NL2026363A

NL2026363A - Bed for intelligently adjusting height of pillow and adjusting method thereof

Info

Publication number: NL2026363A
Application number: NL2026363A
Authority: NL
Inventors: Xie Bailing
Original assignee: Nanjing Robust Information Tech Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-05-29
Filing date: 2020-08-28
Publication date: 2021-12-13
Also published as: WO2021237673A1; DE212020000240U1; NL2026363B1

Abstract

The embodiment of the present application discloses a bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow and an adjusting method thereof, the bed includes a bed body, a headboard, a lifting plate, a driving assembly, a first sensor, a second sensor and a controller; wherein the first sensor is provided on a side of the head area for acquiring head height information of a user in the head area; the second sensor is provided on a side of the shoulder area for acquiring shoulder height information of the user in the shoulder area; the controller is used for controlling the driving assembly to control the lifting plate to lift and drop according to height information fed back by the first sensor and the second sensor. According to the present application, the sensors are arranged corresponding to the head and the shoulder to obtain the height value information, respectively, the driving assembly drives the lifting plate to move according to the height value calculated by the controller, so that the pillow positioned on the lifting plate reaches an optimal height suitable for the current user, the sleep quality of the user is guaranteed, and the pillow features high accuracy in adjustment and good flexibility.

Description

BED FOR INTELLIGENTLY ADJUSTING HEIGHT OF PILLOW AND ADJUSTING METHOD THEREOF FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The embodiment of the present application relates to the technical field of smart home, in particular to a bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow and an adjusting method thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Pillows play an important role in avoiding neck deformation and protecting cervical vertebra during sleep. At present, various types of pillows are available in the market, such as kapok pillows, down pillows, latex pillows, and the like, varied in sizes, especially in heights. A pillow not fitting the sleeping posture of a user can affect his/her sleep quality, and long-term use can cause immeasurable damages to his/her cervical vertebra.

[0003] Moreover, a user tends to frequently change his/her sleeping posture during sleep, and a desirable height of the pillow varies under different sleeping postures. When the user lies on his/her back, the desirable height can be lower; when the user is lying on his/her side, the desirable height can be higher. It can be seen that a conventional pillow does not always keep the head of the user at a suitable height throughout the sleep.

[0004] In order to solve the problems, some manufacturers propose a novel pillow whose height can be adjusted by detecting the sleeping posture of the user, either lying on the back or on the side, so that the height of the pillow can be adjusted according to the posture of the user, and the sleep quality is improved to a certain extent.

[0005] However, the above novel pillow still has some problems in use. Firstly, the pillow lacks flexibility, because the desirable heights for adults and children are different, one pillow cannot be flexibly adapted to different users, as a result, one pillow has to be exclusive to one user; secondly, the pillow shows insufficient accuracy control for height adjustment, the difference between desirable heights for different postures of a user depends on the specific physiques, the prior art pillow can only be adjusted by a preset fixed value, which cannot be exactly suitable for a user in terms of the most subtle feelings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The present application provides a bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow to solve the problems that the sleep quality is affected due to a fixed height of the pillow, and the bed provided herein does not depend on a specific pillow, the height of the pillow can be accurately adjusted during the sleep upon a random choice, featuring high flexibility.

[0007] In a first aspect, the present application provides a bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow, comprising:

[0008] a bed body, wherein a head area and a shoulder area are sequentially provided on one side, close to a headboard, of an upper surface of the bed body;

[0009] the headboard disposed on one side of the bed body and connected with the bed body;

[0010] a lifting plate provided on an upper surface of the head area;

[0011] a driving assembly provided in a groove below the lifting plate and connected with a bottom surface of the lifting plate, to drive the lifting plate to move along a direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the bed body;

[0012] a first sensor provided on a side of the head area for acquiring head height information of a user in the head area;

[0013] a second sensor provided on a side of the shoulder area for acquiring shoulder height information of the user in the shoulder area; and

[0014] a controller provided inside the headboard; wherein the controller is electrically connected with the driving assembly, the first sensor and the second sensor, respectively, for controlling the driving assembly to control the lifting plate to lift and drop according to height information fed back by the first sensor and the second sensor.

[0015] In a second aspect, the present application provides a method for intelligently adjusting the height of the pillow, which is applied to the bed having the height-adjustable intelligent pillow, the method comprising:

[0016] acquiring head height information and shoulder height information of a user simultaneously; the head height information comprises a height value h1 of a highest point and a height value h2 of a lowest point of the head; the shoulder height information comprises a height value h3 of a highest point of the shoulder;

[0017] calculating a lifted height H of the lifting plate according to the head height information and the shoulder height information; and

[0018] starting the driving assembly and stopping after the lifting plate is displaced by H.

[0019] According to the present application, the sensors are arranged corresponding to the head and the shoulder to obtain the height value information, respectively, the driving assembly drives the lifting plate to move according to the height value calculated by the controller, so that the pillow positioned on the lifting plate reaches an optimal height suitable for the current user, the sleep quality of the user is guaranteed, and the pillow features high accuracy in adjustment and good flexibility.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a structure of a bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0021] FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of a groove in the bed shown in FIG. 1;

[0022] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 taken along A-A;

[0023] FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the structure of the bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow according to another embodiment of the present application;

[0024] FIG. 5 is an illustration of components of a controller in the bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow of the present application;

[0025] FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow of the present application;

[0026] FIG. 7 is an illustration of mechanisms for the bed of the present application to adjust the height of a pillow (before adjustment);

[0027] FIG. 8 is an illustration of mechanisms for the bed of the present application to adjust the height of a pillow (after adjustment).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0028] The bed provided by the present application is adapted to different types and sizes of pillows, and can render a high cervical vertebra protection effect for whoever uses it during the sleep.

[0029] Reference is made to FIG. 1, a schematic view showing a structure of a bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0030] as can be seen from FIG. 1, the present application provides a bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow, including:

[0031] a bed body 1, wherein a head area 11 and a shoulder area 12 are sequentially provided on one side, close to a headboard 2, of an upper surface of the bed body 1; the bed body 1 is a basic component of a bed, provides a bearing effect, and can be correspondingly configured as a single bed or a double bed according to different specifications; in this embodiment, the head area 11 is adapted to receive a pillow such that its width is determined as desired, but is generally at least longer than a length of a typical person's head; a user rests his/her head on the pillow in the head area 11 correspondingly and his/her shoulder is in the shoulder area 12 correspondingly when he/she lies in the bed;

[0032] the headboard 2 disposed on one side of the bed body 1 and connected with the bed body 1; wherein the headboard 2 serves to back a person, and a variety of functional components, such as a bedside lamp, or a control panel to accomplish some intelligent control, may also be provided in the headboard 2 to improve applicability;

[0033] a lifting plate 3 provided on an upper surface of the head area 11; the pillow is positioned on the lifting plate 3 when placed in the head area 11, and the lifting or drop of the lifting plate 3 changes the height of the pillow relative to the upper surface of the bed body 1; further, if the bed is a double bed, the lifting plate 3 is correspondingly configured as two plates side by side, and independent control is respectively performed on the two pillows; and

[0034] a driving assembly provided in a groove 4 below the lifting plate 3 and connected with a bottom surface of the lifting plate 3, to drive the lifting plate 3 to move along a direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the bed body 1; in the embodiment, if the lifting plate 3 is not singular, a groove is provided correspondingly below each lifting plate 3 for receiving the driving assembly to control the lifting or drop of the lifting plate 3; the specific structure of the drive assembly includes more than one forms, such as a cylinder drive, a gear drive, a motor drive, etc.

[0035] Further, as can be seen from FIGS. 2 and 3, in one possible embodiment, 5 the drive assembly includes:

[0036] a driving motor 81 fixed on a sidewall of the groove 4; wherein the driving motor 81 is used for providing a power source for driving the lifting plate 3 to moves; the driving motor 81 is configured to rotate in either a forward direction or a reverse direction, and the lifting or drop of the lifting plate 3 is respectively performed according to preset settings;

[0037] a gear 82, a center of which is connected with an output end of the driving motor 81; wherein after the drive motor is started, the gear 82 will rotate in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction along an axis of rotation; and

[0038] a rack 83, one side of which is meshed with the gear 82, and the other side of which is in sliding connection with a fixed plate 84 fixed at the bottom of the groove 4; wherein an upper end of the rack 83 is fixedly connected with the lifting plate 3.

[0039] According to the embodiment of the present application, the gear-rack structure is adopted to complete the movement of the lifting plate, and a runner connected with the fixed plate is provided on the other side of the rack, so that the lifting plate is more stable when moving up and down, and the influence of noise caused by friction on sleep quality of the user can be reduced; moreover, the preset specification of the gear and the engagement of the gear with the rack allow precise control of the lifting plate.

[0040] The bed further includes a first sensor 5 provided on a side of the head area 11 for acquiring head height information of the pillow in the head area 11; in the embodiment, when a user lies in the bed, the first sensor 5 can scan the head of the user in the head area 11 and specifically obtain the height value information of the head relative to the surface of the bed at the moment, wherein the height value information includes the height of the highest point and the lowest point of the head relative to the surface of the bed, to calculate the height of the end of the neck close to the head. To obtain the above-mentioned height value, the first sensor 5 may specifically select a somatological device such as an infrared sensor or other devices having such a function, which is not limited in this embodiment.

[0041] The bed further includes a second sensor 6 provided on a side of the shoulder area 12 for acquiring shoulder height information of the user in the shoulder area 12; similarly, when the user lies in the bed, his/her shoulder is in the shoulder area 12, the second sensor 6 can scan the position of the shoulder of the user, and can obtain the height value information of the shoulder relative to the surface of the bed at the moment; the shoulder of the user is in direct contact with the bed, hence it would be enough to obtain the highest point of the shoulder position; it should be noted herein that the second sensor 6 is required to have a wide scanning range since the values of the height of the highest point of the shoulder differ considerably in different sleeping postures, for example, lying on the back or on the side, as are the values of the heights of the highest points of the shoulders of users of different physiques, for example, adults and children. In addition, the selection of the type the second sensor 6 in this embodiment is also the same as that of the first sensor 5.

[0042] In the embodiment, the height of the end of the neck close to the head can be calculated from the head height value information acquired by the first sensor 5, and the height of the end of the neck close to the shoulder can be calculated from the shoulder height value information acquired by the second sensor 6. If the two heights are different, it is indicated that the current height of the pillow is not optimal for sleeping, so the height of the pillow needs to be adjusted accordingly, such that the two height values tend to be the same, in which case the neck of the user is considered to be in a horizontal state, e.g., a state most beneficial to the cervical vertebrae health.

[0043] Further, when the lifting plate is not singular (for example, when two lifting plates are arranged side by side), two first sensors 5 and two second sensors 6 should be provided accordingly, and in this circumstance, the first sensars can be positioned on two sides of the head area, respectively; the second sensors are positioned on two sides of the shoulder area, respectively; at this time, the sensors on both sides can perform adjustment control for two persons lying in the bed, respectively.

[0044] The bed provided by the present application further includes a controller 7 provided inside the headboard 2; the controller 7 is electrically connected with the driving assembly, the first sensor 5 and the second sensor 6, respectively, for controlling the driving assembly to control the lifting or drop of the lifting plate 3 according to height information fed back by the first sensor 5 and the second sensor 6.

[0045] Specifically, in the process of controlling the lifting or drop of the lifting plate, the controller 7 implements the control mainly by integrating structural units of various functions, and it can be seen from FIG. 4 that the controller 7 includes:

[0046] a receiving unit 71 for receiving the height information fed back by the first sensor 5 and the second sensor 6;

[0047] an analysis unit 72 for calculating a displacement of the lifting plate 3 according to the received height information; and

[0048] an execution unit 73 for sending a control instruction to the driving assembly according to the calculated displacement.

[0049] The bed provided by the present application is not limited to adjusting the height of the pillow when the user changes the sleeping posture during the sleep only, and can adjust the height of the pillow instantly according to different physiques when the user just lies down (for example, the user lies flat). For example, assuming that when no one lies in the bed, the upper surface of the lifting plate and the upper surface of the bed body are kept flush, and when an adult lies down on his/her back, the current height of the pillow can be just the optimal height, and hence it's not necessary to lift or drop the lifting plate as long as the adult keeps his/her sleeping posture; however, for the same pillow, if a child lies down on his/her back, it is obvious that the current height of the pillow is not optimal, in which case the lifting plate can be lowered by a certain distance through the monitoring of the sensor, such that the current pillow is adapted to the child. As can be seen, the bed of the present application is not exclusive to a specific pillow or user, showing more flexibility.

[0050] In addition, the sensor in the application has a real-time performance, namely, whether the user just enters the monitored range or is asleep, once a difference of the height values is detected, the lifting plate can be correspondingly controlled according to the calculation result, so that the user can enjoy a proper height of the pillow in most of the sleeping time.

[0051] In the embodiment, the role of the first sensor 5 and the second sensor 6 to acquire the height information instantly is embodied in the fact that the sleeping posture of a person, especially a child, in his/her sleep may often between the postures of lying on the back and on the side, a method and a device finding a person in either a posture of lying on the back or a posture of lying on the side are very likely to adjust the height of the pillow by mistake due to wrong findings. However, the present application, when the lifting plate is adjusted, is not limited to a posture of lying on the back, a posture of lying on the side or any posture in between, with a sole basis on the height difference of the neck in any posture to determine whether the height of the pillow needs adjustment or not, so that the adjustment accuracy is higher.

[0052] Further, in another possible embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the bed provided by the present application further includes:

[0053] a lifting assembly including a driving end 91 and a transmission lever 92; wherein the transmission lever 92 is disposed vertically, and a lower part of the transmission lever 92 is connected with the driving end 91; the driving end 91 is fixed on a side of the bed body 1 for driving the transmission lever 82 to move in a vertical direction; the first sensor 5 and the second sensor 6 are arranged at a top of the transmission lever 92, respectively; in the embodiment, the driving end 91 may have various forms, for example, a gear structure, a motor drive or a cylinder drive, etc., without limitation herein; the lower portion of the transmission lever 92 is provided to penetrable the driving end 91 and can be driven by the driving end 91 to move up and down, thereby driving the first sensor and the second sensor to move up and down, so that when no person is in the bed or a person rest against the headboard in the bed, the first sensor and the second sensor can be lowered to one side of the bed body 1, being aesthetic and free of blocking the access getting in the bed.

[0054] In order to realize automatic control, the embodiment further includes a control panel 21 provided on a surface of the headboard 2 where operation by the user is convenient; the control panel 21 and the lifting assembly are electrically connected to the controller 7, respectively; a lifting button 211 is provided on the control panel 21; the lifting button is used for controlling the lifting or drop of the lifting assembly, for example, the user can press the lifting button when ready to sleep after getting in the bed to lift the sensor to a designated position, to ensure the regulation and control function during the sleep;

[0055] Further, in a preferred embodiment, a sound insulation layer is provided outside the driving assembly, and the sound insulation layer can be made of various sound insulation materials, so that noise generated when the driving assembly is started can be reduced to the maximum extent, and a quiet environment for sleep is guaranteed.

[0056] According to the technical solution, the present application provides a bed for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow, including: a bed body, wherein a head area and a shoulder area are sequentially provided on one side, close to a headboard, of an upper surface of the bed body; the headboard disposed on one side of the bed body and connected with the bed body; a lifting plate provided on an upper surface of the head area; a driving assembly provided in a groove below the lifting plate and connected with a bottom surface of the lifting plate, to drive the lifting plate to move along a direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the bed body; a first sensor provided on a side of the head area for acquiring head height information of a user in the head area; a second sensor provided on a side of the shoulder area for acquiring shoulder height information of the user in the shoulder area; a controller provided inside the headboard; wherein the controller is electrically connected with the driving assembly, the first sensor and the second sensor, respectively, for controlling the driving assembly to control the lifting plate to lift and drop according to height information fed back by the first sensor and the second sensor. According to the present application, the sensors are arranged corresponding to the head and the shoulder to obtain the height value information, respectively, the driving assembly drives the lifting plate to move according to the height value calculated by the controller, so that the pillow positioned on the lifting plate reaches an optimal height suitable for the current user, the sleep quality of the user is guaranteed, and the pillow features high accuracy in adjustment and good flexibility.

[0057] Reference is made to FIG. 6, which is a flow chart of a method for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow of the present application;

[0058] as can be seen from FIG. 6, the present application also provides a method for intelligently adjusting the height of the pillow, which is applied to the bed in the embodiment, the method including the steps of:

[0059] S10: acquiring head height information and shoulder height information of a user simultaneously; the head height information includes a height value h1 of a highest point and a height value h2 of a lowest point of the head; the shoulder height information includes a height value h3 of a highest point of the shoulder; and

[0060] S20: calculating a lifted height H of the lifting plate according to the head height information and the shoulder height information;

[0061] wherein, as can be seen from FIG. 7, which is an illustration of mechanisms, the step S20 can specifically include the following cases:

[0062] when the height values of different positions are respectively acquired by the sensor, firstly, an average height S1 of the head is calculated by using a formula S1=h2+(h1-h2)/2 according to the height value h1 of the highest point and the height value h2 of the lowest point of the head, and an average height S2 of the shoulder is calculated by using a formula S2=h3/2 according to the height value h3 of the highest point of the shoulder; finally, the lifted height H of the lifting plate is calculated by using a formula H=S2-S1; where the height H can have a positive value or a negative value, the positive value represents a height by which the lifting plate is lifted, the negative value represents a height by which the lifting plate drops, and if H=0, it's indicated that the position of the lifting plate does not have to change since the current height H is optimal;

[0083] when the H value is not zero, it's indicated that the current height of the pillow has not reached the optimal position yet, so it's necessary to drive and adjust the lifting plate; ie. the method further includes S30: starting the driving assembly and stopping after the lifting plate is displaced by H; as shown in FIG. 8, at the moment, the lifting plate moves upwards by H, so that center lines of the center and the shoulder coincide; in the implementation of this step, the lifting plate can be directly lifted or dropped by the height H according to settings; alternatively, in the lifting or drop process, if the sensor acquires and calculates the H value again in real time, which can continuously correct the lifted or dropped distance and ensure the accuracy of the height.

[0064] Further, in the embodiment, the frequency for acquiring the head height information and the shoulder height information can be set as acquiring once at a preset interval, for example, 5 seconds; it can also be set as acquiring at the preset interval after the lifting plate stops moving, so that acquisition times and operation resources are saved.

[0065] Further, in another implementation, the step S30 can be set as:

[0066] S30": after the preset interval, starting the driving assembly and stopping after the lifting plate is displaced by H; the reason for this setting is illustrated herein: during the sleep, changes of the sleeping posture may happen constantly, for example, the user may initially lie on the side and then changes to lie on the back, and again, the user may change to lie on the other side, if the above method is adopted, the lifting plate should firstly drops by H1 and then raises by H2, and finally reaches a height similar to the initial height in a normal process, obviously, the adjustment in the short time increases unnecessary operations, and therefore, in this embodiment, the preset interval is set, for example, 10 seconds, i.e., after figuring out the need of the lifting plate to drop by H1, the implementation shall happen 10 seconds later; in this process, if the sleeping posture of the user changes again, the lifted height H2 for the second time has to be considered together with the previous H1, so that the sleeping of the user is not affected, and the movement of the lifting plate is simplified; the beneficial effects can be obtained in terms of resource saving, noise reduction and the like.

Claims

CONCLUSIONS

A bed suitable for cleverly adjusting the height of a pillow, characterized by: a bed body (1), wherein, near a head end (2), a main part (11) and a shoulder part (12) are successive on one side provided with an upper surface of the bed body (1); the head end (2) being placed on one side of the bed body (1) and connected to the bed body (1); a lifting plate (3) mounted on an upper surface of the main portion (11); a drive assembly arranged in a groove (4) below the lifting plate (3) and connected to a lower surface of the lifting plate (3), so as to cause the lifting plate (3) to move in a direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the bed body (1); a first sensor (5) provided on a side of the main portion (11) for obtaining information about the height of a user's head in the main portion (11); a second sensor (6) provided on one side of the shoulder portion (12) for obtaining information about the height of the user's shoulder in the shoulder portion (12); and a controller (7) provided in the head end (2), the controller (7) being electrically connected to the drive assembly, the first sensor (5) and the second sensor (6), respectively, for controlling the drive assembly to control the lifting plate (3) to raise and lower in accordance with the height information returned from the first sensor (5) and the second sensor (6).

The bed suitable for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow according to claim 1, characterized in that the drive assembly comprises: a drive motor (81) mounted on a side wall of the groove (4); a gear (82), a center of the gear (82) being connected to the output end of the drive motor (81); a rack (83), one side of which is engaged with the gear (82), and the other side of which is in sliding engagement with a fixed plate (84) fixed to the bottom of the groove (4);

wherein an upper end of the rack (83) is fixedly connected to the lifting plate (3).

The bed adapted for intelligently adjusting the height of a pillow according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises: a lifting assembly having a drive end (91) and a transfer lever (92), the transfer lever (92 ) is positioned vertically, and a lower part of the transmission lever (92) is connected to the driving end (91), the driving end (91) being fixed to one side of the bed body (1) for driving the transmission lever (92 ) to move it in a vertical direction, the first sensor (5) and the second sensor (6) being respectively mounted at an upper end of the transfer lever (92); a control panel {21) mounted on a surface of the head end (2), wherein the control panel (21) and the lifting assembly are electrically connected to the controller (7), respectively, and wherein a lift button (211) is provided on the control panel ( 21).

The bed suitable for cleverly adjusting the height of a cushion according to claim 1, characterized in that two lifting plates (3) are arranged side by side; wherein two first sensors (5) are respectively provided on two sides of the main portion (11) and two second sensors (6) are respectively provided on two sides of the shoulder portion (12).

The bed suitable for smartly adjusting the height of a pillow according to claim 1, characterized in that the first sensor (5) and the second sensor (6) are infrared sensors.

The bed suitable for smartly adjusting the height of a pillow according to claim 1, characterized in that the controller (7) comprises: a receiving unit (71) for receiving the height information transmitted by the first sensor ( 5) and the second sensor (8) is returned; an analysis unit (72) for calculating a displacement of the lifting plate (3) from the received height information; and an output unit (73) for sending a control instruction corresponding to the calculated displacement to the drive assembly.

The bed suitable for cleverly adjusting the height of a cushion according to claim 1, characterized in that a sound-insulating layer is arranged outside the drive assembly.

A method for smartly adjusting the height of a pillow placed on the bed according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the method comprises: simultaneously obtaining information about the height of the head and the height of a user's shoulder, the head height information comprising a height value h1 of a highest point and a height value h2 of a lowest point of the head, and the shoulder height information comprising a height value h3 of a highest point of the shoulder; calculating a lifting height H of the lifting plate from the head height information and the shoulder height information; and starting the drive assembly and stopping it after the lifting plate has been moved by H.

The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the step of calculating a lifting height H of the lifting plate from the head height information and the shoulder height information comprises: calculating of an average head height S1, where S1=h2 + (h1-h2) / 2; calculating an average shoulder height S2, where S2=h3/2; and calculating the lifting height H of the lifting plate, where H = S2-S1.

The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the step of starting the drive assembly and stopping it after the lifting plate has been moved by H comprises: after a preset interval, starting the driving assembly and stopping after the lifting plate with H has been moved.