JPH10323366A - Blind person guide - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a blind person with a stick to easily recognize the present position and the direction to a destination, by building a loop antenna for transmitting/receiving and a speaker in the vicinity of the tip end. SOLUTION: In the vicinity of the tip end of a stick C, a loop antenna 8 for transmitting/receiving wound so as to be on a concentric circle with the axis of the stick C and guide electromagnetic wave, which is a transmitted radio wave, is transmitted from the antenna. When a unit A of a data carrier placed on a passage enters the guide electromagnetic filed, the wave is received and decoded by the loop antenna 1 for transmitting/receiving and information stored in a memory 7 is transmitted to the loop antenna 8 for transmitting/ receiving built in the stick C. The information is processed by a signal processor 19 and the present position and the direction are calculated from the information on positions stored in the memory 7 of the unit A of the data carrier and the past information received from other data carriers and transmitted from the speaker 17 as a voice signal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electromagnetic induction type blind person guiding device for connecting a portable walking stick and a transmitter / receiver fixed to a guideway by electromagnetic field waves.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the premises of a large building such as a general hospital, it is usual to go to a target place by relying on a sign. However, for the blind, it is difficult to reach the destination by sign, which is almost impossible when visiting for the first time, requires different means of guidance, and requires that someone It is common to guide.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a blind guiding apparatus which enables a visually impaired person to freely go to a target place in a large building such as a general hospital.

[0004]

For example, in the premises of a large building such as a general hospital or the like, a data carrier unit of an electromagnetic induction type data carrier system, which is a known fact, is arranged at a key point on a passage. A receiving and transmitting loop antenna having a coil wound near the tip of the cane so as to be concentric with the axis of the cane; a demodulator for demodulating a signal received by the receiving and transmitting loop antenna; A discriminator for discriminating a signal demodulated by the discriminator, a controller for generating a control signal based on a signal from the discriminator, a voice generator for outputting a voice signal based on the control signal from the controller, When an amplifier that amplifies the output from the vessel and a cane with a built-in speaker that emits sound come close to the data carrier unit placed at a key point on the aisle and can communicate,
Based on the information of the data carrier received by the cane and the past information received from the other data carriers stored in the memory of the cane, the voice of the location and direction guidance of the point is given to the cane. It is configured to emit from a built-in speaker.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram for realizing a blind person guiding device. FIG. 2 shows a diagram illustrating the structure and operation of the present invention. In FIG. 2, the wand C has a built-in portion B of FIG. A loop antenna 8 for reception and transmission, which is wound concentrically with the axis of the wand C, is disposed near the tip of the wand C. The receiving and transmitting loop antenna 8 emits an induction electromagnetic wave as a transmission radio wave, and when the unit A of the data carrier arranged on the passage enters the induction electromagnetic field,
This guided electromagnetic wave is received and decoded by the receiving / transmitting loop antenna 1 in the unit A of the data carrier, and the information stored in the storage unit 7 is transmitted to the receiving / transmitting loop of the B section incorporated in the stick C. The signal is transmitted to the antenna 8. The signal received by the receiving / transmitting loop antenna 8 is signal-processed by the signal processor 19 to output an audio signal, and information on the position stored in the storage unit 7 of the unit A of the data carrier;
The current position and the direction are transmitted from the speaker 17 as a voice based on past information received from another data carrier stored in the storage device 14 of the cane C, and are configured.

[0006] In the unit A of the data carrier arranged on the passage, the position information of the place where the unit A is present is stored. On the other hand, from the unit provided on the cane C, a certain identification signal as a used cane is transmitted,
When the cane C approaches the unit A of the data carrier arranged on the path on the road, the unit A receives the identification signal and transmits the information therefrom. The unit of the stick C received based on this information and the contents received in the past notifies the contents of the information by voice, so that the person holding the stick C can recognize the current position and direction.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A cane C has a built-in structure which is constituted by a block diagram of a portion B in FIG. The controller 13 includes a storage device 14
In accordance with the control program stored in the control unit, the identification number of the wand C is encoded by the encoder 12, modulated by the modem 10, amplified by the transmitter / receiver 9, and constantly transmitted from the receiving / transmitting loop antenna 8 as a transmission radio wave. Emitting electromagnetic waves. The induced electromagnetic wave from the receiving and transmitting loop antenna 8 is received by the receiving and transmitting loop antenna 1 of the unit A of the data carrier, amplified by the transmitter / receiver 2, demodulated by the modem 3, and confirmed to be a target signal. The target signal is identified by the identifier 4 and input to the controller 6. The controller 6 controls the information stored in the storage 7 to be encoded by the encoder 5. The encoded information is modulated by the modulator / demodulator 3, amplified by the transmitter / receiver 2, and transmitted from the reception / transmission loop antenna 1 as an induction electromagnetic wave that is a transmission radio wave. This induced electromagnetic wave is B
The signal is received by the receiving / transmitting loop antenna 8 of the unit, amplified by the transmitter / receiver 9, demodulated by the modem 10, discriminated by the discriminator 11 as a target signal, and input to the controller 13. The controller 13 outputs the information transmitted from the unit A of the data carrier, the information stored in the storage unit 14 previously received from another data carrier, and the audio signal of the necessary information from the audio generator 15 according to the control program. Control to do. The audio signal from the audio generator 15 is supplied to an amplifier 16.
And is output from the speaker 17.

[0008] The unit A of the data carrier storing the information on the current position is arranged at a necessary place as needed. An example of actual use will be described with reference to FIG. Now, as shown in FIG. 3, in a large building such as a general hospital including the buildings E, F, G, and H, the unit A of the data carrier shown in FIG. , A4
A5, A6, A7, and A8 are disposed below the floor surface. When a visually impaired person goes from Building E to Building F with the cane C shown in FIG. 2, the order must be A1, A2, A3, A4. When passing through A1, the wand C shown in FIG. 2 receives information on the position from the unit A of the data carrier shown in FIG. 2, and the storage unit 1 shown in FIG.
4 is stored. Next, when the blind person moves from the position of A1 to the position of A2 in FIG.
In this case, it is not possible to clearly determine in which direction the vehicle should go forward or straight, but in this case, the wand C shown in FIG.
The information on the position is received from the unit A of the data carrier shown in FIG. Further, the fact that the vehicle has passed A1 first is stored in the storage device 14.

According to the information in the storage unit 14 shown in FIG. 1 that the controller 13 has passed A1 and is now at A2,
The voice generator 15 which is a voice synthesizer is controlled so as to generate a voice meaning "H building on the right and G building on the front". The output from the voice generator 15 is amplified by an amplifier 16 for amplifying a voice signal. A voice is emitted from 17. This voice recognizes that the visually impaired person holding the cane C shown in FIG. 2 can go to the building F by going to the left. Similarly, every time the vehicle passes through the positions A3 and A4 shown in FIG. 3, information on the position is guided by voice.

The sound generator 15 can be similarly realized by a compact disc and a compact disc reproducing apparatus. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the reason why the receiving and transmitting loop antenna 8 wound concentrically with the axis near the tip of the cane C is disposed is that the electromagnetically induced wave is transmitted to the information medium. This is because the communication service area is extremely small. The extremely narrow communication service area means that the communicable distance between the unit A and the staff C of the data carrier is short, which indicates that the reliability indicating the current position is high. In addition, the visually impaired cane C
In general, it is checked whether there is an obstacle in a target direction by relying on the touch of the object. For this reason, it is appropriate to arrange the receiving and transmitting loop antenna 8 wound so as to be concentric with the axis near the tip of the cane C. As described above, the embodiment has been described in the example of a large building such as a general hospital, but any place where guidance of a passage is required can be handled.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, a receiving / transmitting loop antenna having a coil wound near the tip of the cane so as to be concentric with the axis of the cane, A demodulator for demodulating the signal received by the trusted loop antenna;
An identifier for identifying a signal demodulated by the demodulator, a controller for generating a control signal based on a signal from the identifier, an audio generator for outputting an audio signal with a signal from the controller,
A built-in amplifier that amplifies the output from the sound generator and a speaker that emits sound make it possible for the person holding the cane to know the current location and The direction can be easily recognized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a blind person guiding device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing one embodiment of the above.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the above.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A Unit of data carrier 1 Loop antenna for reception and transmission 2 Transceiver 3 Modem 4 Identifier 5 Encoder 6 Controller 7 Memory 8 Loop antenna for reception and transmission 9 Transceiver 10 Modulator / demodulator 11 Identifier 12 Encoder 13 Controller 14 Memory device 15 Sound generator 16 Amplifier 17 Speaker C Staff

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A receiving and transmitting loop antenna having a coil wound near the tip of the cane so as to be concentric with the axis of the cane, and a demodulator for demodulating a signal received by the receiving and transmitting loop antenna. Device, an identifier for identifying a signal demodulated by the demodulator, a controller for generating a control signal based on a signal from the identifier, and an audio generator for outputting an audio signal based on the control signal from the controller And an amplifier for amplifying an output from the sound generator and a speaker for emitting sound. 2. An encoder for encoding a signal from the controller according to claim 1, a modulator for modulating a signal from the encoder, and a signal for receiving and transmitting the output of the modulator. A first unit having a loop antenna built into the staff, a receiving / transmitting loop antenna, a demodulator for demodulating a signal received by the receiving / transmitting loop antenna, and identification for identifying the signal demodulated by the demodulator , A controller that decodes a signal from the discriminator and transmits information stored in a memory, an encoder that adds a code to the information from the memory, and modulates a signal from the encoder. And a second unit including a loop antenna for reception and transmission for transmitting a signal from the transmitter by an electromagnetic wave, and a transmitter for amplifying a signal from the modulator. The blind person guiding device according to claim 1, wherein