JPH02170019A - Volume measuring instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To calculate the fat rate of a person to be measured according to a correction value or volume when the volume of the object of measurement is calculated by arranging at least one of a height meter, a weight meter, and temperature sensors in a container which forms a resonance space and outputting their output signals to a measuring instrument main body. CONSTITUTION:The person M to be measured is put in the container which forms the resonance space and whose capacity is already known, and a speaker 5 oscillates a sound, whose resonance frequency is measured to find the capacity of the object person M. In the container, the weight meter 20, height meter 21, and temperature sensors 22a - 22c are provided and their measurement results are inputted to the measuring instrument 4. The measuring instrument 4 is utilized to calculate the capacity of the object person M for the principal purpose of measurement and also find secondary information on the fat rate, corpulence rate, etc., of the person M to be measured according to the found capacity by using the input height signal HS, temperature signal TS, and weight signal WS as correction values at the time of the calculation of the volume of the object of measurement.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a device for measuring the volume of an object, which has been difficult to measure in the past. The present invention relates to a device for accurately and safely measuring objects without causing pain to the object to be measured.

[Conventional technology]

There are several methods for measuring the body composition of the human body, such as body fat percentage, but in order to make measurements relatively accurate, one must first measure the volume of the human body and use that volume to determine a certain amount. A commonly used method is to calculate body composition using the following formula:

That is, the weight and volume of an object (hereinafter explained using a "human body" as an example) are determined, the density of the human body is calculated from the ratio, and then, using the formula obtained in advance through experiments, the calculated density is used to calculate, for example, body fat. Methods to obtain body composition such as body composition are used.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

When carrying out the above method, it is possible to easily and accurately measure the weight of the object, that is, the body weight, but there are many problems in measuring the human body volume using any of the currently used measurement methods.

A method of measuring the volume of a human body is to completely immerse the human body in a container full of water and measure the amount of water that overflows (usually by measuring the amount of water needed to refill the container after flooding). There are two methods: one method involves suspending a human body while immersing it in water, then determining buoyancy by comparing the measured underwater weight with the weight in the atmosphere, and then calculating the volume from that buoyancy. However, these methods require the human body to be completely submerged in the water, and in order to accurately measure the weight in the water, the lungs should be kept as low as possible to prevent the air in the lungs from acting as buoyancy when submerged in the water. The measurement subjects were forced into harsh conditions, as they had to take a breather and the measurement time took several tens of minutes, and there were also problems with the safety of the work.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention was constructed in view of the problems of the prior art shown above, and it forms a container constituting a certain closed space of known volume, and provides some kind of protection to the closed space of the container. The volume of the object to be measured is obtained as primary information by utilizing the fact that there is a certain correspondence between the means for causing resonance, the change in the residual volume of the closed space, and the change in the resonant frequency. This device consists of a device that obtains other secondary information such as body fat percentage based on the measured volume. With this configuration, by placing a measurement object such as a human body in the closed space and measuring the resonant frequency of that space, the volume of the object such as the human body and the volume of body fat etc. can be determined based on the measured volume. The following information is measured while the measurement target remains in the atmosphere.

[Effect]

The object to be measured is placed in a container whose volume is known in advance and whose internal space can be acoustically isolated from the outside, and sound is transmitted to this closed space via an acoustic oscillator such as a speaker while the object is housed. oscillates. The oscillated sound resonates at a frequency that corresponds to the change in volume of the remaining space excluding the volume of the measurement object stored inside, so the resonant frequency is measured and the measurement target is determined based on the measured resonance frequency. Calculate the volume.

[Technical background of the invention]

Since the apparatus of the present invention is constructed based on the following law, this law will be explained first.

When a hole is formed in a closed space to communicate the space with the outside, a resonance phenomenon occurs in the closed space. This phenomenon is known as Helmholz resonance or resonance box. That is, - When fishing on a boat, the volume of the enclosed space is ■. , the speed of sound is V, the cross-sectional area of the hole is S, and the length of the hole is! In this case, the resonance frequency W generated inside the closed space.

The relationship with can be expressed by the following equation.

In the above relationship, the known volume■. When a measurement target of unknown volume ■8 is inserted into the closed space of , the resonant frequency W
0 changes (increases). This changed resonance frequency is WX
Then, WX is the following formula %Formula % From the above formulas (■) and (2), the following formula (■) is obtained.

That is, as is clear from the above formula (■), the volume of the measurement object vX
can be determined as a function of the volume of the closed space and the resonance frequency.

Furthermore, considering the change in the atmospheric temperature of the space due to the temperature (body temperature) of the object, etc., the measurement object volume (8) can be expressed by the following equation.

Here V. is the sound velocity in the closed space before placing the measurement target,
vX each indicates the sound velocity after the measurement target is included.

Also, the speed of sound in the atmosphere is expressed by the following formula.

v0=331+0.6t (m/5eC)...■Note that t is the atmospheric temperature expressed in degrees Celsius (°C).

As is clear from the equations shown above, when a measurement object such as a human being is placed in a closed space with a certain resonance hole, the resonant frequency of the closed space before the measurement object is inserted and the resonance frequency after the measurement object is placed. The volume of the object to be measured can be determined using the above equation based on the resonant frequency of the closed space.

The present invention is a volume measuring device constructed based on the above-mentioned law, and is capable of easily and accurately measuring the volume of biological bodies, particularly human bodies, for which accurate volume measurement has been extremely difficult with conventional methods. It is a device.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 show the basic configuration of the apparatus of the present invention.

Reference numeral 1 in the figure is a container that houses the human body to be measured, and its constituent material uses a material with high acoustic insulation.

In the illustrated configuration, the box-shaped container 1 is formed using a wooden board with a thickness of about 3 cm. At the connection of each plate, packing or the like is interposed to ensure sufficient acoustic isolation at the joint. Besides this wooden board,
It is possible to use various commercially available sound insulating materials, such as a structure in which a plate made of a foamed material such as styrofoam is placed at the center and the foamed material is sandwiched between wooden plywood.

Next, the illustrated configuration is such that a human being M, who is the object of measurement, can enter it while standing. The illustrated container has an internal space depth of 50 cm, width of 50 cm, and height of 180 cm.
It is formed at c+n. 1a is the door of the container with this configuration, ■
b is a metal fitting that is tightened to improve the sealing performance of the door when the door 1a is closed.

Next, reference numeral 2 denotes a release hole (hereinafter referred to as "resonance hole J") formed in one of the side walls of the container L to communicate the inside of the container with the outside. The sides a and b of the hole are each 10 cm and 30c+n, and the depth C is 5c+n.

3 is an acoustic oscillator that communicates with the sealed space inside the container and is acoustically isolated from the external space, and this acoustic oscillator includes an acoustic oscillator such as a speaker 5, and in some cases, an acoustic oscillator such as a speaker 5. In addition, an acoustic receiving device such as a microphone is housed. Reference numeral 4 denotes the main body of the volume measuring device, which is connected to the device in the acoustic oscillation section.

FIG. 2 shows a basic example of the configuration of the measuring device.

This device uses a speaker as an acoustic oscillator, and uses the fact that the impedance of the speaker increases when resonance occurs to measure the resonant frequency without using an acoustic receiving device such as a microphone. be.

In addition to this configuration, a positive feedback loop of a feedback oscillator is formed by an oscillator that applies an acoustic signal to the speaker and a microphone that measures the sound from this speaker, and the frequency oscillated from this feedback oscillator is resonated. Possible configurations include a configuration in which the frequency is measured as a frequency, or a configuration in which the sound applying speaker is regarded as a resonator, a bridge type oscillator is configured, and the vibration frequency oscillated from this bridge type oscillator is measured as a resonant frequency. It will be done.

The configuration shown in FIG. 2 oscillates sound while changing the oscillation sound frequency from the speaker, which is an acoustic oscillator.
The configuration of an apparatus is shown in which the frequency at which the amplitude of the speaker terminal becomes maximum during the frequency change is measured and used as the resonance wave number, and the volume of the object is calculated from this frequency.

This configuration will be explained along with an example of how the device is used.

First, a person to be measured enters the sealed space of the container 1, closes the door 1a, and then seals the door 1a with the fastening fitting 1b to acoustically isolate this space from the outside. It oscillates a sound. At this time, the control circuit 6
The oscillation acoustic frequency applied to the speaker 5 is sequentially changed by the variable frequency oscillator 8 via the sweep circuit 7 in response to commands from the oscillator. On the other hand, the amplitude of the speaker terminal is constantly detected by the amplitude detector 9, and when the maximum amplitude is detected by the peak detector 10, the control circuit 6 outputs a count command for the frequency at the maximum amplitude to the frequency counter 11, 11 counts the frequency at that point. Note that the amplitude of the speaker terminal is measured by detecting the alternating current voltage of the speaker terminal with an amplitude detector. Since the amplitude is maximum at the resonance point, the maximum amplitude D1 is as shown in Fig. 3.
Based on this frequency F, that is, the resonant frequency, the arithmetic circuit 12 calculates the volume of the object to be measured, and the result is displayed on the display 13.

Next, we will specifically describe how to determine the volume of the measurement target.

First, the resonant frequency W in a state where no object to be measured is housed in the container 1. and container volume ■.

is determined in advance, and this value is stored in the memory mechanism of the main body 4 of the measuring device. Next, calculation is made from the above-mentioned relational expression using the resonant frequency WX (ie, the frequency F at the maximum amplitude in FIG. 3) when the object to be measured with the unknown volume VX is housed in the closed container 1.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the invention.

In this example, in addition to the volume of the measurement target, which is the main purpose of measurement, the obesity rate is calculated based on the volume, which is the primary information measured.
This makes it possible to obtain other secondary information such as body fat percentage.

Reference numeral 20 is a weighing scale, in which a person M to be measured is placed in a container.
Measure the weight of the person. Reference numeral 21 denotes a height meter, which is measured by the person M himself or by an attendant before closing the door of the container 1. The measurement results may be read by an operator and input into the measurement device 4, or the height meter 21 may be provided with a position sensor to directly output the measurement results as a signal to the measurement device. 22a, 22b, and 22c are temperature sensors placed at various locations inside the container 1. The height signal H3 output from each of these devices is sent to the measuring device 4.
, temperature signal TS, and weight signal WS are output. The measuring device uses these signals, for example, as correction values when calculating the volume of the measurement object, or when obtaining secondary information such as the subject's fat percentage based on the obtained volume.

The operating state of the device shown in FIG. 4 and a modification of the device will be explained using FIG. 5.

First, the volume of the person to be measured is calculated by the method described above. At this time, a height signal H3 measured by the height meter 21 and a temperature signal TS obtained by measuring the temperature inside the container are input to the intermediate processing device 30 of the measuring device. In this case, if the measurement mode of the measuring device main body 4 is switched from the r volume display j of the subject to, for example, the r fat percentage display, the central processing unit 30 will display the calculated volume of the subject (-next information). Based on this, the subject's fat percentage (secondary information) is calculated based on the body weight signal WS. At this time, information by age, gender, and person is entered into the database 31 (in the illustrated configuration, the database is built into the device, but it is of course possible to configure the device to access a database external to the device). By using type data as a correction value for fat percentage calculation, fat percentage calculation can be made more accurate.

Next, the temperature signal TS is mainly based on changes in the temperature inside the container due to heat generation of the object to be measured (data necessary to prevent the volume measurement accuracy from decreasing due to changes in the speed of sound).

That is, the temperature when nothing is stored in the container 1 is measured using the temperature sensors 22a to 22c, and the measured temperature is set as to. Next, use the same sensor to measure the temperature of the object to be measured, and let that temperature be t.The following equation can be used to correct the fluctuation of the resonance frequency due to the temperature difference during measurement, which reduces the volume measurement accuracy. can be prevented.

Next, in FIG. 5, reference numeral 33 is a music oscillation device such as a cassette table recorder. The person to be measured is housed in a closed space, so they may feel anxious when entering the container, and they may feel even more anxious when the door is closed and they are isolated from the outside world. . In this case, the music oscillator 33 is used before the immersion person enters the container.
Hack ground music (
By flowing BC, M), it is possible to stabilize the mind of the person to be measured. Furthermore, the operator of the apparatus can give appropriate instructions to the person to be measured from the microphone 34 via the speaker 5.

When preparations are completed in this manner, the mode is switched from the BGM mode to the measurement mode, and measurement sound is applied inside the container.

FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment of the invention.

This embodiment is configured so that the measurer can take measurements in a sitting position. That is, numeral 35 is a container for measuring the sitting position, and 40 is a stool on which the person M to be measured sits.

In this case, it goes without saying that the volume of the internal space of the container from which the seat is removed must be measured in advance.

Note that when the subject is in a sitting position, the height of the container is low, so it is easier for the subject to enter and exit if a door 35a is formed on the ceiling. Further, 36 is a resonance hole.

FIG. 7 shows a fourth embodiment.

In this embodiment, the container is formed so that the measurement can be performed while the person M is lying down.

Reference numeral 37 denotes a container body, which in the illustrated configuration is arranged slightly diagonally by legs 41 so as not to put strain on the person M inside. 37a is a door of the container 37, and 38 is a resonance hole formed in this door 37a.

Although not shown in the drawings, the container may be configured to be used as a sauna bath, so that volumetric body fat and the like can be measured while the person being measured takes a sauna bath.

The present invention has been described in detail above with the human body as the measurement target.
Of course, it is not intended to limit the measurement target to the human body, but by using the device of the present invention, it can be used for almost any target, such as animals and various objects, without limiting the measurement target.

〔effect〕

A means for forming a container constituting a closed space of known volume, and generating resonance by some means in the closed space of the container, and a change in the remaining volume of the closed space and resonance. It consists of a device that determines the volume of the object to be measured by utilizing a certain correspondence relationship between the change in frequency and other information such as body fat percentage based on this measured volume. By placing an object to be measured, such as a human body, in a space and measuring the resonant frequency of that space, secondary information can be obtained based on the volume of the object, such as the human body, and the measured volume, such as body fat. This device measures the volume of the object while it is still in the atmosphere, so it can measure the volume of the object to be measured and its volume safely, accurately, and in a short period of time without causing pain to the human or other biological body being measured. You can obtain secondary information based on

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the details of the configuration of the container in the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a circuit diagram showing an example of the configuration of the volume measuring device main body, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the vibration frequency and amplitude of the speaker. 4 is a diagram showing the sensor arrangement and sensor signal system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the configuration shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a container showing the fourth embodiment. 1.35.37... Container 2.36.38... Resonance hole 4... Measuring device body 5... Speaker H5...
Height measurement signal WS...Weight measurement signal TS...
・Temperature measurement signal

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) A container of known volume forming a resonant space, means for applying sound to the resonant space, means for measuring the resonant frequency of the resonant space containing the measurement object, and a method for measuring the resonant frequency and the measurement object. A volume measuring device characterized in that the volume of a measurement target is determined as primary information based on the resonance frequency of a resonance space in an unaccommodated state. (2) At least one of a height meter, a weight meter, and a temperature sensor is disposed in the container, and the measurement signals thereof are output to the main body of the measuring device. 2) Volume measuring device as described in section 2). (3) Claims (1) or (2) characterized in that at least one of a music oscillation device and a communication device such as a microphone is connected to the main body of the measuring device.
) Volume measuring device as described in paragraph 1. (4) The volume measuring device according to any one of claims (1) to (3), wherein the container is configured such that the object to be measured is accommodated in a sitting position. (5) The volume measuring device according to any one of claims (1) to (3), wherein the container is configured so that the object to be measured is accommodated in a lying state. .