JP5234458B2 - Automatic body part discrimination system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic body part discrimination system, and more particularly, to an automatic body part discrimination system capable of automatically performing palpation for the purpose of identifying a treatment site such as massage and a disease state.

  One of the causes of temporomandibular disorders that are painful when opening is a decrease in the function of the masticatory muscles existing inside the epidermis (skin) of the face. In this case, by massaging the masticatory muscles Symptoms are improved or alleviated. Here, the muscle tissue called masticatory muscle is composed of the masseter muscle existing under the ear, the temporal muscle existing in the temporal region, and the like. Therefore, when a practitioner such as a doctor performs massage of the masticatory muscles, it is necessary to confirm the position and size of the masseter and temporal muscles by palpating the patient with the fingers of the practitioner. Such facial massage can be performed by the patient himself because the patient's own fingers reach the entire area of the face. However, the internal structure of the face is complex and has large individual differences, and masticatory muscles such as the masseter and temporal muscles are thin and small, and it is difficult to find them from the outside of the body unless an expert such as a doctor. It is difficult for oneself to accurately massage the masticatory muscles.

By the way, Patent Document 1 discloses a massage machine that detects body surface parts having different hardness, such as muscles and bones, and changes the operation speed of massage according to the hardness. This massage machine has a function of automatically discriminating between a bone part and a non-bone part of a back part to be massaged. This discriminating function allows the treatment element provided with the pressure sensor to reciprocate once along the back before the massage operation, and for each part that the treatment element contacts by the waveform of the pressure detection signal detected by the pressure sensor. It is discriminated whether it is a hard part such as a bone or a soft part such as a muscle.
JP 2001-269380 A

  However, the discriminating function disclosed in Patent Document 1 enables automatic discrimination of a part that can be easily discriminated by any finger, such as discriminating between the spine, scapula, and the surrounding muscular portion. There is a problem that accurate discrimination results cannot be obtained even when trying to discriminate tissues and organs that could not be easily found from outside the body, such as tissues and organs that could only be discriminated with the fingers of experts . For example, muscle tissue and organs in the face do not protrude from the face, and all are present on the surface of the skull. Therefore, in the discrimination mechanism of Patent Document 1, if the treatment element is brought into contact with the face, The reaction force from the skull dominates the detection value of the pressure sensor in almost the entire region of the face, and all are recognized as hard parts such as bones. In other words, the difference in detection value of the pressure sensor based on the presence or absence of muscle tissue such as masticatory muscles and organs such as parotid gland is only a difference in measurement error unless a high-performance pressure sensor is used. Therefore, it becomes difficult to accurately identify each tissue and organ in the face.

  The present invention has been devised by paying attention to such inconveniences, and its purpose is to automatically discriminate tissues and organs that cannot be easily found from outside the body without using high-performance sensors. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic body part discrimination system that can do this.

(1) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an automatic body part discrimination system for discriminating a desired part under a user's body surface.
A sensing device that detects the hardness or position of the body surface when the user operates the target range with respect to the measurement points set within the target range of the body surface, and the sensing A specifying device that identifies the position or state of a desired part within the target range from the amount of change in the hardness or position of the body surface when the target range is operated and when the target range is not operated based on detection by the device It has a configuration that comprises.

  (2) Further, the apparatus further includes a signal presenting device that presents the user with a signal that can be perceived by the user. The signal presenting device includes a case where the user operates the target range and a case where the user does not operate the target range. It is preferable to adopt a configuration in which the signal is presented to the user at the switching timing.

(3) Further, the sensing device includes a contactor that contacts the body surface, a moving unit that moves the contactor, a control unit that controls the operation of the moving unit, and the body that is in contact with the contactor. With a sensor that can measure the reaction force from the table,
The control means controls the operation of the moving means so that the contact is brought into contact with the measurement point for a predetermined time with a predetermined pressing force,
The specific device adopts a configuration in which the presence / absence of the desired portion under the measurement point is determined based on a change amount of the reaction force between when the target range is operated and when the target range is not operated. it can.

(4) Further, a plurality of the measurement points are set within the target range,
In the specific device, after extracting the maximum value of the change amount at each measurement point, the range from the maximum value to 0 is divided into a plurality of numerical ranges, and the numerical value of the change amount at each measurement point is A configuration may be adopted in which the presence / absence of the desired portion under each measurement point is determined depending on whether it belongs to the range.

  (5) Here, the specifying device can also adopt a configuration in which the presence range of the desired part is specified from the presence or absence of the desired part under each measurement point.

  According to the present invention, when determining a desired site such as a tissue, organ, tumor, etc. that cannot be easily found from the outside of the body, whether the user operates the target range or not, Since the hardness or position is detected by the sensing device and the amount of change in the hardness or position between these cases is taken into account, a new point of view of the movement of the desired part due to the movement of the target range is used. The position, existence range or state of the part can be specified. In other words, when the body surface is stationary, the user operates the target area among various tissues, organs, tumors, and other parts that were difficult to discern without using high-performance sensors. It is possible to automatically discriminate what causes a difference in change.

  In particular, by configuring as described in (2) above, the detection timing by the sensing device can be presented to the user in conjunction with the sensing device, switching timing between when the target range is operated and when not, It becomes possible to accurately detect the amount of change in the hardness or position of the body surface.

  In addition, according to the configuration of (4), the presence / absence of a desired part under each measurement point is determined based on the maximum value of the amount of change obtained from the user to be determined. Unlike the case where the amount of change at each measurement point is determined with a certain threshold value, the position of the desired target portion can be determined more accurately even if the amount of change has individual differences.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of a body part automatic discrimination system according to the present embodiment. In this figure, the body part automatic discrimination system 10 is a system for discriminating on the face F the existence range of the masseter muscle (desired part) existing under the face F which is a part of the body surface of the user H. This body part automatic discrimination system 10 includes a robot 11 that functions as a sensing device that detects the hardness of the face F, a signal presentation device 12 that presents the user H with a signal that can be perceived by the user H, and a robot. 11 and a specifying device 14 that specifies the presence range of the masseter muscle based on the hardness of the face F detected by 11.

  The robot 11 includes a contact 16 that contacts the face F of the user H, a moving unit 17 that moves the contact 16, a control device 18 that serves as a control unit that controls the operation of the moving unit 17, and a contact 16 and a sensor 20 capable of measuring a reaction force against the pressing of the contact 16 against the face F.

  The moving means 17 includes an arm 22 that can move in a predetermined space while holding the contact 16 on the tip side, and a drive device 23 that includes a motor that operates the arm 22.

  The arm 22 is a structure that can be operated with six degrees of freedom by driving the driving device 23, and has a coordinate system having a predetermined position as a reference point (origin) (hereinafter referred to as "robot coordinate system"). Based on this, a known mechanism is adopted that enables the contact 16 to move to an arbitrary position and orientation. Since the mechanism is not the essence of the present invention, detailed description thereof is omitted here. The arm 22 may be anything as long as it can be operated as described later.

  The control device 18 is driven so that the contact 16 is in contact with each of a plurality of measurement points P in the cheek region A (see FIG. 2) that is the target range of the face F for a predetermined time with a predetermined pressing force. The device 23 is controlled to operate the arm 22. As shown in FIG. 2, the cheek region A here is a coordinate system on the face F (XZ coordinate system in the figure, hereinafter referred to as “face coordinate system”) with the ear canal as a reference point (origin) B. It is a certain range specified in advance. Further, a plurality of measurement points P are set within the coordinate range constituting the cheek region A, and the pitch is wider than the tip width of the contact 16 so that the contact 16 does not contact the adjacent measurement points P at the same time. Is set. Here, the coordinates of each measurement point P in the face coordinate system are stored in the control device 18 in advance. Note that the number of measurement points P is set to such an extent that the presence or absence can be determined according to the size, shape, or the like of the desired site (tissue, organ, tumor, etc.) to be determined.

  The sensor 20 may be anything as long as it can measure the reaction force on the contact 16 in the direction in which the contact 16 is pushed into the face F (the Y-axis direction in FIG. 2). In this embodiment, the sensor 20 has three orthogonal axes. A 6-axis force sensor capable of measuring a reaction force in the 6-axis direction, which is a translation direction and a rotation direction around each axis, is employed. The sensor 20 measures the reaction force at each measurement point P as follows. That is, when the contactor 16 comes into contact with each measurement point P and is temporarily stopped, the user H applies a force to the cheek region A, thereby applying the first reaction force and force before applying the force. The subsequent second reaction force is measured by the sensor 20.

  As long as the signal presentation device 12 can generate a signal that can be perceived by the user H, such as sound output from a speaker (not shown), light emission by a light emitter, and / or character information displayed on the monitor. Various devices can be employed. The signal presenting device 12 generates the signal when the first reaction force is acquired for each measurement point P in a state where the contact 16 is in contact with and temporarily stopped. Is perceived by the user H, the user H can grasp the timing of applying force to the cheek region A for the measurement of the second reaction force.

  The specific device 14 is configured by a computer including a processor, a memory, a hard disk, and the like, and a program for causing the computer to function as the following units is installed. The specifying device 14 includes a storage means 25 for storing the first and second reaction force values measured by the sensor 20 at the respective measurement points P, and other information, and the first and second reaction force values. The amount of change that is the difference is obtained, the presence or absence of the masseter muscle under the measurement point P is determined for each measurement point P based on the amount of change, and the existence range of the masseter muscle in the cheek region A (the masseter muscle region M) is specified. And determining means 26 for performing.

  In the determination means 26, the following processing is performed. First, the amount of change that is the difference between the first and second reaction forces at each measurement point P is obtained, the maximum value of these changes is extracted, and the range from the maximum value to 0 is divided into a plurality of numerical ranges. To do. After that, it is determined which numerical range the change amount of each measurement point P belongs to, and the measurement point P to which the change amount belongs within the numerical range greater than or equal to the threshold value stored in the storage means 25 has a masseter muscle below it. Then, it is determined that the measurement point P is not so, and it is determined that the masseter muscle does not exist thereunder. Then, a minimum region including each measurement point P determined to have the masseter muscle and not including each measurement point P determined to have no masseter muscle is formed by ellipse approximation by the least square method, and the region is defined as the masseter region Determine as M. As for the masseter muscle region M determined in this way, the coordinate information constituting the region is stored in the storage means 25. This coordinate information is used, for example, when determining a massage locus performed by a robot having a masseter muscle automatic massage function or a massage device. In addition, by presenting the coordinate information that configures the masseter muscle region M to the user H, the user H can grasp the position of the face F where the masseter muscle exists below.

  Next, a procedure for specifying the masseter muscle region M by the body part automatic discrimination system 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the arm 22 is manually operated by the user H or an operator of the system, and the arm 22 is temporarily moved by applying the tip of the contact 16 to the position of the ear hole of the user H serving as a reference point of the facial coordinate system. Stop. Here, the control device 18 performs initialization so that the coordinates of the contact 16 at this time in the robot coordinate system correspond to the reference point B of the face coordinate system (step S101). In this initialization work, for example, the user H attaches an earplug having a light emitting element to the ear hole, stops the contact 16 at a plurality of points, and at each position, the robot 10 using the light emitting element. Alternatively, the distance between the contact 16 and the ear hole may be obtained from the amount of received light.

  After the initialization, when a switch (not shown) is turned on by the user H or the like, the control device 18 operates the arm 22 so that the tip of the contact 16 comes into contact with the positions of the measurement points P stored in advance. Is controlled. Then, the measurement point P with which the contact 16 is in contact is pressed by the contact 16, and the reaction force on the contact 16 at this time is measured by the sensor 20. Specifically, by the operation of the arm 22, first, the contact 16 moves above the first measurement point P, which is the first target set in advance (step S <b> 102). It descends in the Y-axis direction toward the face F and presses the first measurement point P (step S103). At this time, the first reaction force is measured by the sensor 20 (step S104), and it is determined by the control device 18 whether the magnitude of the reaction force is a predetermined value (for example, 5N) or more (step S105). If it is less than the predetermined value, the pressing operation by the contact 16 is continued, while if it is not less than the predetermined value, the pressing operation by the contact 16 is stopped and the contact 16 is temporarily stopped (step S106). Thus, when the contact 16 is stopped while being pressed at the first measurement point P, the first reaction force measured by the sensor 20 at this time is stored in the storage means 25 of the specifying device 14 (step S107). . Then, when the first reaction force is stored in the storage means 25, the signal presentation device 12 is actuated by a command from the specifying device 14, and an audio signal or the like is presented to the user H (step S108). The user H applies force to the cheek region A for a certain time after the signal is presented, and the second reaction force at this time is measured by the sensor 20 and stored in the storage means 25 (step S109). . When the storage is completed, the control unit 18 controls the arm 22 to move the contact 16 above the next target measurement point P in the preset order. The second reaction force is stored in the storage unit 25 corresponding to each measurement point P.

  When the storage unit 25 determines that the first and second reaction forces have been measured and stored at the last measurement point P (step S110), the determination unit 26 of the specifying device 14 determines, for each measurement point P, It is determined whether or not it is a desired part, that is, a part where the masseter muscle exists (step S111). Here, first, the amount of change in the reaction force, which is the difference between the first and second reaction forces, is obtained for each measurement point P. Then, the maximum value of each change amount is extracted, and is divided into a range in which the size of the maximum value is divided into 0 to n (n is an integer stored in advance). From the bottom, it is set as Category 1 to Category n. Then, it is classified where the change amount at the remaining measurement point P belongs to Section 1 to Section n. Then, the position of the masseter muscle is determined for each measurement point P with the threshold value of the preset and stored section as a boundary. For example, when the threshold is set to two categories from the top, the measurement point P to which the change amount belongs to the category n and the category n−1 is determined that the masseter muscle exists in the epidermis, and the remaining measurement points P are the epidermis. It is determined that there is no masseter muscle below. Then, a region including only the measurement point P determined to have the masseter is specified as the masseter region M where the masseter is present (step S112).

  Therefore, according to such an embodiment, there is an effect that it is possible to automatically specify the existence range of the masseter muscle that is difficult to find from the outside.

  In the embodiment, after the determination unit 26 divides the range from the maximum change amount to 0 in each measurement point P into a plurality of numerical ranges, the change amount of each measurement point P indicates which numerical range. However, without the classification, the presence or absence of the masseter muscle may be determined based on whether or not the amount of change at each measurement point P is greater than or equal to the threshold value of the amount of change stored in advance. Is possible. However, according to the aspect of the embodiment, since the presence or absence of the masseter muscle is determined based on the maximum value of the change amount of the reaction force once measured by each user H, the change amount for each user H is determined. Even if there is a difference between individuals, the existence range of the masseter muscle can be specified more accurately.

  The sensing device is not limited to the robot 11 that can measure the reaction force of the face, and various devices can be used as long as the reaction force can be measured. Further, as the sensing device, a device having a structure capable of detecting the position of the bulge direction of the face (the Y-axis direction) can be adopted. For example, each measuring point P is irradiated with a laser beam, and a device configuration that can measure the position of the measuring point P in the bulging direction from the amount of received light is adopted, and the specifying device 14 specifies the presence of the masseter muscle. It is also possible. In this case, the position of the bulge direction of the face is measured by the sensing device at each time before and after the user H applies force to the cheek area A according to the signal from the signal presentation device 12, and the cheek area that is the difference between the positions is measured. Using the swell amount of A as the amount of change, the specifying device 14 determines the presence or absence of the masseter for each measurement point P in the same manner as described above, and specifies the masseter muscle region M.

  Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described system for specifying the masseter muscle range, but can be applied as a system for automatically determining the position and state below the body surface in other body parts such as the face, torso or leg. is there. For example, the present invention can be applied as a system that specifies on the body surface whether or not there is a site such as a muscle tissue, organ, or tumor that is displaced by the user H applying force.

  In addition, an automatic palpation function can be added to the specific device 14. For example, for the muscle whose position is specified within the target range, the specifying device 14 may be further provided with a diagnosis unit that can perform muscle function diagnosis such as the degree of muscle rigidity and the right and left muscle bias based on the hardness and position. Here, the diagnostic means can estimate the state of the skeleton in addition to the muscle. For example, when the present system 10 is applied for diagnosing temporomandibular disorders, the user H (patient) repeats the opening / closing operation in synchronization with the signal presented from the signal presentation device 12, and the diagnostic means It is also possible to obtain a change in the position of the temporomandibular joint (desired site) at that time and automatically diagnose the joint adhesion state using a predetermined threshold based on the change.

  Further, contrary to the above, the hardness and position of the body surface are first measured in a state where the user H operates the target range, and the user H does not operate the target range after the signal presentation device 12 presents the signal. You may make it measure the hardness and position of a body surface in a state.

  Furthermore, without providing the signal presentation device 12, the user H or the like sends a signal to the sensing device by a switch operation or the like between when the user H operates the target range and when it does not, so that the first In addition, two types of detection values such as the second reaction force may be distinguished.

  In addition, the configuration of each part of the apparatus in the present invention is not limited to the illustrated configuration example, and various modifications are possible as long as substantially the same operation is achieved.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a body part automatic discrimination system according to an embodiment. The schematic side view of the user's head for demonstrating a measurement point. The flowchart for demonstrating the procedure on the system from operation | movement of a contactor to specification of a masseter muscle.

Explanation of symbols

10 Body part automatic identification system 11 Robot (sensing device)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 Signal presentation apparatus 14 Specific apparatus 16 Contact 17 Movement means 18 Control apparatus (control means)
20 Sensor A Cheek area (target range)
F face (body surface)
H User M Masseter muscle region (existing range)
P measuring point

Claims (4)

In the body part automatic discrimination system that specifies the presence or size of the part to be measured on the body surface when any one of the muscle tissue, organ or tumor under the user's body surface is the measurement target ,
A sensing device that detects the hardness of the body surface when the user operates the target range and the measurement point set within the target range including the part on the body surface ; based on the detection in the sensing device, the hardness variation of the body surface with otherwise the case where the target range is operated, identifying the position or state of the site within the target range specifying With the device,
The sensing device includes a contactor that contacts the body surface, a moving unit that moves the contactor, a control unit that controls the operation of the moving unit, and a reaction force from the body surface due to the contact of the contactor. With a sensor capable of measuring
The control means controls the operation of the moving means so that the contact is brought into contact with the measurement point for a predetermined time with a predetermined pressing force,
The specific device determines whether or not the part exists under the measurement point based on a change amount of the reaction force between when the target range is operated and when the target range is not operated. system. The apparatus further includes a signal presentation device that presents the user with a signal composed of voice, light, and / or text information that can be perceived by the user , and the signal presentation device has the target range operated by the user. The body part automatic discrimination system according to claim 1, wherein the signal is presented to the user at a timing of switching between a case and a case where the case is not. A plurality of the measurement points are set within the target range,
In the specific device, after extracting the maximum value of the change amount at each measurement point, the range from the maximum value to 0 is divided into a plurality of numerical ranges, and the numerical value of the change amount at each measurement point is depending belongs to the scope of claim 1 or 2 body parts automatic discrimination system, wherein the determining the presence or absence of pre-Symbol part position under each measurement point. The identification apparatus, body parts automatic discrimination system according to claim 3, wherein identifying the existence range of those the site from the presence or absence of pre-Symbol part position under each measurement point.

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