JP5054329B2 - Subcutaneous fat thickness gauge - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a subcutaneous fat thickness meter provided with an optical subcutaneous fat thickness detecting means.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a subcutaneous fat thickness meter having an optical subcutaneous fat thickness detecting means as shown in, for example, Patent Document 1 is known. This type of subcutaneous fat thickness meter has a contact surface portion for bringing a part of the outer surface of the subcutaneous fat thickness meter into contact with a measurement site of a subject, and a light emitting portion and a light receiving device as optical subcutaneous fat thickness detecting means on the contact surface portion. Is provided.

  By the way, in the optical subcutaneous fat thickness meter, since the external light adversely affects the measurement of the subcutaneous fat thickness by the light emitting part and the light receiving part, the shape of the contact surface part corresponds to an arbitrary measurement site to be measured. Thus, it is important to measure the subcutaneous fat thickness in a state where the contact surface portion is in close contact with an arbitrary measurement site.

However, the above-mentioned subcutaneous fat thickness meter can only deal with one part to be measured among the abdomen, thigh, upper arm, etc., and when measuring other parts to be measured, the contact surface part is measured. As a result, it is difficult to accurately measure the subcutaneous fat thickness of other parts to be measured.
JP 2003-159227 A

  This invention is invented in view of the said conventional problem, Comprising: It aims at providing the subcutaneous fat thickness meter which can measure the subcutaneous fat thickness of the to-be-measured part from which a test subject differs correctly.

In order to solve the above problems, the subcutaneous fat thickness meter according to the present invention calculates the subcutaneous fat thickness based on the light emitting unit 2 and the light receiving unit 3 and the information received by the light receiving unit 3 as optical subcutaneous fat thickness detecting means. And a plurality of types of attachments 5a to 5c that can be detachably attached to the apparatus main body 4. The apparatus main body 4 is provided with a protrusion 9, and the protrusion 9 is provided with the protrusion 9 described above. The light-emitting unit 2 and the light-receiving unit 3 are provided, and each attachment 5a to 5c has a contact surface 15 for making contact with the measurement site 7 of the subject, and the outer surface of the contact surface 15 of each attachment 5a to 5c is the attachment 5a to 5c. are those corresponding to an arbitrary measurement site becomes radius of curvature different concave curved surface, the hole 21a to project the projection 9 on the contact surface portion 15 of each attachment 5a~5c provided for each, have When Les not be mounted attachment 5a~5c characterized by providing to improper measurement of subcutaneous fat thickness at the control unit.

In this way, by configuring the subcutaneous fat thickness meter with the device main body 4 provided with the light emitting unit 2 and the light receiving unit 3, and a plurality of types of attachments 5a to 5c that can be detachably attached to the device main body 4, When the measurement site 7 of the subject to be measured is different, the attachments 5a to 5c attached to the apparatus main body 4 can be replaced with the attachments 5a to 5c corresponding to the measurement site 7 to correspond to the measurement site 7 of the subject. In this case, the subcutaneous fat thickness can be measured by the light emitting unit 2 and the light receiving unit 3 in a state in which the contact surface portion 15 of each attachment 5a to 5c is closely adhered to the measurement site 7. Increases measurement accuracy.

  In addition, a second aspect of the present invention has a different measurement mode for each of the attachments 5a to 5c as a measurement mode by the subcutaneous fat thickness detecting means in the first aspect, and the attachment 5a to 5c is attached when the attachment 5a to 5c is attached to the apparatus main body 4. A mode switching means for automatically switching to a measurement mode corresponding to 5a to 5c is provided. By the mode switching means, the subcutaneous fat thickness can be measured in a measurement mode corresponding to each attachment 5a to 5c, that is, corresponding to a different site to be measured 7, and the measurement accuracy is increased.

  In the invention which concerns on Claim 1, even when the to-be-measured site | part of the test subject used as a measuring object differs, the measurement of subcutaneous fat thickness by a light emission part and a light-receiving part can be performed correctly.

  In addition, in the invention according to claim 2, in addition to the effect of the invention according to claim 1, the subcutaneous fat thickness can be measured in a measurement mode corresponding to different parts to be measured, and the subcutaneous fat thickness can be measured more accurately.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. A subcutaneous fat thickness meter 1 according to the present invention includes an apparatus main body 4 provided with a light emitting section 2 and a light receiving section 3 as optical subcutaneous fat thickness detecting means as shown in FIG. It consists of a plurality of possible attachments 5a to 5c.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the apparatus main body 4 is formed in a rectangular shape as a whole, specifically in a rectangular box shape. Here, of both surfaces in the thickness direction of the apparatus main body 4, a surface on one side provided with a display unit 10 to be described later is a front surface, and a surface on the opposite side is a back surface.

  As shown in FIG. 2 (b), a sebum thickness measuring unit 8 that measures the subcutaneous fat thickness of the measurement site 7 of the subject is provided at the center of the back surface of the apparatus main body 4. The sebum thickness measuring unit 8 includes a linear protrusion 9 that protrudes from the center of the back surface of the apparatus body 4 and extends in parallel with the short side of the apparatus body 4, and the light emitting unit 2 as a subcutaneous fat thickness detection means provided on the protrusion 9. The light emitting unit 2 and the light receiving unit 3 are arranged in a plurality of holes 12 provided in the longitudinal direction of the projection 9 and are exposed to the outside from the flat projecting end surface of the projection 9. ing. The light emitting unit 2 irradiates the measurement site 7 of the subject with light composed of infrared rays or visible rays. The light receiving unit 3 located in the vicinity of the light emitting unit 2 receives the light emitted from the light emitting unit 2 and reflected by the portion to be measured 7. More specifically, one light emitting part 2 and a plurality of (two in the illustrated example) light receiving parts 3 are provided on the protrusion 9 provided on the back surface of the apparatus body 4, and the distance between the light emitting part 2 and each light receiving part 3 is set. Each light receiving part 3 is arranged at a position about 15 to 45 mm away from the light emitting part 2 so that the measurement of a subcutaneous fat thickness of about 0 to 60 mm is possible, and near infrared light having a wavelength of about 850 nm is used as the light emitting part 2. LED that emits light is used. Here, the plurality of light receiving units 3 are provided in order to perform highly accurate measurement by correcting the difference in pigments on the skin.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2 (a), a display unit 10 for displaying measurement results and an operation unit 14 for operating devices and the like are provided at the center of the surface of the apparatus body 4. The apparatus main body 4 includes a control unit (not shown).

  On the other hand, attachments that can be detachably attached to the apparatus main body 4 include an abdominal attachment 5a shown in FIG. 3 (a), a thigh attachment 5b shown in FIG. 3 (b), and an upper arm shown in FIG. 3 (c). There are three types of attachments 5c for parts, and each attachment 5a-5c differs only in the shape of the contact surface part 15 mentioned later.

  First, the configuration of the common part of each attachment 5a to 5c will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, each attachment 5 a to 5 c is formed in a rectangular shape with a bottom in a plan view with one end opened, and a device that can be accommodated in a state in which substantially the entire device body 4 is fitted inside. A main body storage portion 16 is formed. The attachments 5a to 5c can be attached to the apparatus main body 4 by inserting the apparatus main body 4 into the apparatus main body storage portion 16 through the insertion opening 22 as the one end opening of the attachments 5a to 5c, and the attachment 5a. The attachments 5a to 5c can be detached from the apparatus main body 4 by pulling out the apparatus main body 4 stored in the apparatus main body storage portion 16 from the insertion port 22 of ˜5c, whereby the attachments 5a to 5c are attached to the apparatus main body. 4 is attachable to and detachable. Here, in each of the attachments 5 a to 5 c, one side surface portion facing the surface of the device main body 4 stored in the device main body storage portion 16 is referred to as a surface portion 18, and the other side surface portion facing the back surface is referred to as a back surface portion 19.

  An opening 20 that penetrates in the thickness direction of the surface portion 18 is formed in a portion of the surface portion 18 of each attachment 5a to 5c that faces the display unit 10 and the operation unit 14 of the device body 4 housed in the device body housing portion 16. When the apparatus main body 4 is stored in the apparatus main body storage section 16, the display section 10 and the operation section 14 are exposed to the outside through the opening 20 so that the display section 10 can be visually recognized and the operation section 14 can be operated. It has become.

  Moreover, the back surface part 19 of each attachment 5a-5c is made into the contact surface part 15 for making a test subject's to-be-measured part 7 contact, In this contact surface part 15 of each attachment 5a-5c, the light emission part 2 and light-receiving part of the apparatus main body 4 3, a translucent part 21 is formed at a position facing the light emitting part 2 and the light receiving part 3 of the apparatus main body 4 in the state accommodated in the apparatus main body accommodating part 16. In the illustrated example, as the translucent portion 21, a slit hole 21 a extending in the axial direction of the attachments 5 a to 5 c (that is, the insertion direction of the device main body 4) at the center portion that is the position facing the protrusion 9 of the device main body 4 on the contact surface portion 15. The slit hole 21a has substantially the same width as that of the projection 9, and one end on the insertion port 22 side is open. In addition, although the translucent part 21 was comprised with the hole 21a, you may comprise with the glass etc. which have translucency.

  And each attachment 5a-5c differs in the shape of the contact surface part 15 for every attachment 5a-5c, and respond | corresponds to arbitrary to-be-measured parts 7. FIG.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the outer surface of the contact surface portion 15 of each attachment 5 a to 5 c is provided with a contact surface 15 a formed by an arcuate curved surface that is concave on the inner surface side, and the total axial length of the attachments 5 a to 5 c. Although the points formed over both are common, the contact surfaces 15a of the contact surface portions 15 have different radii of curvature, and the larger the radius of curvature, the larger the width. That is, the radius of curvature of the contact surface 15a increases in the order of the abdominal attachment 5a shown in FIG. 3 (a), the thigh attachment 5b shown in FIG. 3 (b), and the upper arm attachment 5c shown in FIG. 3 (c). It has become.

  When measuring the subcutaneous fat thickness of a subject with the subcutaneous fat thickness meter 1, for example, one of attachments 5a to 5c corresponding to an arbitrary measurement site 7 is first selected from among a plurality of attachments 5a to 5c in the apparatus main body 4, for example. . That is, when measuring the abdominal subcutaneous fat thickness, the abdominal attachment 5a is selected, and when measuring the thigh subcutaneous fat thickness, the thigh attachment 5b is selected, and the upper arm subcutaneous fat thickness is measured. To do so, the upper arm attachment 5c is selected. Then, the selected attachments 5a to 5c are attached to the apparatus main body 4 by inserting the apparatus main body 4 into the apparatus main body storage portion 16 from the insertion port 22 as described above. At this time, the protrusion 9 of the apparatus body 4 is inserted into the slit hole 21 a from one end opening of the slit hole 21 a on the insertion port 22 side, and the light emitting portion 2 and the light receiving portion 3 provided on the protrusion 9 are the outer surfaces of the contact surface portion 15. Will be exposed to the side.

  And when measuring subcutaneous fat thickness with the subcutaneous fat thickness meter 1 which attaches the arbitrary attachments 5a-5c to the said apparatus main body 4, the contact surface 15a of the contact surface part 15 is pressed against the arbitrary to-be-measured site | parts 7 of a test subject, With the contact surface portion 15 in contact with the measurement site 7 in this way, light is emitted from the light emitting unit 2 toward the measurement site 7 and light reception information is detected by the light reception unit 3, and an arithmetic unit is calculated from the measurement data. The control unit provided with calculates the subcutaneous fat thickness of the site to be measured 7 using an arithmetic expression, and displays the measurement result including the subcutaneous fat thickness on the display unit 10.

  4, 24, 25, and 26 indicate the epidermis, subcutaneous fat layer, and muscle layer of the site to be measured 7, and the light emitted from the light emitting unit 2 is scattered by the subcutaneous fat as shown in FIG. Absorbed in. Therefore, the light emitted from the light emitting portion 2 is less diffused toward the surface of the skin when the subcutaneous fat thickness is thin, and the light returning to the surface of the skin is less and spreads less. For this reason, the amount of light reaching the light emitting unit 2 is reduced. On the contrary, when the subcutaneous fat thickness is thick, scattering of light emitted from the light emitting part 2 increases, and the light returning to the surface of the skin increases and spreads greatly. For this reason, the amount of light reaching the light emitting unit 2 increases. That is, the sebum thickness measuring means can measure the subcutaneous fat thickness by using the reflection of the light emitted from the light emitting unit 2.

  Here, in a state where the attachments 5 a to 5 c are attached to the apparatus main body 4, it is preferable that the protrusion 9 provided on the apparatus main body 4 slightly protrudes from the contact surface 15 a of the contact surface portion 15. Specifically, it protrudes about 5 mm. By projecting the protrusion 9 from the contact surface 15a in this way, when the protrusion 9 is pressed against the measurement site 7 of the subject together with the contact surface portion 15, the projection 9 is measured with a small force. It is possible to prevent the light from the light emitting unit 2 from leaking to the outside and the light receiving unit 3 from entering from the outside, and the accuracy of measuring the subcutaneous fat thickness is improved.

  Although illustration is omitted, the apparatus main body 4 may be provided with a measurement electrode for measuring bioimpedance.

  By the way, when the measurement site 7 of the subject measured by the subcutaneous fat thickness meter 1 is different as described above, for example, there is skin, subcutaneous fat, muscle, visceral fat and viscera from the outside in the abdomen, and from the outside in the thigh. Since the internal structure is different, such as when there is skin, subcutaneous fat, muscle, or bone, the measurement accuracy may be reduced.

  Therefore, the subcutaneous fat thickness meter 1 has a different measurement mode for each attachment as a measurement mode by the subcutaneous fat thickness detecting means, and corresponds to the attachments 5a to 5c when the attachments 5a to 5c are attached to the apparatus body 4. It is preferable to provide mode switching means for automatically switching to the measurement mode, and this embodiment will be described below. In the following description, the same components as those in the above embodiment are given the same numbers, and redundant descriptions are omitted.

  The subcutaneous fat thickness meter 1 of this embodiment includes an abdominal measurement mode, a thigh measurement mode, and an upper arm measurement mode as measurement modes corresponding to the attachments 5a to 5c. As described above, an arithmetic expression is used to measure the subcutaneous fat thickness based on the received light information received by the light receiving section by the control section. The arithmetic expression used to calculate the subcutaneous fat thickness corresponds to each attachment 5a to 5c. In other words, the calculation formulas used for calculating the subcutaneous fat thickness are different in each measurement mode. In addition, each measurement mode is not limited to this, For example, what changed the wavelength and light quantity of the light irradiated from the light emission part 2 may be used.

  Further, the mode switching means is a measurement corresponding to each attachment 5a to 5c with a plurality of switches 30a and 30b provided in the apparatus main body 4 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 and a switch operation unit 32 provided in each attachment 5a to 5c. The mode is switched, and is configured by the switch operation unit 32 provided in the switches 30a and 30b and the attachments 5a to 5c, which will be described in detail below.

  As shown in FIG. 6, a substrate 33 constituting a control unit is provided in a case 31 constituting the outline of the apparatus main body 4. The board 33 is provided with two switches 30a and 30b, and by switching the ON / OFF state of these two switches 30a and 30b, the measurement mode corresponding to each attachment 5a to 5c is switched. When both switches 30a and 30b are OFF, the control unit cannot measure the subcutaneous fat thickness because none of the attachments 35a to 5c is attached to the apparatus main body 4. Buttons 35 a and 35 b are arranged at positions facing the switches 30 a and 30 b, respectively, and each button 35 a and 35 b is supported by a spring 34 provided on the substrate 33. Further, in the state where the attachments 5a to 5c are attached to the apparatus main body 4, the same number of through holes 36a and 36b as the buttons 35a and 35b are formed in the portion of the case 31 facing the back surface portion 19 of the attachments 5a to 5c. In a state where no external force is applied to the buttons 35a, 35b, the tip portions protrude from the corresponding through holes 36a, 36b to the outside of the case 31, and in this state, the buttons 35a, 35b correspond without contacting the switches 30a, 30b. The switches 30a and 30b are turned off. In addition, when the distal ends of the buttons 35a and 35b are pushed into the case 31 against the spring 34, the buttons 35a and 35b come into contact with the switches 30a and 30b to turn on the corresponding switches 30a and 30b.

  When the attachments 5a to 5c are attached to the apparatus body 4, the tip portions of the corresponding buttons 35a and 35b are housed in locations facing the buttons 35a and 35b on the back surface 19 of the attachments 5a to 5c. Either the storage hole 37 or the button pressing part 38 protruding toward the apparatus main body 4 is formed, and the switch operating part 32 is configured by the storage hole 37 or the button pressing part 38. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the abdominal attachment 5a is provided with a storage hole 37 at a position corresponding to the button 35a and a button pressing portion 38 at a position corresponding to the button 35b. Although not shown, the thigh attachment 5b is provided with a button pressing portion 38 at a position corresponding to the button 35a and a storage hole 37 at a position corresponding to the button 35b, and the upper arm attachment 5c is provided with both buttons. Button pressing portions 38 are provided at positions corresponding to 35a and 35b.

  When the attachments 5a to 5c are attached to the apparatus main body 4 by the mode switching means, the corresponding buttons 35a and 35 are pushed into the case 31 by the button pressing portion 38 provided on the attachments 5a to 5c. When the corresponding switch 30a, 30b is turned on and the storage hole 37 is present, the tip of the button 35a, 35b corresponding to the storage hole 37 is stored, and the corresponding switch 30a, 30b is turned off. With the ON / OFF combination of 30b, the control unit switches to the measurement mode corresponding to each attachment 5a to 5c as shown in Table 1 below.

  Thus, in this embodiment, since the subcutaneous fat thickness can be measured in the measurement mode corresponding to the attachments 5a to 5c attached to the apparatus main body 4, the measurement accuracy can be further improved.

  In this embodiment, the protrusion 9 provided on the apparatus main body 4 may be slightly protruded from the contact surface 15a of the contact surface portion 15, or the apparatus main body 4 is provided with a measurement electrode for measuring bioimpedance. Also good.

It is the disassembled perspective view seen from the back surface side of the subcutaneous fat thickness meter which shows an example of embodiment of this invention. The apparatus main body same as the above is shown, (a) is the perspective view seen from the surface side, (b) is the perspective view seen from the back surface side. The various attachments same as the above are shown, (a) is a sectional view of the abdominal attachment, (b) is a sectional view of the thigh attachment, and (c) is a sectional view of the upper arm attachment. It is explanatory drawing of an optical subcutaneous fat thickness detection means. It is the disassembled perspective view seen from the back surface side of the subcutaneous fat thickness gauge of another example. It is sectional drawing of a subcutaneous fat thickness meter same as the above.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Subcutaneous fat thickness meter 2 Light-emitting part 3 Light-receiving part 4 Apparatus main body 5a-5c Attachment 15 Contact surface part 21 Translucent part

Claims (2)

An apparatus main body provided with a light emitting section and a light receiving section as an optical subcutaneous fat thickness detecting means and a control section for calculating subcutaneous fat thickness based on information received by the light receiving section, and detachably attached to the apparatus main body A plurality of possible types of attachments are provided, and a protrusion is provided on the main body of the apparatus, and the light emitting part and the light receiving part are provided on the protrusion.Each attachment has a contact surface part for making contact with a measurement site of a subject, The outer surface of the contact surface portion of the attachment is a concave curved surface having a different radius of curvature for each attachment, and corresponds to any part to be measured.A hole for projecting the protrusion is provided in the contact surface portion of each attachment , A subcutaneous fat thickness meter provided so that the measurement of the subcutaneous fat thickness in the control unit is disabled when no attachment is attached .   A mode switching unit that has a different measurement mode for each attachment as a measurement mode by the subcutaneous fat thickness detection unit and automatically switches to a measurement mode corresponding to the attachment when the attachment is attached to the apparatus main body is provided. The subcutaneous fat thickness meter according to claim 1.

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