JP2009055987A - Massage chair - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a massage chair that further enhances massage feeling. <P>SOLUTION: On the basis of contact pressure on a human body detected by a contact pressure sensor 35, a controller 31 controls each of the driving parts 25-27 (driving motors 25a-27a) to change each operation speed so that the operation speed of a therapeutical element is increased when a detected contact pressure is small and that the operation speed of the therapeutical element is reduced when a detected contact pressure is large. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a massage chair in which a massage mechanism for driving a treatment element is incorporated in a backrest portion.

This type of massage chair suitably massages a treatment site of a user seated on a chair body by operating a treatment element provided in a backrest portion along a predetermined massage locus. In such a massage chair, for example, as shown in Patent Document 1, the amount of protrusion toward the human body is increased or decreased in the operation locus of the treatment element so that the contact pressure with the human body is constant. For example, when the contact pressure is small, the treatment element is operated with an operation locus in which the protrusion amount to the human body side is increased, and when the contact pressure is large, the treatment element is operated with an operation locus in which the protrusion amount to the human body side is reduced. It is like that.
JP 2004-73881 A

  However, in the structure configured as described above, the contact pressure changes due to a change in the posture of the user. For example, when a large load is applied to the backrest portion, the contact pressure increases, so that the treatment element protrudes. Although the amount is small, when the user leans strongly on the backrest, the operating speed of the treatment element is felt fast and anxiety is generated. In addition, when a small load is applied to the backrest part and it leans weakly, the contact pressure decreases, so the amount of protrusion of the treatment element increases, but the user leans against the backrest part so that the user can operate the treatment element. Since the change width of the protrusion amount of the treatment element is mechanically limited to a predetermined range, such as feeling unsatisfactory late, it is not possible to respond sufficiently to contact pressure change (posture change) near or beyond that limit, There was still room for improvement in improving the feeling of pressing (massage).

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a massage chair capable of further improving the massage feeling.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 1 is directed to contact between the driving means for operating the treatment element in the backrest portion with a predetermined operation locus to massage the seated user and the human body side. A massage chair comprising contact pressure detection means for detecting pressure and control means for controlling the drive means based on the detected contact pressure, wherein the control means is based on the detected contact pressure. The gist is to control the driving means to change the operating speed of the treatment element.

  In this invention, the operating speed of the treatment element is changed based on the detected contact pressure with the human body side under the control of the control means. Here, it has been found that when the treatment element is operated along the same operation locus, the pressing feeling increases as the operation speed is increased. Therefore, when adjusting the operating speed, such as increasing the operating speed of the treatment element when it is desired to obtain sufficient pressing feeling, and decreasing the operating speed of the treating element when sufficient pressing feeling is not required, a wider range is required. A feeling of pressing (massage) can be obtained.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the massage chair according to the first aspect, the control means performs control so that the operating speed of the treatment element is increased when the detected contact pressure is small, and the detected contact. The gist is to control the operating speed of the treatment element to be slow when the pressure is high.

  In the present invention, when the detected contact pressure is small, the operating speed of the treatment element is fast, and when the detected contact pressure is large, the operating speed of the treatment element is slowed. This caused anxiety that the operating speed of the treatment element felt fast when the user leaned strongly against the backrest (high contact pressure), or when the user leaned weakly on the backrest (contact pressure low) The unsatisfactory feeling that the operation of the treatment element is delayed is alleviated, and a more appropriate pressing feeling can be obtained.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the massage chair according to the first or second aspect, the control means should further change the protruding amount of the treatment element toward the human body based on the detected contact pressure. The gist is to control the driving means.

  In the present invention, the amount of protrusion of the treatment element toward the human body is further changed based on the detected contact pressure under the control of the control means. In other words, since the actual pressing force changes with the change in the protrusion amount of the treatment element, and the pressing feeling also changes, combining with the change in the pressing feeling due to the change in the operating speed of the treatment element, a wider range of pressing feeling can be obtained. (Massage feeling) can be obtained.

  The invention according to claim 4 is the massage chair according to claim 3, wherein when the detected contact pressure is small, the control means controls the protruding amount of the treatment element toward the human body to be large, The gist is to control the amount of protrusion of the treatment element toward the human body to be small when the detected contact pressure is large.

  In this invention, when the detected contact pressure is small, the amount of protrusion of the treatment element toward the human body is large, and when the detected contact pressure is large, the amount of protrusion of the treatment element toward the human body is small. That is, the larger the protruding amount of the treatment element, the greater the actual pressing force of the treatment element and the greater the feeling of pressing. Accordingly, a more appropriate pressing feeling can be obtained by controlling in this way.

  A fifth aspect of the present invention is the massage chair according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, further comprising setting input means capable of individually setting a massage setting for each of a plurality of treatment sites of the user. The gist of the control means is to control the driving means based on the setting for each treatment site by the setting input means.

  In this invention, since it controls based on the setting of each massage for every treatment part by a setting input means, an appropriate press feeling can be obtained for each treatment part, and a higher quality massage feeling can be obtained.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the massage chair which can aim at the further improvement of a massage feeling can be provided.

(First embodiment)
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b), the leg 11 of the massage chair 10 is placed on the floor, and a seat 12 on which a user can sit is fixed to the upper part of the leg 11. ing. At the rear part of the seat part 12, a backrest part 13 for allowing the user to hold and hang the back is provided so as to tilt. An armrest 14 for placing the user's arm and the like is provided from the backrest 13 to the front of both sides of the seat 12. An ottoman 15 is provided at the lower front part of the seat 12 to massage the user's feet. In addition, each part of the massage chair 10 is covered with a cover 16 made of cloth or the like, so that the drive unit provided in the massage chair 10 and the user do not directly contact each other.

  A space 17 that extends in the vertical direction and opens forward is provided in the cover 16 of the backrest portion 13, and a massage mechanism 21 that massages the back of the user is assembled in the space 17. The massage mechanism 21 is moved up and down by a vertical drive unit 25 (vertical drive motor 25a) shown in FIG. Further, the massage mechanism 21 is provided with a strength (front / rear) drive unit 26 (strength drive motor 26a) and a width drive unit 27 (width drive motor 27a), and a pair of treatment elements is driven by the drive units 26 and 27. 21a operates. These treatment elements 21a project forward from the opening of the space 17 and come into sliding contact with the inner surface of the cover 16, and the treatment elements 21a pass through the cover 16 to treatment areas such as the shoulder, back, and waist of the user. It is designed to give massages such as tapping.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the vertical drive unit 25, the strength (front / rear) drive unit 26, and the width drive unit 27 have drive motors 25 a to 27 a as drive sources, and the drive motors 25 a to 27 a are connected to the control unit 31. Drive control.

  Specifically, each detection signal from the up / down sensor 32, the strength sensor 33, and the width sensor 34 provided in each part of the massage mechanism 21 is input to the control unit 31, and the control unit 31 detects the detection of each sensor 32-34. Based on the signal, the state of the massage mechanism 21 (each drive part 25-27) including the state (position and attitude | position) of the treatment element 21a is detected. Further, a detection signal from a contact pressure sensor 35 provided at a predetermined location of the massage mechanism 21 is input to the control unit 31. Based on the detection signal of the contact pressure sensor 35, the control unit 31 detects the contact pressure with respect to the user of the treatment element 21a. Incidentally, the contact pressure is detected by an average value or a peak value of one cycle of the treatment element 21a.

  The control unit 31 is connected to a setting input unit 37 shown in FIG. 3 with a display unit 36 for setting the massage mode, selecting a treatment site, and the strength of massage. Note that the setting input unit 37 shown in FIG. The setting input unit 37 is configured to allow the user to adjust the strength and speed of the massage for the treatment site such as the shoulder, back, and waist, and outputs the setting signal to the control unit 31 as a setting signal. The control unit 31 reads out the control data based on the setting signal from the storage unit 38 such as an EEPROM (actual control data can be generated from the reference control data by calculation), and according to the control data, the three drive motors 25a to 27a. Is operated in cooperation with each other to control the user's treatment site to be massaged along a predetermined operating locus of the treatment element 21a.

  In this case, the strength of the massage (pressing force) corresponds to the amount of protrusion of the operating track of the treatment element 21a toward the human body (the larger the amount of protrusion, the stronger the massage), and the control unit 31 adjusts the strength. The operating locus of the treatment element 21a is set so as to have a protrusion amount corresponding to the set pressing force set in step. In addition, the control unit 31 adjusts the speeds of the drive motors 25a to 27a while keeping the operation locus of the treatment element 21a constant as described above. The control unit 31 of the present embodiment performs speed control of the drive motors 25a to 27a by PWM control, but may be speed control by voltage control.

  Here, when the treatment element 21a is operated with the same trajectory, the relationship between the operation speed and the feeling of pressing by the subject is examined. As shown in FIG. 5, the pressure increases as the operation speed of the treatment element 21a increases. It was found that the feeling increased. That is, even if the same pressing force is applied by the treatment element 21a, it is felt that the feeling of pressing is strong when the operating speed is fast (this has caused anxiety in the past), and the feeling of pressing is when the operating speed is low. Feels weak (previously this made me feel unsatisfactory).

  Based on this, in the control unit 31 of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, a correlation (control map) between the contact pressure and the operating speed of the treatment element 21a is set. Within the standard range Pb in which the contact pressure corresponds to the set pressing force, the operating speed of the treatment element 21a is constant (the speed is not changed). In the range Pa below the range Pb, the operating speed is linearized as the contact pressure decreases. The speed of the treatment element 21a, that is, each of the drive motors 25a to 27a is controlled so that the operating speed is gradually decreased linearly as the contact pressure increases in the range Pc that is gradually increased. Yes. Incidentally, the speed change based on the detected contact pressure is immediately reflected in the next cycle of the treatment element 21a.

  By such control, the contact pressure changes due to the change in the posture of the user. For example, when the backrest portion 13 is strongly applied with a large load, the operating speed of the treatment element 21a becomes slow as the contact pressure increases. The feeling of pressing by the user is low. As a result, the anxiety that has conventionally occurred when the user leans strongly on the backrest is reduced. Further, when the backrest 13 is weakly leaned by applying a small load, the operating speed of the treatment element 21a increases as the contact pressure decreases, and the user's pressing feeling increases. As a result, the unsatisfactory effect that occurs in the conventional case when the seat is leaned against the backrest is reduced. In other words, if it is intended to respond only by changing the protrusion amount of the treatment element as in the conventional case, the change width of the protrusion amount of the treatment element is mechanically limited to a predetermined range, so that the contact near or exceeds that limit. The present embodiment can sufficiently cope with an event that cannot sufficiently cope with a pressure change (posture change), and the user can have a higher pressing feeling (massage feeling).

  Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 3, the setting input unit 37 and the control unit 31 of the present embodiment individually adjust the strength and speed of the massage for the main treatment sites such as the shoulder, the back (back), and the waist. As shown in FIGS. 6A to 6C, the speed control of the drive motors 25a to 27a is performed according to individual control maps of the shoulder, back (back), and waist. It has become. As a result, a higher-quality control is obtained in which an appropriate pressing feeling can be obtained for each treatment site.

Next, characteristic effects of the present embodiment will be described.
(1) In this embodiment, based on the contact pressure with the human body detected by the contact pressure sensor 35, the control unit 31 changes the operating speed of the treatment element 21a. In this case, when the detected contact pressure is small, the operating speed of the treatment element 21a is fast, and when the detected contact pressure is large, the operating speed of the treatment element 21a is slowed down. And when it leans weakly in the backrest part which wants to fully obtain a press feeling, the operating speed of the treatment element 21a becomes high, and the unsatisfactory feeling that the operation of the treatment element 21a is slowed is reduced. In addition, when the user rests strongly on a backrest portion that does not require a sufficient pressing feeling, the operating speed of the treatment element 21a is reduced, and the anxiety that the operating speed of the treatment element 21a is felt is reduced. Thus, in this embodiment, an appropriate pressing feeling (massage feeling) can be obtained in a wider range.

  (2) In this embodiment, since the control is performed based on the setting of individual massages for each main treatment site such as the shoulder, back (back), and waist by the setting input unit 37, an appropriate pressure is applied to each treatment site. A feeling can be obtained and a higher-quality massage feeling can be obtained.

(Second Embodiment)
Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The control of the control unit 31 in the present embodiment is performed in addition to the control for changing the operating speed of the treatment element 21a based on the contact pressure change detected by the contact pressure sensor 35, as in the first embodiment. The actual pressing force is also adjusted by adjusting the amount of protrusion. Specifically, when the detected contact pressure is small, the amount of protrusion of the treatment element 21a toward the human body is increased, and when the detected contact pressure is large, the amount of protrusion of the treatment element 21a toward the human body is decreased. In this case, the control unit 31 reflects the detected contact pressure on the pressing force of the treatment element 21a in the next cycle, that is, the protruding amount of the treatment element 21a, so that the pressing force by the treatment element 21a approximates the set pressing force. I have control.

  And in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, in the range A0 in which the protrusion amount of the treatment element 21a can be changed, in addition to the speed adjustment, by adjusting the protrusion amount of the treatment element 21a mainly based on the contact pressure change. The actual pressing force is adjusted to appropriately control the pressing feeling given to the user. Further, in the ranges A1 and A2 where the protruding amount of the treatment element 21a cannot be changed, the pressing feeling given to the user is appropriately controlled by adjusting the operating speed of the treatment element 21a based on the change in contact pressure. Yes. Thus, in this embodiment, it is the control structure which can obtain the press feeling of a wider range.

Next, characteristic effects of the present embodiment will be described.
(1) In this embodiment, the control part 31 changed the protrusion amount to the human body side of the treatment element 21a based on the detected contact pressure in combination with the change of the operating speed of the treatment element 21a. In this case, when the detected contact pressure is small, the amount of protrusion of the treatment element 21a toward the human body is large, and when the detected contact pressure is large, the amount of protrusion of the treatment element 21a toward the human body is decreased. Is controlled to approximate the set pressing force. In other words, the larger the protruding amount of the treatment element 21a, the greater the actual pressing force of the treatment element 21a and the higher the feeling of pressing. Accordingly, more appropriate pressing feeling can be obtained by controlling in this way. Can be combined with a change in pressing feeling due to a change in the operating speed of the treatment element 21a, a wider range of pressing feeling (massage feeling) can be obtained.

In addition, you may change embodiment of this invention as follows.
In the first embodiment, the massage strength adjustment and speed adjustment can be individually set for the main treatment sites such as the shoulder, back (back), and lower back. It may be configured to be able to set massage strength adjustment and speed adjustment.

  In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, a control map having a range Pb in which the speed of the treatment element 21a is not changed and ranges Pa and Pc in which the speed is gradually changed linearly before and after that is used. For example, the speed may be changed in a curved line in the ranges Pa and Pc. Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 9A, a control map may be used in which the speed is constant for each range Pa to Pc and the speed is changed in three stages. In this case, multiple stages other than three stages may be used. Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 9B, a control map in which the speed is gradually changed linearly in the entire range may be provided without providing the range Pb in which the speed is not changed. In this case, the curve may be changed.

  In the first embodiment, the target speed obtained based on the contact pressure in the previous cycle is immediately reflected in the speed control of the next cycle. For example, as shown in FIG. The target speed MS may gradually change over time Tm.

  In the second embodiment, both the speed adjustment and the protrusion amount adjustment of the treatment element 21a are performed in the range A0 in which the protrusion amount of the treatment element 21a can be changed, but in this range A0, the protrusion amount of the treatment element 21a Only the adjustment may be performed, and the speed adjustment may be performed only in the ranges A1 and A2 in which the protruding amount of the treatment element 21a cannot be changed.

(A) (b) is a schematic block diagram of a massage chair. It is an electric block diagram of a massage chair. It is a schematic block diagram of a setting input part. It is a figure which shows the control map used in 1st Embodiment. It is a correlation diagram of the operating speed of a treatment element, and a press feeling. (A)-(c) is a figure which shows the control map for every treatment site | part. It is a figure for demonstrating the control in 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the control in another example. (A) (b) is a figure for demonstrating the control in another example.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Massage chair, 13 ... Backrest part, 21a ... Treatment element, 25a-27a ... Drive motor (drive means), 31 ... Control part (control means), 35 ... Contact pressure sensor (contact pressure detection means), 37 ... Setting Input unit (setting input means).

Claims (5)

Driving means for operating the treatment element in the backrest portion with a predetermined operation locus in order to perform massage for the seated user;
Contact pressure detection means for detecting contact pressure with the human body side;
A massage chair comprising control means for controlling the drive means based on the detected contact pressure,
The said control means controls the said drive means to change the operating speed of the said treatment element based on the said detected contact pressure, The massage chair characterized by the above-mentioned. The massage chair according to claim 1,
The control means controls to increase the operating speed of the treatment element when the detected contact pressure is small, and controls to decrease the operating speed of the treatment element when the detected contact pressure is large. Characteristic massage chair. In the massage chair according to claim 1 or 2,
The massage chair according to claim 1, wherein the control means further controls the drive means to change a protruding amount of the treatment element toward the human body based on the detected contact pressure. The massage chair according to claim 3,
The control means controls the amount of protrusion of the treatment element toward the human body when the detected contact pressure is small, and the amount of protrusion of the treatment element toward the human body when the detected contact pressure is large. A massage chair that is controlled to be small. In the massage chair according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
Comprising setting input means capable of individually setting massage settings for each of a plurality of treatment sites of the user;
The said control means controls the said drive means based on the setting for every treatment site | part by the said setting input means, The massage chair characterized by the above-mentioned.

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