JP2593149B2 - Emotional expression toy - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an emotional expression toy, and more particularly to a toy that simply expresses a change in emotion of a player.

2. Description of the Related Art In today's competitive society, human beings are surrounded by various types of stress, and therefore, good self-control for each of these stresses requires a healthy body and spirit of one's own. Is required to keep

In particular, when exposed to various types of severe stress in various competitions and relationships, many people fall into neuroses, depression, etc., and impair mental and physical health. It is required that the self-control for the surrounding stress be performed well.

For this reason, various methods of self-control have been proposed in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, and many publications related to this method are also available at stores.

All of these self-control techniques are taught to objectively recognize changes in one's emotions, or emotions, and to relieve mental and physical tension.

However, conventionally, most of the devices for objectively judging human emotions are extremely specialized devices stored as medical devices in hospitals and the like, and furthermore, the operation of the devices themselves is difficult and expensive. Was.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and its purpose is to objectively measure changes in one's emotions, that is, changes in emotions, and to perform self-control. An object of the present invention is to provide an emotional surface toy that can be easily performed.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is provided for measuring a skin electric resistance of a player and a toy body formed so that the appearance represents a predetermined character. A touch probe, an emotion determining unit that determines a player's emotion as a change in skin electrical resistance based on a signal from the touch probe, and an emotion expression device that outputs the determined player's emotion as an emotional expression of a character having a toy appearance. And expressing the emotion of the player.

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that a toy main body formed so that the appearance represents a predetermined character, a touch probe provided for measuring a skin electrical resistance of a player, a microphone for collecting external sounds, and a touch probe. Emotion determination means for determining a player's emotion based on a change in the player's skin electrical resistance with respect to the reference skin electrical resistance, based on the player's skin electrical resistance obtained from An emotion expression device that outputs the emotion as an emotion expression of a character having a toy appearance, wherein the emotion determination means resets the reference skin electrical resistance when a loud voice is input from the microphone. It is characterized by including.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a toy main body having an appearance representing a predetermined character, a touch probe provided for measuring a player's skin electrical resistance, and a player's emotion based on a signal from the touch probe. Emotion discriminating means for discriminating as a change in resistance, and an emotion expressing device for outputting the discriminating player's emotion as an emotional expression of a character having a toy appearance, wherein the emotion discriminating means includes: It is characterized by including adjusting means for adjusting an emotion determination criterion based on the emotion determining criteria.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, according to the present invention, when the player touches the touch probe, the skin electric resistance of the player is automatically measured, and the emotional change of the player is changed based on the change in the resistance value. Is accurately determined.

According to the present invention, the emotion change of each player determined in this way is displayed using the emotion expression device, so that the player can accurately recognize his own emotion change based on the display result and perform self-control. Can be easily performed like a game.

In particular, according to the present invention, the appearance of the toy is formed so as to represent a predetermined character, and the emotion expression device outputs a change in the emotion of the player as an emotion expression of the character having the appearance of the toy. Self-control can be performed with a light feeling and while having fun.

Embodiment Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a preferred example of an emotion expression toy according to the present invention. The emotion expression toy of the present invention is formed so that its appearance represents a predetermined character.

As such a character, it is preferable to appropriately adopt a real animal, a magazine, a person appearing in a manga, or a fantasy creature, and in the embodiment,
The toy body 10 is formed so as to represent a fancy character called "mipa" which looks like a cat at first glance.

This mipa has a pair of ears 14, 14 on a head 12 having a cat-like expression, and an eye 16 formed using an LCD on the front surface.

A pair of hands 18, 18 are provided at the front of the head 12, and are formed so as to move up and down by a motor built in the head 12.

In addition, a tail 20 extending forward from the back of the head 12 is provided on this mipa, and at the tip of the tail 20,
A ball 22 is provided in which touch probes 24A and 2B for measuring skin electric resistance are arranged at a predetermined interval.

In the embodiment, the ball 22 is formed using an insulating material such as plastic, and the player grasps the ball 22 with his / her right hand so as to come into contact with the touch probes 24A and 24B. The resistance _Rx is measured.

The characteristic feature of the present embodiment is that after a predetermined time has passed since the player grasped the ball 22, 3 to 4 in the embodiment.
A voltage value corresponding to the skin electrical resistance after seconds is automatically set as a reference value of the player, and a change in emotion of the player is determined based on a change in the skin electrical resistance with respect to the reference value.

The determined emotion of the player is formed so as to correspond to the character having the appearance of the toy using a predetermined emotion expression device.

In the present embodiment, as such an emotion expressing device, an eye 16 provided on the head of the miepa, both hands 18, 18 provided on the front of the miepa, a built-in speaker, and the like are used. Then, based on the determined emotion of the player, the eyes 16 are controlled so as to have an eye that expresses the corresponding facial expression, and both hands 18, 18 are controlled to move up and down, and are further determined by the built-in speaker. It is formed so as to emit a singing according to the emotion.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a change in the expression of the eye 16 of the miepa. FIG. 2C shows the case where the skin electric resistance _Rx of the player is substantially equal to the set reference value. It is controlled to look like this and sometimes blink.

And as the players get excited, Mipa's eyes 16
First, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), the edges of the eyes are lifted up steadily, and when the excitement becomes more severe, the eyes become more severe as shown in FIG. With a screaming “Wow”, Mipa flickers occasionally and occasionally moves his hands 18 up and down, signaling that the player is extremely excited.

On the other hand, when the player's skin electrical resistance _Rx is compared with the reference value and it is determined that the player is slightly relaxed, the miepa is turned on as shown in FIG. 2 (d). He smiled, and occasionally screamed, shouting "mya".

Further, when the player relaxes,
As shown in FIG. 7E, the eyes are controlled to sleep, and the cockpit is sometimes controlled.

As described above, according to the present invention, the player simply grasps the ball 22 with his / her hand so as to come into contact with the touch probes 22A and 22B, and the change in the emotion of the player is used as the expression of the eyes 16 of the miepa, and further, the squeal And the movement of the hand 18. The player can accurately recognize his / her emotional change based on the display result, and can easily perform self-control as if playing a game.

In particular, according to the present invention, the appearance of the toy is formed so as to represent a predetermined character, and the emotional change of the player is represented in correspondence with the character of the appearance of the toy. Can be performed.

Also, while the player is measuring his emotional change, especially when the player is in a state of considerable tension or deep relaxation, if a loud noise is received from the outside, the player will be surprised in response to the sound. Would. At this time, the meaper is made to look (dot) as shown in FIG. 2 (f). When such a surprise occurs, the player's mind is disturbed, so sample hold is performed again and the reference value for emotion determination is newly set, and then the maper resumes determination of emotion change.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a case where the mieper resets the reference value of the skin electrical resistance of the player. For example, when the player is in a state of considerable tension or in a deeply relaxed state, When a loud sound is heard from the player, the miepa detects this sound using a microphone provided inside the toy body, and resets the reference value of the skin electrical resistance of the player.

At this time, the expression of the eyes of the miepa becomes a dotted expression as shown in FIG. 3, and after a while, blinks as shown in FIG. 2 (C), and the emotion determination operation is restarted.

Further, a personality improvement knob 26 is provided on the head 12 of the miepa.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the personality improvement knob 26.

That is, in this mapper, five stages of emotion-determination reference electric resistance bands are set around the skin electric resistance reference value set for each player. Then, the player emotion discrimination is performed based on which band the measured skin electric resistance belongs to, and a display as shown in FIG. 2 is made.

However, when this mipa is used in a humid period such as summer or rainy season, the fluctuation of the skin electric resistance to the change of the player's emotion becomes relatively large,
Immediately after a slight external stimulus, the person becomes angry as shown in FIG.

Conversely, when the mipa is used during the dry season in winter, the change in human skin electrical resistance with respect to the change in emotion is small, and the expression of angry expression as shown in FIG. Even if you have to indicate
In some cases, the expression may be limited to an expression as shown in FIG. 2 (b).

Therefore, in such a case, by operating the personality improvement knob 26 and appropriately adjusting the width of the emotion determination reference resistance band, the emotional change of the player can be accurately determined without being affected by the surrounding humidity. Can be determined.

Further, when the player feels at ease and the mie-pa becomes the expression shown in FIG. 2 (e), the stress and fatigue of the player are alleviated, and the emotion of the player is in a stable state.

At this time, if the player wants to enter a deeper relaxed state, he slightly turns the personality improvement knob 26 in an angry direction to set the expression of the miepa in FIG. 2 (d). Therefore, if the mipa can be relaxed to the state of falling asleep as shown in FIG.
Players can self-control their mental state at a deeper level of comfort.

FIG. 5 shows a preferred example of an electric circuit used for this mapper. The output of a battery 30 incorporated in the toy body 10 is supplied to a power circuit 34 by turning on a power switch 32. The power supply circuit 34 supplies various voltages for driving a CPU 40 and other actuators to be described later, and further supplies a constant voltage for driving to the sensor circuit 36.

The sensor circuit 36 is connected to a pair of touch probes 24A and 24B for measuring skin electrical resistance, which are provided on the miper.

Then, the sensor circuit 36 determines that the player
When the user touches the touch probes 24A and 24B, the voltage value corresponding to the reference skin electrical resistance of the player is automatically set based on the voltage signals input from the touch probes 24A and 24B. Then, a voltage corresponding to the skin electric resistance _{Rx of the} player and the reference electric resistance, which are actually input in real time, are differentially amplified, converted to digital signals, and input to the CPU 40.

In addition, a program for discriminating the emotional change of the player is written and stored in the program memory 42 in advance.
U40 converts the signal input from the sensor circuit 36 into the memory 4
Analysis is performed according to the program stored in 2 to determine a change in emotion of the player.

In addition, the device of the embodiment includes a microphone 44 for picking up external sound.
When the microphone 44 emits a loud sound as shown in FIG. 3, the CPU 40 outputs a control command for resetting the reference value of the skin electric resistance of the player to the sensor circuit 36.

Then, the CPU 40 determines the emotional change of the player based on the signal output from the sensor circuit 36 in this manner,
The control signal corresponding to the determination result is sent to the LCD controller 4
6. Output to voice synthesis circuit 48 and PWM motor drive circuit 50.

The LCD controller 46 is connected to a graphic data ROM 52 shown in FIG. Then, the LCD controller 46 calls a corresponding pattern from the ROM 52 according to a command from the CPU 40, drives the driver 54, and
6, that is, the graphic LCD module 56 is made to have any of the appearances shown in FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (f).

The voice synthesizing circuit 48 has a voice ROM 5 in which several voice patterns representing emotional changes of the player are registered.
The voice synthesizing circuit 48 reads a corresponding voice pattern from the voice ROM 58 in accordance with a command from the CPU 40, and outputs the voice from the speaker 62 via the amplifier 60.

Therefore, when the miepa has the look shown in FIG. 2 (a), a scream like a tiger "Wow" is output from the speaker 62, and the miepa is shown in FIG. 2 (d). If the eyes are like that, the sound of a cute kitten called "Mya" is output.

Since the sound output in this manner may hinder relaxation depending on the player, the device of the embodiment is provided with a sound on / off switch 72, and when the switch 72 is turned on. Only the corresponding voice output command is output from the CPU 40 to the voice synthesis circuit 48,
When the switch 72 is turned off, a voice output command is not output from the CPU 40 to the voice synthesis circuit 48.

Further, the PWM motor drive circuit 50 drives a motor 70 for moving the both hands 18 of the meaper up and down. When the meapa has a weight indicating an excited state shown in FIG. The motor 70 is intermittently driven in accordance with a command from the CPU 40, and moves the both hands 18 of the meaper up and down at regular intervals.

In the present embodiment, the CPU 40 is formed to operate on the basis of a clock pulse of 500 kHz output from the oscillator 74.

FIG. 6 shows a specific circuit configuration of the sensor 36. One of the touch probes for measuring skin electrical resistance is shown in FIG.
24A is connected to the power circuit 34 side, and the other touch probe 2
4B is grounded via a constant current circuit 80.

Here, the constant current circuit 80 is a touch probe
In the state where human hands are not touching between 24A and 24B, that is, the resistance between both probes 24A and 24B is almost infinite,
The touch probe 24B is formed so that the voltage of the touch probe 24B becomes substantially 0 volt.

Further, when the player's hand is in contact between the probes 24A and 24B, the constant current circuit 80 applies a voltage corresponding to the magnitude of the skin electrical resistance _Rx of the player's hand to the probe 24.
B, and the voltage is applied to the CR nozzle filter 8
The signal is input to the impedance conversion circuit 84 via the input terminal 2.

Normally, the skin electrical resistance _Rx of a human hand has a relatively large variation from person to person, and according to actual measurement, varies from several hundred kilohms to several megaohms.

In the device of the present embodiment, 0.6 volts when the human skin electric resistance is about 3.5 mega, and 3.
The constant current circuit 80 is formed so that a voltage of 5 volts is generated in the touch probe 24B.

The CR noise filter 82 is
The noise frequency of 50 to 60 Hz is cut from the voltage of the input and input to the impedance conversion circuit 84.The impedance conversion circuit 84 converts the voltage signal corresponding to the input value _Rx of the human skin electrical resistance into a sample-and-hold circuit 86. And differential amplifier
Transform the impedance of the voltage for input to 88.

Further, the voltage signal output from the CR noise filter 82 is input to the touch sensor comparator 90, which determines whether or not the player is in contact with the touch probes 24A and 24B.

That is, a reference voltage corresponding to the maximum human skin electrical resistance is input to the Tuts sensor comparator 90, and when the voltage signal output from the CR noise filter 82 exceeds this reference voltage, the player
It determines that A and 24B have been touched, and outputs a measurement start signal to CPU 40.

Then, after receiving this measurement start signal, the CPU 40 outputs a sampling command of a voltage corresponding to the reference skin electrical resistance of the player to the sample and hold circuit 86 after a predetermined time has elapsed, and the sample and hold circuit 86 Skin electric resistance output from impedance conversion circuit 84
The voltage corresponding to _Rx is sampled and held as the reference value of the player.

In the embodiment, this sampling command is output approximately three times after the measurement start signal is output from the touch sensor comparator.
Output after ~ 4 seconds. This takes into account that even if the player holds the ball 22 so as to come into contact with the touch probes 24A and 24B, it takes a little time until the gripping becomes stable. Automatically and stably with a voltage corresponding to the reference value of the skin electrical resistance.

Then, the differential amplifier 88 differentially amplifies the reference value output from the sample and hold circuit and the voltage corresponding to the player's skin resistance _Rx output in real time from the impedance conversion circuit 84, and amplifies the value to A / C via D converter 92
Input to PU40.

Therefore, the CPU 40 can detect in real time how much the skin electric resistance _Rx of the player fluctuates with respect to the reference value set in the sample and hold circuit 86, so that the output of the differential amplifier 88 is It is possible to know whether the player is in an excited state or a relaxed state based on whether the plus is minus, and based on the absolute value output from the differential amplifier 88, how much the player is excited or relaxed. Can be grasped quantitatively.

Accordingly, the CPU determines the emotional change of the player in real time based on the reference electrical resistance for emotional change determination preset in the program memory 42 (set as a voltage corresponding to the skin electrical resistance), at least
By controlling any one of the LCD control 46, the voice synthesis circuit 48, and the PWM motor drive circuit 50, the determined emotion of the player can be expressed in correspondence with the character having the appearance of the toy.

The width of the reference electric resistance band for emotion discrimination set in the program memory 42 can be adjusted to some extent by operating the personality improvement knob 26. The emotional change can be accurately determined without being affected by the surrounding humidity, and the player can self-control to a deeper relaxed state.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, although the human skin electrical resistance varies from several hundred kilohms to several megaohms, as shown in FIG. Since the voltage corresponding to the reference value of skin electrical resistance can be automatically set, even if it is a toy, the emotional change of the player can be identified and displayed very accurately, and the player can use his / her own emotion based on the display effect. It is possible to accurately recognize the change and to perform, for example, self-control easily and objectively.

Note that, in the present embodiment, the case where the appearance of the toy body is formed as a mepa representing a virtual animal has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the appearance may represent any character as necessary. Needless to say, the character can be selected according to the player of each age, and in this case, the emotion may be expressed in accordance with the adopted character.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to objectively determine a change in a player's emotion and express the determined player's emotion in correspondence with a character having a toy appearance. Because of this, players change their emotions,
In other words, it is possible to objectively recognize emotions and perform self-control easily like a game.

Further, according to the invention of claim 2, even if the player performing self-control is surprised by an external sound, it is possible to accurately determine the emotion thereafter.

Further, according to the invention of claim 3, it is possible to perform more accurate emotion discrimination in accordance with the surrounding environmental conditions,
In addition, it is possible to perform emotion discrimination at a level according to a player's request as needed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the emotional expression toy according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a change in the facial expression of the emotional expression toy shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an emotional expression shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an operation of resetting a skin electric resistance reference value of a player set in a toy, FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a knob used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 and FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the electric circuit used for the emotion expression toy of an Example. 10 toy body 16 eyes 18 hands 24A, 24B touch probe 70 speakers

Continuation of Front Page (72) Inventor Nobuo Tokumitsu 2-8-5 Tamagawa, Ota-ku, Tokyo Namco Corporation (56) References JP-A-61-128943 (JP, A) JP-A-57-117023 ( JP, A) Japanese Utility Model Showa 56-9405 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Showa 60-141884 (JP, U)

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A toy body formed so that its appearance represents a predetermined character, a touch probe provided for measuring a skin electric resistance of a player, and a feeling of a placer based on a signal from the touch probe. And an emotion expression device that outputs the determined emotion of the player as an emotion expression of a character having a toy appearance, wherein the emotion expression device performs the emotion expression of the player. . 2. A toy body having an appearance representing a predetermined character, a touch probe provided for measuring a skin electric resistance of a player, a microphone for collecting external sound, and a touch probe. Estimation means for determining a player's emotion based on a change in the skin electrical resistance of the placer with respect to the reference skin electrical resistance, based on the player's skin electrical resistance, An emotion expression device that outputs as an emotional expression of a character having a toy appearance, wherein the emotion determination means, when a loud voice is input from the microphone,
An emotion expression toy comprising means for resetting the reference skin electrical resistance. 3. A toy body formed so that its appearance represents a predetermined character, a touch probe provided for measuring a player's skin electrical resistance, and a player's emotion based on a signal from the touch probe. And an emotion expression device that outputs the determined emotion of the player as an emotion expression of a character having a toy appearance, wherein the emotion determination means is based on a skin electrical resistance of the player. An emotion expression toy characterized by including an adjusting means for adjusting an emotion determination criterion.