JP2008061937A - Fragrance generation method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a fragrance generation means to reduce lingering fragrance as much as possible and make the fragrance to be continuously felt, and to provide a method of continuously generating fragrance. <P>SOLUTION: The fragrance generation method which enables the electronic control of the timing of emitting a perfume intermittently emits the same perfume a plurality of times at an interval of a first time threshold value or lower. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a fragrance generating method for releasing a fragrance into a space using an ink jet method or the like.

  In recent years, fragrance therapy (aroma therapy) that takes in fragrances such as natural essential oil and synthetic essential oil has attracted attention for the purpose of obtaining effects such as relaxation, refreshment, and recovery from fatigue. Also in the mixed reality (MR) technology, which has been limited to transmission of audiovisual information so far, a technology that enhances a sense of reality by presenting a fragrance attracts attention.

  As a method for presenting the fragrance, it has been common to fill the space by naturally vaporizing the fragrance or to vaporize and diffuse the solid fragrance with a fan. However, in these conventional methods, it is not easy to freely control the amount of the fragrance to be presented. For this reason, the fragrance diffuses throughout the space, and the already presented fragrance may remain in the space and cause discomfort.

As another fragrance presenting method, a technique for ejecting a fragrance instead of ink using an ink jet method applied in a printer is also disclosed. (For example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2). The ink jet system has a characteristic that the amount and timing of the fragrance to be ejected can be accurately controlled. Therefore, it is possible to give various feelings to a person with a small amount of injection control equivalent to a human threshold.
JP-A-4-266762 JP-A-10-146385 JP 2003-260122 A JP 2003-077684 A JP 2003-162212 A

However, Patent Documents 1 and 2 do not describe a specific scent injection method.
As a method for controlling and releasing the fragrance, a method has been proposed in which the fragrance is ejected when the person is inhaling air according to the breathing rhythm of the person receiving the fragrance (see Patent Document 3). However, in this method, since a fragrance may be continuously presented while a person is inhaling, it cannot be said that the suppression of the diffusion of the fragrance is sufficient. Furthermore, there was no guarantee that the scent was continuously felt because the human olfaction has an adaptation characteristic even if it was continuously ejected.

  There are many devices that use a fan to diffuse the fragrance that has been injected and vaporized, but no method has been proposed to control the combination of the fan and the fragrance injection method so that no extra fragrance is injected. .

  Furthermore, the apparatus which inject | emits several fragrance simultaneously using a some fragrance | flavor, mixes fragrance, or inject | emits in order and provides several fragrance is developed. However, the phenomenon that a plurality of scents are mixed and a desired scent cannot be obtained due to the influence of timing and residual scent when continuously ejected has not been considered.

  The present invention has been developed to solve such conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for generating a scent that can reduce the remaining scent as much as possible and make the scent feel continuously.

  In the scent generating method of generating the scent by holding the scent and electronically controlling the scent, the present invention intermittently injects the same scent at a time interval equal to or less than the first time threshold. Provided is a scent generation method capable of suppressing the amount of fragrance injected and preventing the remaining scent from diffusing to the surroundings and allowing the user to feel the scent continuously and continuously.

  Moreover, in the said scent generation | occurrence | production method, the scent generation | occurrence | production method which can make a user feel continuously without mixing different scents by injecting different scents at the time interval more than the 2nd time threshold is provided. To do.

  According to the present invention, the residual scent can be reduced as much as possible, and the scent can be continuously felt.

  Next, preferred embodiments of the scent generator, the scent generator and the continuous generation method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[Scent generator]
FIG. 1 (1) showing a configuration concept of an embodiment of the present invention is a perspective view of the entire scent generating device. Reference numeral 10 denotes a housing of the generator, and the front side of the figure is an opening. 12 is a fragrance | flavor tank, and the fragrance | flavor used as the origin of fragrance is stored in liquid form. The operation of the apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 (2) is a side view of FIG. 1 (1) cut along the AA′BB ′ plane. The nozzle head 11 which inject | emits a fragrance | flavor is in the lower part of the fragrance | flavor tank 12, and a fragrance | flavor is inject | emitted by the liquid state to the perpendicular downward direction. As will be described later, the nozzle head 11 is composed of, for example, the same member as the nozzle head of an ink jet printer. Reference numeral 15 denotes a fan for sending wind, and the air flowing in from the outside of the apparatus passes under the nozzle head and reaches the user's nose as indicated by an arrow. Since the injection hole of the nozzle head 11 is fine, the injected fragrance can be completely vaporized by the air sent in and the user can feel the scent. In this embodiment, the nozzle head is fixed vertically downward, but is not necessarily limited to this, for example, it can be set to inject in the horizontal direction. What is necessary is just to comprise so that a user's nose may be reached.

  FIG. 2A is a perspective view of a fragrance injection unit in which the nozzle head 11 and the fragrance tank 12 are unitized. The perfume injection unit includes an injection head 112 in which 128 × 4 discharge ports (hereinafter also referred to as “nozzles”) 111 are arranged in a line. The discharge port 111 is made by drilling with a laser or the like in an orifice plate formed of a resin such as polysulfone. A fragrance tank 123 is joined to the rear portion of the recording head 112, and the fragrance is stored inside the fragrance tank 123 by a liquid absorption holder (not shown) such as a sponge. The liquid fragrance is sent to the nozzle head 112 through the supply path 114. In addition, although the fragrance | flavor tank 113 of this embodiment shall have sponge inside, it is not limited to this, The tank made from the fragrance | flavor holding bag with the structure with predetermined | prescribed negative pressure, and fragrance | flavor absorption The structure which mixed the holding body and the liquid fragrance | flavor may be sufficient.

  The fragrance | flavor tank 12 is comprised from four tanks 123A-123D. The fragrance | flavor hold | maintained at these tanks is each injected from the nozzles 111A-111D via the independent supply path 114 (refer FIG. 2 (2)). By having such a configuration, it is possible to fill a plurality of types of fragrances into the tanks 123A to 123D and to inject not only individually but also to mix and emit a plurality of types of fragrances. A scent can be generated. In the present embodiment, an example of four tanks and nozzle heads has been shown, but the number below or above can obviously be expanded.

  Moreover, the fragrance | flavor injection unit which united the nozzle head 11 and the fragrance | flavor tank 12 is made into a cassette, it can be attached or detached to the housing | casing 10 (not shown), and also more fragrance generation | occurrence | production is attained by a different fragrance | flavor.

  FIG. 2 (3) is an enlarged perspective view of the ejection head 112. A discharge heater 116 is provided in the liquid passage 115 continuous from the discharge port 111. The discharge heater 116 generates heat, generates bubbles in the fragrance in the liquid passage 115, and is generated from the discharge port 111 by the generation pressure of the bubbles. It has a mechanism to discharge fragrance. The fragrance fills the liquid path 115 from the liquid chamber 117 provided behind the liquid path 115. The fragrance in the liquid chamber 117 is supplied from the fragrance tank 123 through the supply path 114.

  Further, a diode sensor 118 for detecting the head temperature is provided. In the present embodiment, the diode sensor 118 is formed on the heater substrate simultaneously by a semiconductor process or the like. The diode sensor 118 is coupled to an electric board (not shown) so that the output can be converted into a temperature. Note that the temperature detecting means is not limited to the diode sensor 118, and may be another one such as a thermistor.

  In one discharge from each discharge port 111, about 5 to 10 ng of fragrance droplets fly. Further, the diode sensor 118 detects the temperature of the head every predetermined time during discharge, for example, every 50 ms, and the drive pulse is increased or decreased so that the amount of the fragrance droplets discharged is constant according to the detection result. Let's control. In the present embodiment, the driving frequency at the time of ejection is about 10 KHz, but is not limited to this.

  Further, a drive pulse correction process may be performed based on an ambient temperature such as an in-machine temperature and a head temperature from a thermistor installed on a substrate in the main body.

The operation of the scent generating apparatus will be described in more detail using the embodiment of FIG.
In addition to the nozzle head 11 and the fragrance tank 12 described above, the fragrance release unit 10 receives a control command for controlling the discharge of the fragrance, and a fragrance controller 13 for converting the command into a drive pulse, a fan 15 for sending wind, A fan controller 16 is provided for converting a command for controlling the fan 15 into a fan driving voltage. These controllers not only receive commands from the control unit 20, but also have a function of sending the status of the nozzle head 11, the fragrance tank 12, and the fan 15 to the control unit 20 as data. The control unit 20 is a control unit of a computer that is generally used, and includes a CPU 21, a ROM 22, and a RAM 23 as a minimum configuration. Further, in this configuration, an input device 31 (for example, a button, a keyboard, a mouse, etc.) for a user to input a fragrance generation command and various parameters for generation, and an input signal is transmitted to a control unit in a predetermined data format. An input controller 32, a display device 41 (for example, a liquid crystal display LCD) for visualizing user input data and the state of the device, and a display controller 42 for converting the data into a format specific to the display device. These processing components are connected by a computer bus 50.

  Each processing component may be integrated and incorporated in a case as shown in FIG. 1A (not shown), or may be a separate case.

  In order to control and emit the scent using this device, the user inputs parameters as shown in FIG. Since the setting result is output to the screen of the display device, the parameter can be corrected on the screen.

  In FIG. 4, the fragrance information stored in the tanks 123A, 123B, 123C, and 123D corresponding to the heads 111A, 111B, 111C, and 111D is stored in the head / fragrance information. In this example, the flavors of “Ravenda”, “Bergamot”, “Rose”, and “Peppermint” are contained in the order of the above tanks. In the discharge information, the concentration of the fragrance discharged from each head is shown in 128 levels from 0 to 127. Since each head is provided with 128 nozzles, this density value is replaced with the number of nozzles from which the fragrance is discharged for discharge. This maintains the linearity of the perfume discharge concentration. In the example of FIG. 4, the discharge density of lavender is 127, bergamot is 30, rose is 69, and peppermint is 5. There is a check box □ in each margin, and the check box changes to ■ when the head to be ejected is selected. In the example shown in the figure, a rose head is selected. The discharge pulse is a time for continuous discharge, the discharge interval indicates the time until the next discharge, and the discharge time is the time for the entire discharge operation. In the case of this example, it is shown that a rose having a density of 69 is discharged in a pulse shape for 0.3 seconds, and is discharged again for 0.3 seconds after an interval of 0.5 seconds. Yes. The fan expresses the strength of the fan in 10 levels (0 to 9). These pieces of information are stored in the ROM 22 in the control device, rewritten by user input, and read out as necessary. In the GUI format as shown in FIG. 4, parameters can be set easily, but a complicated discharge pattern cannot be specified. At this time, a script file as shown in FIG. 5 is created. The script file can control the fragrance discharge in the time direction by using commands with parameters. In the example of FIG. 5, first, the fan 15 is driven with an air volume of 9, and after the lavender is discharged for 0.3 seconds with the same density parameter as in FIG. 4, the bergamot is 0.8 seconds after an interval of 0.5 seconds. After 0.5 seconds, rose and peppermint are simultaneously discharged for 1.8 seconds, the fan is stopped, and the operation ends.

  The operation flow of the scent generating device will be described with reference to FIG. Each component is initialized in step S50 after the apparatus is turned on. In the scent discharge portion, the fragrance can be discharged by the initialization of the head normally performed in an ink jet printer. In the control unit, processing such as memory initialization is performed. In the next step S100, it waits for input from the user. When there is a user input, the input content is determined, and processing is distributed according to the input content. When the input content is (1) a discharge start instruction (for example, pressing a button or clicking a GUI button), step S300 described later is executed. Also, in the case of (2) an end instruction (button press, GUI button click), the process ends and the power is turned off.

  If the input content is other than (1) and (2), step S200 is executed. In step S200, the parameter setting as shown in FIG. 4 or the scent injection scenario as shown in FIG. 5 is created using the display device 41 and the input device 31, or the injection scenario file to be actually executed is called into the RAM 23. In step 300, an injection operation based on the set parameters or injection scenario is executed. For example, in the case of a scenario file as shown in FIG. 5, a fan-related command is sent from the control unit to the fan controller, and an injection command is sent to the fragrance controller 13 at the timing described in the scenario. When the series of injection operations are completed in this way, the process returns to the input waiting process in step S100.

[Two point threshold for olfaction]
Since it is possible to accurately control the concentration and injection timing of the scent using the scent generating device having the above configuration, how the user feels the scent by changing the scent injection pattern using this function You can find out.

  As a first experiment, we examine how humans feel about the pulse output of minute fragrances. As shown in FIG. 7 (1), a pulse-like scent is ejected twice at a density d and an ejection time T. Assuming that the interval between the two injections is Δt, as shown in FIG. 7 (2), when Δt is sufficiently large, the two injections are felt as separate injections, but when Δt is small, Is expected to be indistinguishable from a single injection. This is based on a two-point threshold for pain perception (a distance at which two stimuli can be distinguished) as shown in FIG. 7 (3), and a two-point threshold for olfactory (time interval Δ) that can distinguish two ejections. t) exists.

[Experiment 1]
In order to confirm this, a sensory test was conducted by 15 subjects (14 men in their 20s, 1 woman). As shown in FIG. 7 (1), the fragrance injection time for the second time was changed from the first fragrance injection, and the subject was asked whether it was “one injection” or “two injections”. Muscat and lemongrass artificial fragrances were used as the fragrances, and the concentrations were measured at their respective recognition thresholds. The concentration was twice the recognition threshold, and the single injection time T was 0.3 seconds. FIG. 8 is a histogram of experimental results, FIG. 8 (1) is the case where the fragrance is muscat, and FIG. 8 (2) is the case of lemongrass. The horizontal axis represents the minimum time interval Δt that the subject felt as two injections, and the vertical axis represents the number of subjects. From the histogram, it was found that no subject felt two shots with Δt of 0.5 seconds or less separately, and the distribution was centered around 0.7 seconds. The average time interval was 0.75 seconds (standard deviations were 0.15 seconds and 0.17 seconds, respectively) for both Muscat and Lemongrass.

[Experiment 2]
In Experiment 1 described above, the same scent was used in the two injections, but in Experiment 2, it was examined how the two-point time threshold changes using different scents for the first and second injections. The experiment was performed in the same manner as in FIG. 7 (1). However, as shown in FIG. 9, the second scent emitted was different from the first scent. FIG. 10 (1) shows the results when the muscat is injected for the first time and the lemongrass for the second time. FIG. 10 (2) shows that the first is lemongrass and the second is muscat. The minimum time interval Δt that the subject felt as two injections is shorter than the histogram of FIG. The average time interval was 0.34 seconds (standard deviation 0.21 seconds) in the former case and 0.37 seconds (standard deviation 0.20 seconds) in the latter case.

  From the two experimental results, the two-point time threshold for different incense is about half of the two-point time threshold for the same incense. As a characteristic of olfaction, it is known that if you continue to smell the same scent, it becomes difficult to feel the scent due to the adaptation reaction, but after smelling the scent of the first injection, until the next same scent is felt, from the adaptation state to returning to the original The experimental results show that it takes time. On the other hand, if you smell different scents continuously, there is a masking effect in which the first scent is immediately canceled by the scent of the sound. It feels as a scent. These experimental results can be explained for the above reasons.

[Influence of scent and wind]
In order to obtain an accurate two-point time threshold by performing the experiment as described above, it is necessary to eliminate the influence of the remaining scent. Although the discharge amount and discharge time of the fragrance can be accurately controlled with the configuration as shown in FIG. 1 of the present embodiment, it is generally difficult to control the scent that is vaporized after the discharge and diffused in the air. That is, the vaporized scent stays in the vicinity of the generator, and the scent emitted before may be felt even if the scent is not emitted from the nozzle head 11. This is called Zanka. In this embodiment, since the fan 15 is provided as shown in FIG. 1, the influence of the remaining scent can be reduced. This will be described based on the results of Experiment 3.

[Experiment 3]
In order to investigate the state of the remaining scent, a time period in which a scent of 0.3 seconds is discharged only once, as shown in FIG. △ TR was examined. The relationship between the wind speed and the remaining scent time is clarified by adjusting the fan strength and changing the wind speed and measuring the scent end time. The fragrance was muscat, and the scent concentration was 2 and 5 times the recognition threshold of muscat. The wind speed was changed between 0.8 m / sec and 1.8 m / sec. The results are shown in FIG. As the wind speed increases regardless of the concentration, the time average value at the end of the feeling decreases. At a wind speed of 0.8 m per second, there are differences depending on the density when the density is 5 times when the density is 5 times and 2.9 seconds when the density is twice, but the difference disappears as the wind speed increases. Moreover, there is no difference in the average time at the end of feeling at a wind speed of 1.7 m to 1.8 m per second. Therefore, it can be said that the influence of the remaining scent is eliminated at a wind speed of 1.7 m to 1.8 m per second. Experiments 1 and 2 were carried out at a wind speed of 1.8 m / second without the influence of residual scent.

[Relationship between fragrance injection interval and how to feel fragrance]
Although it was shown that the number of injections could not be grasped when scent was emitted at an interval shorter than the time threshold in Experiment 1, is this phenomenon used to continually emit scents with intermittent pulse scents? Experiment to see how it feels. Although the number of injections cannot be grasped in Experiment 1, it is unclear whether it feels the same as in continuous injection, so the difference in feeling between pulsed injection with an injection interval shorter than the time threshold in Experiment 1 and continuous injection is examined.

[Experiment 4]
As shown in FIG. 13, a sensory test was performed to see how the pulse-like ejection interval Δt for 0.3 seconds was changed. Δt was 0.6 seconds, 0.4 seconds, 0.2 seconds, and 0 seconds (continuous) as comparison data. The feeling was selected from the following four patterns: “I felt continuous”, “I felt discontinuous”, “I felt stronger” and “I felt weaker”. The scent was “Muscat” and the concentration was twice the recognition threshold. The results are shown in FIG. 14 (1), Δt = 0.6 seconds, (2) Δt = 0.4 seconds, (3) Δt = 0.2 seconds, (4) Δt = 0 seconds (continuous) ). As Δt decreases, the proportion of people who feel discontinuous decreases and the proportion of people who feel continuous is increased. Comparing (3) and (4), (3) exceeds the number of people who felt continuous. Furthermore, in the case of (4), 4 people felt that it was getting weaker, and 1 person felt that it was getting stronger, whereas in case of (3), the former was It is one person and the latter two people, and it is shown that the olfactory adaptation effect is suppressed and the scent is perceived continuously when the scent is intermittently emitted rather than continuously.

  According to the present invention, new products can be developed in the field where fragrance is a commercial value. For example, since the fragrance is opened continuously, the fragrance inside the container is gradually evaporated and the fragrance is continuously emitted, so the fragrance feels as soon as it enters the room with the fragrance, but the olfactory adaptation effect Will soon stop feeling that scent. The effect of maintaining the fragrance of the fragrance can be expected by intermittent discharge by electronic control according to the present invention.

  In addition, perfume is formulated to feel the scent by dividing it into three levels of notes (incense tone): top, middle, and last. Here, the top note is scented about 5 to 15 minutes after being put on, the middle note is about 30 minutes to 1 hour later, and the last note is about 2 to 3 hours after being put on. It is necessary to scent. According to the discharge by electronic control according to the present invention, since the fragrance corresponding to the fragrance can be sealed and stored in a plurality of tanks, any fragrance can be reproduced at any time, and this scent can be ejected intermittently. Thus, there is a merit that the user can continuously feel the scent of scent.

  As for the fragrance, since it is volatilized from highly volatile components, there is a problem that the fragrance changes during use and the fragrance is different. It is possible to provide a fragrance that does not change.

  In aroma therapy, a scent is generated by combining a plurality of essential oils in order to obtain an arousal effect and a soothing effect on the nerve. The method of generating unseen fragrances, such as changing the combination temporally by ejection by electronic control according to the present invention, or allowing the combined scent to be continuously felt as different scents by the time interval of ejection. There is a possibility that a new effect will be discovered.

It is a figure explaining the whole figure of a fragrance generating device of the present invention, a side view, and operation. It is a perspective view explaining the fragrance | flavor injection unit of the fragrance generator of this invention. It is a block diagram explaining the structure of the Example of the fragrance generating apparatus of this invention. It is a list of parameters for operating the scent generating device of the present invention. It is an example of the script file for operating the fragrance generating apparatus of this invention. It is a flowchart figure explaining one operation example of the Example of the fragrance generating apparatus of this invention. It is a figure explaining the concept of the olfaction 2 point | piece time threshold value (same incense) in the fragrance generating method of this invention. It is a figure which shows the olfactory 2 point | piece threshold value experiment result (in the case of the same incense) of Experiment 1. It is a figure explaining the concept of the olfactory two-point time threshold value (difference smell) in the fragrance generating method of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the olfactory 2 point | piece threshold value experiment result (in the case of a different incense) of Experiment 2. FIG. It is a figure explaining the experiment 3 which measures the feeling end time of fragrance in order to investigate the influence of the remaining fragrance in the fragrance generating method of this invention. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the wind speed of Experiment 3, and fragrance end time. It is a figure which shows the concept of the intermittent discharge in the fragrance generating method of this invention. It is a figure which shows the experimental result which shows the relationship between the intermittent discharge of Experiment 4, and how to feel fragrance.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Scent generator 11, 112 Nozzle head 111 Discharge port 114 Liquid supply path 115 Liquid path 117 Liquid chamber 118 Diode sensor 12, 123 Fragrance tank,
13 Fragrance controller 15 Fan 16 Fan controller 20 Control unit 21 CPU
22 ROM
23 RAM
31 input unit 32 input controller,
41 Display Unit 42 Display Controller 50 Computer Bus

Claims (5)

  In the fragrance generating method which can electronically control the injection timing of the fragrance, the same fragrance is intermittently injected a number of times at intervals equal to or less than the first time threshold.   In the fragrance generating method which can electronically control the injection timing of the fragrance, the fragrance generating method is characterized in that different fragrances are intermittently injected a number of times at intervals of a second time threshold or more.   The scent generation method according to claim 1, wherein the first time threshold is 0.75 [s].   The scent generation method according to claim 1, wherein the first time threshold is 0.34 [s].   When injecting the same fragrance or different fragrances by the blowing means for controlling the scent delivery speed, the first time threshold and the second time threshold are set shorter as the blowing speed is increased. The method for generating a scent according to claim 1 or 2, wherein

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