JP7466944B2 - Control Method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a control method. More specifically, the present invention relates to a control method that can increase the affinity of a third animal individual to something other than the third animal individual.

Synchronization between multiple individual animals has been attracting attention. For example, micro-synchronization and synchronization phenomena observed between cells in the nervous system of an individual, such as circadian rhythms and pacemakers, and macro-synchronization phenomena such as the collective lighting of fireflies and the flocking behavior of migratory birds and large migratory mammals are known. In addition, research on the coexistence of humans and dogs has gradually revealed that synchronized behavior between individual animals is involved in the development of social behavior (e.g., communication), reduction of anxiety and stress, improvement of symptoms in autistic children, reduction of trauma syndrome, improvement of the circulatory system, and reduction of pain (see Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2, etc.). Quantitative understanding of such synchronized behavior between individual animals is important for finding methods for maintaining or improving the health of humans, pets, companion animals, or livestock.

2. Description of the Related Art Various techniques have been proposed for understanding the activity and health status of individual animals such as humans and dogs.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an animal activity measuring device that includes a three-dimensional acceleration sensor that is fixed to an animal and detects acceleration signals (Gx, Gy, Gz) in the X direction, which is the forward/backward direction of the animal, the Y direction, which is the left/right direction, and the Z direction, which is the up/down direction of the animal; a memory unit that accumulates acceleration signals from the acceleration sensor; a tilt angle calculation unit that calculates a left/right tilt angle θx about the X axis of an XY plane relative to the Z direction and a front/back tilt angle θy about the Y axis based on the acceleration signal; and a tilt angle two-dimensional display control unit that displays the left/right tilt angle θx of the XY plane and the front/back tilt angle θy of the XY plane in two-dimensional graphics on a screen.

Patent document 2 discloses a compatibility determination device that includes a sensor that detects the barking of a farm animal, a first wireless communication unit that establishes wireless communication with another compatibility determination device associated with the other farm animal, transmits information about the farm animal associated with the device to the other compatibility determination device, and receives information about the other farm animal from the other compatibility determination device, a memory control unit that stores the information about the other farm animal received from the other compatibility determination device by the first wireless communication unit in a memory unit, and stores information about the barking detection in association with the information about the other farm animal in the memory unit when the sensor detects a barking after receiving the information about the other farm animal, and a determination unit that refers to the memory unit, determines that the compatibility between the farm animal and the other farm animal is poor when information about the barking detection in association with the information about the other farm animal is stored, and determines that the compatibility between the farm animal and the other farm animal is good when information about the barking detection in association with the information about the other farm animal is not stored.

Patent document 3 discloses a system in which basic information about a dog is input, as well as that of the dog's owner or the dog's family, and health management software or a health manager sends a menu of optimal healthy lifestyle suggestions; the dog's owner or the dog's family inputs the actual lifestyle history of the person and dog, and the health management software or health manager analyzes the lifestyle history based on the basic information and sends a menu of optimal healthy lifestyle suggestions to the dog's owner or the dog's family, thereby engaging in ongoing communication.

Patent Document 4 discloses an organizational behavior analysis device that analyzes an organization composed of multiple people, and includes a receiving unit that receives sensor data acquired by an infrared transmission/reception unit and an acceleration sensor of a terminal worn by each of the multiple people, and data indicating the subjective or objective evaluation of each of the multiple people, a control unit that analyzes the sensor data and the data indicating the subjective or objective evaluation, and a recording unit that records the analysis conditions for the control unit to perform the analysis and the results of the analysis by the control unit. The control unit calculates, for each of the multiple people, an index indicating the relationships between the people in the organization and the behavior within the organization from the sensor data based on the analysis conditions and records it in the recording unit, calculates, for each of the multiple people, an index indicating the characteristics of behavior and thinking from the data indicating the subjective evaluation based on the analysis conditions and records it in the recording unit, and correlates the index indicating the characteristics of behavior and thinking of each of the multiple people with the index indicating the relationships between the people in the organization and the behavior within the organization, thereby identifying the factors of the data indicating the subjective evaluation or the objective evaluation in the organization.

JP 2011-217928 A JP 2016-139874 A JP 2005-276141 A WO 2011/055628 A

Miho Nagasawa et al., "Animal Synchrony and Affinity," Report of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Animal Psychology, Free Meeting (Workshop), Animal Psychology Research, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 130-132 Takeshi Kikusui, "Oxytocin and the relationship between humans and dogs," The Japanese Journal of Animal Psychology (2017) P1-9

The object of the present invention is to provide a control method capable of increasing the affinity of a third animal individual to things other than the third animal individual. Affinity here refers to the degree of affiliative relationship between individuals, including the degree of attachment behavior toward the owner, chasing behavior upon separation, joyful reactions upon reunion, frequency of eye contact, etc.

As a result of extensive research into achieving the above objectives, the present invention has been completed, which encompasses the following aspects:

[1] Acquire third time series data related to the movement of a third animal individual using a third sensor that is attached to an object other than the third animal individual and that can acquire third time series data related to the movement of the third animal individual;
generating a motion pattern that generates fourth time series data having a coherence value higher than a predetermined value for the acquired third time series data, and then causing an object other than the third animal individual to perform a motion according to the motion pattern.
Control methods.

[2] The control method described in [1], in which the thing other than the third animal individual to be operated is a robot or a virtual character.

[3] The control method described in [1] or [2], in which the third sensor is a 3D camera, a light sensor, a touch sensor, an angle sensor, a sound sensor, a distance sensor, or an odor sensor.

[4] A method for increasing affinity between a third animal individual and an object other than the third animal individual, comprising: attaching a third sensor to an object other than the third animal individual; acquiring third time series data relating to the third animal individual by the third sensor; generating an action that produces fourth time series data that is highly synchronized with the acquired third time series data; and having the object other than the third animal individual perform the action.

The method and system of the present invention for estimating affinity between individual animals can express and visualize synchronized behavior between individual animals using numerical values such as coherence. Furthermore, the method and system of the present invention for estimating affinity between individual animals and the method of increasing affinity can contribute to maintaining or improving the health of humans, pets, companion animals, or livestock.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of time series data of a dog's acceleration spectrum when a human starts keeping a dog, time series data of a human's acceleration spectrum, and a coherence spectrum of these two time series data. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of time series data of acceleration spectra of a dog after three months of breeding, time series data of acceleration spectra of a human, and a coherence spectrum of these two time series data.

The method of estimating affinity of the present invention includes attaching a first sensor to a first animal, attaching a second sensor to a second animal, acquiring first time series data related to the first animal and second time series data related to the second animal by the first sensor and the second sensor over a predetermined same period of time, evaluating the degree of synchronization between the first time series data and the second time series data, and estimating the affinity between the first animal and the second animal from the degree of synchronization.

Examples of animal individuals include humans, pet animals, companion animals, livestock, etc. Examples of pet or companion animals include dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, lizards, parrots, monkeys, etc. Examples of livestock include cows, horses, sheep, goats, etc. In the present invention, it is preferred that the first animal individual is a human and the second animal individual is a pet, companion animal, or livestock.

The first sensor and the second sensor are not particularly limited as long as they can be attached to the individual animal. Examples of the sensor include an acceleration sensor, an electrocardiograph, and an electroencephalograph. The acceleration sensor is preferably a three-axis acceleration sensor. The sensor may be built into a collar, a harness, or the like that can be attached to a dog, or may be built into an electronic device (such as a smartphone), a wristwatch, a pedometer, a headset, a headband, a hat, a wristband, or the like that can be carried by a human. The number of sensors attached to one individual animal is not limited to one, and may be multiple. As a power source for driving the sensor, the communication device, or the like, a combination of a primary battery, a secondary battery, a solar cell, a generator such as a vibration generator, or a photogenerator, and a storage element may be used. Furthermore, in order to extend the life of the battery, the sensor, the communication device, or the like may be operated only when the individual animal is active. The three-axis acceleration sensor can detect the acceleration of the node or the movement of the node. The intensity of the movement of the individual animal and the behavior such as walking can be known from the time series data of the acquired acceleration. The measurement by the first sensor and the second sensor is performed over the same predetermined period. For example, the measurement is performed over a period during which a human takes a walk with a dog. The acquired time series data can be transferred to the control unit by wired communication or wireless communication, preferably wireless communication. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (registered trademark), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), IrDA, etc. can be used as the wireless communication. The acquired time series data may be temporarily stored in the recording unit and then transferred to the control unit. The recording unit or the control unit may be provided in a portable electronic device, or in an information processing device installed in a remote location, such as a cloud system. In addition to the above sensors, a distance measuring device, GPS, etc. may be installed to acquire time series data such as the posture and position of the individual animal.

また、相関係数は次のような式で定義される。

なお、τは二つの時系列データにおける遅れ時間である。 The degree of synchronization is evaluated using time series data. The method for evaluating the degree of synchronization is not particularly limited. For example, a cross-correlation function can be used to quantitatively characterize the degree of synchronization between two pieces of time series data x'(t) and y'(t). If the time series data x(t)＝x'(t)－u _x , y(t)＝y'(t)－u _y from which the average values u _x , u _y of the time series data are subtracted, the cross-correlation function is defined by the following formula:

Moreover, the correlation coefficient is defined by the following formula:

Here, τ is the delay time between the two time series data.

τ=0の場合、

が導き出される。 If the Fourier transforms of x(t) and y(t) are X(ω) and Y(ω), the cross spectrum is defined by the following equation.

When τ=0,

is derived.

と表すことができる。K_xyはコスペクトル、Q_xyはクオドスペクトルと呼ばれる。
コヒーレンスは、二つの時系列データのフーリエ周波数成分の相関係数に相当し、次式で表わすことができる。コヒーレンスの値が大きいほど２つの時系列データの同調の度合いが高いことを表す。

また、位相の差は次式で表わすことができる。位相差の変動が低いほど２つの時系列データの同調性が大きい傾向があることを示していると考えられる。

The cross spectrum is generally complex,

K _xy is called the cospectrum, and Q _xy is called the quadspectrum.
Coherence corresponds to the correlation coefficient between the Fourier frequency components of two time series data, and can be expressed by the following equation: A larger coherence value indicates a higher degree of synchronization between the two time series data.

The phase difference can be expressed by the following formula: It is believed that the lower the fluctuation in the phase difference, the greater the tendency for the synchronization between the two time series data.

Furthermore, when three or more time series data are used to evaluate the degree of synchronization between individual animals, EOF analysis can be used.

If the numerical value of the degree of synchronization evaluated by the control unit is roughly proportional to the degree of affinity, the numerical value may be displayed directly on the display (display unit) of a smartphone, personal computer, etc., or the height of the numerical value may be displayed as a bar graph, pie chart, etc., or a symbol, figure, sign, picture, video, etc. may be displayed according to the range of the numerical value.

The recording unit, control unit, and display unit may be centralized in one information processing device, or may be distributed across multiple information processing devices using a cloud system, the Internet, etc.

On the other hand, it is preferable to record the behavior of the first individual animal and the second individual animal over the period in which the time-series data was acquired. For example, the behavior when a human takes the dog out for a walk, the behavior when the dog alternates between staring at the human, the behavior when a human is talking to the dog, the behavior when two people are walking, jogging, doing housework, etc., the behavior when a human is riding a horse, the behavior during attachment behavior, etc. are recorded, and the degree of synchronization evaluated by the control unit is correlated with each behavior. This makes it possible to know what behaviors cause increased affinity between the individual animals.

The method of the present invention, which can increase the affinity of a third animal individual to an object other than the third animal individual, includes acquiring third time series data related to the third animal individual with a third sensor that can acquire third time series data related to the third animal individual attached to an object other than the third animal individual, generating a motion pattern that generates fourth time series data that has a high degree of synchronization with the acquired third time series data (coherence value is higher than a predetermined value), and then having the object other than the third animal individual perform the motion of the motion pattern. Here, the object other than the third animal individual is not limited to the fourth animal individual, but may be a robot, a virtual character, etc. The method of increasing affinity of the present invention is expected to improve low affinity between animals or between an animal individual and a robot or virtual character by performing motions that increase affinity obtained from the above findings. Correlation data between motion and coherence can also be used to control the motion of, for example, a pet robot, a companion robot, a care robot, a virtual character, etc. Specifically, a robot or virtual character acquires third time-series data related to the movements of an individual animal such as a human (facial expressions, blinking, head direction, vocalization, etc.) using a sensor (third sensor) such as a 3D camera, light sensor, touch sensor, angle sensor, sound sensor, distance sensor, or odor sensor, generates a movement pattern (posture, voice quality, facial expressions, etc.) that has high coherence with the third time-series data, and makes the robot or virtual character perform the movement pattern. It is preferable to perform this movement so that the phase difference is small. This makes it possible for the individual animal such as a human to feel warmth toward the robot or virtual character and have a good impression of it. Note that artificial intelligence (AI) or the like can also be used for the calculation of this movement generation.

Next, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples. However, the present invention is not limited to these examples.

For six dogs that had been affected by the earthquake and tsunami, we used an acceleration sensor to measure the movements (frequency) of the humans (owners) and dogs (pet dogs) going for walks over a period of three months from the time they were first kept.

When the owner first started keeping the affected dog, as shown in Figure 1, the acceleration spectrum of both the human (owner) and the dog (pet dog) was not stable, and the coherence was low at all frequencies.
After three months of care, the acceleration spectrum of the human (owner) and the dog (pet dog) began to show high coherence (white band) at a frequency of about 2 Hz, as shown in Figure 2. The dog (pet dog) showed a tendency to follow the actions of its owner.
In addition, when a person other than the owner (one who had low affinity to the dog) took the dog out for a walk, the coherence detected was low at all frequencies, similar to that shown in Figure 1.
From these findings, it can be said that as the affinity (attachment) between a human (owner) and a dog (pet dog) increases, the degree of synchronization (coherence value) of the time series data increases.

The frequency of about 2 Hz is the central frequency of delta waves, which are said to be related to slow wave sleep (non-REM sleep). Movement at this frequency is thought to be related to the ease of human movement. For example, it is known that humans walk at a rhythm of about 2 Hz, with a walking rate of about 1.9 steps per second when walking freely. There is also knowledge that muscle tone is reduced by continuing small amplitude passive movement at 2 Hz (Tanaka On et al., "Study on Exercise Therapy for Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction (Sympathetic Nervous System Dominant State)," 50th Japan Physical Therapy Academic Conference). It is suggested that improving affinity with dogs affects the autonomic nervous system, such as changing parasympathetic nervous activity and reducing muscle tone, so the present invention is expected to help maintain or improve the health of humans, pets, companion animals, and livestock.

Claims (4)

acquiring third time series data relating to a movement of a third animal individual using a third sensor that is attached to the robot or the virtual character and that is capable of acquiring third time series data relating to a movement of a third animal individual;
Calculating fourth time series data having a coherence value higher than a predetermined value according to the cross-correlation function for the acquired third time series data, and generating a movement pattern related to the posture, voice quality or facial expression resulting from the fourth time series data; and
and making a robot or a virtual character perform the movement of the movement pattern so that a phase difference related to a cross-correlation function of time-series data generated by the movement of the movement pattern with respect to third time-series data becomes smaller than a predetermined value .
A method for controlling a robot or virtual character . The control method of claim 1 , wherein the coherence value is at the center frequency of delta waves. The control method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the third sensor is a 3D camera, a light sensor, a touch sensor, an angle sensor, a sound sensor, a distance sensor or an odor sensor. The control method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the third sensor is an angle sensor .

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