JP4929478B2 - Ultrasonic electronic toy - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ultrasonic toy electronic toy provided with a space portion adjacent to a portion in which an object is accommodated or placed.

  Conventionally, Patent Document 1 discloses a presence / absence detection device that detects whether or not a person is present in a monitoring space (for example, an elevator car). FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the presence / absence detection device of Patent Document 1. In FIG. In this apparatus, the transmitter 1 intermittently transmits ultrasonic signals to the monitoring space 2. After receiving the reflected wave generated by reflecting the transmitted ultrasonic wave inside the monitoring space 2 by the receiver 4, the amplifier 5 amplifies the received signal, and the binarization circuit 6 binarizes it. Convert to signal. The storage device 7 stores in advance binarization information in the absence of a person in the monitoring space 2, and the comparison circuit 8 is binarized by the data of the storage device 7 and the binarization circuit 6. The current binarized information is compared. The arithmetic unit 9 determines that a person exists in the monitoring space 2 if there is a difference in the result of comparison by the comparison circuit 8. The control circuit 10 controls the drive circuit 3, the storage device 7, the comparison circuit 8, and the arithmetic unit 9.

On the other hand, Patent Document 2 shows an ornamental ultrasonic water tank using ultrasonic waves. This is because a liquid is put in a transparent container, an ultrasonic vibrator is attached to the bottom of the transparent container, a model fish with a piezoelectric ceramic is suspended, and a light emitting diode is turned on by electric power generated by the piezoelectric ceramic. It is made to let you.
JP-A-56-160673 JP 2005-46197 A

  The presence / absence detecting device disclosed in Patent Document 1 detects whether or not a person exists in the monitoring space, and even if an object is handled instead of a person, the object in the monitoring space is detected. It can only detect the presence or absence and cannot be applied to toys.

  Further, the ornamental ultrasonic water tank shown in Patent Document 2 can be regarded as a toy using ultrasonic waves, but the ultrasonic waves are merely used for power transfer, and the user can perform an active operation. It is not a device to play and rehabilitate.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic toy using ultrasonic waves that makes a user interested by actively operating an object and competing or devising how to operate the object. It is to provide.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as follows.
(1) A space part surrounded by an ultrasonic reflector provided adjacent to an object existence part that accommodates or places an object, an ultrasonic signal is transmitted to the space part, and the reflector The ultrasonic signal transmitting / receiving means for receiving the reflected ultrasonic signal, and repeating the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic signal for each transmission cycle, and comparing the received signals in different transmission cycles, whether there is a change in the received signal It detects, and a detection signal output means for outputting a detection signal in response to the presence or absence of change.

  With this configuration, instead of detecting the presence / absence of an object in a space surrounded by an ultrasonic reflector, the state of an object housed or placed in an object existing portion adjacent to the space is detected. Therefore, the degree of freedom in design increases, and the application as an electronic toy using ultrasonic waves that devise how to operate an object spreads.

(2) the detection signal includes a first detection signal and second detection signal, the detection signal output means outputs the first detection signal when there is a change of the received signal, the greater when a change in the received signal from the start of the transmission and reception of ultrasonic signals by ultrasonic signal transmitting and receiving means reaches a predetermined number, or when the change frequency of the received signal reaches a predetermined value, the second detection signal Output.

  With this configuration, it is possible to alert the user with the first detection signal and notify the so-called game over with the second detection signal.

(3) The reflector is composed of a plurality of flat plates, and among these flat plates, the flat plate adjacent to the object existence portion is made thinner than the other flat plates.
This makes it possible to detect sensitively the movement of the object and the vibration associated therewith.

(4) The reflector is composed of a plurality of flat plates, and of these flat plates, an opening is provided in a flat plate adjacent to the object existing portion.
As a result, the ultrasonic signal enters the object existence part from the opening provided in the reflector, i.e., the space part where the ultrasonic wave is reflected is not limited to the space part surrounded by the reflector but partially extends to the object existence part. As a result, the reflected wave returns to the space portion again, and the displacement of the object can be directly detected, and the detection sensitivity can be increased.

(5) The ultrasonic signal transmission / reception unit and the detection signal output unit may be provided in the space. As a result, the entire apparatus can be reduced in size and can be easily handled as a single apparatus.

  According to the present invention, since the state of the object accommodated or placed in the object existing part adjacent to the space part surrounded by the ultrasonic reflector is detected, the degree of freedom in design increases. Applications as an electronic toy using ultrasonic waves that devise how to manipulate objects will spread.

<< First Embodiment >>
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of two types of ultrasonic electronic toys 100 and 101. These ultrasonic toy electronic toys 100 and 101 both have a large number of articles 43 placed on the upper portion of the space portion 42 and determine whether or not slight deformation has occurred in the space portion. Is detected and a warning is issued. That is, it is used for play and rehabilitation of how to pick up the object 43 in such a way that no alarm is issued.

  In FIG. 2 (A), the space portion 42 is a hexahedral box made of an acrylic plate having a thickness of 5 mm. An opening is provided on one side surface of the space portion 42 and the ultrasonic sensor 23 is attached so as to face the inside from the opening. Yes.

  The upper surface of the space portion 42 is an object placement portion, on which a plurality of objects 43 are placed. The signal processing unit 40 performs processing to be described later using the ultrasonic sensor 23, detects an operation state of the object 43 by the user, and drives the output unit 41 in a predetermined state. The output unit 41 is, for example, a piezoelectric buzzer, an LED, or the like, and notifies the state by its sound pattern or light emission pattern.

  In FIG. 2B, an object accommodating portion 44 having an upper surface opened is formed above the space portion 42, and the object 43 is accommodated therein. Other structures are similar to those in FIG.

  In FIG. 2A, the space portion 42 has x = 100 mm, y = 100 mm, and z = 20 mm. In FIG. 2B, the bottom surface is the same as the bottom surface of the space portion 42, and the height is high. An object accommodating portion 44 of h = 50 mm is provided.

  A plurality of reflectors (each wall surface of a hexahedral box) constituting the space portion 42 are each composed of a flat plate, and a flat plate adjacent to the plurality of objects 43 is formed thinner than other flat plates. Therefore, distortion generated in the space 42 can be increased even with a light impact when picking up the object 43.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the signal processing circuit 40 shown in FIG.
The pre-circuit 24 frequency filters and amplifies the reception signal of the ultrasonic sensor 23. The A / D converter 25 A / D converts the output voltage.

  The timing management circuit 27 gives a transmission pulse trigger to the transmission pulse forming circuit 21. The transmission pulse forming circuit 21 generates an ultrasonic burst signal by this transmission pulse trigger and outputs it to the drive circuit 22.

  The timing management circuit 27 outputs an A / D value acquisition trigger signal to the A / D value acquisition circuit 26. The A / D value acquisition circuit 26 controls the A / D converter 25 at the timing of the A / D value acquisition trigger and acquires the digital value.

  The memory circuit 31 is a memory for storing past waveform information when comparing received signals. The storage circuit 31 stores the value acquired by the A / D value acquisition circuit 26. Further, the contents already stored are output to the difference accumulation circuit 32.

  The difference accumulation circuit 32 is an arithmetic circuit that accumulates the difference (absolute value) of the waveform stored in the storage circuit 31 and the waveform output from the A / D value acquisition circuit 26 for each sampling value.

  The determination circuit 33 counts up the counter 34 when the calculation result calculated by the difference accumulation circuit 32 exceeds a preset threshold value. The game over determination circuit 35 drives the output unit 41 such as a buzzer / LED when the count value of the counter 34 reaches a predetermined value.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the timing relationship between the operation and processing of the signal processing unit 40 shown in FIG.
In FIG. 4, “transmission pulse” is an output signal of the transmission pulse forming circuit 21 shown in FIG. 3, and “reception signal” is an output value of the A / D converter 25 shown in FIG. The “difference signal” represents the difference value in the difference accumulation circuit 32 shown in FIG. 3 as a waveform.

  In this example, an ultrasonic signal is intermittently transmitted to the monitoring area every transmission cycle Tp (= 300 ms). The reception signal of the reflected wave is written in the storage circuit 31 for the waveform comparison time Tr (= 10 ms).

The difference accumulating circuit 32 obtains a difference between the received signal at the previous waveform comparison time A0 and the received signal at the current A1 at the timing of the waveform comparison time A1, and at the timing of the waveform comparison time A2, the difference at the previous waveform comparison time A1. The difference between the received signal and the current received signal at A2 is obtained. Therefore, in the example shown in FIG. 4, a difference signal as shown in the figure is generated at the waveform comparison time A2.
The difference accumulating circuit 32 increments the counter value by 1 if the intensity of the difference signal is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the signal processing unit 40 shown in FIG.
First, a transmission pulse is output (S1), the previous reception signal is read, and the difference from the current reception signal is calculated (S2 → S3). Then, the current received signal is stored in preparation for the next difference calculation (S4). It is determined whether or not the difference signal obtained this time exceeds a predetermined threshold value, and if it exceeds, the counter C is counted up assuming that there is a change (S5 → S6). Then, it is determined whether or not the value of the counter C has reached the maximum value. If it has not reached yet, the warning buzzer and the yellow LED are turned on (S7 → S8).

  The above processing is repeated, and when the value of the counter C reaches a predetermined maximum value MAX (for example, “3”, “10”, etc.), end output is performed (S7 → S9). For example, a buzzer sound having a longer duration than the warning sound is notified and the red LED is turned on.

<< Second Embodiment >>
FIG. 6 is a plan view of a flat plate on the upper surface of the space used in the ultrasonic toy electronic toy according to the second embodiment. A plurality of openings H are arranged in the flat plate 45. Here, x = 100 mm and y = 100 mm. When applied to FIG. 2A, it becomes the bottom plate of the object placement portion, and when applied to FIG. 2B, it becomes the bottom plate of the object storage portion 44. .

  By providing a plurality of openings in the flat plate 45 as the bottom plate in this way, an ultrasonic signal enters the object existence part from these openings, that is, a space part in which a space part where the ultrasonic wave is reflected is surrounded by a reflector. It spreads partially to the object existence part without stopping. Therefore, the reflected wave returns again into the space, and the displacement of the object can be directly detected, and the detection sensitivity can be increased.

<< Third Embodiment >>
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of an ultrasonic toy electronic toy according to the third embodiment. In this example, the ultrasonic sensor 23 and the signal processing unit 40 are arranged inside the space 42. Other structures are similar to those shown in FIG. With this configuration, the entire apparatus can be reduced in size and can be easily handled as a single apparatus.

  Note that the output unit 41 may also be arranged inside the space 42 or along the outer surface of the flat plate constituting the space 42. However, by arranging the buzzer 41 outside the space portion 42, there is an advantage that it is not affected by the vibration of the buzzer.

<< Fourth Embodiment >>
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the configuration of two types of ultrasonic electronic toys according to the fourth embodiment.
The ultrasonic electronic toys 103 and 104 shown in FIG. 8 play so that a warning sound is not emitted when performing an operation of moving a plurality of objects from one of the two object housing portions 44a and 44b to the other. Is. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the procedure in a good manner both when picking up the object and when placing the object, and the game performance is further improved.

  In the example of FIG. 8A, two object storage portions 44a and 44b are provided above the space portion. Further, in the example of FIG. 8B, two space portions 42a and 42b are provided, respectively, and object accommodating portions 44a and 44b are provided thereon. Further, ultrasonic sensors 23a and 23b are arranged in the space portions 42a and 42b, respectively.

  In the example of FIG. 8A, the same processing can be performed for both picking up and placing an object using a single ultrasonic sensor 23. Further, in the example of FIG. 8B, since it is possible to detect each of picking up and placing an object independently, it is possible to impart game characteristics corresponding thereto.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, a space part surrounded by six flat plates is formed, and a plurality of objects are placed or accommodated on the upper part. For example, a cylindrical space may be formed. Further, for example, an object accommodating portion may be disposed on the side surface of the space portion.

  Further, in the process shown in FIG. 5, the second detection signal is output (that is, the game is over) when the change of the received signal (generation of the difference signal) reaches a predetermined number of times. The second detection signal may be output when the interval of warning output (generation of the first detection signal) when there is a change, that is, when the frequency of change in the received signal reaches a predetermined value.

  Further, the remaining time may be notified by a buzzer or a display so that the game is over if the picking up or transferring of the object is not completed within a predetermined time.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the presence-absence detection apparatus shown by patent document 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the two ultrasonic utilization electronic toys which concern on 1st Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the signal processing part of the apparatus. It is a wave form diagram which shows the procedure of a process and operation | movement of the signal processing part. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the signal processing part. It is a top view of the flat plate used with the ultrasonic toy electronic toy concerning a 2nd embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the ultrasonic toy electronic toy concerning 3rd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the two ultrasonic utilization electronic toys which concern on 4th Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

23-Ultrasonic sensor 40-Signal processing unit 41-Output unit 42-Space unit 43-Object 44-Object storage unit 45-Plate 100-104-Electronic toy using ultrasound

Claims (5)

A space part surrounded by an ultrasonic reflector provided adjacent to an object existence part for containing or placing an object;
An ultrasonic signal transmitting / receiving means for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to the space and receiving an ultrasonic signal reflected by the reflector;
The transmission and reception of the ultrasonic signal is repeated for each transmission cycle, and the reception signals in different transmission cycles are compared to detect the presence / absence of a change in the reception signal and output a detection signal according to the presence / absence of the change. An ultrasonic electronic toy comprising a detection signal output means. The detection signal includes a first detection signal and a second detection signal;
The detection signal output means outputs the first detection signal when there is a change of the received signal, said change from the start of the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic signal of the reception signal by the ultrasonic signal transmitting and receiving means The ultrasonic toy according to claim 1, wherein the second detection signal is output when a predetermined number of times is reached or when a change frequency of the received signal reaches a predetermined value. The reflector comprises a plurality of flat plates, flat plates adjacent to the object presence portion of these slabs have from thin other flat, ultrasound use electronic toy of claim 1 or 2.   3. The ultrasonic electronic toy according to claim 1, wherein the reflector is composed of a plurality of flat plates, and a flat plate adjacent to the object existence portion of the flat plates has an opening. The ultrasonic electronic toy according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the ultrasonic signal transmitting / receiving means and the detection signal output means are provided in the space.

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