JP2006345974A - Walking aid device for blind person - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a walking aid device for a blind person for assisting the safe walking of the blind person or person with weak eyesight by providing information on the walking route for the person in real time. <P>SOLUTION: An information collecting antenna part 3 for the radio communication such as electromagnetic induction is attached to the distal end of a walking aid 2 such as a walking stick usually used by the blind person, etc. and a radio information tag 10 is set on a walking route guide plate 11 on the fixed side on the ground to communicate by radio with the walking aid 2. The output of information on the walking route from an information processor 5 disposed in a grip part of the walking aid 2 is transmitted to the user 1 of the device via a vibration transmitting part 6 or a sound signal earphone 9. In this way, the user can safely walk on the walking route guide plates set on the footpath. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an improvement in a cane for a blind person for assisting the safety of walking of a blind person (such as amblyopia and blind person).

  Conventionally, in order to ensure the safety of walking for visually handicapped persons (handicapped persons such as amblyopia and blind persons), a cane for a blind person distinguished in white has been used. Furthermore, in places with particularly danger such as station platforms or busy streets, walking route guide boards with unevenness on yellow identification boards that are preferred for these blind pedestrians are installed. Along with route guidance, it is used to assist walking safety.

  This type of walking assist device for blind persons in the prior art is a function that mainly focuses on the detection of obstacles in the case of the following Patent Document 1 [Stick for blind persons with obstacle detection device]. There is a shortage in collecting route information.

  Further, the method of this prior art embodiment has a weak point that it is difficult to hear in a place where there is a lot of ambient noise or a place where there is a lot of noise because the detection information is notified only by voice. In addition, since the detection is performed when approaching an obstacle, there is a possibility that danger avoidance delay may occur.

  Furthermore, since the obstacle detection target of the walking stick for the blind person cannot be limited, the size or type of the obstacle is not limited. For example, it is conceivable to recognize the unevenness of the walking route guide plate as an obstacle.

  In order to eliminate these drawbacks and weaknesses of the prior art, the conventional method recognizes the detection target as an object, whereas the present invention combines a wireless information tag recognized as information data and its information reading device. As a walking assistance device for blind people, which has the function of collecting information on walking paths determined in advance by wireless non-contact and transmitting information to the user in combination with sound and vibration information. It was invented.

JP-A-8-19412

  The present invention has been made in response to the above-mentioned points, and its object is to assist in securing a safe walking path and guidance for walking for a disabled person such as a blind person.

  As mentioned above, a walking route guide plate with unevenness on the yellow identification plate that gives priority to walking is installed in places where danger exists for blind pedestrians, and it is used as a safety aid along with walking route guidance However, these facilities depend only on the individual senses of the blind person and do not have any information transmission means of the walking path, so the blind person is given accurate information on the walking path. Absent.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a walking assist device for a blind person that is provided with an information transmission means between the walking route guide plate and a pedestrian, and that can provide reliable walking route guidance with ears and bodily sensation. .

  In the present invention, a wireless information tag is installed on a walking route guide plate or the like provided for a blind pedestrian or the like, and specific guidance information data on the walking route is provided to the walking route guide plate. Provided with an information collecting device for performing non-contact information exchange between the wireless information tag and the information collecting device by wireless communication.

  The information collected by these devices is transmitted through the information processing device equipped in a walking aid such as a walking stick to the ear with the audio signal information and the vibration signal information to the hand with the stick, and the information on the walking path is 2 It has a feature that can be reliably transmitted by means of various types.

  The present invention is configured as described above, so that information on a predetermined walking route can be transmitted objectively and specifically, and by transmitting two types of information, audio signal information and vibration signal information, Information leakage due to the influence of ambient noise can also be prevented.

  The wireless information tag installed on the walking route information board contains information required by the user of the device, such as location, direction, location information such as walls, stairs, grooves, doorways, etc. that are the surrounding environment of the walking place, and By storing the position information of the walking route guide plate for calculating the movement distance, specific information can be transmitted to the user.

  Audio signal information, which is a means of transmitting information to users, can be selected from words (Japanese / foreign language), Morse code, combination sounds (long / short intermittent / high / low), etc. Can be expanded.

  In addition, by transmitting the vibration signal information to a hand or body having a stick by Morse signal vibration, combined vibration (long / short intermittent), etc., it is possible to reliably transmit information together with the sound signal information.

  One embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a usage pattern of the walking assist device for a blind person according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a moving-side information transmission / reception reading circuit and an information transmission circuit of the walking assist device for blind persons according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an information transmitting / receiving circuit using a fixed-side radio information tag serving as a detected side according to the present invention. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to these drawings.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, an information collecting antenna unit 3 is installed on a walking aid 2 that is held and moved by a user 1 of the apparatus, and a plurality of walking route guide plates 11 installed on the ground are provided. It is a walking assist device for the blind who exchanges information with the wireless information tag 10 installed.

  The walking aid 2 incorporates an information collecting antenna unit 3 at its tip, and information data is sent to the information processing device 5 through the information signal interface cable 4. The information data sent to the information processing device 5 is processed and converted into speech signals such as words (Japanese / foreign language), Morse code, combination sound (long / short intermittent tone / high / low tone), and the audio signal connection unit 7. To the audio signal earphone via the audio signal interface cable 8 and transmitted to the apparatus user 1.

  On the other hand, the information data sent to the information processing device 5 is processed and converted as a vibration signal, and is transmitted from the vibration transmission unit 6 to the hand holding the grasping unit of the walking aid 2 of the device user 1.

  The walking route information collected by the walking aid 2 is installed on the walking route guide plate 11 as information that is necessary for walking of the device user 1, such as location / direction / environmental environment information data of the walking location. It is written in the wireless information tag 10.

  The detailed function of each part related to the walking aid 2 will be described as an example with reference to FIG.

  The information collecting antenna unit 3 includes a moving side transmitting antenna unit 12 and a moving side receiving antenna unit 15 and is installed at the distal end portion of the walking aid 2 brought by the user 1 of the apparatus.

  The information processing apparatus 5 includes a mobile transmission data encoding unit 13, a mobile reception data decoding unit 17, a mobile control unit 16, a vibration generation circuit 18, a voice generation circuit 19, and a power supply unit 14 for driving them. The transmission / reception data is transferred between the mobile transmission antenna unit 12 and the mobile reception antenna unit 15 via the information signal interface cable 4.

  The vibration signal generated by the vibration generating circuit 18 is sent to the vibration transmitting unit 6 and transmitted to the user 1 of the apparatus.

  The audio signal generated by the audio generation circuit 19 is transmitted to the ear of the user 1 of the apparatus through the audio signal interface cable 8 via the audio signal connection unit 7 and through the audio signal interface horn 9.

  On the other hand, the wireless information tag 10 incorporated in the walking route guide plate 11 installed on the ground side receives the transmission wireless induction signal A by the fixed-side antenna unit 20, and generates the drive power by the induction accumulation power supply unit shown in FIG. At the same time, the information in the transmission / reception data memory unit 25 is called through the fixed side transmission data encoding unit 22, the fixed side reception data combination unit 23, and the fixed side control unit 24, and the received radio induction signal is transmitted through the fixed side antenna unit 20. B is sent to the information collecting antenna unit 3 of the walking aid 2 held by the user 1 of the apparatus.

  With these devices and circuit configurations, when the device user 1 holds the walking aid 2 and approaches the walking route guide plate 11, the moving side transmitting antenna unit 12, the moving side receiving antenna unit 15, and the fixed side antenna unit 20 The walking route information set in advance in the wireless information tag 10 is read by a wireless signal, and is transmitted to the user 1 of the apparatus as sound or vibration information based on the information.

  The communication frequency of the radio signal can be applied to either a long wave or a short wave, and the distance between the moving side transmitting antenna unit 12 and the moving side receiving antenna unit 15 and the fixed side antenna unit 20 is 1 meter or less. Therefore, when the walking route guide plate 11 is adjacently installed as a plurality of routes, it can be solved by adding a detection sensitivity adjusting unit to the moving side control unit 16 in order to avoid mutual interference.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the effects of the above-described invention can be obtained, and information on a walking route can be objectively and specifically transmitted to a blind pedestrian who is a user of the apparatus. It is possible to improve the safety of walking.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, an example in which the electromagnetic induction method is used has been described. However, the wireless signal may be based on the electromagnetic coupling method depending on the type of the wireless information tag 10.

  Furthermore, although the walking assistance device for blind persons of this invention showed the case where the cane for blind persons was applied to the walking assistance tool 2, the shoes which the user 1 of an apparatus wears the function which this walking assistance tool 2 comprises, or It is also possible to employ a method of attaching to a part of clothes, and this is included in the present invention.

It is explanatory drawing of the usage pattern of the walking assistance apparatus for blind people concerning this invention. It is a block diagram of the movement side information transmission / reception reading circuit and information transmission circuit of the walking assistance apparatus for blind persons concerning this invention. It is a block diagram of the fixed side information transmission / reception circuit used as the to-be-detected side based on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1. 1. User of the device 2. Walking aids 3. Information collecting antenna unit 4. Information signal interface cable Information processing apparatus 6. 6. Vibration transmission unit Audio signal connection unit 8. 8. Audio signal interface cable 10. Audio signal earphone Wireless information tag 11. Walking route guide board 12. Mobile transmitting antenna unit 13. Mobile side transmission data encoding unit 14. Power supply 15. Mobile receiving antenna section 16. Movement side control unit 17. Mobile side received data decoding unit 18. Vibration generation circuit section 19. Voice generation circuit unit 20. Fixed antenna portion 21. Inductive storage power supply 22. Fixed side transmission data encoding unit 23. Fixed side received data decoding unit 24. Fixed side control unit 25. Transmission / reception data memory section A. Transmit radio induction signal Receive radio induction signal

Claims (6)

  The user of the device holds the orientation, location, position information of walls or stairs that are obstacles in the vicinity, stored in the transmission / reception data memory part of the wireless information tag installed on the predetermined walking route guide board A walking assist device for a blind person that can be read as walking route information by an information collecting antenna unit installed in a walking assist tool.   Claims stored in the wireless information tag by the two-way wireless communication means by bringing the information collecting antenna part of the walking aid for collecting information to a fixed distance to the fixed antenna attached to the wireless information tag. A walking assist device for a blind person that can be read as walking path information described in 1.   The walking assist device for a blind person which can be applied to any of an electromagnetic induction method and an electromagnetic coupling method as the bidirectional wireless communication means in claim 2.   A walking assist device for a blind person comprising means for transmitting information signals of either or both of an audio signal and a vibration signal to a user of the device in a walking assist tool.   The walking assist device for collecting information is a walking assist device for a blind person that can be configured in either a cane form held by a user or attached to a body such as shoes or clothes. A walking assist device for blind persons, which is provided with a means for adjusting the detection distance between the walking assist tool and the wireless information tag for collecting information, and prevents mutual interference between a plurality of adjacent walking route guide plates. .

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