JPH09253062A - Earphone type pulse sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the sense of incompatibility on appearance by irradiating a living body near an ear with light emitted from a light emitting body provided at the outer peripheral part of a holder, scattering/reflecting that light, receiving the scattered/reflected light by a light receiving element, and outputting a pulse signal corresponding to the change of blood stream in the living body. SOLUTION: At the outer periphery of intermediate part of an earplug-shaped bar-shaped holder 2 having a diameter and a length at a certain degree to be just inserted into a hole 1 of the ear while being protruded from the outside base part of the hole 1 of the ear, a light emitting body 5 and a light receiving element 6 are provided while being mutually separated for a prescribed distance and inclined so as to be turned toward the same section. Then, a hollow hole 4 having both opening terminals is formed inside the holder 2, and a sounding device 3 is provided inside a base part 10 of the holder 2. Light flux L emitted from the light emitting body 5 is infiltrated into a body H, reflected on a capillary B and scattered but the light made incident on the light receiving element 6 is affected by a change in the flow rate of blood and a signal outputted from the light receiving element 6 becomes the function of the pulse. Thus, the change of blood stream is detected by utilizing the light emitting body 5 and the light receiving element 6 and the number of pulses is measured.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an earphone type pulse sensor which is used by being thrust into an ear hole.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent game machines using a computer, a physiological signal of a player is fed back to a game development process to progress the game. A change in pulse is adopted as one of the physiological signals at this time, and the light from the light emitting body emitted by the power source is incident on the human body, and the light receiving element detects the amount of light changed by the blood flow. There is. The pulse cycle at each moment of the player is constantly measured, the physical and mental condition is judged based on the pulse rate, and the condition is displayed on the screen. The physiological signal of the player is taken out from the clothespin-shaped pulse sensor, and at this time, the clothespin-shaped pulse sensor is attached to the body so as to sandwich the earlobe or finger.

[0003]

When the conventional clothespin-shaped pulse sensor is attached to the body by pinching the earlobe or finger, it is strange and uncomfortable for a player other than the player who is not playing the game. In addition, it is a little unsightly to the player playing the game, and it is an obstacle to operating the game controller. Also,
There is a drawback in that the sensor is affected by the on / off of the screen that frequently occurs during play, and noise is generated. Further, the earlobe sensor is easily affected by external light, and the finger sensor has a drawback that it interferes with the operation of the game controller. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a pulse sensor that does not look strange and is naturally accepted by the person who uses it.

[0004]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A rod-shaped support body inserted and held in the ear hole, a sounding device provided in the support body, and a hollow hole formed in the support body and leading to a sound wave emitted from the sounding device and opened at a tip portion. In the earphone consisting of, the light-emitting body provided on the outer peripheral portion of the support and the light emitted from the light-emitting body,
An earphone type pulse sensor provided with a light receiving element that irradiates a living body near the ear and scatters / reflects the light, receives the scattered / reflected light, and outputs a pulse signal corresponding to a change in blood flow in the living body. And In the invention according to claim 2, an elastic body is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the support.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a rod-shaped support body inserted into and held in an ear hole, a light-emitting body provided on an outer peripheral portion of the support body, and light emitted from the light-emitting body An earphone type pulse sensor including a light receiving element that irradiates a living body in the vicinity to scatter / reflect, receives the scattered / reflected light, and outputs a pulse signal corresponding to a change in blood flow in the living body. . According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, an elastic body is provided on the outer peripheral portion on the base side of the support body that is not inserted into the ear hole. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a hollow hole having both ends opened for guiding a sound wave from the outside is formed in the support body. As a result, the pulse sensor has no appearance discomfort and is naturally accepted by the person using the pulse sensor.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Embodiment of the invention. In FIG.
Reference numeral 1 is an ear hole, 2 is an earplug-like rod-like support having a diameter and a length that can be inserted into the ear hole 1 by protruding from a base portion outside the ear hole, and H is a human body near the ear. Is the head of.
A light-emitting body 5 such as an LED and a light-receiving element 6 are provided on the outer periphery of the intermediate portion of the support body 2 and are inclined so as to be separated from each other by a certain distance and face the same portion. B is a capillary tube of a blood vessel in the ear which is schematically shown, and 4 is a hollow hole which is formed inside the rod-shaped support 2 and whose both ends are open. 3 is support 2
The sounding device provided in the base portion 10 of FIG. 1 is a normal piezo type speaker. The base end of the hollow hole 4 reaches the speaker 3, and the tip end is open so that the sound emitted by the speaker 3 reaches the eardrum.

The cable 7 supplies power to the light emitter 5 to cause it to emit light, and takes out a detection signal from the light receiving element 6 to the outside. The cable 7 is wired inside the hollow hole 4 and collected in the thick cable 9 in the base 10. ing. Speaker 3 for cable 9
Includes a wire for supplying an audio signal, and is connected to a cable 7 which extends through the inside of the base portion 10 and extends from inside the hollow hole 4.
The luminous flux L emitted from the light-emitting body 5 enters the human body H around the ear and is scattered, passes through the human body H and is irradiated obliquely, is reflected by the capillary B of the blood vessel inside the ear, and the reflected light is just the light receiving element. 6 is set so as to be incident.

If this earphone type pulse sensor is inserted into the ear, the game can be played by operating the controller while listening to the sound of the game from the speaker 3 (without disturbing others). The light flux L projected from the light emitter 5 enters the body H and is reflected and scattered by the capillary B.
It is affected by changes in the flow rate of blood. Since the light incident on the light receiving element 6 is affected by the change in the blood flow rate, the signal output by the light receiving element 6 is a function of the pulse.

At this time, a change in blood flow can be detected by using the light emitter 5 and the light receiving element 6 to measure the pulse rate. Since the pulse is detected while playing the game, the signal accurately reflects the psychological reaction received from the game. Even if the outside person looks at it, it only looks like they are wearing earphones, so
It looks normal and looks normal.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the first invention, in which an elastic body 8 such as a sponge is added to the pulse sensor shown in FIG. An elastic body 8 such as a sponge is provided in an annular shape on the outer peripheral portion of the support body 2 on the side of the base portion 10 so as to protrude to the outside from the ear hole. When the support 2 is inserted into the ear hole 1, the contact between the base 10 and the ear is softened, and the support 2
The gap between the outer peripheral surface of the and the inner peripheral surface of the ear hole 1 is filled to prevent light from the outside from entering the light receiving element 6. Since the ambient light is blocked by the elastic body 8 such as a sponge, the influence of noise is eliminated and the pulse rate can be detected with high accuracy. Also,
The support can be fixed inside the ear to prevent it from falling from the ear.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the second invention, claims 3, 4,
It is the invention described in item 5. 3 is different from the first invention only in that the speaker 3 is not provided. Reference numeral 1 is an ear hole, 2 is an earplug-like rod-shaped support, and H is a head of a human body near the ear. A light emitting body 5 such as an LED and a light receiving element 6 similar to those in FIGS. 1 and 2 are provided on the outer periphery of the intermediate portion of the support body 2. B is a capillary of a blood vessel inside the ear, and 4 is a hollow hole formed inside the rod-shaped support 2.

The base end of the hollow hole 4 penetrates the base portion 10 of the support body 2 and is opened to the outside, and the tip end is also opened so that external sound can freely reach the eardrum. The cable 7 supplies power to the light-emitting body 5 to cause the light-emitting body 5 to emit light, and extracts a detection signal from the light-receiving element 6 to the outside. The cable 7 is wired inside the hollow hole 4 and embedded in the base portion 10 to the outside. Has been pulled out. The luminous flux L emitted from the light-emitting body 5 enters the human body H around the ear and is scattered, passes through the human body H and is irradiated obliquely, is reflected by the capillary B of the blood vessel inside the ear, and the reflected light is just the light receiving element. 6 is set so as to be incident.

On the base 10 side of the support 2, an elastic body 8 is provided in an annular shape on the outer peripheral portion which is not inserted into the ear hole. Also in this embodiment, the elastic body 8 such as a sponge softens the contact between the base portion 10 and the ear and fills the gap between the outer peripheral surface of the support portion 2 and the inner peripheral surface of the ear hole 1 to prevent external contact. Light from the light receiving element 6
It is possible to prevent noise from being generated by extraneous light as it is prevented from entering.

The light flux L projected from the light emitter 5 enters the human body H and is reflected and scattered by the capillary B. The scattering and reflection are affected by the change in the flow rate of blood flowing through the human body H. Since the light incident on the light receiving element 6 is affected by the change in the blood flow rate, the signal output by the light receiving element 6 is a function of the pulse. Since the ambient light is blocked by the elastic body 8 such as sponge,
The pulse rate can be detected with high accuracy without being affected by noise. Also in this embodiment, even if the outside person looks at it, it only looks as if he / she is wearing the earphone. The support 2 does not have a hollow hole for listening to an external sound, and serves as an earphone type pulse sensor even if it has a rod shape.

In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, a part of the light-emitting body 5a outside the rod-shaped support 2 and the light-receiving portion 6 are provided.
The tips of the optical fibers 5b and 6b are exposed to a, and the optical fibers 5b and 6b are passed through the inside of the support body 2 to form the base portion 10
The base ends may be connected to the light-emitting body 5 and the light-receiving element 6 installed in the optical fiber 5b, 6b.

Further, in the present invention, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), an elastic body such as a rubber tube may be wound around the support 2. According to this, when the support body 2 enters the ear canal 1 and is crushed as shown in FIG. 5B, it fits in the ear and is hard to move, and external light can be blocked more effectively.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an earphone type pulse sensor of the first invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an earphone type pulse sensor according to another embodiment of the first invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of an earphone type pulse sensor of the second invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing another embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Ear Hole 2 Rod-shaped Support 3 Speaker 4 Hollow Hole 5 Light-Emitting Element 6 Light-Receiving Element 7, 9 Cable 8 Elastic Body 10 Base B Capillary H Living Body L Luminous Flux

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A rod-shaped support body inserted and held in an ear hole, a sounding device provided in the rod-shaped support body, and a tip formed on the rod-shaped support body for guiding a sound wave emitted by the sounding device. In an earphone consisting of a hollow hole opened in a portion, a light emitting body provided on an outer peripheral portion of a portion inserted into the ear hole of the rod-shaped support and light emitted from the light emitting body is near an inner surface of the ear hole. It irradiates the living body of
An earphone-type pulse sensor, comprising: a light-receiving element that receives reflected light and outputs a pulse signal corresponding to a change in blood flow in the living body. 2. The earphone according to claim 1, wherein the rod-shaped support protrudes from a base portion located outside the ear hole, and an elastic body is provided on an outer peripheral portion on the base portion side. Type pulse sensor. 3. A rod-shaped support member inserted and held in an ear hole, a light-emitting body provided on an outer peripheral portion of a portion of the rod-shaped support member inserted in the ear hole, and light emitted from the light-emitting body. Is a light receiving element that irradiates a living body near the inner surface of the ear hole and scatters / reflects the light, receives the scattered / reflected light, and outputs a pulse signal corresponding to a change in the blood flow in the living body. An earphone type pulse sensor characterized by being provided. 4. The earphone type pulse according to claim 3, wherein the rod-shaped support projects from a base portion located outside the ear canal, and an elastic body is provided on an outer peripheral portion on the base portion side. Sensor. 5. The earphone type pulse sensor according to claim 3, wherein a hollow hole whose both ends are opened is formed in the rod-shaped support in order to guide a sound wave from the outside.