JPH06142061A - Thermometer for temperature of eardrum - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a thermometer for the temperature of an eardrum which enables use among a wide range of users by allowing not only display in characters but also the reporting of a temperature value in voice by the selection by users. CONSTITUTION:An internal voice generating section (internal speaker) 13 is provided inside a probe 2 together with a temperature sensing section 12. The internal voice generating section 13 notifies a user alone of a temperature value measured by voice. An LCD15, a changeover switch 16 and an external voice generating section (speaker) 17 are provided on the surface of a main body 4. The temperature value measured is displayed on the LCD15. An external voice generating section 17 vocally notifies the outside of the display contents of the LCD15. The changeover switch 16 selects three types of modes, that is, mode (A) using the internal voice generating section 13 in the probe 2, mode (B) using the external voice generating section 17 in the main body 4 and mode (C) making no vocal notification.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an eardrum thermometer for detecting a user's body temperature by detecting infrared rays emitted from the eardrum and the ear canal in the vicinity of the eardrum.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Since the temperature inside the eardrum and the ear canal around the eardrum reflects the core temperature of the human body in comparison with the conventional temperature under the armpit or the temperature in the mouth, recently, various eardrum thermometers have been used. Being developed. Since this eardrum thermometer is inserted into the ear canal to detect infrared rays emitted from the eardrum and the ear canal in the vicinity thereof, the measurement can be performed easily in a short time.

By the way, the eardrum thermometer has a structure in which a sensor to be inserted into the ear canal and a main body are divided, or a structure in which the both are integrated. Characters are displayed by light emitting diodes (LEDs).

[0004]

However, this type of eardrum thermometer has a wide range of users such as patients, infants, the elderly, and blind persons, and at night, there are people who only need to display characters such as liquid crystals. When the measurement is performed in the dark, or when the person is visually impaired, such as an old person or a blind person, the character display alone is not sufficient.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its purpose is not only to display characters, but also to notify the body temperature value by voice according to the user's selection, which can be used by a wide range of users. To provide a thermometer.

[0006]

The eardrum thermometer according to the present invention comprises a body temperature display means for displaying a measured body temperature value, a first mode of a voice level in which the body temperature value is heard only by a user, or the body temperature. A voice notification means for performing voice notification in a second mode of a voice level at which a value can be heard by a third party, and an output mode is either the first mode or the second mode or the third mode in which no voice is output. And mode setting means for setting.

With such a structure, the eardrum thermometer according to the present invention is effective not only when used in the dark at night but also for the visually impaired because the measured temperature value is notified by voice in addition to the character display. Is. Further, at this time, by setting the voice level to the first mode, the third party does not hear, so that no trouble is caused. Further, since each mode can be switched by the mode setting means, it can be effectively used by a wide range of users such as deaf people.

Further, in the eardrum thermometer of the present invention, it is preferable to notify the body temperature value together with the diagnostic result of this body temperature value. With such a configuration, it becomes easy to use especially for infants and the like.

[0009]

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

FIG. 2 shows a schematic structure of an eardrum thermometer according to an embodiment of the present invention. This eardrum thermometer 1 has a probe 2 that is inserted into the ear canal of the user and worn.
And a body 4 electrically connected to the probe 2 via a lead wire 3.

The probe 2 has a cylindrical infrared incident portion 11 formed on the front surface of its housing 10. The infrared incident portion 1 has a cylindrical shape.
A temperature sensing unit 12 and an internal sound generating unit (internal speaker) 13 for detecting infrared rays are provided in the back of the unit 1. The internal voice generating unit 13 notifies the body temperature value measured in the user's ear canal and the basic comment on the measurement, and the notification voice of the internal voice generating unit 13 does not leak to a third party other than the user. ing.

A power switch 14, a liquid crystal display (LCD) 15 as a display unit, a changeover switch 16 and an external sound generating unit (speaker) 17 are provided on the surface of the main body 4. Along with the measured body temperature value, the LCD 15 displays characters of various comments to be described later. The external voice generation unit 17 is a unit that notifies the display content of the LCD 15 by voice, in addition to the user himself / herself. The changeover switch 16 is one of three modes: a mode (A) in which the internal voice generator 13 in the probe 2 is used, a mode (B) in which the external voice generator 17 is used, or a mode (C) in which no voice notification is given. This is a switch for selecting. Although not shown, a battery as a power source for each unit is provided inside the main body 4.

FIG. 1 shows the structure of the internal circuit of the main body 4. A CPU (central processing unit) 20 is provided in the main body 4. A ROM (Read Only Memory) 21 and a RAM are provided to the CPU 20 via a data bus.
A (random access memory) 22 is connected to store various data and control the system. The ROM 21 is written with a program executed by the CPU 20, which will be described later, as well as comments of contents to be transmitted to the user. The RAM 22 is a memory for temporarily writing data and the like measured by the temperature sensing unit 12 and performing the arithmetic processing thereof. The output signal (analog signal) of the temperature sensing unit 12 is amplified by the amplifier 23 to a predetermined level in the CPU 20, and is further converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 24 and then taken in. . CP
U20 receives this input signal and calculates a body temperature value based on the program written in ROM21.

A mode signal indicating the mode A to C selected by the user at the changeover switch 16 is input to the CPU 20, and the CPU 20 outputs the calculated data according to the mode A to C in the LCD driver 25.
Alternatively, the data is output to the D / A converter 26.
That is, when the mode A or the mode B is selected by the changeover switch 16, the CPU 20 outputs the data to both the LCD driver 25 and the D / A converter 26. The LCD driver 25 receives the output signal of the CPU 20 and causes the LCD 15 to display the measured body temperature value. Further, the D / A converter 26 converts the output signal (digital signal) of the CPU 20 into an analog signal. This analog signal is amplified by the amplifier 27 after the mode A is selected, and then amplified by the amplifier 28 when the mode B is selected. The generation unit 17 notifies each as a voice.

Since the sound vibration output from the internal sound generator 13 is propagated to the external auditory meatus via the housing 10, the sound output may be small if the probe 2 is attached to the external auditory meatus. Therefore, there is no fear of inconvenience to a third party other than the user, and the power consumption of the power supply (battery) can be saved.

Next, the operation of the eardrum thermometer of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. 3 and 4.

First, the user turns on the power switch 14 and switches the selection switch 16 to select the notification modes A to C, and also mounts the probe 2 on the ear. CPU
A power signal is input to 20 (step S100; Y).
Then, it is determined whether the notification mode is A to C (step S101). When the notification mode is A or B, the CPU 20 determines whether or not the probe 2 is mounted in the normal state (step S102). When the probe 2 is not mounted normally (N), the LCD driver 25 is instructed. A drive signal is output to cause the LCD 15 to display a warning message, for example, "Sensor is not mounted properly. Please mount it again" (step S103). Whether or not the probe 2 is normally attached can be determined by, for example, measuring the temperature rise and determining whether or not there is a temperature change above a certain temperature within a predetermined time. When the notification mode is A (step S104; Y), this comment is output as a voice from the internal voice generator 13 on the probe 2 side (step S105). When the notification mode is B (step S104; N), a comment is output from the external voice generator 17 on the main body 4 side (step S106).

When the probe 2 is normally attached (step S102; Y), the CPU 20 causes the temperature sensing section 12 of the probe 2 to start measurement (step S107). During this measurement, the CPU 20 causes the internal voice generating unit 13 or the external voice generating unit 17 to output a voice comment, for example, "I am measuring now." (Step S108). Then, when the measurement ends after a certain period of time (step S109; Y), the CPU 20 calculates the body temperature of the user based on the data (step S110),
This body temperature value, for example "36.54 ° C", is displayed on the LCD
Is displayed (step S111). Also, the CPU 20
Determines whether the notification mode is A or B (step S112), and if the notification mode is mode A (Y), the internal voice generating unit 13 outputs this temperature by voice (step S113). When the mode is B (step S11)
2; N) is output from the external voice generator 17 (step S114). When the voice output is completed (step S115; Y), the CPU 20 ends the measurement operation.

If the CPU 20 determines in step 101 that the mode is C (N), it does not perform voice output but only displays characters. That is, similarly to step S102, it is determined whether or not the probe 2 is normally attached (FIG. 4, step S116),
If not normally attached (N), the comment is displayed on the LCD 15 (step S117). When the probe 2 is normally attached (step S116;
In Y), the CPU 20 causes the temperature sensing unit 12 to start measurement (step S118), and when the measurement ends (step S118).
119; Y)), the CPU 20 calculates the user's body temperature based on the data (step S120), and this body temperature value is set to L.
It is displayed on the CD 15 (step S121).

As described above, in the eardrum thermometer according to the present embodiment, only the voice notification mode A from the internal voice generator 13, the voice notification mode B from the external voice generator 17, or the character display by the LCD 15 is selected by the user. Each mode of mode C can be freely selected. Therefore, especially when used in the dark at night or for a visually handicapped person, selecting the voice notification mode A from the internal voice generating unit 13 facilitates the measurement of the body temperature. At this time, the sound from the internal sound generating unit 13 is directly propagated to the eardrum of the user, so a small output is sufficient. Therefore, it does not bother a sleeping third party and saves power for the power supply. On the other hand, when the voice notification mode B from the external voice generating unit 17 is selected, a third person such as a nurse can hear the body temperature and the contents of the comment.

Further, in the case of such voice notification modes A and B, there is also an advantage that the user is not annoyed by the waiting time because the voice comment is heard during the measurement.

Further, some users may be deaf, and in such a case, it is possible to select the mode C only for displaying characters.

The present invention has been described with reference to the examples.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but can be variously modified without changing the gist thereof. For example, in the above embodiment, only the measured body temperature value is displayed on the LCD 15.
Although it is displayed on the screen or notified by voice, this may also perform diagnosis as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 5, and the diagnosis result may be displayed by characters or notified by voice.

That is, the CPU 20 calculates the body temperature value X (step S200), and then determines whether or not the body temperature value X is within the normal range (X <37 ° C) (step S20).
1) If it is in the normal range (Y), the LCD 15 displays the characters “normal range” and outputs the sound “normal” to the internal sound generator 13 or the external sound generator 17 ( Step S202). If it is not within the normal range (step S201; N), the CPU 20 determines whether or not the body temperature value X is within the low heat range (X <38 ° C) (step S203), and if it is within the low heat range (Y). )
Is displayed on the LCD 15 with the text "light heat", and the internal sound generator 13 or the external sound generator 17 is caused to output a sound "light heat" (step S20).
4). When the temperature is not within the low heat range (step S203; N), the CPU 20 determines that the body temperature X is in the high heat range (X <40 °).
If it is in the high heat range (Y), the character display of "high heat" is displayed and the voice of "high heat" is output (step S206). If it is not in the high heat range (step S20)
5) N), the CPU 20 determines that the body temperature value X is in the dangerous range, displays the word "danger", and
Output the "dangerous" voice (step S20)
7).

As described above, the eardrum thermometer according to the present embodiment outputs the diagnosis result in characters and voice in addition to the body temperature, so that it is easy to understand and effective especially when used by an infant.

In addition, such a character display of the diagnosis result is
It may be displayed in different colors such as blue for "normal" and red for "dangerous".

Further, in the above embodiment, the probe 2
Although the thermometer of the type in which the main body 4 and the main body 4 are separated and connected by the lead wire 3 has been described, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a thermometer of the type in which both are integrated.

[0028]

As described above, according to the eardrum thermometer according to the first aspect of the present invention, the measured body temperature value is displayed in letters and is notified by voice, so that it is used in the dark at night. Etc. can be effectively used. In addition, since each mode of the mode of low voice output, the mode of high voice output, and the mode that does not output voice can be arbitrarily selected, a wide range of users can effectively use the mode. In particular, in the case of an infant, the insertion into the ear canal is likely to be incomplete, but setting the mode in which the audio output is large has an advantage that the parent can easily understand the comment without paying attention to the display.

Further, in the eardrum thermometer according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the body temperature value and the diagnosis result of the body temperature value are also reported, it is easy to use, especially for infants and the like, and more effective use is aimed at. The effect is that you can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of an eardrum thermometer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the outer appearance of the eardrum thermometer shown in FIG. 1 with a partial cross section.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the eardrum thermometer of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the eardrum thermometer of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the eardrum thermometer according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 tympanic thermometer 2 sensor 3 lead wire 4 main body 11 temperature sensing section 13 internal voice output section (internal speaker) 14 power switch 15 LCD (display section) 16 changeover switch 20 CPU (central processing unit) 21 ROM (read only) Memory) 22 RAM (random access memory)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A tympanic thermometer for detecting body temperature by detecting infrared rays emitted from the eardrum and the ear canal in the vicinity of the eardrum, and a body temperature display means for displaying the measured body temperature value and only the user can hear the body temperature value. A voice notification means for performing voice notification in a first mode of a voice level or a second mode of a voice level in which the body temperature value can be heard by a third party, and an output mode of the first mode or the second mode or A tympanic thermometer, comprising: a mode setting means for setting one of the third modes in which no sound is output. 2. The voice notification means, together with a body temperature value,
The eardrum thermometer according to claim 1, wherein the diagnosis result of the body temperature value is also notified.