JP3106760U - Visually impaired staff - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a walking stick for a visually handicapped person that enables a user to walk quickly while accurately grasping the presence or absence of an obstacle or the like and can be configured at low cost.
A cane 1 for a visually handicapped person, characterized in that a single wheel 3 is provided at the tip of a cane body 2, and preferably a caster wheel 3 whose rolling direction can be changed is used as a cane. A visually impaired staff 1 provided at the tip of the main body.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a cane for a visually handicapped person that is useful for walking of a visually handicapped person such as a blind person or a weakly handicapped person.

  Conventionally, visually impaired persons generally hit the ground by shaking a visually impaired person's cane forward, backward, left and right, and directly check obstacles and steps with the tip of the cane, By listening to the reflected sound, he knew whether there were any obstacles.

  Therefore, since walking with walking sticks searching for obstacles, the walking speed tends to be slow, it is difficult to grasp obstacles quickly, and by shaking the stick away from the ground There was a problem that it was easy to cause fatigue.

There has also been proposed a cane that can detect and check an obstacle or the like quickly by providing an ultrasonic sensor or the like (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2003-93454 A

  However, in the case where an obstacle can be confirmed by an ultrasonic sensor or the like provided on the cane, the sensor, a control device, a notification device, a battery, etc. must be provided on the cane separately. It will be something.

  The present invention is intended to solve the problem of providing a walking stick for a visually handicapped person that can make a user's walking fast while accurately grasping the presence or absence of an obstacle or the like and can be constructed at low cost. It is a challenge to do.

  The cane for the visually impaired according to the present invention is characterized in that a single wheel is provided at the tip of the cane body.

  According to the cane for the visually impaired according to the present invention, the obstacle is searched by moving the cane in a state where the cane is in contact with the ground while rolling the single wheel provided at the tip of the cane body to the ground. It is possible to find obstacles relatively quickly with less fatigue because the cane is not lifted unlike the conventional case of walking while swinging the cane away from the ground. In addition, since the obstacles are searched while being in contact with the ground at all times, for example, the level difference of the platform of the station and the descending stairs can be found quickly and surely so that the detectability can be improved. Moreover, since it is the structure which provided the single wheel, a structure is simpler than providing an obstacle sensor etc. in a cane, and it can comprise at low cost. In addition, it is conceivable to provide a plurality of wheels at the tip of the cane, but this also complicates the structure and incurs high costs. On the other hand, the configuration is simpler and less expensive.

  In the cane for the visually impaired according to the present invention, the wheel is preferably a caster wheel whose rolling direction can be changed. In this case, the caster wheel provided at the tip of the cane can guide the cane to swing left and right while the cane is always in contact with the ground, and the wheel in contact with the ground automatically moves in the direction in which the cane swings. The rolling direction is changed in accordance with the movement, and the operation of shaking the cane for detecting an obstacle or the like can be smoothly and easily performed. In addition, as the caster wheel rolls to the ground, it can be easily swung to the left and right without moving the cane away from the ground, so compared to the conventional method where the cane is swung left and right from the ground. This reduces fatigue and eliminates the need for hitting the ground, so that it is not necessary to generate unnecessary hitting sounds. Therefore, visually handicapped persons can walk faster than the conventional walking speed by using the cane of the present invention, and the caster wheel usually comes first in contact with steps and obstacles such as stairs. Therefore, the user can quickly know the obstacles and steps, and can walk with a sense of security.

  By using the cane for visually handicapped persons according to the present invention, visually handicapped persons can walk faster than before and can detect obstacles quickly, thereby providing a sense of security. You can walk up high. Moreover, the visually impaired person's cane of this invention can be comprised simply and cheaply.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the walking stick for the visually impaired according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. 1 is a side view showing the entire cane for the visually impaired according to the embodiment, FIG. 2 is a front view showing a caster wheel of the cane for the visually impaired in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is for the visually impaired. FIG. 4 is a side view showing a caster wheel of a cane, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the visually impaired person's cane of FIG.

  With reference to FIG. 1 thru | or FIG. 4, one embodiment of the cane 1 for visually impaired is shown. The visually impaired person's wand 1 includes a wand body 2 and a caster wheel 3 as a wheel fixedly supported at the tip of the wand body 2.

  The cane body 2 is composed of a rod-shaped body having a required length from the hand-held portion 4 held by the user to the tip thereof. The cane body 2 itself is made of a lightweight and relatively durable member such as aluminum. Further, the cane body 2 may be configured such that it can be stretched or folded in a plurality of ways, and can be made compact when not in use. The hand-held portion 4 forms a non-slip portion with rubber or resin material. The hand-held portion 4 may be provided with a ring-shaped strap for holding the cane 1 through the wrist of the user so that the user cannot release the cane 1 from the user. In this embodiment, the main body of the cane 1 is almost white colored or non-colored, but only the vicinity of the tip of the cane 1 is colored, for example, red or yellow so that the tip is conspicuous. Also good. The visually impaired person's wand according to the present invention is not limited to such coloring.

  1 to 3, the caster wheel 3 is supported by a fork 5 in which a sheet metal material is bent in a U-shape facing downward, and supported by the fork 5 so as to be rotatable around a horizontal axis X. And a mounting portion 8 provided on the hawk 5 via a thrust bearing 7. The attachment portion 8 has a cylindrical structure that can be inserted into the distal end portion of the cane 1. For fixing the attachment portion 8 and the wand 1, it is possible to employ appropriate fixing means such as pinning for fitting a pin over the attachment portion 8 and the wand 1, adhesive fixation with an adhesive, or screw-type fixation. In addition, the wheel body 6 may employ a wheel made of an appropriate material such as rubber, synthetic resin, or metal. However, in order to reduce the weight of the cane 1 as a whole and to cushion the impact transmitted to the hand, it is desirable to use the ring body 6 made of rubber or synthetic resin. The hawk 5 and the mounting portion 8 may be made of resin in order to reduce the weight.

  The hawk 5 and the mounting portion 8 are rotatable relative to each other via the thrust bearing 7. For this reason, when the caster wheel 3 is fixed to the tip of the cane body 2, The hawk 5 and the ring body 6 are rotatable with respect to the cane body 2 around the axial center Y that is substantially along.

  With such a configuration, the visually impaired person's walking stick 1 is used in a form in which obstacles and the like are detected by shaking the caster wheel 3 at the tip thereof in contact with the ground and swinging left and right and back and forth. Since the fork 5 and the ring body 6 are rotatable by the thrust bearing 7 around the axis Y substantially along the central axis of the cane 1, the caster wheel 3 is configured so that the cane body 2 is Due to the action of changing the rolling direction of the ring body 6 caused by the force acting on the ring body 6 when shaken and the force received from the ground when the ring body 6 rolls, The ring body 6 rotates around the axis Y so that the rolling direction follows the direction in which the cane body 2 is swung, and the cane 1 rolls in accordance with the swinging direction. Can be changed. Therefore, for example, even if the cane 1 is changed from a state where it is swung left and right to a state where it is shaken back and forth, the direction of rolling immediately follows the change of the direction of the shake, so the cane 1 is changed. You can shake while touching the ground smoothly. Further, by swinging the cane 1 while always in contact with the ground in this way, the user can know the state of the ground through the cane 1 and, for example, as shown in FIG. It is possible to detect the level difference quickly and with high certainty. Normally, the caster wheel 3 comes first in contact with an obstacle or the like in the cane 1.

  In the embodiment described above, the axis Y passing through the central axis of the cane body 2 and the axis X which is the rolling center of the ring body 6 are set to be substantially orthogonal, but as shown in FIG. The caster wheel 3 configured such that the shaft center X is eccentric from the shaft center Y so that the shaft center Y and the shaft center X are twisted may be provided at the distal end portion of the cane body 2. In this case, the ring body 6 can be rolled while following more easily by changing the direction in which the cane 1 swings.

  As described above, the thrust bearing interposed between the wheel and the cane can change the rolling direction of the wheel. However, the configuration capable of changing the direction of the wheel is not limited to this. For example, a hand-held portion of a cane that is manually held and a tip end portion of a cane that is provided with a wheel are configured in a rod-like body that is fitted so as to be relatively rotatable about the center of each other, and is matched to the direction when the cane 1 is shaken The tip part may be configured to be rotatable with respect to the hand-held part.

The side view which shows the whole cane for visually handicapped persons concerning embodiment The front view which shows the caster ring of the cane for visually impaired of FIG. The side view which shows the caster ring of the cane for visually impaired of FIG. Explanatory drawing which shows the state which is using the cane for visually impaired of FIG. The side view which shows the caster ring of the cane for visually impaired persons concerning another embodiment

Explanation of symbols

1 Cane for the visually impaired 2 Cane body 3 Castor wheel (wheel)

Claims (2)

  A cane for the visually impaired, characterized in that a single wheel is provided at the tip of the cane body. The cane for a visually impaired according to claim 1,
The wheel for a visually handicapped person, wherein the wheel is a caster wheel whose rolling direction is freely changeable.

Images