JPH06343669A - Stick for ocular handicapped - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a stick which permits a visual handicapped person to simply and accurately discern whether any obstacle exists on the road, for example a step, or signs, etc., on the road surface. CONSTITUTION:A stick concerned 2 is equipped in its middle with a removable sensor part 10 which is to sense any step on the road or a sign as pedestrian guide laid on the road surface. At the grip 4 positioned at the top, the stick 2 is also equipped with an inducing switch 14, power switch 16, and earphone jack 18, and also a vibrator is installed therein. The sensor part 10 includes an ultrasonic sensor to sense the distance from the road surface and judges that there is a step on the road in case of rapid change of the distance, and also includes a color judging sensor to sense a sign as pedestrian guide laid on the road surface and judges eventual dislocation from the sign. The sensor part 10 gives an audio signal representing the result from judging to the earphone jack 18 and informs the user of the judgement result by means of vibrating the vibrator.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a walking stick for the visually impaired, which assists the walking of the visually impaired.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, visually impaired people walk on public roads by hitting the tip of a cane with a walking path to check for steps and obstacles. In addition, there are sidewalks on which yellow display objects with unevenness are laid in order to assist the visually impaired to walk.
A visually impaired person walks while checking the displayed object with the tip of the cane and the sole of the foot.

[0003]

However, there is a limit in checking the presence or absence of a step, an obstacle, a display object on the road surface, etc. by using the conventional cane. In particular, on a sidewalk unknown to the visually impaired, it is extremely difficult to walk with a conventional cane because it is impossible to guess the steps and corners of the road surface, and even if it is possible to walk, it is possible to walk only at an extremely low speed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and is a cane for visually impaired persons who can visually and easily confirm the presence or absence of a step or an obstacle, or a display object on the road surface. Is intended to provide.

[0005]

The invention according to claim 1 made in order to achieve such an object is a walking stick for the visually impaired, which assists the walking of the visually impaired, and a grip for holding at one end. A rod-shaped cane body in which a portion is formed, and a road surface state detecting means that is detachably attached to an intermediate portion from the grip portion of the cane body to the other tip portion and that detects a predetermined road surface state of a walking path, And a notification unit that is built in the grip portion of the cane body and that notifies the detection result of the road surface state detection unit by vibration.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the cane for the visually impaired according to the first aspect, the road surface state detecting means emits an electromagnetic wave or a sound wave to the road surface in front of the walking path, and from the reflected wave. It is characterized in that it is provided with distance measuring means for measuring the distance to the road surface in front of the walking path, and first judging means for judging the presence or absence of a step or an obstacle based on the measurement result by the distance measuring means. .

The invention according to claim 3 is the cane for the visually impaired according to claim 1 or claim 1, wherein the road surface state detecting means detects the road surface color for detecting the color in front of the walking path. It is characterized in that it is provided with a detecting means and a second judging means for judging the presence or absence of a display object for walking guidance laid on a walking path based on the detection result of the road surface color detecting means.

[0008]

In the cane for the visually impaired according to claim 1 configured as described above, a predetermined road surface condition of the walking path is provided in the intermediate portion from the grip portion to the tip portion of the cane body. A road surface state detecting means for detecting is detachably attached, and an informing means built in the grip portion of the cane body informs the road surface state detected by the road surface state detecting means by vibration.

Therefore, according to the cane for the visually impaired person of claim 1, the road surface condition of the walking path detected by the road surface condition detecting means is directly transmitted as vibration to the hand through the grip portion. Therefore, the visually impaired person can quickly detect the road surface condition from the vibration.

Further, in the walking stick for the visually impaired according to the present invention, the road surface state detecting means first measures the distance to the road surface in front of the walking path by the distance measuring means, and the judging means determines the step or the step based on the measurement result. Determine the presence of obstacles. Therefore, with the cane for the visually handicapped person according to the second aspect, the visually impaired person can quickly know the step or the obstacle on the road surface from the vibration of the grip portion.

Next, in the cane for the visually impaired according to claim 3, the road surface state detecting means first detects the color in front of the walking path by the road surface color detecting means, and the second judging means detects the color. Based on the result, it is determined whether or not there is a walking guide display object laid on the walking path. Therefore, with the visually impaired walking stick according to claim 3, the visually impaired person can easily confirm the walking guide display object laid on the walkway from the vibration of the grip portion. You can walk along exactly.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 shows an overall structure of a cane for visually impaired persons (hereinafter simply referred to as a cane) 2 of an embodiment to which the present invention is applied, and (a) is a perspective view showing the entire cane 2, (b) ) Is an exploded perspective view thereof.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cane 2 of this embodiment has a first cane portion 6 having a grip portion 4 for holding by a user at an upper end thereof, and a lower portion of the first cane portion 6. It is composed of a second cane portion 8 connected to the tip. Here, the second cane portion 8 is made of a rod having a diameter smaller than that of the first cane portion 6, and its upper end has a connection protruding from the lower end of the first cane portion 6. A male screw portion 8 a for connecting the second cane portion 8 to the first cane portion 6 is projectingly provided by being screwed into a screw hole (not shown) formed in the portion 12. Further, a cap 8b for covering and reinforcing the periphery of the second cane portion 8 is attached to the lower end of the second cane portion 8.

Next, the connecting portion 12 projecting from the lower tip of the first cane portion 6 is formed to have substantially the same diameter as that of the first cane portion 6, around which the road surface state detecting means is provided. Is provided with a protrusion 12a for removably fixing the sensor unit 10, and an electrode 12b for supplying power to the sensor unit 10 from a rod-shaped battery (not shown) and for extracting an output signal from the sensor unit 10. . Also, the first cane portion 6
Has a hollow cylindrical shape so that the battery can be inserted inside by removing the lid 6a. The sensor unit 10 is for detecting a step on the road surface and a walking guide display object laid on the road surface.

Next, a large number of ridges for preventing slippage are formed around the grip 4, and the upper end face of the ridge is formed.
An induction switch 14 that switches whether or not the road surface is detected by the sensor unit 10 and a power switch 16 that disconnects and connects the power supply to the sensor unit 10 are provided, and the detection result of the sensor unit 10 is notified by voice. There is provided an earphone jack 18 for. Further, the grip portion 4 has a built-in vibrator 42 (see FIG. 4) that vibrates the grip portion 4 itself in order to notify the user of the detection result of the sensor portion 10 by vibration.

The inductive switch 14 and the power switch 16 are push-button type switches whose projection amount is switched according to their on / off states. Also,
As the vibrator 42, for example, an eccentric motor in which a weight eccentric to the rotation shaft of the electric motor is provided to generate vibration by the rotation of the electric motor, a piezoelectric element that expands and contracts according to an applied voltage, or the like can be used.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2 showing the lower end face of the sensor section 10, a transmitting ultrasonic microphone (hereinafter simply referred to as transmitting element) 22 for outputting ultrasonic waves in the lower tip direction of the walking stick 2 and a transmitting element. Ultrasonic waves output from 22 impinge on the road surface and are reflected by the ultrasonic waves for reception, which converts the ultrasonic waves into an electric signal (hereinafter simply referred to as a receiving element).
24, and a color discrimination sensor 26 that receives incident light from the lower tip side of the cane 2 and discriminates its color component.

Then, these transmitting element 22 and receiving element 2
4, and the color discrimination sensor 26, as shown in FIG. 3 showing a cross section taken along the line XX in FIG. 2, a hollow conical housing 20 having an insertion hole 20a for inserting the connecting portion 12 in the central portion. It is fixed inside. That is, the hollow disk-shaped substrate 30 is fixed in the housing 20, and the transmitting element 22, the receiving element 24, and the color discrimination sensor 2 are fixed.
6 is positioned and fixed between the substrate 30 and the lid 31 that closes the lower opening of the housing 20 via the holders 25 and 27 while being connected to the substrate 30.

As shown in FIG. 2, the holder 25 secures the transmission / reception characteristics of the transmission element 22 and the reception element 24 by simultaneously holding and positioning the transmission element 22 and the reception element 24. Next, the housing 20
A spiral groove 21 is formed in the insertion hole 20a of the above, and the protrusion 12a formed in the connecting portion 12 is fitted into this groove 21 and the housing 20 is rotated. The cane portion 6 can be firmly fixed. In addition, the insertion hole 20a of the housing 20
When the sensor unit 10 is fixed to the first cane unit 6,
An electrode 28 connected to the electrode 12b formed in the connecting portion 12 at the fixed position is provided, and the substrate 30 inside the housing 20 is provided with the electrode 28 so that the first cane portion 6 is interposed therebetween.
Is connected to the battery, the induction switch 14, the earphone jack 18, and the vibrator 42 provided in the.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, on the substrate 30, in addition to the ultrasonic sensor 32 composed of the transmitting element 22 and the receiving element 24 and the color discrimination sensor 26, the ultrasonic sensor 32 is used for a sensor section. A distance detection circuit 34 for detecting the distance from 10 to the road surface, a color detection circuit 36 for generating a detection signal representing the color of the road surface from the current flowing through the color discrimination sensor 26, and an output signal from each of these detection circuits 36. Detecting a step on the road surface and a display object laid on the road surface, and outputting a control signal according to the detection result, and a voice synthesis for generating a voice signal according to the control signal output from the control circuit 38. A container 40 is provided. The voice signal generated by the voice synthesizer 40 is output to the earphone jack 18 provided on the first cane unit 6.

The control circuit 38 not only outputs a control signal to the voice synthesizer 40, but also outputs a control signal to the vibrator 42 incorporated in the first cane portion 6 (specifically, the grip portion 4). Then, the vibrator 42 is driven. Further, the control circuit 38 receives not only the detection signals from the detection circuits 34 and 26 but also a signal indicating the on / off state of the induction switch 14.

Here, the color discrimination sensor 26 has three primary color filters which respectively pass the red (R), green (G) and blue (B) light components of the incident light, and R which has passed through these three primary color filters. , G, B are respectively received, and a current corresponding to the amount of received light is passed, and photodiodes 26R, 26G, 2 shown in FIG.
6B and a well-known color detection circuit 3B.
As shown in FIG. 5, reference numeral 6 denotes each of these photodiodes 2.
6R, 26G, 26B color component detection circuits, that is, red component detection circuit 36R, green component detection circuit 36G,
It is configured by a blue component detection circuit 36G.

Further, each color component detection circuit 36R, 3
6G and 36B are the photodiodes 26R and 2B, respectively.
It is configured by a so-called photovoltaic circuit including an operational amplifier that converts the current flowing in 6G and 26B into a voltage signal and an amplifier circuit that amplifies the voltage signal.

For this reason, the color detection circuit 36 outputs a voltage signal corresponding to the three primary color components of the incident light, and the control circuit 38 uses this signal to color the color of the road surface located in the tip direction of the cane 2. Is recognized, and a display object for guiding a walking path laid on the road surface is detected. Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the distance detection circuit 34 that detects the distance from the sensor unit 10 to the road surface using the ultrasonic sensor 32 includes a reference oscillation circuit 50 that generates a signal of a predetermined frequency and a reference oscillation circuit. A timing control circuit 52 for adjusting the timing of generating ultrasonic waves in the transmission element 22 based on the oscillation signal from the circuit 50.
And a modulation circuit 54 that generates a predetermined ultrasonic wave from the transmission element 22 by modulating the output signal from the timing control circuit 52 and outputs the modulated signal to the transmission element 22, and an amplification that amplifies the reception signal from the reception element 24. Circuit 56,
A filter circuit 58 that extracts only a predetermined ultrasonic component from the received signal amplified by the amplifier circuit 56, and an amplifier circuit 60 that amplifies the received signal that has passed through the filter circuit 58.
And a detection circuit 62 for detecting the reception signal amplified by the amplification circuit 60, and a delay pulse indicating a phase difference between the transmission timing of the ultrasonic wave by the timing control circuit 52 and the reception timing of the ultrasonic wave detected by the detection circuit 62. V
This is a well-known circuit including a delay pulse generating circuit 64 for generating P. Therefore, the distance detection circuit 34 outputs a pulse signal VP having a pulse width corresponding to the time required for the ultrasonic waves to reciprocate between the sensor unit 10 and the road surface.

Next, the control circuit 38 which receives the output signals VR, VG, VB and VP from the distance detection circuit 34 and the color detection circuit 36 is composed of a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, etc.
It is composed of a chip microcomputer and operates as shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the control process executed by the control circuit 38 every predetermined time (several msec.).

As shown in FIG. 7, first in step 110, the control circuit 38 calculates the distance L from the sensor unit 10 to the road surface from the pulse width of the pulse signal VP output from the distance detection circuit 34. Then, in a succeeding step 120, a deviation between the calculated distance L and the previously obtained distance L (i-1) is calculated as a distance change amount ΔL, and in a succeeding step 130, the calculated change amount ΔL. It is determined whether or not the absolute value of exceeds the preset upper limit value Lmax.

The absolute value of the change amount ΔL is the upper limit value Lma.
If it exceeds x, it is determined that there is a step on the road surface, and voice data for step warning for notifying by voice that there is a step on the road surface is output to the voice synthesizer 40, and
A step warning drive signal for notifying that there is a step on the road surface by a predetermined vibration is output to the vibrator 42. Then, the voice synthesizer 40 generates a voice signal for generating a synthetic sound such as "There is a step on the road surface. Please be careful.", And the vibrator 42 vibrates at a predetermined cycle representing the step.

Next, after executing the processing of step 140,
Alternatively, when it is determined in step 130 that the absolute value of the change amount ΔL is less than or equal to the upper limit value Lmax, the process proceeds to step 150 and it is determined whether or not the induction switch 14 is in the ON state. Then, if the induction switch 14 is not in the ON state, the processing is ended as it is, and the induction switch 1
If No. 4 is on, the process proceeds to the following step 160.

In step 160, color data C representing the color of the road surface is created based on the output signals VR, VG, VB from the color detection circuit 36. Then, in the following step 170, the color of the road surface detected by the color discrimination sensor 26 is determined according to whether or not the color data C is within a predetermined range set in advance, and the color of the road surface detected in advance is displayed for sidewalk guidance. The color data C is determined by determining whether or not the color corresponds to the color of the object (for example, yellow).
If is within the set range, the color of the road surface corresponds to the color of the display object, and the user is walking along the display object, and the process ends.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step 170 that the color data C is not within the set range and the color of the road surface does not correspond to the color of the display object, the user walks along the display object. If not, the process proceeds to step 180 to output the route deviation warning voice data for notifying the effect by voice to the voice synthesizer 40 and to notify the route deviation by a predetermined vibration. The drive signal for the route deviation warning is output to the vibrator 42. Then, the voice synthesizer 40 generates a voice signal for generating a synthetic sound such as "out of guide display on the road surface. Please be careful.", And the vibrator 42 detects a step difference indicating a path deviation. It vibrates in a different cycle from.

Then, in step 180, after the warning of the deviation of the route is given, the processing is ended, and after the elapse of a predetermined time, the processing after step 110 is restarted. As described above, according to the cane 2 for the visually impaired of the present embodiment, the sensor unit 10 provided at the middle portion of the cane 2 displays the step on the road surface and the walking guide display object laid on the road surface. If the road surface is detected and the displayed object cannot be detected, an alarm indicating the fact can be notified by vibration and voice.

Therefore, the cane 2 for the visually impaired according to the present embodiment can promptly inform the user of a step on the road surface or a deviation from the walking guide display object, and safety during walking. Can be improved. Further, the sensor unit 10 is
Since it is detachable from the cane 2, the sensor unit 10 can be removed to lighten the cane 2 when such a function is unnecessary, and the voice signal from the voice synthesizer 40 can be directly input to the earphone or the like. By doing so, the sensor unit 10
It is also possible to use only one.

In this embodiment, when the road surface color detected by the color discrimination sensor 26 is different from the color of the display object, the deviation from the display object is notified. It is also possible to generate a constant vibration and a constant guide sound while detecting, and increase the vibration or generate an alarm sound as the color deviates from the color of the display object. In this case, walking guidance along the displayed object can be performed more reliably.

In this embodiment, only the voice signal representing the alarm sound is input to the earphone jack 18. For example, the cane 2 has a built-in microphone for converting ambient sound into a voice signal. An alarm sound emitted from an emergency vehicle or the like is extracted from the audio signal, and the earphone jack 1
By inputting in 8, the user can be informed of an external situation such as passage of an ambulance vehicle and the safety can be further improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an overall configuration of a cane for the visually impaired according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a state where the sensor unit 10 is viewed from below the cane.

3 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal configuration of the sensor unit 10. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the sensor unit 10.

FIG. 5 is an electric circuit diagram showing configurations of a color discrimination sensor and a color detection circuit.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of a distance detection circuit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process executed by a control circuit.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Cane for the visually impaired 4 ... Grip part 6 ... First cane part 8 ... Second cane part 10 ... Sensor part 14 ... Induction switch 16 ... Power switch 18 ... Earphone jack 22 ... Ultrasonic microphone for transmission Element) 24 ... Reception ultrasonic microphone (reception element) 26
... Color discrimination sensor 30 ... Substrate 32 ... Ultrasonic sensor 34 ... Distance detection circuit 36 ... Color detection circuit 38 ... Control circuit 40 ... Voice synthesizer 42 ... Transducer

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A cane for the visually impaired that assists the visually impaired to walk, and a rod-shaped cane body having a grip for holding at one end, and a tip from the grip to the other end of the cane body. The road surface condition detecting means that is detachably attached to the middle part up to the road part and detects the predetermined road surface condition of the walking path, and the detection result by the road surface condition detecting means that is built in the grip part of the cane body and notifies by vibration. A walking stick for the visually impaired, characterized by comprising: 2. A road surface condition detecting means emits an electromagnetic wave or a sound wave to the road surface and measures a distance from the reflected wave to the road surface, and a step or an obstacle based on the measurement result by the distance measuring means. The wand for the visually impaired according to claim 1, further comprising: first determining means for determining the presence or absence of. 3. The road surface state detecting means determines the color of the road surface, and based on the detection result of the road surface color detecting means, determines whether or not there is a walking guide display object laid on the walkway. The wand for the visually impaired according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: