JPH10111990A - Action detector for moving body - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an action detector which can identify and detect such actions of a moving body as the walking, sitting, laying (falling) actions, etc., in a simple constitution almost equal to that of a conventional deadman switch. SOLUTION: A vertical vibration sensor 201 is attached to a moving body to detect the vertical vibrations of the body and also the intensity of these vibrations together with a horizontal vibration sensor 202 which detects the horizontal vibrations and their intensity of the moving body, and a tilt sensor 203 which detects whether the moving body tilts. Then a CPU 204 detects the action states of a relevant human being or animal by deciding synthetically the states of ON/OFF signals received from the sensors 201, 202 and 203 respectively.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a motion detection device for detecting a motion such as a walking, sitting, or falling motion of a human body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a prior art of this kind of motion detecting device, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-182,989 "Human body abnormality detecting device" and Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-15789, "Tipping alarm"
There is a so-called deadman switch as disclosed in US Pat. This deadman switch has a warning buzzer which is turned on / off by a tilt sensor attached to a human in order to make it easy to find out, for example, when a worker in a clean room falls due to an accident or the like. If the device falls down, the tilt sensor detects this and sounds a warning sound to notify the user of this.This has the advantage of being a small and lightweight device, and has the advantage of low cost. It is not always possible to make an accurate judgment just by judging whether or not. Therefore, it is unclear, for example, whether the person fell unconscious and fell, bowed because he bowed, was trying to pick up objects on the floor, or was performing work that caused the tilt, etc. I can't. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-180392 discloses a deadman switch that uses a vibration sensor to determine that all stationary states are abnormal.

[0003] However, in these motion detection devices, information on whether the device is tilted or stationary is not sufficient for other uses other than as a deadman switch, for example, for remote monitoring of a wandering elderly person or for observing animal ecology. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and detect each action such as walking, sitting, sleeping (falling), and the like. When a so-called motion capture is used, the operation state can be detected clearly, but the action cannot be detected, and it cannot be used for deadman switch, monitoring of a wandering elderly person, or animal ecology observation.

[0004]

As described above, this type of conventional motion detection apparatus for an action body cannot identify and detect each action such as walking, sitting, sleeping (falling), etc. It cannot be used as a deadman switch or for monitoring a wandering old man or observing animal ecology.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and has a simple configuration substantially similar to that of a conventional deadman switch, and identifies each action such as walking, sitting, and sleeping (falling) of an action body. It is an object of the present invention to provide a motion detection device capable of detecting a motion.

[0006]

A motion detecting device according to the present invention is attached to a human or animal for detecting its motion, and detects the presence or absence and strength of vertical vibration of the human or animal body. A vertical vibration sensor, a lateral vibration sensor that detects the presence or absence and strength of lateral vibration of the human or animal body, and an inclination sensor that detects whether the human or animal body is inclined. , O from each sensor
In each state of the N / OFF signal, whether the person or animal is walking, sitting, sleeping (falling)
Is output.

[0007] Whether the human or animal is walking, sitting, or sleeping (falling) is determined by the output from the vertical vibration sensor and the horizontal vibration sensor in a strong vibration state. When the tilt sensor does not detect the tilt, it outputs information indicating that the user is walking, the horizontal vibration sensor detects slow vibration, and the vertical vibration sensor does not detect the vibration, If the sensor does not detect the inclination, it outputs information that the user is sitting, and if the vertical vibration sensor and the horizontal vibration sensor do not detect any vibration and the inclination sensor detects the inclination, they are sleeping. It is characterized by comprising means for outputting information to the effect that it has fallen.

Further, the vertical vibration sensor and the horizontal vibration sensor are characterized by using a bearing sensor for detecting the presence / absence and strength of the vibration by the movement of the built-in conductive sphere.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As described above, the action detection device for an action body of the present invention is attached to a human or an animal (action body) that detects the action, and detects the presence / absence and strength of vertical vibration of the body of the person or the animal. A direction vibration sensor, a lateral vibration sensor that detects the presence or absence and strength of lateral vibration of the human or animal body, and an inclination sensor that detects whether the human or animal body is inclined, In each state of the ON / OFF signal from each sensor, the human or animal is
It detects whether it is walking, sitting, or sleeping (falling).

As the vertical vibration sensor and the horizontal vibration sensor, any sensors can be used as long as the objects can be achieved, but so-called bearing sensors can be used. There are various types of bearing sensors. However, in the action detection device for the action body of the present invention, it is necessary to distinguish the state of vibration, that is, the strength of the vibration. A bearing sensor as shown in FIG.

FIG. 1A is a view schematically showing the configuration of a vertical vibration sensor for detecting vertical vibration. A cylindrical housing 1 provided with contacts 10 at predetermined intervals on both sides thereof is electrically conductive. The sphere 2 is built in, and the sphere 2 moves up and down when a vertical vibration is applied to this sensor.
An OFF signal is detected. When the applied vibration is large or frequent, the ON / OFF switching speed is high,
On the other hand, ON / OFF when the vibration is small or slow
Since the switching speed becomes slower, the CPU connected to this sensor can distinguish and detect "no vibration", "slow vibration", and "vibration of a certain strength or more".

FIG. 1B shows a horizontal vibration sensor for detecting a horizontal vibration, which is the same as the vertical vibration sensor mounted horizontally on the action body. FIG. 1C is a diagram showing an example of a tilt sensor. In the case of a tilt sensor,
It suffices if it is possible to detect whether or not the action body has tilted, and a so-called fluid sensor is used.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a state in which the motion detecting device is mounted on a human. Reference numeral 20 denotes a main body of the motion detecting device mounted on a human back, and a vertical vibration sensor 201, a horizontal vibration sensor 202, a tilt Sensor 203, CPU 204
Is built-in. However, for easy understanding, the scale of each part is not the same. Next, the operation will be described. For example, when a human is walking, vibrations of predetermined strength in the vertical and horizontal directions are generated. Therefore, when a person wearing the motion detection device 20 is walking, the vertical vibration sensor 20
1 and the lateral vibration sensor 202 output an ON / OFF signal at a certain speed or higher (this signal is referred to as a signal “2”), and the tilt sensor outputs a signal “0” indicating that no tilt is detected. You. Therefore, the CPU 204 outputs a signal “2” from the vertical and horizontal vibration sensors,
When the output from the tilt sensor is “0”, information indicating that the person is walking is output.

Next, when the person is sitting on a disk or the like and performing office work or the like, only slow lateral vibrations occur. Therefore, when the motion detection device 20 is mounted, the lateral vibration sensor 202 outputs a slow speed ON / OFF signal (this signal is referred to as a signal “1”). The output of the tilt sensor 203 is “0”. Therefore, the CPU 204 outputs a signal “1” from the horizontal vibration sensor and outputs information indicating that the person is sitting when the outputs from the vertical vibration sensor and the tilt sensor are “0”.

Further, when the person falls down, the outputs of the vertical and horizontal vibration sensors are "0" and the output of the tilt sensor is "1" indicating that the tilt has occurred.
In step 04, information indicating that the person has fallen (ie, slept) is output. Although not shown in the table of FIG.
Even if the output of 03 is “1”, if the signal “1” or “2” is output from the vertical or horizontal vibration sensor, it does not fall down but bows. Other operations have been performed, which allows for accurate detection.

The information of walking, sitting, sleeping (falling) from the CPU 204 can be used as an accurate deadman switch, for example, by attaching an alarm device, or can be used to remotely observe animal ecology by attaching a radio device. Used for various applications. In the above embodiment, the information of walking, sitting, sleeping (falling) is output. However, most of the detection of the behavior and posture of humans and animals is based on the information of vibration and inclination in the vertical and horizontal directions including strength and weakness. It goes without saying that the information to be detected is not limited to walking, sitting, sleeping (falling).

[0017]

As described above, the motion detecting apparatus of the present invention is attached to a human or animal for detecting its motion, and detects the presence or absence and strength of vertical vibration of the human or animal body. A vertical vibration sensor, a horizontal vibration sensor for detecting the presence or absence and strength of horizontal vibration of the human or animal body, and an inclination sensor for detecting whether the human or animal body is tilted. And O from each sensor
In each state of the N / OFF signal, whether the person or animal is walking, sitting, sleeping (falling)
Is detected, so that there is an effect that each operation can be accurately identified and detected with a simple configuration.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of each sensor used in the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 20 motion detection device main body 201 vertical vibration sensor 202 horizontal vibration sensor 203 tilt sensor 204 CPU

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vertical vibration sensor attached to a human or animal (behavior) for detecting its motion, and detecting presence / absence and strength of vertical vibration of the human or animal body;
A lateral vibration sensor that detects the presence or absence and strength of the lateral vibration of the human or animal body, and a tilt sensor that detects whether the human or animal body is tilted; and A motion detection device for a behavioral body, characterized by comprehensively judging each status of an ON / OFF signal and detecting a behavioral status of the human or animal. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determination of the behavior state of the human or the animal includes a case where the output from the vertical vibration sensor and the horizontal vibration sensor detects a vibration state having a constant strength, and the inclination sensor does not detect the inclination. The horizontal vibration sensor detects slow vibration, the vertical vibration sensor does not detect vibration, and the tilt sensor does not detect tilt, and outputs information indicating that the user is sitting. Means for outputting information indicating that the user is sleeping (falling) when the vertical vibration sensor and the horizontal vibration sensor do not detect vibration and the tilt sensor detects tilt. The action detecting device for an action body according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. The bearing according to claim 1, wherein the vertical vibration sensor and the horizontal vibration sensor use a bearing sensor for detecting the presence / absence and strength of the vibration by the movement of the built-in conductive sphere. 3. The motion detecting device for an action body according to claim 2.