JP3188046B2 - Water heater - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a water heater in which a water heater is remotely operated by a plurality of remote controllers installed at different locations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG.
Numeral 0 indicates the overall configuration of this type of conventional hot water supply apparatus, which has recently been widely used in ordinary households. In the figure, 1
Denotes a water heater, which comprises a water heater main body 2 and a control unit 3. Reference numerals 4, 5, and 6 denote remote control devices installed in the kitchen, washroom, and bathroom, respectively, and are connected to the water heater 1 by a power supply line 7 which also serves as a signal line. Reference numerals 8, 9, and 10 denote hot water utilization facilities installed in a kitchen, a washroom, and a bathroom, respectively. For example, in a bathroom, a faucet for supplying hot water to a bathtub or a shower, and an opening / closing mechanism thereof are applicable. In addition, these hot water use facilities 8-1
Numeral 0 is connected by a hot water supply pipe 11 including a signal line.

[0003] The conventional hot water supply device is configured as described above,
For example, when it is desired to add hot water to the bathtub in the bathroom, it is possible to operate the remote control device 6 installed in the bathroom, but it is also possible to operate the remote control devices 4 and 5 installed in the kitchen or the washroom outside the bathroom. By doing so, the system becomes possible.

As described above, since the remote control device can be operated from a place away from the bathroom, it is convenient but has a problem. That is, for example, without notice that a child is playing in an empty bath tub, the hot water spouts by operating the remote control device in another place, or when the elderly is bathing in lukewarm water, suddenly the hot water Can be extremely dangerous.

[0005] As measures to prevent these adverse effects,
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 4-120895 proposes a method of setting a priority for use of a remote control device. In this method, a remote control device that can issue an operation command for a specific hot water utilization facility, for example, a bathroom facility, is limited to a remote control device having a priority. In a certain case, the switching of the priority is also prohibited. I am trying to do it. However, these measures are also effective if priority setting and switching management are ensured.However, such management is not possible in elderly households, homes including infants, and hospitals and nursing homes used by many patients. The above-mentioned adverse effects remain unsolved, and the above-mentioned phenomenon becomes a serious problem only in homes and facilities that include vulnerable people such as the elderly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it is possible to reliably prevent a dangerous state from occurring to a user due to a remote tapping operation, It is an object of the present invention to realize a safe and comfortable hot water supply device by supplementing the constraints in the use environment of these hot water utilization facilities.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hot water supply apparatus including a biometric sensor for detecting biometric information of a person using hot water utilization equipment. The remote control device is provided with alarm means, and when the output of the biological sensor exceeds a predetermined set range, the alarm means of each of the remote control apparatuses is operated, and the physical condition of a person using the hot water utilization facility is poor. Let others know you are there.

In the hot water supply apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention, the output of the living body sensor is taken into a remote control device installed in a use space including the hot water use facility via an optical medium. Since the biological sensor that comes into direct contact with the human body and the remote control device to which a voltage is applied for control and the like are electrically insulated via the optical medium, safety to the human body is ensured even in an environment with a lot of moisture. .

A third aspect of the present invention is directed to a hot water supply apparatus, wherein a voice input means for detecting a human voice generated in a use space including hot water utilization equipment, and a type of output information from the voice input means are determined. A voice recognition means for controlling the operation of the water heater and the hot water utilization facility based on a command from the remote control device and output information from the voice recognition means ;
Database storage for storing a plurality of voice data
In addition to providing means,
Which it was provided with a sound reproduction means, both Tegafusa in the use of hot water
Normal, because the visibility is not secured, etc.
Operate by user's voice even when hand operation is impossible
And the like, and the above-mentioned voice recognition means
The audio data specified by the output information of
Read from the source storage means and output from the audio reproduction means.
You.

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a hot water supply apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. The same or corresponding parts as those in the prior art are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted. In the figure, reference numeral 12 denotes a moving object sensor attached to the remote control device 6 installed in the bathroom, which will be described in detail later, and a moving object (shown by a dashed line in the drawing) including the hot water use facility 10. The presence of a human).

FIGS. 2A and 2B are control block diagrams of the remote controller 6 and the water heater controller 3 of FIG. 1, respectively. First, in FIG. 2A, reference numeral 12 denotes the moving body sensor described above, 14 denotes a control processing unit, 15 denotes a key input unit,
For example, setting of a hot water temperature and setting of a timer for reserving an operation time are performed from the key input unit 15. Reference numeral 16 denotes a display unit for displaying setting contents and an alarm display at the time of alarm output described later, and 17 denotes a sounding unit for reproducing audio data described later, which also operates as an alarm means.

Numerals 18 and 19 are a receiving unit and a transmitting unit for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the water heater control unit 3 shown in FIG. 2B, and these signals are transmitted by a wired system as shown in FIG. Good, but may be a wireless system. 20 and 21
Is a voice input unit for detecting a voice emitted from the user in the use space 13 and a voice recognition unit for identifying the detection signal, which will be described in detail later. 22 and 23, which will be described in detail later, an external output unit for outputting light as a detector driving source for obtaining biological information of a human being bathed;
And an external input unit for inputting a signal detected in the form of an optical signal. The remote controllers 4 and 5 installed outside the bathroom are essentially the same as the configuration shown in FIG. 2A, but each functional block is appropriately selected according to the required function item. .

Next, in FIG. 2 (2), reference numeral 24 denotes a control processing unit, and reference numeral 25 denotes a sounding unit, which functions exclusively as alarm means. 26 is a display unit, 27 is a database storage unit for storing voice data such as nursery rhymes to be described later, and 28 is an input unit thereof. Reference numeral 29 denotes a receiving unit for receiving signals from the remote control devices 4, 5, 6 and hot water utilization facilities 8, 9, and 10. The received signal is transmitted to the control processing unit 24 after its transmission source is determined by the signal determination unit 30. You. Reference numeral 31 denotes a transmission unit for transmitting a signal to each of the above units. An operation unit 32 performs operations such as operation, stop, output adjustment, and water supply adjustment of the water heater main body 2 based on an operation signal from the control processing unit 24.

Next, the operation will be described. The hot water supply apparatus shown in the embodiment of FIG. 2 has various functions for achieving the above-mentioned problems. Therefore, for the sake of convenience of description, these main functions will be referred to as embodiments 1, 2,..., And each embodiment will be described with reference to components related thereto.

First, as a first embodiment, an example will be described in which the occurrence of a dangerous state based on a remote operation is prevented by using the mobile sensor 12. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state where the remote control device 6 provided with the moving body sensor 12 is attached to a wall surface in a bathroom. FIG. 4 illustrates the operation of the moving body sensor 12.
The detection range occupying most of the area 3 is picked up by a television camera and converted into an image signal, which is subjected to image processing to detect whether or not there is a person (moving body) in the bathroom from a temporal change. The signal detected by the moving body sensor 12 is processed by the control processing unit 14 of the remote control device 6, sent from the transmission unit 19 to the reception unit 29 of the water heater 1, and determined by the signal determination unit 30 to be a signal from the remote control device 6. Is sent to the control processing unit 24.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the contents of processing performed by the control unit 3 of the water heater 1 based on the detection signal from the moving body sensor 12, and the operation will be described below with reference to FIG. In step 1, the presence or absence of an input signal from the remote control device is detected. In step 2, it is determined whether or not the input signal indicates a tapping operation of the bathroom. If the input signal is a signal other than the tapping, the process proceeds to step S8. If the signal is a tapping operation signal, the process proceeds to step 3, where it is determined whether or not the remote commander that has transmitted the operation command has priority. The concept of the priority is the same as the content introduced in the prior art, and the detailed description is omitted here.

If it is determined in step 3 that the operation remote controller does not have a priority, the process proceeds to step 8;
Proceed to. In step 4, it is determined whether or not there is a person in the bathroom, that is, it is determined whether or not there is a detection signal from mobile sensor 12 of remote control device 6. If there is no person, there is no danger of tapping, so the process proceeds to step 5 to start tapping operation. Therefore, the operation unit 32 of the water heater 1 operates to supply hot water from the hot water utilization facility 10 to the bathtub. If it is determined in step 4 that there is a person, the process proceeds to step 6, where it is determined whether or not the operation remote control device is the bathroom remote control device 6.
If it is ES, it is considered that the detected person is operating the remote control device 6 in the bathroom by himself, and there is no danger, so the process proceeds to step 5 to start the tapping operation. N in step 6
O, that is, when the operation remote control device is not the bathroom remote control device 6, there is a risk that the operation remote control device may be incorrectly determined. The sounding part 17 is driven in conjunction with the display and the like, and an alarm is issued to call attention to the person who operated. This warning may be issued only from the remote controller that operated the command, or may be issued simultaneously from another remote controller.

As described above, by employing the configuration described as the first embodiment, for example, when an elderly person or an infant is in a bathroom, a remote control device installed at a location away from the bathroom is operated to generate hot water. A dangerous state of hot water is prevented from occurring. In the above-described embodiment, the case where the moving body sensor 12 is provided integrally with the remote control device 6 installed in the bathroom has been described. However, as shown in FIG. In consideration of the above, the remote control device 6 may be attached at a position remote from the remote control device 6.
Further, the moving body sensor 12 may be installed not only in the bathroom but also in other hot water utilization equipment, for example, a washroom or the like, to perform the same protection operation.

Next, the second embodiment will be described mainly with reference to FIGS.
Will be described. In the second embodiment, when a person using the hot water utilization facility has an abnormality on his / her body, a secure operation is ensured so that the response is not delayed or neglected because of the remote control method. Things. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a situation in which the bathroom, which is a hot water utilization facility, is being used, that is, during bathing. In the figure, reference numeral 33 denotes a pulse detector as a biological sensor attached to the wrist of the bather.

FIG. 7 shows the structure of a part for taking the detection signal from the pulse detector 33 into the remote controller 6.
Each part will be described in order. The light emitting section 22a of the external output section 22 emits continuous light having a constant intensity according to a signal from the control processing section 14. The light receiving portion 34a of the connecting portion 34 attached to the external output portion 22 receives the continuous light and converts the continuous light into a constant power by the light / power converter 34b. The converted power is supplied via a connection cable 35 to a power unit 33a, which is a battery in the pulse detector 33. The pulse detector 33 is provided with a pulse sensor 33b and a pulse / pulse conversion circuit 33c operated by a power supply from the power unit 33a, and sends the pulse of the bather as a pulse signal to the connection unit 34 via the connection cable 35. In the connection section 34, the pulse signal / light conversion circuit 34c converts the electric pulse signal into an optical signal and emits light from the light emitting section 34d to the light receiving section 23a of the external input section 23. Light / pulse conversion circuit 23b of external input unit 23
Converts the signal from the light receiving unit 23a into a pulse pulse signal again and sends it to the control processing unit 14. In addition, the pulse sensor 3
If a constant optical signal inputted is modulated by the detected pulse signal as 3b, the external output unit 22 does not need to convert between light / power as in the connection unit 34 described above. In addition, a simple configuration in which the external input unit 23 and the pulse detector 33 are directly connected by an optical fiber cable can be provided.

As described above, the pulse signal detected by the pulse detector 33 is input from the external input unit 23 of the remote control device 6 to the control processing unit 14 via the optical medium, and further transmitted from the transmission unit 19 to the reception of the water heater 1. It is sent to the control processing unit 24 via the unit 29. The control processing unit 24 determines whether or not the sent pulse signal is within a predetermined normal range. If the pulse signal exceeds this range, the display unit 26 of the water heater 1 and each of the remote control devices 4 to 6 Is displayed on the display section 16 of the bather, and the sounding sections 25 and 17 are driven to issue an alarm to notify nearby family members of the abnormal situation. Therefore, the family member who hears the warning can immediately enter the bathroom and take a necessary measure while watching the bather.

As described above, by adopting the configuration described as the second embodiment, when a person taking a bath becomes abnormal on his / her body, it is possible to immediately notify a person outside the bathroom to that effect. Thus, the safety of the user is ensured. Furthermore,
Since the signal from the biological sensor, which needs to be directly attached to the bather's body, is taken in via the optical medium, accidents such as electric shock can be reliably prevented.

Although the above embodiment has been described on the assumption that the apparatus is installed in a general home, the present invention is applied to a case where the present invention is applied to a hospital or a nursing home having a plurality of bathrooms when taking a bath.
The above-mentioned safety can further enhance its value and contribute to the labor saving of nurses. In addition, the biological information is not limited to the pulse in the above embodiment, but may be blood pressure, brain wave, or the like. More accurate and reliable safety management can be performed by detecting the plurality of biological information and determining whether there is an abnormality. .

Another measure to achieve the above-mentioned problem is
As shown in FIG. 8, the conditions in the use environment of the hot water utilization facility, that is, during use of the hot water utilization facility, the hands are often blocked or the field of view is not secured due to washing or washing of the body. This takes into account that an accurate remote operation cannot be performed with an operation remote controller. The basis of this solution is that the remote control device 6 includes the voice input unit 20 and the voice recognition unit 2.
1 (see FIG. 2A). In the third embodiment, the control unit 3 of the water heater 1 further includes a database storage unit 27 and a database input unit 28 (see FIG. 2).
(Refer to (2)), and further convenience is realized in addition to safety management. Hereinafter, the third embodiment will be described in detail.

In FIG. 2A, a voice input unit 20 is constituted by a microphone or the like, detects voice emitted from a user of the hot water utilization facility 10, and converts the voice into an electric signal. The voice recognition unit 21 extracts a characteristic portion from the signal from the voice input unit 20, outputs the extracted characteristic portion as a parameter, and identifies the input voice signal by sequentially comparing it with a plurality of parameters stored in advance. On the other hand, the database storage unit 27 in FIG. 2 (2) stores various audio data in the form of a disk or a tape, and the illustrated example shows a state in which a parent is taking a bath with an infant. Nursery rhymes and ninety-nine calculation data are stored as audio data used to make the bathing time more enjoyable and for parents to comfort their infants.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 9A shows the operation of the remote control device 6. First, in step 1, an input operation of the remote control device 6 is awaited. If there is an input, the process proceeds to step 2. Of course, the speech recognition unit 21 identifies the input signal. In step 2, it is determined whether the nursery rhyme A is designated or not. If it is nursery rhyme A, the process proceeds to step 3, and the transmitting section 19 transmits the request for the song of the nursery rhyme A, and ends. If it is determined in step 2 that the instruction is other than the instruction of the nursery rhyme A, the process proceeds to step 4 and the other processing is completed.

Next, FIG. 9 (2) shows the operation of the water heater control unit 3 side. In step 5, a signal from the remote control device 6 is awaited. If A, go to step 7; In step 7, the data of the nursery rhyme A is read from the database storage unit 27 and transmitted from the transmission unit 31 to the remote control device 6 that has requested. If the instruction is other than nursery rhyme A in step 6, other processing is performed in step 8 and the processing is completed.

FIG. 9 (3) shows the operation of the remote control device 6 again. In step 9, a signal from the water heater control unit 3 is awaited. When the signal is received, the signal is determined (step 10). If it is a nursery rhyme A, it is sent to the control processing unit 14 and proceeds to step 11. In step 11, the nursery rhyme A is caused to sound by the sounding part 17 based on the data of the nursery rhyme A. Step 1
If it is not 0 and nursery rhyme A, other processing is performed in step 12 and the processing is completed.

As described above, in this embodiment, when the user of the hot water utilization facility gives an instruction to the remote controller with his / her voice, the voice data specified based on the instruction is extracted, and the voice data is output from the sounding unit 17. Since it is reproduced for the user, the convenience of this kind of hot water supply device is improved, and the sales channel is expanded.

In the above embodiment, the voice data is instructed by determining the voice input. However, the voice data may be specified by operating the key input unit 15 provided in the remote controller. In addition, by setting operations such as tapping stop and tapping as other processes shown in step 4 and the like in FIG. 9, for example, the user utters appropriately in the state shown in FIG. Stop the hot water at any point of the
It is also possible to operate the restart.

[0031]

As described above, the present invention provides a predetermined living body
By providing a sensor, the user
When an abnormality occurs, a warning is immediately issued to the surroundings and the user
Safety is ensured. In addition, the output of this biometric sensor is
By taking in via the medium, the user's
Electric shock accidents and the like are prevented beforehand.

Further, by providing predetermined voice input means and voice recognition means, even in the case of difficulties in manual operation which are likely to occur during use of this kind of hot water utilization equipment, the user can appropriately instruct the operation by voice. Tomo and it becomes possible to
In addition, by providing a predetermined database storage means and a sound reproducing means, any sound data can be reproduced in the used space as needed, and the convenience as a water heater is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a hot water supply apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram showing a remote controller and a water heater controller of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state where the remote control device 6 of FIG. 1 is attached to a wall surface in a bathroom.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the moving object sensor 12.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the water heater according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a situation during bathing in the hot water supply apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a connection configuration of a pulse detector 33 in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a view showing a state in which hot water utilization equipment is being used in the hot water supply apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a hot water supply apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an entire configuration of a conventional hot water supply apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is a water heater, 2 is a water heater main body, 3 is a control unit, 4 to 6 are remote control devices, 8 to 10 are hot water use facilities, 12 is a moving body sensor, 13 is a use space, 14 is a control processing unit, and 17 is a control processing unit. Reference numeral 20 denotes a voice input unit, 21 denotes a voice recognition unit, 22 denotes an external output unit, 23 denotes an external input unit, 24 denotes a control processing unit, 27 denotes a database storage unit, 33 denotes a pulse detector, and 34 denotes a connection unit. It is.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Fukuda 193-7 Kitagawara, Itami-shi Konan Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Ryoichi Ogura 193-7, Kitagawara, Kasei Itami-shi Konan Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Satoshi Ueda 2-5-1 Inadera, Amagasaki City Mitsubishi Electric Microcomputer Software Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-3-251647 (JP, A) JP-A-3-291453 (JP) JP-A-61-27448 (JP, A) JP-A-3-199783 (JP, A) JP-A-5-172276 (JP, A) JP-A-3-112295 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04Q 9/00-9/16 F24H 1/10 F23K 5/26 G08B 21/00-31/00

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A hot water supply system, comprising: a hot water supply facility for discharging hot water supplied from the hot water supply unit and serving the purpose of use; and a remote control device installed at a plurality of different locations for instructing operation of the hot water utilization facility. A water heater that drives and controls the hot water heater and the hot water utilization facility based on commands from these remote control devices, wherein a biometric sensor that detects biological information of a person using the hot water utilization facility is provided, and A hot water supply device, further comprising an alarm unit, wherein the alarm unit of each of the remote controllers is operated when an output of the biological sensor exceeds a predetermined set range. Wherein the output of the biosensor through the optical medium water heater according to claim 1, characterized in that as incorporated into a remote control device installed in use in a space including the water utilization facility. 3. A hot water heater, a hot water utilization facility for discharging hot water supplied from the hot water heater and serving the purpose of use, and a remote control device installed at a plurality of different places for instructing operation of the hot water utilization facility. A hot water supply device for controlling the operation of the hot water supply device and the hot water utilization facility based on a command from the remote control device; a voice input means for detecting a human voice generated in a use space including the hot water utilization facility; Voice recognition means for determining the type of output information from the means, the drive control of the water heater and hot water utilization equipment based on a command from the remote control device and output information from the voice recognition means , To store audio data
Database storage means, and use of the hot water
Provide audio playback means in the usage space including the equipment, and
The audio data specified by the output information from the recognition means
The voice reproducing means read from the database storage means
A hot water supply device characterized in that the water is output from a stage .