JP2734832B2 - Toilet seat device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toilet seat device provided with a piezoelectric element for detecting seating on a toilet seat.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of toilet seat device, when a human body is seated, it is determined that the micro switch is closed by the load and the human body is seated, and the deodorizing means and the cleaning means are effectively started.

[0003]

However, in the toilet seat device of the above technique, a load is applied to the seat when the seat is seated or an impact is applied to the microswitch by raising and lowering the seat, and if the usage is rough, the microswitch is broken and the seat is seated. There is a problem that the detection operation becomes impossible. In addition, in the seat detection by the microswitch, there is a problem of a malfunction such that the switch is turned on by the load even when an object is placed on the toilet seat.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and a first object of the present invention is to provide a toilet seat device which is hardly broken even when an impact is continuously applied, and performs seating detection by reliably distinguishing a person from an object. It is in.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a toilet seat device which detects seating and automatically controls the operation of the washing means without pressing a washing switch at the time of washing.

A third and fourth object is to provide a toilet seat device capable of performing health management and relaxation by biofeedback by calculating and displaying a heart rate based on a signal used for the above-mentioned seating detection.

A fifth object is to describe a specific means for mounting a sensor unit for detecting seating on a toilet seat.

[0008]

In order to achieve the first object, the present invention provides a piezoelectric element disposed on a toilet seat, and a filter for filtering a specific frequency component of an output signal of the piezoelectric element. Amplifying means for amplifying the output signal of the filter, smoothing means for the output signal of the amplifying means, and determination means for determining the presence, absence, and body movement of the human body based on the output signal of the smoothing means. Become.

In order to achieve the second object, the present invention has a cleaning means and a cleaning control means for controlling the operation of the cleaning means based on a signal from the determination means.

In order to achieve the third object, the present invention provides a heart rate calculating means for calculating a heart rate based on an output signal of a smoothing means, and a display means for displaying an output signal of the heart rate calculating means. And

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cleaning apparatus, comprising: a light source unit, a sound generation unit, and a light source unit, a sound generation unit, and a light source unit. Control means for controlling the volume.

Further, in order to achieve a fifth object, according to the present invention, a toilet seat cover provided with a piezoelectric element, and the toilet seat cover is mounted on the toilet seat.

[0013]

The present invention operates as follows by the above configuration. When the human body is seated, the piezoelectric element disposed on the toilet seat is deformed by the body movement of the human body, and a voltage is generated by the piezoelectric effect. A specific frequency component of the output signal of the piezoelectric element is filtered by the filter, and is amplified by the amplifying unit.
It is smoothed by the smoothing means. The presence / absence / body movement of the human body is determined by the determination means based on the output signal of the smoothing means.

Further, according to the present invention, the operation of the cleaning means is stopped when the absence or body movement is determined, and the operation of the cleaning means is started when the presence is determined.

According to the present invention, the heart rate is calculated and displayed based on the output signal of the smoothing means. Further, according to the present invention, the light amount and the sound volume of the light source means and the sound generation means are controlled in accordance with the calculated heart rate.

Further, according to the present invention, a toilet seat cover provided with a piezoelectric element is mounted on a toilet seat, and the presence, absence, and body movement of a human body are determined based on a signal from the piezoelectric element.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present embodiment, in which an output signal of the present embodiment is used as a control signal of a controlled unit related to a toilet such as a deodorizing unit or a heating unit. FIG. 2 is a block diagram thereof. 1 and 2
1, 1 is a piezoelectric element, 2 is a filter, 3 is an amplifying means, 4 is a smoothing means, 5 is a judging means for judging the presence, absence, and body movement of a human body, 6 is a deodorizing means 7 and a heating means 8 The control means 9 is a control means for controlling the controlled means 6. The piezoelectric element 1 is made of a polymer piezoelectric material such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) in the form of a thin film, and a flexible electrode film is adhered to both surfaces thereof and formed into a tape shape. The filter 2, the amplifying unit 3, the smoothing unit 4, the determining unit 5 and the control unit 9 are built in the signal processing unit 11.

The operation of the above embodiment will be described below. When the human body is seated, the piezoelectric element 1 is deformed by the body movement of the human body, and a voltage is generated from the piezoelectric element 1 according to the degree of the deformation. This output signal is filtered by the filter 2, amplified by the amplifier 3, and smoothed by the smoother 4. FIG. 3 shows an output waveform of the smoothing means 4 at the time of actual sitting. As shown in the figure, at the moment of sitting or when the body is moved, the piezoelectric element 1 undergoes a large deformation and a large output is obtained from the smoothing means 4. Also, if the human body is seated and at rest, a relatively low level output is obtained from the smoothing means 4 due to minute body movements of the body propagated by the heart activity and respiratory activity of the human body (part E in the figure). ). Smoothing means 4 when no human body is present
Is zero (NE in the figure). The judging means 5 has an output V of the smoothing means 4 and two predetermined set values V
a and Vb are compared and determined as follows. That is,
If V <Va, it is determined that the human body is absent (absence output H :). If Va ≦ V <Vb, it is determined that the human body is in a resting state (power output H :). Further, if Vb <V, it is determined that the human body has caused body movement (body movement output H :). When an object is placed in place of the human body, the presence of the object and the body movement are temporarily judged. The absence is determined. If the determination means 5 continues to determine the presence of the floor in the control means 9 for a certain period of time or longer, the controlled means 6
Start driving. This driving operation is stopped when the absence means is determined by the determination means 5.

According to the above-mentioned operation, since the seating of the human body is detected by the flexible piezoelectric element built in the toilet seat, the seat is hardly broken even if the impact is continuously applied. In addition, there is an effect that a seat can be detected by reliably distinguishing a person from an object.

A second embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
As shown in FIG. 4, the present embodiment includes a cleaning unit 12 and a cleaning control unit 13 (built into the signal processing unit) that controls the operation of the cleaning unit 12 based on a signal from the determination unit 5.

Here, as shown in FIG. 5, some body movements occur during or after defecation. On the other hand, after defecation, a relatively quiet state continues.
Therefore, according to the above configuration, when the absence is determined by the determination means 5 or when the body movement is determined by moving or moving the body for defecation, the operation of the cleaning means 12 is stopped, and for example, rest after defecation The operation of the cleaning means 12 is started only when the presence is determined as in the state. When leaving the toilet seat, the washing operation is stopped due to the body movement for standing up and the absence thereof thereafter.

By the above operation, the washing operation is automatically started / stopped just by sitting on the seat, so that it is not necessary to press the washing switch, and the usability is improved. In addition, when a resting state occurs before or during defecation and the presence is determined, the washing operation is started, but it can be stopped easily by moving the body, and defecation is promoted by washing stimulation. Can be expected.

A third embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
As shown in FIG. 6, the present embodiment has a heart rate calculating means 14 for calculating a heart rate based on the output signal of the smoothing means 4, and a display means 15 for displaying the output signal of the heart rate calculating means 14. ing.

The operation of the above embodiment will be described below. When the human body is seated in a resting state, an output signal as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 is obtained from the smoothing means due to the vibration propagated by the activity of the heart. On the basis of this signal, the heart rate calculating means 14 calculates the heart rate by calculating, for example, the autocorrelation. The calculated result is displayed by the display means 15.

With the above operation, there is an effect that the heart rate can be easily detected and displayed simply by sitting on the toilet seat without mounting a sensor such as an optical pickup on the body. As shown in FIG. 6, a comparison means 16 for comparing the output signal of the heart rate calculation means 14 with a predetermined set value and an alarm generation means for generating an alarm based on the output signal of the comparison means 16 17 may be added so that an alarm is generated when the heart rate exceeds the set value. The heart rate rises during defecation and the blood pressure rises, which may lead to the occurrence of cerebral hemorrhage, especially in the elderly, but according to the above configuration, it is possible to prevent and contribute to health management it can.

Further, an alarm may be generated when the presence determination continues for a predetermined time or more, which is effective as an alarm notification when the user loses consciousness or falls asleep on the toilet seat.

A fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the display means 15 in the third embodiment comprises a light source means 18 and a sound generation means 19.
And the light source means 1 based on the output signal of the heart rate calculating means 14.
8 and a control means 20 for controlling the light amount and volume of the sound generation means 19.

The operation of the above embodiment will be described below. When the human body is sitting in a resting state, the heart rate is calculated by the heart rate calculating means 14, and the light amount and sound of the light source means 18 and the sound generating means 19 are controlled by the control means 20 based on the output signal of the heart rate calculating means 14. Controlled. FIG. 8 shows the relationship between the heart rate, the light amount, and the volume. The higher the heart rate, the higher the light intensity and volume.

Heart rate is a useful index that reflects the excitement of the autonomic nervous system. Therefore, by the above-described operation, the user can relax by monitoring the amount of light and the volume while monitoring the amount of light and the volume of the user so as to reduce the amount of light and the volume of the user. In addition, since it is necessary to alleviate the excitement of the autonomic nervous system in order to perform defecation smoothly, if the relaxation feedback is performed by the biological feedback based on the heart rate as described above, the defecation can be performed smoothly. .

A fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9, a toilet seat cover 21 provided with a piezoelectric element 1 is mounted on the toilet seat 10. The toilet seat cover 21 has an output unit 22 for outputting a signal of the piezoelectric element 1, and the output unit 22 and the signal processing unit 11 are connected by a detachable lead wire 23.

According to the above configuration, since the piezoelectric element 1 is disposed on the toilet seat cover 21, the toilet seat cover 21 is also attached to the toilet seat in which the piezoelectric element 1 is not built, and connected to the signal processing unit 11 by the lead wire 23. Then, it becomes possible to easily detect the seating and the heart rate. Also, the piezoelectric element 1
Can be easily manufactured at a lower cost than the manufacturing cost required to incorporate the device, so that the seating detection and the heart rate detection can be realized more realistically.

[0032]

As described above, according to the toilet seat apparatus of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

Since the seating of the human body is detected by a flexible piezoelectric element built in the toilet seat, the seat is hardly broken even when an impact is continuously applied, and the seating is detected by reliably distinguishing a person from an object. I can do it.

Further, the washing operation is automatically started / stopped just by sitting on the seat, so that it is not necessary to press the washing switch, and the usability is improved.

Further, the heart rate can be easily detected and displayed simply by sitting on the toilet seat without mounting a sensor such as an optical pickup on the body, which contributes to health management.

In addition, by monitoring the light quantity and the sound volume while the user monitors the light quantity and the sound volume, the user can work on himself or herself so as to reduce both the light quantity and the sound volume. It is also possible to do.

Further, since the piezoelectric element is provided on the toilet seat cover, if the toilet seat cover is mounted on the toilet seat, seating detection and heart rate detection can be easily performed, and the manufacturing can be performed at low cost and easily.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a toilet seat device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an operation diagram showing an output from a smoothing unit of the apparatus and an operation of a determination unit;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a toilet seat device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation diagram showing an output from a smoothing unit of the apparatus and an operation of a determination unit;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a toilet seat device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a toilet seat device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a special drawing showing the relationship between the light quantity and volume controlled by the control means of the apparatus and the heart rate.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a toilet seat device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Piezoelectric element 2 Filter 3 Amplification means 4 Smoothing means 5 Judgment means 10 Toilet seat 12 Cleaning means 13 Cleaning control means 14 Heart rate calculation means 17 Alarm generation means 18 Light source means 19 Voice generation means 20 Control means 21 Toilet seat cover

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A toilet seat, a piezoelectric element disposed on the toilet seat, a filter for filtering a specific frequency component of an output signal of the piezoelectric element, and amplifying means for amplifying an output signal of the filter. A toilet seat device comprising: a smoothing means for smoothing an output signal of the amplifying means; and a determination means for determining presence, absence, and body movement of a human body based on the output signal of the smoothing means. 2. The toilet seat apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a washing unit; and a washing control unit that controls an operation of the washing unit based on a signal from the determining unit. 3. The toilet seat apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising heart rate calculating means for calculating a heart rate based on an output signal of the smoothing means, and display means for displaying an output signal of the heart rate calculating means. 4. The display means has light source means, sound generation means, and control means for controlling the light quantity and volume of said light source means and sound generation means based on the output signal of the heart rate calculation means. A toilet seat device as described. 5. The toilet seat device according to claim 1, wherein the toilet seat cover on which the piezoelectric element is disposed, and the toilet seat cover is mounted on the toilet seat.