KR20060122717A - Massage machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A massage machine is provided to exactly massage the shoulder by detecting the posture misalignment of a user during massaging the shoulder and correcting the position of a sample member correspondently to the misalignment. The chair-type massage machine(1) having a seat part(11) and a back rest(12) is composed of a sample member(2) disposed to vertically move along the back rest and to massage a user(10) sitting on the seat part; a massaging tool(3) driven to execute a massage operation of the sample member and to vertically move the sample member; a position detecting unit(4) sensing the vertical position of the sample member; a load detecting unit(5) sensing the load of the user applied to the sample member; a control unit(6) controlling the driving of the massaging tool; and a shoulder position detecting unit sensing the position of the user's shoulder on the basis of the output of the position detecting unit and the load detecting unit. The control unit detects the misalignment of the shoulder on the basis of the shoulder position detecting unit and corrects the position of a massaging operation performed by the massaging tool while massaging the shoulder by the massaging tool according to the position of the user's shoulder detected by the shoulder position detecting unit.

Description

Massager {MASSAGE MACHINE}

1 is a conceptual configuration diagram of a massage device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of the massage device.

3 (a) and 3 (b) are diagrams showing an example of the contents of the automatic course massage by the massager.

4 is a flowchart of a massage operation by the massager.

Fig. 5 is a schematic view for explaining shoulder position detection operation of the massage device.

<Description of the code | symbol about the principal part of drawing>

1: massage device, 2: sample member

3: massage device, 4: position detection unit

5: load detection unit, 6: control unit

10: user, 11: seat

12: backrest

The present invention relates to a massage chair having a chair-type massage device, in particular having a function of detecting the shoulder position of the user.

In order to correct according to a person's individual difference, that is, a physique difference, a massage device having a user's shoulder position detection function is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3075779. Such a massager is equipped with the program of what is called automatic course massage which combines various massage operations and performs them in order. Then, in starting the program, the shoulder position detection is performed by the shoulder position detection function in advance, and then automatic course massage is started. For this reason, when performing massage to a shoulder part, massage according to the shoulder position of a user can be performed.

However, in the chair type massager, even if the shoulder position is detected in advance, the position of the shoulder may be displaced by the user moving out of the position of the waist during the massage, so that the massage of the shoulder region may not be performed properly.

For this reason, the massage device in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-70857 discloses the same movement as the shoulder position detection motion that is initially performed during the programmed massage motion, that is, the massage of moving the sample member up and down along the backrest (rolling massage). During the operation, the shoulder position detecting operation is performed again. The massager re-detects the shoulder position and corrects the massage position in response to a change in the posture of the user.

However, the above-described shoulder position redetection is performed not during the massage of the shoulder region but during the massage operation of moving the sample member up and down along the backrest. If the posture of the user is changed again until the massage is performed near the shoulder, the massage is performed at the off position, which is not a fundamental solution.

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 3075779

[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-70857

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a massaging device capable of massaging a shoulder region by aligning a sample member with a shoulder region of a user.

In order to solve the above problems, the massage device according to the present invention is a chair-type massage device having a seat portion and a backrest on which the user sits, and is disposed to be movable up and down along the backrest to massage the user sitting on the seat portion. A sample member to be carried out, a massage mechanism for driving the sample member for massage operation and vertical movement, a position detecting unit for detecting a position of the sample member in the vertical direction, and the sample member A load detection unit for detecting a load from a user, a control unit for controlling the driving of the massage mechanism, and a shoulder position detection unit for detecting a shoulder position of the user based on outputs of the position detection unit and the load detection unit; The control unit detects the deviation of the shoulder position based on the output of the shoulder position detecting means during the massage operation on the shoulder region by the massage mechanism based on the shoulder position of the user detected by the shoulder position detecting means. In addition, the position correction of the massage operation by the massage mechanism is performed.

In addition, the control unit is preferably to cause the sample member to perform a massage operation suitable for detecting the shoulder position during the massage operation to the shoulder region by the massage mechanism.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the massaging machine 1 which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention is demonstrated with reference to drawings.

1 shows a conceptual configuration of the massage device 1, and FIG. 2 shows a block configuration of the massage device 1. The massage device 1 is a chair-type massage device having a seat portion 11 and a backrest 12 on which the user 10 sits, and is arranged to be movable up and down along the backrest 12, and is seated on the seat portion 11. The sample member 2 for massaging the sitting user 10, the massage mechanism 3 for driving the sample member 2 for the massage operation and the vertical movement, and the position of the sample member 2 in the vertical direction Up and down position detection part 4 to detect, the load detection part 5 which detects the load F from the user 10 applied to the sample member 2, and the control part 6 which controls the drive of the massage mechanism 3 And the shoulder position detecting means for detecting the shoulder position of the user 10 based on the outputs of the upper and lower position detecting portions 4 and the load detecting portions 5.

The above-described massage mechanism 3 includes a massage driving unit 30 for causing the sample member 2 to perform a massage operation, and an up and down driving unit 31 for moving the whole of the massage mechanism 3 including the sample member 2 up and down. And the front and back drive part 32 for moving the sample member 2 to the front-back direction, and performing a massage operation which presses in the front-back direction, or adjusts the intensity of massage.

The up and down position detection unit 4 acquires the up and down position information of the sample member 2 from the up and down drive unit 31, and the front and rear position detection unit 7 acquires the front and rear position information of the sample member 2 from the front and rear drive unit 32. do.

Moreover, the massage device 1 is equipped with the manipulator 8 for the user 10 to operate the massage device 1. The manipulator 8 includes a massage motion selection unit 81 for the user 10 to select a massage function, a display unit 82 for notifying the user 10 of motion information such as elapsed time, and a response or report by voice. And a sound reproducing unit 83 for performing the operation.

The control unit 6 includes a microprocessor (MPU) 60 which performs processing of a control signal, arithmetic processing such as position data, a drive control unit 62 which controls the respective drive units 30 to 32 of the massage mechanism 3, A storage device 61 is provided for storing data necessary for control, a control program, and the like. The data stored in the storage device 61 are, for example, measured values such as position data of the sample member 2 and load data applied to the sample member 2, data for comparison and the like set in advance. In addition, the shoulder position detection means mentioned above is comprised using the microprocessor 60 and the software stored in the memory | storage device 61, for example. When the control unit 6 receives the output of the manipulator 8, the controller 6 controls the driving of the massage mechanism 3 while receiving the outputs of the upper and lower position detecting unit 4, the load detecting unit 5, and the front and rear position detecting unit 7. Massage the body.

The control unit 6 of the massage device 1 of the present invention, for example, at the start of the massage operation to the shoulder portion of the user 10, using the above-described shoulder position detection means, the upper and lower position detection unit 4 and the load detection unit ( The shoulder position of the user 10 is detected from the output of 5), and a massage operation is performed on the vicinity of the shoulder based on the detected shoulder position. In addition, the control part 6 detects the deviation of the shoulder position based on the output of the shoulder position detection means, and controls the massage mechanism 3 while performing the massage operation of the shoulder part, and controls the massage member 3 of the sample member 2. Position correction is performed to correct the massage operation.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b), an operation example of the automatic course massage by the massage device 1 will be described.

Automatic course massage is a massage programmed to perform a sequence of combinations of various massage movements. For example, in the automatic course massage shown in Figs. 3 (a) and 3 (b), the rolling operation (a) for the back, the kneading operation for the lower back (b), the acupressure operation for the upper shoulder (c), and the tapping operation for the lower back are shown. Each massage operation is sequentially performed at a predetermined time and the respective massage target positions indicated by (d) and the like as the elapsed time in the figure. In such a massage operation, in a massage operation (c, f, h) where the massage target position is near the shoulder, in order to perform the massage comfortably and effectively, a massage for the exact shoulder position is required.

Thus, the control section 6 performs initial shoulder position detection by the shoulder position detecting means in the rolling massage operation (a) for the back, which is the first massage of the automatic course massage. The shoulder position is detected up and down of the sample member 2, which is detected by the vertical position detecting unit 4, by moving the sample member 2 up and down along the backrest 12, similarly to the conventional detection method. It can carry out based on the change of the load F detected by the load detection part 5 with respect to a position. For example, when the sample member 2 moves upward beyond the shoulder of the user 10, the load F is reduced, so that the upper and lower positions of the shoulder position can be known. Since the magnitude | size of the load F also depends on the front-back position of the sample member 2, the front-back position of the sample member 2 detected by the front-back position detection part 7 is also referred to the detection of a shoulder position.

Moreover, the control part 6 can always detect the load F by the load detection part 5, during execution of the massage operation | movement c, f, h in which a massage target position becomes a shoulder region, The up and down position detection unit 4 can detect the up and down position of the sample member 2. Therefore, the control part 6 provided with the shoulder position detection means can detect a new shoulder position from the change of the load F, and can also detect the deviation of a shoulder position. For example, when the load F is smaller than a predetermined value, it can be determined that the shoulder is lower than the sample member 2, and when the load F is larger, the shoulder is rising above the sample member 2. Thus, the shoulder position detection performed during the massage of the shoulder region can be performed during the massage operation near the shoulder, unlike the initial shoulder position detection performed by moving the sample member 2 up and down along the backrest 12.

As a result, the massager 1 detects the deviation of the shoulder position and corrects the position of the sample member 2 even when the posture of the user 10 changes during the massage operation near the shoulder, thereby changing the position of the sample member 2. Massage to the vicinity can be performed.

Next, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4, the operation | movement of the massager 1 which performs automatic course massage containing shoulder massage in the massager 1 is demonstrated. When the user 10 selects the automatic course massage by operating the manipulator 8, the controller 6 performs initial shoulder position detection for moving the sample member 2 up and down along the backrest 12 as described above. (S1).

After step S1, a predetermined massage operation programmed as a course massage, for example, not targeting near the shoulder position is performed for a predetermined time by moving the sample member 2 up or down or protruding (S2). On the other hand, the program of the course massage may be such that the massage of step S2 is not performed according to the taste of the user. After step S2, the shoulder position massage is performed by targeting the shoulder position detected by step S1 (S3). During massage near the shoulder (YES in S4), the load F is detected by the load detection unit 5 (S5), and if the value of the detected load F, that is, the load value is within a predetermined range ( In S6), the shoulder muscle massage is continuously performed (S3).

In step S6, when the detected load value is not within the predetermined range (NO in S6), the control section 6 determines that the posture of the user 10 has changed, and the user 10 by the voice reproducing section 83 makes a change. In addition to notifying that the shoulder position is out of position, the position correction of moving the position of the sample member 2 along the backrest 12 up or down is performed (S7). Thereafter, the process returns to step S5, and load detection S5 and determination of load value S6 are repeated as described above. That is, steps S5 and S6 are steps for the control unit 6 to detect the load F by the load detection unit 5 and to monitor the change in the shoulder position.

In step S4, if the shoulder massage is not being performed (NO in S4), it is determined whether or not the entire course of the course massage has ended, and if not in the end (NO in S8), the process returns to step S2. , The above-described processing is repeated. In addition, when the whole course of course massage is complete | finished (YES in S8), the process of course massage is complete | finished.

The predetermined range compared with the detected load value in step S6 described above is set in advance, for example, by the load value detected at the position of the shoulder position by the initial shoulder position detecting operation S1, the past data, or the like. It can be made into the range which made the fluctuation range to one load value. When the difference in the shoulder position is detected, whether the position of the sample member 2 is moved upward or downward is determined based on the relationship between the upper and lower positions detected in the initial shoulder position detection and the load F. can do. For example, the position of the sample member 2 from which the load value obtained at the initial shoulder position detection position and the same load value is obtained is made into a new shoulder position. Further, the new shoulder position can be calculated based on the difference between the load value when the sample member 2 is positioned at the initial shoulder position detection position and the load value obtained at the beginning.

As described above, the determination of the new shoulder position is made based on the change in the load F detected during the massage operation. By the way, depending on the kind of massage operation | movement which is being performed, it may be difficult to determine a shoulder position, for example, because a load change is severe, like a tapping massage operation h with respect to an upper shoulder part. In this case, in the middle of performing the massage operation h near the shoulder, the sample member 2 performs a movement for facilitating new shoulder positioning so as to determine a new shoulder position from the load change during the operation. Also good. As such a movement, as shown in FIG. 5, the movement which moves the sample member 2 downward along the backrest 12 in the narrow range including the place which was made to the shoulder position to it is suitable. When a new shoulder position is determined in this movement, the control part 6 resumes the massage operation h of the original shoulder part at the time and the place.

In the description with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4, the position deviation with respect to the shoulder position obtained by the initial shoulder position detection and the correction thereof were described. However, since the detection of the shoulder position is performed every time the massage operation in which the target position of the massage is near the shoulder, the second and subsequent shoulder position detection and the correction of the position are not based on the result of the initial shoulder position detection. What is necessary is just to perform based on the shoulder position determined by position detection and correction of a position.

In addition, the shoulder position detection operation may be performed only during the initial stage of the massage operation of each shoulder region, instead of continuously detecting the shoulder position during the massage operation of the shoulder region. In addition, various algorithms can be used for the shoulder position detection and determination. The above-described present invention can also be applied to any of the algorithms. In addition, in the massager provided with the massage mechanism 3 movable up and down in the back of a chair, for example, the massager provided with the load detection part 5 which can detect the load F which acts on the sample member 2, for example. If it is, the mechanism for causing the sample member 2 to perform the massage operation can be applied to the shoulder position detection and position correction operation of the present invention.

The massaging device of the present invention detects the deviation of the user's posture during the massage operation of the shoulder area, and corrects the position of the sample member in response to the deviation, thereby reliably massaging the shoulder area. Can

Claims (2)

In the massage device of the chair type having a seat and a backrest on which the user sits, A sample member disposed to be movable up and down along the backrest to massage the user sitting on the seat; Massage mechanism for driving the sample member for the massage operation and vertical movement; A position detection unit for detecting a position of the sample member in the vertical direction; A load detection unit for detecting a load from the user on the sample member; A control unit for controlling driving of the massage device; A shoulder position detecting means for detecting a shoulder position of the user based on the output of the position detecting unit and the load detecting unit; The controller controls the deviation of the shoulder position based on the output of the shoulder position detecting means during the massage operation on the shoulder region by the massage mechanism based on the shoulder position of the user detected by the shoulder position detecting means. And a position corrector for detecting the position of the massage motion by the massage mechanism. The method of claim 1, And the control unit causes the sample member to perform a massage operation suitable for detecting the shoulder position during the massage operation on the shoulder region by the massage device.

Images