JP2006057298A - Toilet equipment control system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a toilet equipment control system capable of efficiently carrying out cleaning work and replacement work of consumption articles, detecting a person sitting at the inside of a toilet and, at the same time, simply constructing equipment for that purpose at a low cost in a toilet equipment used by the general public in facilities such as shopping centers and public facilities, etc. <P>SOLUTION: The toilet equipment control system comprises a sensor S1 for a private room provided for a private toilet consisting of an optical sensor capable of detecting such a state as to correspond to a posture of a human in the toilet equipment having at least the private toilet 20, a sensor S2 for a passage consisting of the optical sensor detecting the passage of the human provided to a door-way of the toilet equipment and a system server controlling information on both sensors. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a toilet facility management system. In particular, the present invention relates to a facility having many toilets used by an unspecified number of people such as shopping centers and public facilities.

Normally, a shopping center has about 5 to 10 toilets even if it has a scale of about 50 stores, and the number of private rooms is about 25 to 50. Cleaning each of these toilets takes about 30 minutes, and for each day, for example, the entire building is cleaned all at once in the morning, and is regularly performed during the day according to a predetermined procedure.
However, the use frequency of toilets varies greatly depending on floors, sales floors, events, weather, and the like, and the use frequency varies depending on the installation location.
In the past, for toilets with different usage frequencies, cleaning and replacement of consumables have been performed according to procedures determined at a uniform time, and cleaning toilets that are not used at all. There has been a considerable waste of labor costs, such as inspections for consumables that do not need to be replaced or replaced.

Further, in some toilets, particularly in private rooms, detection means using a far-infrared sensor may be installed in order to detect a person who is in poor physical condition and falls in the private room.
However, these sensors detect far-infrared rays emitted by the human body, and have a wide directivity, making it difficult to detect the directionality. Therefore, although the presence of a person can be detected, it is not possible to detect even the entry and exit of a person. Also, because it is affected by temperature, for example, when heating in the winter season is effective, the temperature of the outlets and walls of the heaters becomes high and close to the human body temperature, so that accurate human detection is possible. It becomes impossible.
Furthermore, some people stay in the toilet after closing the store with malicious intent, and it is possible to easily block the far-infrared rays radiated from the person by wearing thick clothing and avoid detection of the sensor.

Furthermore, toilet facilities include not only private toilets but also urinals and toilets. These also require cleaning work and replacement work of consumables. Theoretically, sensors can be installed in all private toilets, all urinals, and all wash areas to measure the frequency of use, but the installation and monitoring of the sensors are significant and the cost is increased.
JP-A-8-185135

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is that a toilet facility used by an unspecified number of people such as a shopping center and a public facility can efficiently perform a cleaning operation and a consumable replacement operation, and can also stay in the toilet. To provide a toilet facility management system that can detect a person and can easily and inexpensively achieve facilities for that purpose.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a toilet facility management system according to the present invention is provided for a private toilet including an optical sensor capable of detecting the state of a toilet facility having at least a private toilet corresponding to a human posture. It is composed of a sensor for a private room, a passage sensor composed of an optical sensor for detecting the passage of a human being provided at the entrance of the toilet facility, and a system server for managing information of both sensors.

  With the above configuration, it is possible to grasp on the system server the usage status and cumulative number of people using the toilets for each individual room on the system server, and it is possible to grasp the cumulative total number of people entering the toilet facility using the passage sensor. . This makes it possible to estimate the amount of toilet paper used and the timing of cleaning for each private room toilet, and it is also possible to grasp the cumulative number of urinals used by obtaining the difference between the count numbers of both sensors. Furthermore, by knowing the total number of people entering the toilet, it is possible to replenish consumables used by almost all toilet users, such as toilet soap. The system server is installed in a management room or the like.

FIG. 1 shows an overall outline of a toilet facility management system according to the present invention.
The shopping center has toilet facilities 10 (10a, 10b, 10c...). Each toilet facility 10 is provided with a private toilet 20, a urinal 30, a washroom 40, and the like. A private room sensor 20 for determining the presence or absence of a person in the private room toilet is installed in the private room toilet 20, and a passing sensor S2 for counting the number of people entering and leaving the toilet is installed at the entrance of the toilet facility 10. Each toilet facility 10 is provided with a storeroom. In this storeroom, an ID card reader for reading an ID card after necessary work is formed. Each device has a network interface. The number of passing sensors S2 is one in principle. However, when there are a plurality of entrances / exits, it is provided corresponding to the number of entrances / exits.

The number information counted by the two types of sensors is sent to a system server 60 provided in a management room or the like in the shopping center.
The server 60 measures the total number of users of each toilet facility from the count information obtained by the two types of sensors, and displays the usage status of each toilet facility and each individual room toilet in a bar graph or the like on the screen. When the number of people counted exceeds a predetermined threshold, alarm means such as alarms and visual means such as flashing the screen can be used to clean toilets, toilets, and other consumables such as toilet paper and soap. Inform timely replenishment timing.
The worker who has completed the cleaning and replacement work inputs necessary items to an ID card reader as shown in FIG. 2, for example, and notifies the management office of the completion of the work. The ID card reader can input the number of clean rooms and the number of consumables that have been replaced. By pressing the registration execution button and reading the ID card, the work content, the operator, the work end time Etc. are recorded on the server of the management office.
The system server 60 of the management office can centrally manage a plurality of shopping centers, tenants, facilities and the like from the central management center because the central management center can communicate via the Internet network as needed.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the single room sensor S1. The private room sensor S1 is composed of a light emitting unit that emits light and a light receiving unit that receives light reflected by the measured object (user), and further includes an emergency call button for notifying an attendant in the event of an emergency, and an interphone that can communicate with a management office It also has. The sensor S1 includes a network interface and can be connected to a LAN in the hall by wire or wirelessly. Furthermore, when a power failure occurs, the self-illuminating device can prevent the private room toilet from being panicked.

Here, the total number of people who entered the private toilet and the total number of people who entered the toilet facility can be directly known by the private room sensor installed in the private room toilet and the passage sensor installed at the entrance and exit. By subtracting these numbers, it is possible to estimate the total number of people who do not use the private toilet, usually the user of the urinal.
For example, when the total number of people counted by the passage sensor is 100 and the total number of people counted by the single room sensor is 40, it can be estimated that there are about 60 urinal users.
By statistically determining the total number of people, it is possible to know the timing of toilet paper replenishment and toilet cleaning for private toilets, the cleaning timing for urinals, and soap and paper towels for toilets. You can know the replenishment and cleaning timing. Here, information on private toilets is subject to priority management because information can be grasped for each private room, and information on individual toilets cannot be known for urinals, but consumables cannot be replenished for urinals. In addition, since the dirt caused by use is less likely to be fatal, rough management is sufficient. In this regard, a method of counting the number of users for each urinal may be considered, but considering the cost (including all costs such as installation cost and operation cost), it is not practical to manage urinals individually. . The present invention employs a method of counting the total number of people entering the toilet and the number of users of private toilets that require priority management, thereby cleaning the entire toilet and exchanging consumables very easily and inexpensively. It is possible to work.
In addition, a urinal, a toilet, and a storeroom are not indispensable structures, and this invention is applicable also to the toilet installation which does not have these. In particular, it can be used in a female toilet without a urinal.

  In addition, by adopting such a statistical management system, it is possible to manage the necessary toilets when necessary, which is significantly higher than conventional methods that do not take into account usage conditions. It can be rationalized by reducing costs and preventing toilets from becoming unusable, or even keeping them in a very short time.

  Furthermore, by grasping information such as whether a specific private room toilet has not been used for a long time, it is possible to guess that the private room is not functioning properly, that there is a malfunction or dirt, or that a person has fallen. The staff can be quickly faced. In addition, it is possible to detect a person who has malicious intent after closing the store, and it has an effect of preventing crimes.

The private room sensor is a sensor that determines whether to receive light and receive reflected light.
The single room sensor is provided with a plurality of, for example, eight LEDs, and equivalently one light receiving diode, so that the plurality of LEDs are switched to emit light, so that only information on the presence / absence of a person in the private room toilet is displayed. In addition, even the user's posture can be detected.
Normally, the light used for this purpose should not be touched by the person using the private toilet, so the device is insensitive to human eyes and the device's inexpensive near-infrared light with a wavelength of 700 to 950 nm is used. In situations where it is better to see the state of the light, visible light such as red or blue can be used.
In this case, switching of each sensor does not turn on the next LED after completely turning off one LED, but suddenly rises in the receiving circuit by switching so that both LEDs turn on in time, Falling, so-called overshoot and undershoot can be prevented, and highly accurate measurement is possible.

  Passing sensors are equipped with multiple sensors along the direction of movement when a person enters the room, and the intensity of light received by each sensor and changes over time are processed by the CPU, etc. It is also possible to detect the passage of people and the direction of passage. In addition, the number of persons can be accurately counted even when a plurality of persons enter and exit at the same time.

FIG. 4 is a system using the toilet facility management system of the present invention, and conceptually shows an Internet network connecting a shopping center and a centralized management center.
The toilet facility includes a private toilet having two private room sensors (toilet sensors), a passage sensor, and a wireless LAN, a wired LAN, and a router / wireless access point connecting these sensors.
The plurality of toilet facilities are configured by LAN connection and are connected to the central management center via a system server and the Internet.

As described above, the toilet facility management system according to the present invention is
(1) It is possible to grasp on the system server the usage status and cumulative number of people using each room toilet by using the sensor for the single room toilet, and it is possible to grasp the cumulative total number of people entering and exiting the toilet facility using the sensor for passing. .
(2) The amount of toilet paper used for each toilet and the timing of cleaning can be estimated, and the accumulated number of urinals can be grasped by obtaining the difference in the number of counts of both sensors.
(3) By knowing the cumulative number of toilet users, it is possible to replenish consumables used by toilet users such as toilet soap.

1 shows an overall configuration of a toilet facility management system according to the present invention. An example of an ID card reader is shown. An example of the sensor for private rooms is shown. The conceptual diagram of the system of this invention is shown.

Explanation of symbols

10 Toilet facilities 20 Toilet for private room 30 Urinal 40 Washroom 50 Storage 60 Management office

Claims (1)

In toilet facilities that have at least a private toilet,
In response to a human posture, a sensor for a private room provided in a private room toilet composed of an optical sensor capable of detecting the state,
A passage sensor comprising an optical sensor for detecting the passage of a human being provided at the entrance of the toilet facility;
A system server that manages the information of both sensors;
A toilet facility management system consisting of

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