means 114 Motion presence / absence determination means 115 Image storage means 130 Drain plug 132 Drain pop-up 133 Motor 134 Interlocking mechanism 135 Drain plug open / close detection means 136 Operation control means 137 Operation switch 138 Operation switch 139 Drain Plug control means 140 Sensor operation start means 141 Sensor operation stop means

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Shinsei Shinji 93, Edo-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo F-term in Noritz Co., Ltd. (reference) 2D032 GA00 5C086 AA22 BA04 CA12 CA28 CB16 CB36 DA01 DA16 DA33 EA04 EA13 EA15 EA36 EA41 EA42 EA45 FA06 FA17

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A human body detection sensor for monitoring a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, a drain plug for draining hot and cold water in a bathtub,
A drain cock opening / closing detecting means for detecting an open state or a closed state of the drain cock, and a sensor operation stopping means for stopping or starting the operation of the human body detection sensor according to the detection of the opening / closing of the drain cock by the drain cock opening / closing detecting means, or A bathroom provided with a sensor operation start means. 2. A human body detection sensor for monitoring a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, a drain plug for draining hot and cold bath water,
A drain cock opening / closing detecting means for detecting an open or closed state of the drain cock, a sensor operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to the detection of the opening of the drain cock by the drain cock opening / closing detecting means, A bathroom provided with a sensor operation start means for starting operation of the human body detection sensor in response to detection of closure of a drain plug by drain plug open / close detection means. 3. A human body detection sensor for monitoring a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, an electric drain plug for draining hot water from a bathtub, and a drain plug opening and closing for detecting an open or closed state of the drain plug. Detecting means, sensor operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to the detection of the opening of the drain cock by the drain cock opening / closing detecting means, and A bathroom provided with sensor operation start means for starting operation of a human body detection sensor. 4. A human body detection sensor for monitoring a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, an electric drainage plug for draining hot and cold water in a bathtub, a drainage plug driving means for driving and controlling the drainage plug, Drain plug opening / closing detecting means for detecting the open or closed state of the plug, sensor operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to the detection of the opening of the drain plug by the drain plug opening / closing detecting means, and the drain plug A bathroom, comprising: sensor operation start means for starting operation of the human body detection sensor in response to detection of closure of a drain plug by open / close detection means. 5. A human body detection sensor for monitoring a monitoring area to detect a stop of a human body, an electric drain plug for draining hot and cold water in a bathtub, a drain plug driving unit for controlling the drain plug, and a drain plug driving means. An operation switch for operating the plug driving means, provided on a kitchen remote control of the hot water appliance, a drain plug opening / closing detecting means for detecting an open or closed state of the drain plug, and a drain plug by the drain plug opening / closing detecting means Sensor operation stopping means for stopping the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to the detection of the opening of the sensor, and sensor operation starting means for starting the operation of the human body detection sensor in response to the detection of the closing of the drain plug by the drain plug opening / closing detection means. A bathroom characterized by being provided. 6. An imaging device for imaging a monitoring area at predetermined time intervals, an area dividing means for dividing a detection area into an entrance area and an area other than the entrance area, and a motion amount of a human body before and after the predetermined time interval. A motion amount calculating means for calculating the difference in the amount of received light by comparing the images; a motion presence / absence area detecting means for detecting whether or not there is a motion in each of the areas divided by the area dividing means; Motion presence / absence determination means for determining the presence / absence of a motion, specific area corresponding determination means for determining whether or not the area detected by the motion presence / absence area detection means corresponds to a previously specified area, and the motion presence / absence determination means The bathroom according to claim 1, further comprising: a determination unit configured to determine a motion of a human body by the specific region determination unit.