JP2011099758A - Falling recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a falling recording apparatus which can record history, only when an impact due to falling has occurred, and can record a history, even when a battery has been detached due to the impact caused by falling. <P>SOLUTION: The falling recording apparatus includes an acceleration detecting unit 101 for detecting acceleration; a falling state detecting unit 102 for determining whether the apparatus is in a falling state from the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit; an impact detecting unit 103 for detecting an impact; a timer unit 104 for measuring the time elapsed from the start of the falling of the apparatus, when the falling state detection unit has detected the falling state; a falling history accumulating unit 106 for accumulating the history of the falling of the apparatus, when the falling state detecting unit has detected the falling state; and a falling history control unit 105 for deleting falling history information last accumulated in the falling history accumulating unit, when an impact is not detected by the impact detecting unit, when the time measured by the timer unit lies within a predetermined time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a drop recording apparatus for electronic equipment.

There is a failure due to dropping as a failure factor of electronic devices that are carried around. However, in general, in failure factor analysis, it is difficult to determine whether the user actually dropped the device or whether it failed due to normal use. Therefore, it is very useful to record the fall history in analyzing the cause of failure and studying countermeasures.
The fall recording apparatus is generally realized by monitoring acceleration using an acceleration sensor. As for acceleration, a gravitational acceleration of 1 G (9.8 m / s ² ) is detected during normal use. At the time of dropping, first, the acceleration is in a free fall state of 0 G, and then an acceleration of several G is detected by the impact of landing on the floor surface or the like. The fall recording device monitors these acceleration changes to detect and record the occurrence of fall.
As a conventional drop recording apparatus, there is a method of determining that a free fall has occurred by maintaining a time during which an acceleration is smaller than a threshold value for a certain time (see, for example, Patent Document 1). FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a conventional drop recording apparatus. A conventional fall recording apparatus includes an acceleration detection unit 501 that detects acceleration, and a free fall state detection unit that detects that the apparatus is in a free fall state because a time during which the detected acceleration is less than a threshold is maintained for a certain period of time. 502 and a fall history accumulation unit 503 that accumulates free fall history information when a free fall state is detected. With this configuration, it is possible to detect and record that the time during which the acceleration is smaller than the threshold value is maintained for a certain time when the fall occurs.
Further, for example, there is a method of measuring the time from when the acceleration becomes zero due to free fall until the occurrence of a large impact, and calculating and recording the drop height (see, for example, Patent Document 2). FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of a conventional drop recording apparatus. A conventional fall recording apparatus includes an acceleration detection unit 101 that detects acceleration, a free fall state detection unit 102 that determines whether the device is in a free fall state based on the detected acceleration, and an impact detection unit that detects an impact when landing. 103, a timer unit 104 that measures the time from the start of the fall, a fall history storage unit 106 that accumulates the fall history, and an impact that is detected from the start of the free fall when the impact is detected within a predetermined time from the free fall state detection. It comprises a drop history control unit 105 that calculates the fall height from the time until detection and accumulates it in the fall history accumulation unit 106. With this configuration, when a fall occurs, the fall height can be calculated and recorded from the time from the start of free fall to the impact detection.

JP 2006-105994 A Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-064746

However, in the conventional fall recording apparatus, in the method of detecting the fall by maintaining the time during which the acceleration is smaller than the threshold for a certain time, there is no collision with the floor or the like where a large impact that is a cause of failure occurs. Even if you land on a soft place, it will be judged as falling. Therefore, it was insufficient from the viewpoint of recording a fall history for failure factor analysis.
Further, in the method of measuring and recording the time from when the acceleration becomes zero due to free fall until the occurrence of a large impact, the drop recording device when the battery of the electronic device is detached due to the impact of the fall The operation of the camera stops, and there is a problem that it becomes impossible to record the fall.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem, and records a history only when there is an impact due to dropping, and records a history even when the battery of the device is removed due to the impact due to dropping. It is an object of the present invention to provide a drop recording apparatus that can perform the above.

  The fall recording device of the present invention includes an acceleration detection unit that detects the acceleration of the device, a fall state detection unit that determines whether the device is in a fall state based on the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit, and detects an impact of the device Impact detection unit, a timer unit that measures the time from the start of the fall of the device when the fall state is detected by the fall state detection unit, and a fall history of the device when the fall state is detected by the fall state detection unit If the impact detection unit detects no impact while the time measured by the fall history storage unit and the timer unit is within the specified time, the last fall history stored in the fall history storage unit And a fall history control unit for erasing information.

  With this configuration, there is no collision with the floor surface where a large impact that is the cause of failure occurs, and when landing on a soft place, the history of impact is not recorded and the history of free fall is also erased. Therefore, it is possible to leave no unnecessary records for failure analysis, and the history when the operation such as the battery dropping due to the impact of the drop required for failure analysis is also the free fall history It becomes possible to leave.

  The fall recording apparatus of the present invention can reliably leave necessary information as a fall history.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a drop recording apparatus in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The figure which shows the flowchart which shows the process in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the flowchart which shows the process in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the flowchart which shows the process in Embodiment 1 of this invention. Block diagram of a conventional drop recording device Block diagram of a conventional drop recording device

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the drop recording apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a drop recording apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, the fall recording device of the present embodiment includes an acceleration detection unit 101 that detects acceleration, a free fall state detection unit 102 that determines whether the device is in a free fall state based on the detected acceleration, An impact detection unit 103 that detects an impact, a timer unit 104 that measures the time from the start of a fall, a fall history accumulation unit 106 that accumulates a fall history, and a free fall history information that is dropped when a free fall state is detected When it records in the history storage unit 106 and the impact history information is stored in the fall history storage unit 106 when an impact is detected within a predetermined time from the detection of the free fall state, and the time measured by the timer unit 104 reaches a threshold value And a fall history control unit 105 for erasing the last free fall history information stored in the fall history storage unit.

  Next, details of the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3, and 4.

  First, FIG. 2 will be described. The acceleration detection unit 101 samples the acceleration data (step 101), and then switches processing according to the current mode (step 102), and executes processing according to each mode to be described later (step 103, step 104). Here, there are two types of modes: “standby state” in which the vehicle is not dropped and “being dropped” indicating the state from the start of dropping to the end of dropping. A series of these processes are executed at appropriate sampling periods.

  Next, FIG. 3 will be described. FIG. 3 shows the above-described waiting process. First, the free fall detection unit 102 determines whether or not the time during which the detected acceleration is equal to or less than the threshold value continues for a specified time (T0) or more (step 201). If the determination is No, the process exits. However, if the determination is Yes, the fall history control unit 105 records the free fall start in the fall history accumulation unit 106 (step 202), and the timer unit measures the time. Start (step 203) and change the mode to “falling” (step 204).

  Next, FIG. 4 will be described. FIG. 4 shows the above-described processing during dropping. First, in order to determine whether or not there is a landing impact, it is determined whether or not the acceleration detected by the impact detection unit 103 is greater than or equal to a threshold value (step 301). When it is determined that the acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold value, that is, it is determined that the vehicle has landed, the fall history control unit 105 records the landing in the fall history accumulation unit 106 (step 302) and ends the time measurement in the timer unit (step 303). The mode is changed to “waiting” (step 304).

  On the other hand, when it is determined that the acceleration detected in step 301 is equal to or less than the threshold, first, the time during which the fall history control unit 105 continues the falling mode from the timer value of the timer unit 104 is a specified time (T1). It is determined whether or not (step 305). Here, T1 is generally set to a time sufficiently longer than the time required for dropping. If the duration time of the falling mode has not reached T1, the process is terminated as it is, but if it has reached, the free fall has started but it has not been impacted by landing on a soft place etc. Judging that it has landed, the record of the free fall start is deleted so as not to leave the history of the fall (step 306), the time measurement in the timer unit is finished (step 303), and the mode is set to “waiting” Change (step 304).

  In this example, the free fall record is erased when the time measured by the timer unit reaches the specified time. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the erase is also performed when an impact is detected. It is also possible to prepare a separate timer that starts timing when both the fall starts and stops the time when clearing the free fall history, and always monitors this timer regardless of the mode during standby or falling. The free fall record may be erased when the timer reaches a specified time.

The contents of the record of the start of free fall and the landing include the fall time measured by the timer unit 104, the fall distance calculated from the fall time, the acceleration at the time of impact detection, the number of times of free fall detection, the number of times of impact detection, etc. Conceivable. Note that the present invention is not limited to these, and these pieces of information may be appropriately combined, or other information may be left. Further, a clock unit that measures the date and time may be added and recorded together with the date and time.
As described above, according to the fall recording device of the first embodiment, it is determined that a record of the start of free fall is left, and if there is no impact within a specified time after the free fall is detected, it has been landed on a soft place. By deleting the free fall start record, it is possible not to leave a drop record that does not cause a failure, and to keep a drop record even if the battery is removed due to the impact of the drop. It became possible to achieve both.

  In addition, when the fall history control unit of the fall recording apparatus of the present invention is configured to erase the last free fall history information even when an impact is detected after a free fall state continues for a certain time, the impact history information is recorded. In this case, it becomes possible to delete the free fall history that is no longer necessary.

In addition, when the fall history control unit of the fall recording device of the present invention is configured to record landing information when an impact is detected after a free fall state continues for a certain time, when the battery is detached due to the impact of the fall Since only the record of the start of free fall remains, and if the battery does not come off, the landing record also remains, so it is possible to determine whether or not the battery has been removed at the time of fall.
In addition, when the free fall state determination unit of the fall recording apparatus of the present invention determines that the free fall state is caused by continuing the time during which the acceleration is equal to or less than the threshold value for the specified time or more, it is longer than a certain time necessary for failure analysis. It is possible to record only the fall information that is highly likely to have a large impact on the landing due to the fall.

  Further, when the impact detection unit of the fall recording apparatus of the present invention is configured to detect the occurrence of an impact when the acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold value, it is possible to record only the fall information with a large landing impact.

  In addition, when it is configured to start the time measurement in the timer unit of the fall recording device of the present invention when the free fall determination unit determines that it is in the free fall state, the time from the free fall start is measured and the history is recorded. It becomes possible to perform control of correctly.

In addition, when the information stored in the fall history accumulation unit of the fall recording device of the present invention is configured to be the time measured by the timer unit, the time of free fall can be recorded, and the height of the fall and It is possible to estimate the impact strength.
Moreover, when the information stored in the fall history storage unit of the fall recording device of the present invention is configured to be the fall distance calculated from the fall time measured by the timer unit, the fall distance useful for failure analysis is recorded. Is possible.
In addition, when the information stored in the drop history storage unit of the fall recording device of the present invention is configured to be the acceleration at the time of the occurrence of an impact, it is possible to record the strength of the impact at the time of fall, which is useful for failure analysis It becomes.
Further, when the information stored in the fall history storage unit of the fall recording apparatus of the present invention is configured to be the fall occurrence date and time, the fall occurrence date and time can be recorded.

In addition, when the information stored in the fall history storage unit of the fall recording device of the present invention is configured to be the number of times of free fall state detection, the number of falls is judged instantaneously to determine how to handle the device. By analogy, it can be used effectively for failure analysis.
In addition, when the information stored in the fall history storage unit of the fall recording apparatus of the present invention is configured to be the number of times of impact detection, the number of falls is judged instantaneously to analogize how the apparatus is handled. Therefore, it can be useful for failure analysis.

  As described above, the drop recording device according to the present invention has an effect that the history can be recorded even when the battery is removed due to the impact due to the drop while the history is recorded only when the impact is caused by the fall. However, it is useful as a drop recording device such as a mobile phone and a PDA.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Acceleration detection part 102 Free fall detection part 103 Impact detection part 104 Timer part 105 Fall history control part 106 Fall history storage part 501 Acceleration detection part 502 Free fall detection part 503 Acceleration detection part Fall history accumulation part 601 Acceleration detection part 602 Free fall Detection unit 603 Impact detection unit 604 Timer unit 605 Drop history control unit 606 Drop history storage unit

Claims (3)

A drop detection device for detecting a fall,
An acceleration detector for detecting the acceleration of the device;
A fall state detection unit that determines whether the device is in a fall state from the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit;
An impact detector for detecting the impact of the device;
A timer unit for measuring the time from the start of falling of the device when the falling state is detected by the falling state detection unit;
A fall history accumulation unit that accumulates a fall history of the device when a fall state is detected by the fall state detection unit;
If the impact is not detected by the impact detection unit while the time measured by the timer unit is within a specified time, the fall history for erasing the last fall history information stored in the fall history storage unit A control unit;
A fall recording device comprising: The fall history control unit leaves an impact history in the fall history accumulation unit and erases the last fall history information when an impact is detected while the time measured by the timer unit is within a specified time. The fall recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: The fall history control unit, when detecting an impact while the time measured by the timer unit is within a specified time, leaves an impact history in the fall history accumulation unit and a timer regardless of the presence or absence of the impact. 2. The fall recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the last fall history information is erased when the time measured by the unit reaches a specified time.

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