JP2002373210A - Living activity degree evaluation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a small-sized system capable of accumulating the daily living activity degree of a testee such as an aged person while securing privacy and evaluating the living activity degree of the testee further with a low introduction cost. SOLUTION: A living activity degree evaluation system is provided with a detection means 11 detecting the activity of the testee, an accumulation means 101 receiving and storing detection signals from the detection means 11, an analysis and evaluation means 21 analyzing the detection signals stored in the accumulation means 101 and evaluating the living activity degree of the testee and a distribution means 22 distributing an evaluated result by the analysis and evaluation means 21. An electric appliance 10 for households connected to a power source at all times is used as one of the detection means 11 and the accumulation means 101 and a communication means 102 sending stored data from the accumulation means 101 to the analysis and evaluation means 21 are loaded on the electric appliance 10 for the households.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a living activity evaluation system, and more particularly, to the daily living activity of a subject, particularly an elderly person, in the most natural form while ensuring privacy, and the life of the subject. The present invention relates to a living activity evaluation system that evaluates the activity level and is useful for activities of nursing, nursing, medical care, and welfare institutions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In Japan, it is said that the proportion of the elderly aged 65 and over in the population will exceed 30% in the next 50 years. Under these circumstances, measures for the elderly in need of care are currently being watched and examined, but it should not be overlooked that there are many healthy elderly. Of the healthy elderly, living alone are often isolated spatially and interpersonally, and it is very important to understand the health of these people. There is an overwhelming shortage of human resources to grasp and manage the health status of people.

For this reason, for example, some municipalities have introduced a pendant-type wireless emergency call system, which is used only in an emergency and ascertains the daily health condition of the elderly. It does not do. In addition, a security system that monitors the elderly's living activities by arranging various types of sensors in their homes is provided by security companies, but the system is expensive to introduce and maintain, and is only widely used by high-income earners. is the current situation. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-248093 proposes a system in which a sensor is attached to household electric appliances to detect the on / off state of a hot water supply switch of an electric pot and monitor the safety of a consumer. The location and amount of information on electrical appliances is limited, and this system does not provide sufficient monitoring for people who rarely use electrical appliances or who unplug electrical appliances from their outlets at night. .

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and accumulates daily living activities of subjects such as elderly people in the most natural form while ensuring privacy. Can be made, small and inexpensive,
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system that can evaluate a living activity level of a subject.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a living activity evaluation system according to a first aspect of the present invention provides a home electric appliance (hereinafter referred to as "home electric appliance") which is constantly connected to a power supply as one of detecting means. This device may be referred to as an “apparatus”), and a stacking unit and a communication unit that transmits stored data from the stacking unit to the analysis and evaluation unit are mounted on the household electric appliance.

In a living activity evaluation system according to a second aspect of the present invention, a household electric appliance which is constantly connected to a power source is used as one of the detecting means. And a distribution means.

Here, from the viewpoint of promoting proper health management of the subject, it is preferable that a display means for displaying the evaluation result by the analysis and evaluation means is further mounted on the household electric appliance.

[0008] Further, a reporting means for promptly reporting the poor physical condition of the subject to the outside may be further mounted on the household electric appliance.

[0009] In order to more accurately evaluate the living activity of the subject, it is desirable that an input means for discriminating between home and going out is further mounted on the household electric appliance. Here, in consideration of the case where the input change from going out to home is forgotten, when the detecting means detects the activity of the subject while the outgoing is input to the input means, the input means is input to the home. It is desirable to make changes.

Since it is widely used in general households, it is preferable to use any one of a refrigerator, a telephone, and a facsimile machine as household electric equipment.

From the viewpoint of promptly reporting the poor physical condition of the subject, when the household electric appliance is a refrigerator, a microphone and a speaker for communicating with the outside may be provided in the refrigerator.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present inventors can integrate the daily activities of a subject such as an elderly person in the most natural manner while ensuring privacy, and can achieve miniaturization and cost reduction. As a result of intensive studies on whether a system that can evaluate the living activity of the subject can be provided, home appliances that are constantly connected to the power supply are used as one of the detection means,
The inventor has found that each means of the system may be mounted on this home appliance, and has accomplished the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a living activity evaluation system according to the present invention. In addition, a refrigerator will be described as an example of home electric appliances that are always connected to a power supply, but the present invention is not limited to this. In the living activity evaluation system of FIG. 1, a detection sensor (detection means) 11
The refrigerator 10 is used as one of them, and the opening and closing of the door of the refrigerator 10 is detected. The refrigerator 10 has a stacking means 101.
And communication means 102 are mounted. The signals detected by the various detection sensors 11 disposed in the subject's house 1 and the detection sensors 11 carried by the subject are sent to the accumulation means 101, where they are accumulated and stored as time-series data.
Note that the transmission of the detection data from the various detection sensors 11 to the accumulation unit 101 may be performed by a conventionally known transmission method such as wired, wireless, or infrared.

The time-series data stored in the accumulating means 101 is sent to the analysis / evaluation means 21 via the communication means 102 at predetermined time intervals or when there is a transmission request. Since no wiring work is required and the installation location of the refrigerator is not limited, it is preferable to use a mobile phone communication device such as a PHS as the communication means used here.

The analysis and evaluation means 21 analyzes and evaluates the collected time series data. The evaluation result by the analysis / evaluation means 21 is sent to the subject or the separated family home 3 or the nursing / nursing / medical / welfare institution 4 as necessary using the distribution means 22.
It is used for self-management of health status and activities by the relevant organization. Hereinafter, each means will be individually described.

First, as the detecting means 11 used in the present invention, conventionally known means such as home appliances such as an air conditioner, a television, a refrigerator, a microwave oven, a mat, a telephone, a facsimile machine, a vibration sensor, an acceleration sensor and an infrared sensor are used. It is desirable to use a plurality of these in combination in order to detect living activity in more detail. For example, if home appliances are used as the detection means, turning on / off switches, opening and closing doors, setting temperatures, operating modes,
Compressor rotation speed, remote control operation, power consumption, entry / exit, transmission / reception, etc. can be detected. In addition, home appliances, doors, furniture, toilets, bathrooms, living rooms, bedrooms, Buddhist altars, etc.
If a vibration sensor or an acceleration sensor is attached to an indoor member where vibration is transmitted well when moving indoors such as the floor, which sensor detected the vibration or acceleration at what time and when, that is, what kind of action the person performed Can be detected. Further, if a vibration sensor, an acceleration sensor, or a meter is attached to the gas or water pipe, the usage state of the gas or water can be detected. Further, if an infrared sensor is used as a detecting means, it is possible to detect that a person has entered a specific area. If a portable pedometer (registered trademark) incorporating a vibration sensor, an acceleration sensor, a tilt sensor, or the like is used as a detecting means, it is possible to grasp and record the living activity of the subject outdoors.

Here, as home electric appliances which are always connected to a power source, there are telephones, facsimile machines, video machines and the like in addition to the above-mentioned refrigerators. Of these, refrigerators, telephones, and facsimile machines are preferable in consideration of the frequency of use by the subject.

The detection signals detected by the various detection means are sent to an accumulation means, where they are stored as time-series data. Although there is no particular limitation on the method of transmission from the detection means to the accumulation means, it is preferable to transmit the data by radio or power line transmission because no new wiring work is required.

The time-series data accumulated and stored in the accumulation means is transmitted to the analysis and evaluation means via the transmission means. The transmission method of the transmission means is not particularly limited, and a telephone line, a CATV line, or the like may be used.

Next, an analysis / evaluation method in the analysis / evaluation means will be described. The simplest example of this analysis / evaluation method is that if the detection means does not detect the subject's activity for a certain period of time or more, or if the detection of the activity becomes extremely small, an abnormality will occur in the subject. As another method, a method of evaluating the safety of the subject can be considered.

As another example, time-series data on the degree of living activity of a subject is accumulated to determine a daily life activity pattern, which is stored in a storage unit as reference data, and the detected time-series data is stored. When the pattern shows a pattern different from the reference data, there is a cluster analysis method of evaluating the health condition of the subject as an abnormal condition. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, a time chart is created by detecting the meter readings of gas, water, and power and the number of times the refrigerator door is opened and closed, and how much gas, water, and power are used per day.
The average data of the refrigerator such as how many times a day the door is opened and closed a day is extracted and stored, and the detected data is compared with the average data to evaluate whether there is any change in the subject's condition. If the detection data is significantly different from the average data, for example, the refrigerator door has been opened and closed 10 times a day on average but only a few times, or the daily usage of gas, water and power is extremely high If the number is too large or small, it is evaluated that some abnormality has occurred in the subject, and the fact is notified to the outside.

As a further advanced analysis / evaluation method, an analysis result associated with daily living activity is stored in a storage unit as reference data, and the analysis result of the time-series data is compared with the reference data. The living activity level of the subject can be estimated and evaluated in more detail from the matched or approximated reference data. A schematic diagram of this method is shown in FIG. The time-series data sent from the accumulation means 101 to the analysis evaluation means 21 is first analyzed by the analysis section 211. A specific analysis method will be described later. Then, the analysis result associated with the living activity level of the subject is stored in the storage unit 212 as reference data. On the other hand, the analysis result of the time-series data sequentially transmitted is compared with the reference data, the living activity of the subject is estimated and evaluated from the matched or approximated reference data, and is output by the output unit 214.

First, a case where a non-linear analysis method is used as a method of analyzing time-series data will be described. Since information on a living body such as behavior is generally nonlinear data, a nonlinear analysis method can be used as an analysis method. Among them, chaos analysis, which is widely used as a method for analyzing nonlinear data, is most suitably used for the method for analyzing time-series data. The chaos analysis includes various analysis methods such as a fractal dimension analysis, a Lyapunov exponent analysis, and a chaos attractor analysis, and the chaos attractor analysis is suitable as a biological information analysis method. Above all, a method of measuring the orbital period of the chaos attractor and analyzing the degree of life activity from the fluctuation of the orbital period is preferable.

Hereinafter, this analysis method will be specifically described. FIG. 6 shows actually measured acceleration data of walking by the subject. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a temporal change in acceleration due to walking with the horizontal axis representing time and the vertical axis representing acceleration. FIG. 6 (a) shows acceleration data at the time of health, and FIG. 6 (b) shows acceleration data at the time of poor physical condition. This is acceleration data. As can be understood from these figures, the difference is often not clearly understood by comparing the waveforms of the acceleration data.

Next, FIG. 7 shows a chaos attractor drawn in a two-dimensional number space based on this data. FIG. 7A shows a chaotic attractor in a healthy state, and FIG. 7B shows a chaotic attractor in a poor physical condition. From the shape of the chaos attractor,
If the evaluation can be performed using the pattern matching method, the evaluation may be performed at this stage, but the difference between the two may be unclear as in the case of this figure. Can not be applied.

Therefore, the average value of the components of the chaos attractor shown in FIG. 7 was obtained, and the chaos attractor was subjected to polar coordinate transformation using the average value coordinate point as the origin to measure the orbital period of the chaos attractor. Specifically, a horizontal line S is drawn rightward from the point O of the chaos attractor, and the time required for the attractor trajectory to rotate 360 ° counterclockwise and return to the reference line using the horizontal line S as a reference line is defined as an orbit cycle. did.

FIG. 8 shows the measurement results of the attractor orbital period. FIG. 8A shows the attractor trajectory cycle in a healthy state, and FIG. 8B shows the attractor trajectory cycle in a poor physical condition. Although acceleration data and a chaos attractor were not shown, the orbital period of the chaos attractor on the day before the subject became ill is shown in FIG. As can be seen by comparing (a), (b) of FIG. 8, and FIG. 9, differences in walking data due to differences in physical condition, which could not be determined by the pattern matching method of the chaos attractor, can be found from fluctuations in the attractor trajectory cycle. It is. Therefore, if the fluctuation of the attractor trajectory period in various states is stored in the storage unit as reference data, the fluctuation characteristics of the reference data and the measured fluctuation characteristics are sequentially compared to detect the coincidence, thereby detecting the coincidence. Condition, health in the example above, a precursor to poor health,
Poor physical condition can be determined.

As a method of analyzing the fluctuation of the attractor trajectory, a detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is used.
tuation Analysis), frequency conversion such as Fourier transform,
Conventionally known analysis methods such as wavelet analysis and multifractal analysis can be used, but DFA is preferable because it can objectively and accurately analyze even large fluctuations.

An outline of the DFA analysis method is as follows. First, a fluctuation system is divided by a predetermined window size, and a waveform is linearly approximated for each window. Then, the absolute value of the deviation from the linear approximation is integrated, and this integrated value is used as the magnitude of the fluctuation. The magnitude of the fluctuation is plotted on the vertical axis, the window size is plotted on the vertical axis, and the magnitude of the fluctuation with respect to each window size is plotted, and the slope and y-intercept are used as indices for state determination / prediction.

FIG. 10 shows the result of analyzing the fluctuation of the attractor orbital period shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B by DFA. In FIG. 10, the horizontal axis represents the window size, and the vertical axis represents the magnitude of the fluctuation, and the healthy state and the unwell state are represented by a solid line and a broken line, respectively. The slope of the broken line when the physical condition is poor is smaller than that of the solid line when healthy. Therefore, in this case, health and poor physical condition can be evaluated mainly from changes in the slope of the line.

FIG. 11 shows the results of analyzing the fluctuation of the attractor trajectory cycle by DFA using the vibration data during walking as time series data. The vibration during walking was measured using a vibration switch (manufactured by Koshin). Since the output of the vibration switch is a digital signal of "1" and "0", the signal is added and averaged, smoothing is performed, and a chaos attractor is drawn. Like FIG. 10, FIG. 11 shows a healthy state and a poor physical condition by a solid line and a broken line, respectively, with the horizontal axis representing the window size and the vertical axis representing the magnitude of the fluctuation.
Since the y-intercept and the slope are different between the solid line at the time of health and the broken line at the time of poor physical condition, it is possible to determine the health and poor physical condition from these differences.

The living activity of the subject evaluated by the analyzing and evaluating means is transmitted to the subject, separated family members, nursing, nursing, medical care, and welfare institutions via communication means, and the subject's daily life is evaluated. It is preferable to use it for improvement and the activities of the institution. In this case, the evaluated degree of living activity may be transmitted to the requester via the distribution unit also in response to a request from the subject, his or her family, the institution, or the like.

The refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 may be provided with display means, notification means, input means, and microphone / speaker. FIG. 2 shows an example of such a refrigerator. The refrigerator of FIG.
Display means 12, call button (notification means) 1 on the outer wall of the door
3, input means 14, microphone 15, and speaker 16 are provided. As described above, since various means are intensively mounted on one household electric appliance, the usability for the subject is very good.

The display means 12 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display, and the evaluation result by the analysis evaluation means is displayed here.
As a result, the subject can easily check his or her health at any time, and can maintain and improve his / her health.

The call button (notification means) 13 can notify the analysis center 2 and the various institutions 4 (shown in FIG. 1) to the analysis center 2 by pressing the button when the subject becomes ill. At this time, the microphone 15, the speaker 16
Is also installed at the same time, the subject can directly explain the current situation to the person in charge of the analysis center 2 and the various institutions 4. In addition, while the subject is called from the analysis center 2 and the various institutions 4 by the microphone 15 and the speaker 16, the subject can also explain the current situation by a so-called hands-free call.

The input means 14 is for recognizing whether the subject is at home or going out. If the subject's at-home / going out cannot be recognized, the subject goes out to
When the amount of power used is smaller than usual, there is a possibility that the analysis and evaluation means may make an erroneous evaluation that some abnormality has occurred in the subject. Therefore, an input means for recognizing that the subject is at home or going out is provided. If this input means is mounted, the erroneous evaluation as described above can be avoided. A specific example of the input means is a home / out-of-home switch. When the subject goes out, the changeover switch is set to go out, and when the subject returns home, the changeover switch is switched to home.

Actually, it is possible that the subject forgets to switch the changeover switch to home when returning from home. If this is left unchecked, the analysis / evaluation means recognizes that the subject is out of the office, so that when the subject returns to use gas, water, or the like, there is a possibility that erroneous determination that gas leakage or water leakage has occurred may be made. Therefore, it is preferable that the switch is automatically switched to the home when the detection sensor disposed at the subject's house detects the activity of the subject while the changeover switch (input means) is out. .

Next, a living activity evaluation system according to the second invention will be described. FIG. 4 shows a configuration diagram illustrating an example of the living activity evaluation system. The major feature of this system is that the refrigerator 10, which is a household electric device that is always connected to a power supply, includes the analysis unit 103 and the distribution unit 104 in addition to the integration unit 101.

In the living activity evaluation system shown in FIG. 2, the signal detected by the detection sensor 11 is sent to the accumulation means 101, where it is accumulated and stored as time-series data. The time series data stored in the accumulation means 101 is sent to the analysis evaluation means 103 at predetermined time intervals or when there is a transmission request. The evaluation result by the analysis evaluation means 103 is sent from the refrigerator 10 of the subject's house 1 to the separated family house 3 and the nursing / nursing / medical / welfare institution 4 using the distribution means 104.
With such a configuration, it is not necessary to provide the analysis center 2 (shown in FIG. 1) as compared with the system of FIG. 1, and the system can be reduced in size and cost. Further, the detection data can be constantly transmitted from the accumulation means 101 to the analysis evaluation means 103 without incurring a communication cost.

The detection means, the accumulation means, the analysis evaluation means, and the distribution means used in the living activity evaluation system shown in FIG. 2 are the same as those described above. In the same manner as above, display means, notification means, input means, microphone /
It is again preferred to mount the speakers in the refrigerator.

As described above, the living activity evaluation system of the present invention has been described by taking a refrigerator as an example of household electrical equipment that is always connected to a power source. Conventionally known ones can be used. For example, if a telephone or a facsimile machine is used, these home electric appliances have communication (distribution) means inherently, so that the system can be further reduced in size and cost. When a telephone or a facsimile machine is used as the garden electric device, ON / OFF of a telephone and a facsimile handset or button operation becomes the detection data.

[0042]

In the living activity evaluation system according to the first aspect of the present invention, a household electric device which is always connected to a power source is used as one of the detecting means. Since the communication means for transmitting the stored data from the means to the analysis / evaluation means is mounted, the size and cost of the system can be reduced.

Further, in the living activity evaluation system according to the second aspect of the present invention, a household electric device which is always connected to a power supply is used as one of the detecting means. And the distribution means, so that the size and cost of the system can be further reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a living activity evaluation system according to a first invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view showing an example of a refrigerator used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a chart showing an example of detection data.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a living activity evaluation system according to the first invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of analysis evaluation means.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a change in acceleration during walking.

FIG. 7 is a chaotic attractor diagram drawn in a two-dimensional number space from a change in acceleration during walking.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a change in an attractor orbit cycle.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a change in an attractor orbit cycle.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the result of analyzing the fluctuation of the attractor orbital period by DFA.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the result of analyzing the fluctuation of the attractor orbital period by DFA.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Refrigerator (household electric equipment) 11 Detection sensor (detection means) 12 Display means 13 Call button (notification means) 14 Input means 15 Microphone 16 Speaker 21, 103 Analysis evaluation means 22, 104 Distribution means 101 Integration means 102 Communication means

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) H04Q 9/00 301 H04Q 9/00 301D 311 311H // A61G 12/00 A61G 12/00 WFterm (reference) 2F073 AA40 AB05 BB09 BB10 BC01 CC14 CC20 DD02 DE11 GG01 GG07 4C341 LL30 MQ03 MR13 MR14 MR18 MS22 5C087 AA02 AA03 AA32.

Claims (8)

[Claims] A detecting means for detecting an activity of a subject; an accumulating means for receiving and storing a detection signal from the detecting means;
A living activity evaluation system comprising: an analysis evaluation unit that analyzes a detection signal stored in the accumulation unit to evaluate a living activity of a subject; and a distribution unit that distributes an evaluation result obtained by the analysis evaluation unit, As one of the detecting means, a household electric device which is always connected to a power supply is used, and the household electric device is equipped with the integrating means and the communication means for transmitting the stored data from the integrating means to the analyzing and evaluating means. Life activity evaluation system characterized by: 2. A detecting means for detecting an activity of a subject, an integrating means for receiving and storing a detection signal from the detecting means,
A living activity evaluation system comprising: an analysis evaluation unit that analyzes a detection signal stored in the accumulation unit to evaluate a living activity of a subject; and a distribution unit that distributes an evaluation result obtained by the analysis evaluation unit, As one of the detection means, a household electric device which is always connected to a power supply is used, and the household electric device is provided with the integrating means, the analysis and evaluation means, and the distribution means. Life activity evaluation system. 3. The living activity evaluation system according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit for displaying the evaluation result by the analysis evaluation unit on the household electric appliance. 4. The living activity evaluation system according to claim 1, further comprising a notifying unit for notifying the poor physical condition of the subject to the outside in the household electric appliance. 5. The living activity evaluation system according to claim 1, further comprising an input means for distinguishing whether the subject is at home or out of the home electrical device. 6. The degree of living activity evaluation system according to claim 5, wherein when the detection means detects the activity of the subject while the input means is out, the input means is changed to home. 7. The home electric appliance is a refrigerator, a telephone,
The living activity evaluation system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the system is a facsimile machine. 8. The living activity evaluation system according to claim 1, wherein when the home electric appliance is a refrigerator, a microphone and a speaker for communicating with the outside are provided in the refrigerator.