JP2003006608A - Walk detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a walk detector for detecting the number of steps of the aged by converting the number of steps by identifying a shuffling state from an output signal with the body motion of a wearing person. SOLUTION: In order to detect the shuffling state, an angular acceleration around the horizontal axis from side to side of the waist is detected and when frequency analysis is applied to an obtained body motion signal, the difference of power levels in the single frequency component and double frequency component of the body motion signal is smaller than a preset threshold and the power levels are almost equal, the shuffling state is decided. Further, when the shuffling state is decided from the frequency characteristics of the body motion output signal, walking time measured by a time measuring means is multiplied to the frequency of the double component of the body motion signal so that the number of steps in shuffling can be calculated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to exercise identification and exercise management of healthy persons, and particularly to behavior identification among exercise measurement methods effective for daily exercise management of elderly people.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For the purpose of daily health management, exercise measurement has been performed by detecting the vertical acceleration of the waist associated with walking, as can be seen in the pedometers of companies such as SPORTBRAIN. In general, the number of steps exceeding a preset threshold is measured as the number of steps, and the walking distance is calculated by multiplying the step length input in advance.

[0003]

However, according to the prior art, it is possible to accurately detect the number of steps for walking of a general healthy person, but on the other hand, it is possible to detect a sliding foot walking state characteristic of walking of an elderly person. Since it is impossible, it was not possible to detect the number of steps taken by the elderly and use them for health management in daily life.

Considering that the health management of daily life by detecting the number of steps should be performed only for the elderly who are concerned about the deterioration of the lower limbs and are highly in need of exercise management due to diabetes, etc. However, the conventional technique in which the step count detection is impossible is insufficient.

Therefore, in order to detect the number of steps of the elderly, the present invention has devised a walking detection device for identifying the sliding foot walking state from an output signal accompanying the movement of the wearer's body and converting the number of steps. .

[0006]

[Means for solving the problem] In order to realize the sliding foot walking state detection, the angular acceleration around the left and right horizontal axes of the waist is detected,
When frequency analysis is performed on the obtained body motion signal,
When the difference between the power level of the frequency component of the body motion signal and the power level of the frequency component of the frequency component is smaller than a preset threshold value and the power levels are substantially equal to each other, it is determined that the sliding foot is walking.

Further, when it is determined from the frequency characteristics of the body movement output signal that the walking state is a sliding foot, the frequency of the double component of the body movement signal is multiplied by the walking time measured by the time measuring means, The number of steps of sliding foot walking is calculated.

Further, by multiplying the double component of the body motion frequency by the step length previously input by the wearer himself, the walking speed at the time of sliding foot walking is calculated, and the step number is multiplied by the step speed. The moving distance is calculated by.

The correlation between the power level difference between the 1-fold component and the 2-fold component of the walking frequency and the progress of the sliding foot walking state accompanying the aging of the lower limbs is prepared in advance as a reference value, so that the wearer It is possible to judge the degree of aging of the lower limbs based on the walking pattern.

Further, the frequency characteristic of walking in a healthy walking state is obtained from the above reference values, and an ideal walking pattern is presented to the wearer via the display means of the walking detection device. Further, the ideal walking pattern and the walking pattern of the wearer are compared with each other in the relationship between the 1-fold component and the 2-fold component of the frequency of the body motion output signal, and a healthier walking pattern is presented to the wearer.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a block diagram of a walking detection device of the present invention.

In the embodiment, as the body movement detecting means 11, a vibration gyro which is attached to the waist and is capable of detecting the angular acceleration about the left and right horizontal axes for the wearer is used. Since the vibration gyro has a circuit configuration of a type that cuts DC components, it is possible to detect angular acceleration. In the A / D conversion means 12a, the sampling frequency is 8 bits and 67 hertz.

When a fast Fourier transform is applied to the angular acceleration output signal about the left and right horizontal axes of the wearer and frequency analysis is performed, the characteristics of the 1-fold component and the 2-fold component of the frequency of the body motion signal are determined depending on the walking pattern.

FIG. 2 shows a typical example of frequency characteristics in a walking state by a healthy person.

FIG. 2 shows frequency characteristics when a healthy person walks at a constant frequency of 0.84 Hz.
The maximum peak in the figure appears in the double component of the walking frequency. In other words, the frequency characteristics of walking by a healthy person are dominated by signals with a period of half a step.

On the other hand, FIG. 3 shows a typical example of frequency characteristics when an elderly person walks on a sliding foot.

FIG. 3 shows a frequency characteristic when an elderly person walks on a sliding foot at a constant frequency of 0.77 hertz. The peak in the figure shows a 1-fold component and a 2-fold component of the walking frequency. Both show the same level value.

FIG. 4 illustrates the walking motion. Hereinafter, the difference in frequency characteristics between the walking pattern of a healthy person and the walking pattern of an elderly person will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when a normal person walks, a rotation of the same level of strength is generated around the horizontal axis of the left and right waist along with the "stepping" motion and the "kicking up backward" motion of the foot in FIG. Therefore, the detection device attached to the waist outputs a periodic signal every half step, and therefore exhibits a peak at a component twice the walking frequency.

On the other hand, in the sliding foot walking, the elderly people have stiffer ankles and knee joints and weakened muscle strength than those of the healthy people, so that the walking of the normal people is particularly "backward". Since the "kick-up" motion becomes weaker, the level of the double frequency component of the walking frequency is lower than that of a normal person's walking, and the 1x and 2x components are detected at approximately the same level.

From the above, since there is a difference in the frequency characteristics between the walking pattern of the normal person and the walking pattern of the sliding foot of the elderly person, there is a difference in the frequency characteristics, so that it is a component of the frequency of the body motion output signal. A threshold for the power level difference Pd of the double component
When Th is set and Pd ≧ Th, the walking pattern of a healthy person, Pd <Th
At that time, it can be identified as the walking pattern of the sliding foot of the elderly.

When the walking motion is identified to be a sliding foot walking pattern of an elderly person by using the above-described identification method, the doubled component of the walking frequency is multiplied by the walking time measured by the time measuring means. Therefore, the number of steps can be calculated.

Also, when the walking motion is identified to be a walking pattern of a healthy person using the above-mentioned identification method, the double component of the walking frequency is multiplied by the walking time measured by the time measuring means. Therefore, the number of steps can be calculated.

Similarly, when the walking motion is identified to be a sliding foot walking pattern of an elderly person using the above-mentioned identification method, the stride length previously input by the wearer himself into the double frequency component of the walking frequency. The walking speed is calculated by multiplying by, and the moving distance can be calculated by multiplying the walking speed by the walking time measured by the time measuring means.

Similarly, when it is identified that the walking motion is a walking pattern of a healthy person by using the above identification method,
The walking speed is calculated by multiplying the doubled component of the walking frequency by the step length previously input by the wearer, and the walking speed is multiplied by the walking time measured by the time measuring means to move. The distance can be calculated.

Considering that the power level of the double frequency component of the walking frequency is lowered and the difference between the single frequency component and the double frequency component is reduced due to the decline of the "rear kick up" motion in the sliding foot walking, As shown in 5, there is a correlation between the difference between the 1-fold component and the 2-fold component of the walking frequency and the progress of the sliding foot walking state due to aging of the lower limbs. By preparing the correlation as a reference value in advance, It is possible to judge the degree of aging of the lower limbs based on the walking pattern of the wearer.

Further, the frequency characteristic of walking in a healthy walking state is obtained from the above reference values, and an ideal walking pattern is presented to the wearer via the display means of the walking detection device.

From the walking pattern of the wearer, the relationship between the frequency component and the frequency component of the body motion output signal is derived, and at the same time, the relationship between the frequency component and the frequency component of the ideal walking pattern is obtained. By comparison, it is possible to realize a walking pattern teaching system that shows the disadvantages of conventional walking patterns and teaches the wearer a healthier walking pattern.

In the walking pattern teaching system,
The display means of the gait measuring device may not be fixed to the waist. For example, the display means may be attached to the arm, and the display means on the wrist and the gait measuring device on the waist may be connected by, for example, an FM modulation wireless method. As a wireless system, Bluetooth or weak wireless may be used.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to detect a sliding foot walking state, which is a walking pattern peculiar to an elderly person, which cannot be detected conventionally, and to distinguish it from a normal person's walking.

Since the frequency characteristic of walking becomes clear, the number of steps, walking speed, and walking distance can be calculated by inputting the step length in advance and measuring the time at the same time.

By the invention of the above technology, it is possible to easily realize the exercise state management and the health management in the daily life of the sliding foot walking elderly person, which has been difficult to realize in the past.

Further, by making a database of frequency characteristics according to walking patterns, it becomes possible to evaluate aging of the lower limbs and teach ideal and healthy walking.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a walking detection device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a typical example of walking frequency characteristics of a healthy person.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a typical example of sliding foot walking frequency characteristics of an elderly person.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a “stepping” operation and a “kicking up” operation during walking.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a difference between a 1-fold component and a 2-fold component of a walking frequency, and progress of a sliding leg walking state with aging of lower limbs.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Body movement detecting means 12 ... Calculation means 12a ... A / D conversion means 12b ... ROM 12c ... RAM 12d ... CPU 13 ... Recording means 14 ... Display means 15 ... Time measuring means

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) // A61H 1/02 G01P 9/04 G01P 9/04 A61B 5/10 310G (72) Inventor Masataka Shinogi 1F, Nakase 1-chome, Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba Seiko Instruments Inc. F-term (reference) 2F024 BA03 BA10 BA13 BA15 4C038 VA04 VA12 VA13 VB14 VB40 VC20

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A body movement detecting means worn by a person to detect an output signal accompanying body movement, and a frequency analyzing means for performing frequency analysis on the body movement signal obtained from the body movement detecting means. From the time measuring means for measuring time, the operating means for detecting the number of steps during exercise and the speed detecting method for counting the number of steps and speed detection from the analysis result of the frequency analyzing means, and the body movement detecting means. A walking detection device comprising: a recording unit that records the obtained body movement signal and the calculation result; and a display unit that displays the body movement signal and the calculation result as necessary. 2. The walking detection according to claim 1, wherein the body movement detecting means includes a detecting means for detecting a rotational angular acceleration of a lateral side of the waist around a horizontal axis with respect to the wearer as a body movement signal. apparatus. 3. The rendering means frequency-analyzes the body movement signal described above to determine a walking frequency of 1
When the difference between the powers of the doubled component and the doubled component is smaller than a preset threshold value and the powers are at substantially the same level, there is provided a determination method for identifying the wearer's action as a sliding foot walking state. The walking detection device according to claim 2, characterized in that 4. The frequency of walking obtained from the analysis result of the frequency analyzing means and the time measuring means when the calculating means identifies the action of the wearer as a sliding foot walking state by using the determination method. 4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising a step count and speed calculation method capable of counting the number of steps for a certain period of time and detecting the speed based on the measured exercise time and the information on the step length previously input by the wearer. Walking detector. 5. The frequency characteristic characteristic of the output signal in the sliding foot walking state obtained from the sliding foot walking determination method is prepared in advance as a reference value by the calculating means, and is obtained by the walking detection device. 4. An aging progress judging method for judging the aging progress of the lower limbs based on a walking pattern based on a comparison between the frequency characteristic of the output signal and the reference value.
The walk detection device described. 6. The walking detection device according to claim 1, wherein the computing means has a walking pattern teaching method for displaying, on the display means, a healthy walking instruction for the wearer.