JPH1085198A - Physiological state detector, physiological state detection and physiological state detection program memory medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to exactly detect the stationary physiological state of an operator by removing the fluctuation of the measured value of bioinformation by disturbance from the vital information used for detection of a physiological state. SOLUTION: A sensor 2 measures the skin impedance of the palm correlated with the mental state of a person to be measured. A selection signal generating circuit 4 outputs a selection signal during the prescribed time from the time when the fluctuation by the reaction with the disturbance is detected in the measurement signal of the skin impedance by the sensor 2. A selector switch 3 cuts off the sensor 2 and an awaking degree detecting circuit 6 from each other during the time when the selection signal is inputted from the selection signal generating circuit 4. Then, the detection of the awaking degree is not executed during the time before the prescribed time elapses after the time when the reaction with the disturbance appears in the measurement signal of the skin impedance. The stationary awaking degree from which the transient reaction with the disturbance is eliminated is thus detected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a physiological condition for detecting a physiological condition of a subject used for selecting learning information based on biological information such as skin impedance measured from a learner who is a subject. The present invention relates to a detection device, a physiological condition detection method, and a physiological condition detection program storage medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The control state of a device in a man-machine system is affected by the physiological state of an operator, for example, the arousal level. Taking a learning device that presents learning information individually to a learner as an example, when the awakening degree of the learner decreases, the learning efficiency also decreases. Therefore, in order to maintain the control state of the apparatus well and improve the work efficiency, it is necessary to execute an appropriate process according to the physiological state of the operator, and it is necessary to detect the physiological state of the operator. Become.

[0003] In general, it is known that the physiological state of a human is correlated with biological information such as skin impedance and heartbeat interval. Conventionally, the physiological state of an operator is detected based on biological information measured by an operator. An apparatus has been proposed. For example, the skin of the human palm sweats not only due to thermal sweating as a constant function of controlling body temperature, but also as mental sweating as a reflex to external stimuli. That is, sweating in the human palm is an index that indicates the functional state of the sympathetic nerve as a degree of arousal. Since the skin impedance decreases or increases depending on the amount of sweating, the physiological alertness can be detected by measuring the change in the skin impedance of the palm, which is biological information.

[0004]

The measured value of the biological information is
It changes greatly due to the action of an external stimulus that is a disturbance, and the measured value of the biological information from the time when the disturbance occurs until a certain time elapses is not appropriate for detecting a steady physiological state of the operator. . In addition, the physiological state of the subject affects the reaction time from the occurrence of the disturbance until the measured value of the biological information fluctuates due to the disturbance. However,
In the conventional physiological condition detecting device, there is no device that considers a fluctuation of a measured value of biological information due to a disturbance. For this reason, the conventional physiological condition detecting device cannot accurately detect the steady physiological condition of the operator of the man-machine system.

[0005] An object of the present invention is to accurately detect a steady physiological state of an operator by removing fluctuations in measured values of biological information due to disturbance from biological information used for detecting a physiological state. It is to provide a physiological condition detecting device, a physiological condition detecting method, and a physiological condition detecting program storage medium.

Another object of the present invention is to use a reaction time from the occurrence of a disturbance until the measured value of the biological information fluctuates due to the disturbance to detect a physiological condition, so that a steady physiological condition of the operator is obtained. Of the present invention is to provide a physiological condition detecting device, a physiological condition detecting method, and a physiological condition detecting program storage medium capable of accurately detecting a physiological condition.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a physiological condition detecting apparatus for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on biological information continuously measured from the subject. The measurement result of the biological information from the time until a predetermined time has elapsed is excluded from the biological information used for detecting the physiological state of the subject.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a physiological state detecting method for detecting a physiological state of a subject based on biological information continuously measured from the subject. The measurement result of the biological information until the time elapses is excluded from the biological information used for detecting the physiological state of the subject.

Further, according to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage medium storing a physiological condition detecting program for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on biological information continuously measured from the subject. A program is stored for excluding a measurement result of biological information from the time of occurrence until a predetermined time has elapsed from biological information used for detecting a physiological state of a subject.

Therefore, according to the first, fifth and ninth aspects of the present invention, the physiological condition of the subject is detected by excluding the portion affected by the disturbance in the measurement result of the biological information. A steady physiological condition is detected.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a physiological condition detecting apparatus for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on a plurality of types of biological information continuously measured from the subject.
It is characterized in that the degree of influence of each piece of biological information on the detection of a physiological condition is changed according to a combination of a plurality of types of biological information.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a physiological condition detecting method for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on a plurality of types of biological information continuously measured from the subject. The degree of influence of each piece of biological information in the detection of a physiological condition is changed according to a combination of a plurality of types of pieces of biological information used for detection, and the measurement result of each piece of biological information is weighted based on the degree of influence. The physiological condition of the subject is detected by using the measurement result of the above.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a storage medium storing a physiological condition detecting program for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on a plurality of types of biological information continuously measured from the subject. In the method, the influence of each biological information in the detection of the physiological state is changed according to a combination of a plurality of types of biological information used for the detection of the physiological state, and the measurement result of each biological information is weighted based on the influence, A program for detecting a physiological state of the subject using the measurement results of the obtained biological information is stored.

Therefore, according to the second, seventh and tenth aspects of the present invention, the measurement result of the biological information is weighted based on the degree of influence according to the combination of a plurality of types of biological information used for detecting the physiological condition, The physiological state of the subject is detected using the weighted measurement results of the biological information, and the reliability of the physiological state detection result increases.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disturbance generating means for generating a disturbance affecting biological information, and a time from when the disturbance is generated in the disturbance generating means until the influence of the disturbance appears on the measurement result of the biological information. And measuring means for measuring, and using the measuring time of the measuring means for detecting the physiological state of the subject.

According to the present invention, the disturbance generating means generates a disturbance which affects the biological information of the person to be measured, and the disturbance generating means influences the measurement result of the biological information from the time when the disturbance is generated. The time until the symbol appears is measured by the measuring means, and the physiological state of the subject is detected using the time measured by the measuring means.

Therefore, according to the third and seventh aspects of the present invention, the physiological state of the subject is detected using the time from the occurrence of the disturbance until the influence of the disturbance appears on the measurement result of the biological information.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a physiological condition detecting apparatus for detecting a degree of arousal of the subject as the physiological condition of the subject, comprising awakening means for awakening the subject. The operation of the awakening means is controlled based on the awake state of the subject.

An eighth aspect of the present invention is a physiological state detecting method for detecting the arousal level of the subject as the physiological state of the subject, based on the detection result of the awake state of the subject. And controlling the operation of the awakening means for awakening the subject. Therefore, in the invention described in claims 4 and 8, the operation of the awakening unit is controlled based on the detection result of the arousal state of the subject, and the awakening unit performs the awakening operation on the subject with a low arousal level. Do.

[0020]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a physiological condition detecting apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The physiological condition detection device 1 includes a sensor 2, a selection switch 3, a selection signal generation circuit 4, a response time measurement circuit 5, and an arousal level detection circuit 6. The sensor 2 measures the skin impedance of the palm correlated with the mental state of the subject. The skin impedance of the palm is measured using a known three-electrode method with a constant current. The selection switch 3
While the selection signal is being input from the selection signal generation circuit 4, the connection between the sensor 2 and the arousal level detection circuit 6 is disconnected in order to invalidate the measurement signal of the sensor 2. The selection signal generation circuit 4 outputs a selection signal from a time when a change due to a response to a disturbance is detected in a measurement signal of skin impedance by the sensor 2 until a predetermined time elapses.

The response time measuring circuit 5 includes a counter that measures the time from the input timing of the disturbance generation signal output from the external device 11 to the input timing of the selection signal output from the selection signal generation circuit 4 as a response time. ing. When the external device 11 is a learning device, when the question format in the learning information presented to the learner by the learning device changes or when the learning subject changes, a work separation signal is output from the learning device as a disturbance generation signal. Is done. When the external device 11 is a vehicle, a work separation signal as a disturbance generation signal is output when an operation of a certain amount or more of the steering wheel or the pedal by the operator is detected.

By driving the physiological condition detecting device 1,
Alternatively, a disturbance generating means such as a speaker that generates a sound that becomes a disturbance to the operator by driving the external device 11 can be provided.

The arousal level detection circuit 6 detects and outputs the arousal level based on the measurement signal of the sensor 2 input via the selection switch 3 and the response time input from the response time measurement circuit 5.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the above physiological condition detecting device. The physiological condition detection device 1
In a normal state, it is a measurement signal of skin impedance (SIL signal corresponding to an equivalent series resistance component of skin impedance, or an SIR signal of only a fluctuation component obtained by removing a DC component of the SIL signal. Here, the SIL is used. Signal is used) to detect the arousal level of the operator (s9), and output the detected arousal level to an external device (s10). That is, the arousal level detection circuit 6
Compares the SIL signal input via the selection switch 3 with a reference value, determines that the alertness is high if the level of the SIL signal is below the reference value, and determines that the alertness is low if the level of the SIL signal is not less than the reference value. to decide. The external device performs processing such as changing the content of learning information to be presented to the learner, for example, according to the arousal level output from the physiological state detecting device 1.

When detecting the occurrence of a disturbance based on the input of a disturbance occurrence signal (s1), the physiological condition detecting device 1 starts the counter of the response time measuring circuit 5 (s2) and starts measuring the response time. The measurement of the response time is continued until a response to a disturbance appears in the measurement signal of the sensor 2 and the selection signal is output from the selection signal generation circuit 4 (s3, s
4). When a response to a disturbance appears in the measurement signal of the sensor 2 and the selection signal is output from the selection signal generation circuit 4, the selection switch 3 is turned on for a predetermined time measured by the timer.
Disconnects between the sensor 2 and the arousal level detection circuit 6 (s5
s8) During this time, the measurement signal of the sensor 2 is not input to the arousal level detection circuit 6, and the arousal level is not detected. When a predetermined time elapses after the response to the disturbance appears in the measurement signal of the sensor 2, the selection switch 3 connects the sensor 2 and the arousal level detection circuit 6 again. Thereby, the measurement signal of the sensor 2 is input to the arousal level detection circuit 6, and the detection of the arousal level is restarted.

With the above processing, as shown in FIG. 3, after the disturbance occurrence signal is inputted at time T1, the disturbance generation signal is inputted at time T2.
When the response to the disturbance appears in the measurement signal (SIL signal) of the sensor 2 at the time, the SIL signal from the time T2 until the predetermined time t1 elapses is not input to the arousal level detection circuit 6, and the SIL signal during this time is awake. Excluded from the degree detection. The transient response to the disturbance does not indicate the steady physiological state of the operator, and is not suitable for use in the evaluation of the operation state or the evaluation of the operation target by the operator. The awakening degree can be determined by removing the transient fluctuations caused by the above, and the evaluation of the operation state and the evaluation of the operation target can be accurately performed based on the steady physiological state of the operator.

The response time to the disturbance changes according to the arousal level. Therefore, the time t2 from the time T1 at which the disturbance occurrence signal is input to the time T2 at which the response to the disturbance appears in the SIL signal is measured as the response time, and this response time is used as one of the biological information for detecting the arousal level. By this, the degree of arousal can be detected more accurately,
The reliability of the detected arousal level can be improved.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a physiological condition detecting device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The physiological condition detecting device 21 according to this embodiment includes a sensor 22 for measuring a pulse wave, a heartbeat interval extracting circuit 23, a reliability determining circuit 24, and a feedback signal in addition to the configuration of the physiological condition detecting device 1 shown in FIG. A generator circuit 31 is provided. The sensor 22 optically detects, for example, a pulsating blood flow in a blood vessel of a finger. The heartbeat interval extraction circuit 23 obtains a distribution state of each frequency component by performing a fast Fourier transform on the measurement signal output from the sensor 22 and, for example, extracts a high-frequency appearance interval in the measurement signal as a heartbeat interval based on the result. I do. In general, it is known that the heartbeat interval fluctuates greatly when the arousal level is high, and the heartbeat interval fluctuates little when the arousal level is low. However, the correlation between the fluctuation state of the heartbeat interval and the arousal level is weaker than the correlation between the skin impedance and the arousal level.

The reliability determination circuit 24 receives the measurement signal output from the sensor 2, the measurement signal output from the sensor 22, and the measured response time output from the response time measurement circuit 5. The reliability determination circuit 24 outputs the reliability of the arousal detected by the arousal detection circuit 6 according to the input state of the signals from the sensors 2, 22 and the response time measurement circuit 5. In addition, the measurement signal output from the sensor 2, the measurement signal output from the sensor 22, and the measurement value of the response time output from the response time measurement circuit 5 are also input to the arousal level detection circuit 6. The arousal level detection circuit 6
The degree of arousal is detected by changing the weight for each signal according to the input state of these signals. The feedback signal generation circuit 31 is the awakening means of the present invention, and provides a feedback signal to an external device based on the arousal level output from the arousal level detection circuit 6 and the reliability output from the reliability determination circuit 24. Occurs.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the weighted state of each signal in the arousal level detection circuit constituting the physiological state detection apparatus according to the second embodiment, and an example of the reliability output from the reliability determination circuit. It is. As shown in the drawing, when only the SIL signal measured by the sensor 2 is input, the arousal level detection circuit 6 sets the weight of the SIL signal to “1” and detects the arousal level based only on the SIL signal. At the same time, the reliability determination circuit 24 outputs the reliability “0.5”. When only the pulse wave signal measured by the sensor 22 is input, the arousal level detection circuit 6 sets the weight of the heartbeat interval variation state based on the pulse wave signal to “1” and only based on the heartbeat interval variation state. While detecting the arousal level, the reliability determination circuit 24 outputs the reliability “0.3”.

The SIL signal measured by the sensor 2 and the sensor 2
2 is input, the arousal level detection circuit 6 sets the weight of the SIL signal to “0.6” and the weight of the variation state of the heartbeat interval to “0.4”, And the reliability determination circuit 24 determines that the reliability is “0.8”.
Is output. SIL signal measured by sensor 2, sensor 2
When the pulse wave signal measured by the SIL 2 and the response time measured by the response time measurement circuit 5 are input, the arousal level detection circuit 6 sets the weight of the SIL signal to “0.5” and changes the heartbeat interval. The weight of the state is “0.3”, and the weight of the response time is “0.
The arousal level is detected as "2", and the reliability determination circuit 24 outputs the reliability "1.0". The outputs of the arousal level detection circuit 6 and the reliability determination circuit 24 of the physiological condition detection device 21 are feedback signals. It is input to the generation circuit 31.

The weighting of each signal in the arousal level detecting means 6 is determined by s9 in the processing procedure shown in FIG.
Can be performed in the process of The determination of the reliability in the reliability determination circuit 24 can be performed after the process of s9.

The feedback signal generating circuit 31 outputs, for example, a feedback signal shown in FIG. FIG.
Represents a feedback signal output to a learning device, which is an external device, as an example. For example, the feedback signal generation circuit 31 generates a drive signal for an alarm buzzer when the detected value of the arousal level is low in a state of high reliability.

According to the physiological condition detecting apparatus of this embodiment, the detected arousal level can be output together with the reliability in accordance with the input state of a plurality of pieces of biological information. An appropriate awakening operation can be executed accordingly.

FIG. 7 shows the physiological condition detecting device according to the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 and the physiological condition detecting device according to the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. It can be constituted by a microcomputer 41. In this case, the processing procedure shown in FIG.
Can be supplied from a storage medium 42 such as an HDD or a CDROM.

[0036]

According to the first, fifth and ninth aspects of the present invention, the physiological state of the subject is detected by excluding the transient part affected by the disturbance in the measurement result of the biological information. Thereby, a steady physiological state of the subject can be accurately detected.

According to the second, seventh and tenth aspects of the present invention, the measurement result of the biological information is weighted based on the degree of influence according to the combination of a plurality of types of biological information used for detecting the physiological condition, and the weighting is performed. The physiological state of the subject can be detected using the measurement results of the obtained biological information, and the reliability of the detection result of the physiological state can be increased. According to the invention described in claims 3 and 7, the physiological state of the subject can be detected using the time from the occurrence of the disturbance until the influence of the disturbance appears on the measurement result of the biological information,
The physiological state of the subject can be detected more accurately.

According to the invention described in claims 4 and 8,
By controlling the operation of the awakening means based on the detection result of the arousal state of the subject, an appropriate awakening operation can be performed on the subject with a low arousal level.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a physiological condition detecting device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the physiological condition detecting device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a measurement state of biological information in the physiological condition detecting device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a physiological condition detecting device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing weighting of each signal of a waking degree detection circuit in the physiological state detecting device and reliability output from the reliability determination circuit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a feedback signal output from a feedback signal generation circuit of the physiological condition detecting device.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a physiological condition detecting device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,21-Physiological condition detecting device 2,22-Sensor 3-Select switch 4-Select signal generating circuit 5-Response time measuring circuit 6-Arousal level detecting circuit 23-Heart interval detecting circuit 24-Reliability determining circuit 31-Feedback Signal generation circuit

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A physiological condition detecting apparatus for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on biological information continuously measured from the subject. A physiological condition detecting device for excluding a measurement result of the above from biological information used for detecting a physiological condition of a subject. 2. A physiological condition detecting device for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on a plurality of types of biological information continuously measured from the subject. A biological information measuring device, wherein the degree of influence of each biological information in detecting a physiological state is changed. 3. A disturbance generating means for generating a disturbance affecting biological information of a person to be measured, and a measurement for measuring a time from the occurrence of the disturbance in the disturbance generating means until the influence of the disturbance appears on the measurement result of the biological information. And means for detecting the physiological state of the subject by using the measurement time of the measuring means.
Or the physiological condition detecting device according to 2. 4. A physiological condition detecting device for detecting a degree of arousal of a person to be measured as a physiological state of the person to be measured, comprising: awakening means for awakening the person to be measured; Claim 1 controls the operation of the awakening means on the basis of
4. The physiological condition detecting device according to 2 or 3. 5. A physiological condition detecting method for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on biological information continuously measured from the subject, wherein the physiological information is obtained from the time of occurrence of disturbance until a predetermined time elapses. A physiological condition detection method, wherein the measurement result of (1) is excluded from biological information used for detecting the physiological condition of the subject. 6. A physiological condition detecting method for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on a plurality of types of biological information continuously measured from the subject, the plurality of types of biological information used for detecting the physiological condition. The influence of each biological information in the detection of the physiological state is changed according to the combination of the physiological information, and the measurement result of each biological information is weighted based on the influence according to the influence, and the measurement result of the weighted biological information is measured. A physiological condition detecting method, comprising detecting a physiological condition of a subject using the method. 7. The disturbance generating means generates a disturbance which affects the biological information of the subject, and the measuring means measures the time from the occurrence of the disturbance in the disturbance generating means until the influence of the disturbance appears on the measurement result of the biological information. The physiological state detecting method according to claim 5, wherein the physiological state of the subject is measured using the time measured by the measuring unit. 8. A physiological state detecting method for detecting a degree of arousal of a person to be measured as a physiological state of the person to be measured, the method comprising: awakening the person to be measured based on a result of detection of the state of arousal of the person to be measured. 8. The physiological condition detecting method according to claim 5, wherein the operation of the means is controlled. 9. A storage medium storing a physiological condition detecting program for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on biological information continuously measured from the subject until a predetermined time elapses from the occurrence of disturbance. A physiological condition detection program storage medium, which stores a program for excluding a measurement result of biological information during the period from biological information used for detecting a physiological condition of a subject. 10. A storage medium storing a physiological condition detection program for detecting a physiological condition of a subject based on a plurality of types of biological information continuously measured from the subject, the method comprising: The influence of each biological information in the detection of the physiological state is changed according to the combination of the types of biological information, and the measurement result of each biological information is weighted based on the influence according to the influence, and each weighted A storage medium for a biological information detection program, which stores a program for detecting a physiological state of a subject using a measurement result of the biological information.