WO2017195713A1

WO2017195713A1 - Electronic bell device

Info

Publication number: WO2017195713A1
Application number: PCT/JP2017/017323
Authority: WO
Inventors: 和典浅中
Original assignee: エイベクト株式会社
Priority date: 2016-05-10
Filing date: 2017-05-06
Publication date: 2017-11-16
Also published as: JP2017204105A

Abstract

Provided is a device characterized by being provided with an acceleration sensor for generating an interruption signal in accordance with a measurement value, a microprocessor started by the interruption signal, and a sounder or speaker controllable by the microprocessor, the microprocessor evaluating a measurement value of the acceleration sensor after being started by the interruption signal and initiating generation of a sound by the sounder or speaker on the basis of the evaluation result.

Description

Electronic bell device

The present invention is for electronically realizing a bell for detecting movement and generating sound.

The bell has a small ball in a hollow outer body made of pottery, metal, pottery, etc., and generates sound by shaking the whole.

When thinking about the outer body of the bell, the inertia of the ball in the bell works by swinging the bell. When the inertia force is small, the ball rolls in the body to generate a bell sound. As the inertia force increases, the ball jumps and the bell sounds louder.

The bell is often used to detect movement such as putting on a cat's collar and notifying the cat's whereabouts, or putting it on a key holder to indicate that the key has fallen from a bag.

However, the generation of the bell sound depends on the mechanical action when swinging the bell, and separates the conditions such as the acceleration threshold for generating the sound, and the magnitude and length of the generated sound, etc. And difficult to control. For this reason, when the bell is used for drop detection, since a sound is generated only for a moment, the drop may not be noticed, or a sound may be generated because the sound is generated only by a slight movement. In addition, since the bell is difficult to make it thin like an IC card, it often can not enter the wallet.

As an alternative measure for this purpose, a loss prevention tag using a wireless such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) is sold for the purpose of prevention of loss of a key or the like (Non-Patent Document 1). Since the loss prevention tag is connected to the receiver, it is necessary to carry all the luggage attached with the loss prevention tag together with the receiver. Therefore, attaching a loss prevention tag to various packages has the disadvantage that the number of packages that must be carried at all times increases.

US Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0190059 U.S. Patent No. 7191089

The problem to be solved is that the generation of sound in the bell depends on the mechanical action, so that the detection of acceleration and the generation of sound can not be separated.

The present invention is characterized in that the function of the bell is realized electronically by detecting the acceleration electronically using an acceleration sensor and generating the sound electronically.

Gravitational acceleration is usually applied to the acceleration sensor. When the device is dropped, there is no gravity, so that the drop of the device can be detected by the decrease of the acceleration.

The acceleration needs to be monitored constantly, as it is not known when the device will fall. On the other hand, the device for drop detection needs to be battery-powered, and for convenience, it is desirable that charging and replacement of the battery be unnecessary for a long period of time. For example, in the case of a coin-type battery having a capacity of 90 mAh, in order to achieve no replacement and no charge for one year, the average current consumption needs to be suppressed to 10 microamperes or less.

Therefore, only the acceleration sensor is operated at all times, and when the detected value of the acceleration sensor becomes equal to or less than the threshold due to the drop of the device, the microprocessor is activated by the interrupt signal from the acceleration sensor. The microprocessor monitors the progress of the subsequent acceleration and generates a sound if it determines that the device has fallen. Since the current consumption of the acceleration sensor is very small (Non-Patent Document 2), it is possible to realize the above current consumption even when operating at all times.

In addition, when detecting movement of the device and generating sound, by aligning one of the axes (for example: X axis) of the acceleration sensor in the vertical direction, a microprocessor using an interrupt signal due to horizontal acceleration is used. Can be launched.

If current consumption is not a problem, such as when external power can be supplied, the microprocessor may be kept running at all times. In this case, the interrupt signal from the acceleration sensor may not be used.

It is also possible to reproduce a sound similar to that of a bell by performing a physical simulation of the motion of the external body of the bell and the ball based on the measured value of acceleration obtained by the acceleration sensor.

In the present invention, since the device for detecting the acceleration and the device for generating the sound are separated, the threshold of the acceleration for generating the sound, the size of the sound, the timbre, the length and the like can be freely set. It can be set, and it is also possible to make the thickness thinner or switch on / off generation of sound.

In addition, when the electronic bell device of the present invention is used for drop detection for preventing loss of a load, it can be attached to various loads which are not always carried by hand, so the defect of the conventional loss prevention tag It is possible to complement.

It is a block diagram showing an example of composition of a common electronic bell device in a 1st embodiment and a 2nd embodiment. It is a state transition diagram of the electronic bell device concerning a 1st embodiment. It is a figure explaining operation in time series of the electronic bell device concerning a 1st embodiment. It is a figure which shows the direction of the acceleration sensor of the electronic bell device which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure explaining operation in a time series of the electronic bell device concerning a 2nd embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First Embodiment
The electronic bell device of the first embodiment aims to detect a drop of a key or the like for preventing loss. The basic concept of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 1, the state transition diagram of FIG. 2, and the explanatory diagram of the operation in time series of FIG.

The electronic bell device 100 includes an acceleration sensor 101, a microprocessor 102, and a sounder 103. The interrupt signal 104 from the acceleration sensor 101 can be used to activate the microprocessor 102. The SPI interface 105 is used to control the acceleration sensor 101 and read data from the microprocessor 102. Note that, instead of the SPI interface 105, an I2C interface or the like may be used. Also, instead of the sounder 103, a speaker may be used.

Under normal conditions, the electronic bell device 100 is in the stop state 201, and only the acceleration sensor 101 is operating.

When the electronic bell device 100 falls, acceleration is detected by the acceleration sensor 101, and when the magnitude 301 of the acceleration becomes equal to or less than the threshold 302 (or all absolute values of X, Y, Z components of the acceleration are thresholds) In the case of 302 or less), an interrupt signal 104 from the acceleration sensor 101 is generated to the microprocessor 102. As a result, the microprocessor 102 is activated, and the device enters an activation state 202.

Thereafter, the acceleration data is periodically checked via the SPI interface 105. During the fall, the magnitude 301 of the acceleration is close to 0, and when it collides with the ground, a large acceleration is detected. After falling to the ground, the acceleration is stabilized because only the gravitational acceleration is applied. This pattern determines that the device has fallen to the ground, and the device goes into an alarm state 203 and generates an alarm sound.

When a person picks up the device, the acceleration measured by the acceleration sensor 101 becomes unstable. As a result, it is determined that a person has picked up the electronic bell device 100, and the electronic bell device enters the stop state 201, and the alarm sound stops. If it can not be determined that a person has picked up, the timer stops the alarm sound. After stopping the alarm sound, the my processor 102 is stopped.

Second Embodiment
The electronic bell device according to the second embodiment is intended to replace a bell used for a cat collar or the like. The circuit configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, but the acceleration sensor 101 generates an interrupt signal 104 by acceleration in a specific direction. Therefore, the mounting direction of the acceleration sensor 101 is important. A block diagram common to the first embodiment of FIG. 1, a diagram showing the direction of the acceleration sensor of FIG. 4 and an explanatory diagram of time series operation of FIG. 5 will be described.

The acceleration sensor 101, the microprocessor 102, the sounder 103, and the battery 402 are mounted on the substrate 401, and are suspended from a collar or the like by a hanging bracket 403 at the top of the substrate.

The X direction of the acceleration sensor 101 is directed vertically downward, and gravity acceleration is applied when the sensor is at rest. As it is horizontally oriented in the Y and Z directions, no gravitational acceleration is applied.

When the electronic bell device 100 is swung, acceleration is applied in the Y direction or the Z direction as shown in FIG. When this acceleration exceeds the threshold 302, an interrupt signal 104 is generated and the microprocessor 102 is activated.

Thereafter, acceleration data is periodically checked via the SPI interface 105, and a bell sound is generated according to the measurement value of the acceleration sensor 101. It is also possible to reproduce the same sound as that of the bell by performing physical simulation of the motion of the outer body of the bell and the ball based on the measured value of the acceleration obtained by the acceleration sensor 101.

When the second embodiment is used for a cat's collar, an interrupt signal 104 is generated each time the cat moves, and the microprocessor 102 starts up, so the current consumption increases, but the loss prevention of the first embodiment is prevented. Unlike applications, it is not an application that does not matter even if the battery runs out while not aware, so charging may be performed each time the battery runs out. Further, power may be supplied by using a solar cell attached to a collar, or power may be supplied by generating electricity by the movement of a cat.

If external power can be supplied, mounting of the battery 402 is not necessary, and the microprocessor 102 may be kept stopped at all times, or may not be stopped. In this case, the interrupt signal 104 for activating the microprocessor 102 may not be used. When the interrupt signal 104 is not used, it is not necessary to adjust the direction of the acceleration sensor 101 to the direction of gravity.

The electronic bell device according to the first embodiment can be put in a wallet by thinning as in the IC card, and can be applied to preventing the wallet from being lost due to falling. In addition, the electronic bell device of the second embodiment can be used for a wind bell or the like.

Claims

The acceleration sensor which generates an interrupt signal according to a measured value, a microprocessor activated by the interrupt signal, and a sounder or a speaker controllable by the microprocessor, the acceleration after the microprocessor is activated by the interrupt signal A device characterized by evaluating a measurement value of a sensor and starting generation of a sound by the sounder or the speaker based on the evaluation result.
The device according to claim 1, wherein the generation of the sound started by the sounder or the speaker is stopped based on the evaluation result of the measurement value of the acceleration sensor.
An acceleration sensor, a microprocessor, and a microprocessor-controllable sounder or speaker, wherein the microprocessor evaluates the measurement value of the acceleration sensor, and the sounder or speaker determines the volume or tone according to the measurement value. A device characterized by generating a sound.