JPH1014894A - Portable protective equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To facilitate detection of a biological signal and monitoring during intense exercise outdoors such as sports even in a state where protective means such as gloves are worn. SOLUTION: By providing a biological signal detecting means 7 and an arithmetic means 8 inside a protection means 6 and further providing a display means 9 on an external surface, various kinds of information can be monitored with the protection means 6 mounted. In addition, the calculation means 8 can quantify the physical and mental state more accurately than the conventional index by calculating the chaos index.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for assisting safe and comfortable outdoor activities by integrating sensors and display means into protective equipment such as gloves used outdoors.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Protective equipment such as gloves is a necessity to protect the body when enjoying winter jogging, skiing and skating. Wearing gloves can prevent cold and injury to some extent. A number of techniques have been devised that exploit the characteristics of this glove.

[0003] For example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho 60-41211, a pulse wave sensor is built in a measuring glove having heat insulation,
There is disclosed a technique in which a person to be measured wears the measurement gloves to keep the fingertip warm, and can perform accurate pulse wave measurement without being affected by the ambient temperature. In FIG. 6, a pulse wave sensor 2 is provided at a fingertip portion inside the glove 1, and is connected to a measuring device 4 via a lead wire 3. The measuring device 4 is provided with a display 5.

In the above configuration, the pulse wave signal detected from the fingertip is sent to the measuring device 4 via the lead wire 3 and the waveform and the pulse rate per unit time are displayed on the display 5. By wearing gloves, it is possible to remove the influence of the ambient temperature and to remove disturbance light in optical sensing.

A similar technique is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-70003. A plurality of physiological response sensors are built in gloves, and a lead wire connecting to a measuring device is provided. Wearing gloves has the advantage that the measurement of skin temperature is not affected by the outside air temperature.

[0006] On the other hand, a great number of techniques have been devised for a configuration in which a sensor portion for extending a lead wire from a wristwatch or the like and attaching it to a fingertip without providing a sensor in a glove or the like is provided. Products of this configuration are common in the current fingertip pulse wave market. The user wears the wristwatch and fixes the sensor unit connected to the lead wire to the finger. The display unit of the wristwatch displays the pulse rate per unit time.

[0007]

The wristwatch type pulse wave sensor currently available on the market can be said to be a technology that can be used as a normal wristwatch and has a wide range of applications. However, there is a problem that it is difficult to wear gloves or the like in outdoor sports in winter due to a fingertip sensor when trying to wear gloves or the like.

[0008] In addition, both the wristwatch and the sensor unit must be sequentially attached and detached during normal attachment and detachment, which causes a problem that the user is troublesome.

[0009] Even if the gloves can be worn with large gloves, the display portion of the wristwatch is almost completely hidden in a type in which the wrist is covered, for example, such as ski gloves. Every time the wrist protection part must be turned up, it is very difficult to use.

[0010] Further, since a sensor to which a sensor is attached using gloves must be connected to an external measuring instrument via a lead wire, it is not suitable for outdoor use such as sports. Had.

[0011]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a protection means such as a glove is provided with a biological signal detecting means and an environmental information detecting means for collecting biological information and environmental information. Means, timing means, and display means are formed on the protection means.

According to the above invention, the information detected by the biological signal detecting means and the environmental information detecting means can be confirmed by the display means on the protecting means, so that the convenience of the user can be improved particularly in outdoor activities in winter. In addition to being able to monitor the load on the living body, the occurrence of accidents due to overwork can be reduced.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention relates to a protection means for covering a part of a body, a biological signal detecting means disposed on the protection means for detecting a biological signal from a covering portion, and a detecting means for detecting the biological signal. Calculating means for quantitatively indexing the obtained biological signal,
A display unit disposed on the protection unit for displaying a calculation result of the calculation unit.

By attaching the protection means to, for example, the hand, the biological signal of the user is detected by the biological signal detection means, the calculation means indexes the biological information, and the result is provided integrally with the protection means. By displaying the information on the designated display means, the biological signal can be monitored only by wearing protective means such as gloves.

Alternatively, when the display means is provided on the surface of the place where the protection means protects the back of the hand, a wider display area can be secured as compared with the display means of the wristwatch type.

The arithmetic means performs a chaos process on the biological signal to calculate a chaos index.

By using the chaos index, the state of the living body can be monitored with higher accuracy.

Further, there are provided storage means for storing a result of the calculation by the calculation means, and determination means for determining a load on the mind and body of the user based on a temporal change of the calculation result stored in the storage means. The determination result by the determination means is displayed on a display means.

Then, the storage means stores the calculation results of the sequential calculation means to obtain time-series data of the biological signal. From the change, the load applied to the user can be determined and displayed to the user. be able to.

[0020] Further, a time measuring means is provided, and when the judging means judges the load on the mind and body of the user, the judgment standard is changed according to the time information from the time measuring means.

Then, by changing the criterion used when the determining means makes a determination in accordance with the time information output by the time measuring means, it is possible to make a determination corresponding to the change in the baseline by the biological rhythm inherent in humans.

Further, a protection means for covering a part of the body, an environment information detecting means provided in the protection means for detecting environmental information, and an environment provided in the protection means and detected by the environment information detecting means. Display means for displaying information.

When the environmental information detecting means measures, for example, temperature or humidity, the environmental information can be accurately detected without being affected by body temperature or the like because of the protection means. Alternatively, if the environmental information detection means is provided on the surface of the part that protects the protection means porridge, the snow surface temperature can be determined simply by touching the snow surface with your finger, and information necessary for maintenance work such as waxing with skis etc. Can be easily obtained.

[0024] Further, a time measuring means is provided, and when the judging means judges the load on the mind and body of the user, the judging standard is changed according to the elapsed time information from the time measuring means. Then, since the determination means can obtain information on the amount of change per unit time by the timing means, it is possible to know the sharpness of how the load on the mind and body is applied.

Further, there is provided a mounting detecting means for detecting the mounting of the protection means on the body, and the display means is operated only while the mounting detecting means detects the mounting of the protection means on the body.

Then, since the mounting detecting means detects that the user has mounted the protective means and is energized, power consumption can be reduced.

Further, there is provided a photovoltaic power generating means, which operates using the electric power generated by the photovoltaic power generating means.

When the photovoltaic power generation means is provided on the surface of the protection means, a larger area can be secured than a wristwatch or the like, so that a larger amount of power can be generated and a sufficient amount of required power can be supplied.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. (Embodiment 1) In FIG. 1, the protection means 6 is in the form of a glove. The protection means 6 is provided with a biological signal detection means 7, a calculation means 8, and a display means 9. Display means 9
Are formed on the outer surface of the protection means 6. The biological signal detecting means 7 includes a light emitting diode 10, a phototransistor 11, and an amplifier 12. The light emitting diode 10 and the phototransistor 11 are disposed so as to face the inside of the portion where the protection means 6 protects the index finger.

In the above configuration, when the user passes through the protection means 6, the light emitting diode 10 and the phototransistor 1
1 touches both sides of the index finger. When the red light from the light emitting diode 10 passes through the finger and reaches the phototransistor 11, the amount of hemoglobin in the blood flowing through the blood vessel changes, and the amount of the light changes in synchronization with the pulse. A pulse wave signal of the user can be obtained by amplifying the signal from the phototransistor 11 by the amplifier 12.

The calculating means 8 obtains a pulse rate per minute from the pulse wave signal detected by the biological signal detecting means 7. For this purpose, the number of waves may be counted for one minute, but a time window of about 10 seconds is set, and the fundamental frequency is obtained using the autocorrelation function for the time series data during that time, and the pulse rate is calculated therefrom. May be. The pulse rate is displayed on the display means 9 and transmitted to the user.

The time counting means 13 is connected to the display means 9. The timer 13 measures the current time, and the display 9 notifies the user of the current time.

An environmental information detecting means 14 is provided at the end of the protection part 6 for protecting the little finger.
Is connected to The environment information detecting means 14 uses a temperature detecting element such as a thermistor or a thermocouple, for example.
The temperature of the outside air can be displayed on the display means 9. Also, in competitive skiing and the like, waxing of skis is a very important task that affects winning or losing, but information on snow temperature is indispensable for this. According to the present invention, the snow temperature can be easily confirmed simply by touching the snow surface with a fingertip.

Further, as the calculation performed by the calculating means 8, a calculation using a chaos index may be performed in addition to the counting of the pulse rate. Here, the chaos index is an index for quantifying the non-linear behavior of the obtained time-series data. For example,
It is known that the interval between the peaks of an electrocardiogram and a pulse wave behaves chaotically. Indices indicating this include correlation dimension, maximum Lyapunov exponent, KS entropy, and the like.

FIG. 2 shows changes in the pulse rate and the maximum Lyapunov exponent when the automobile is driven for a long time. The decrease in the maximum number of Lyapunov with the start of driving and the recovery after a break are remarkable. The Lyapunov exponent, which is a chaos index, has a clear difference from the heart rate in terms of the rate of change. This means that the Lyapunov exponent is superior in terms of resolving power when expressing physical load.

The calculating means 8 realizes a more accurate judgment by obtaining a chaos index such as a Lyapunov exponent.
The procedure for obtaining the Lyapunov exponent is shown below.

The Lyapunov exponent is an index indicating how far adjacent points on an attractor are separated with the passage of time, and indicates how difficult it is to predict the original data in the future. This is closely related to the initial value dependence, which is one of the characteristics of chaos. An attractor also represents an orbit of a system in an n-dimensional space. For a one-dimensional data series such as a heartbeat interval, (Equation 1) X (t1), X (t2),..., X (ti),. The following data set is prepared for embedding N-point data in the space. (Equation 2) ｛X (t1), X (t1 + τ),..., X (t1 + (n-1) τ)｝ ｛X (t2), X (t2 + τ),. , X (t2 + (n-1) τ)｝ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ｛X (ti), X (ti + τ), ・ ・ ・ ・, X (ti + (n-1) τ)｝ ・ ・ ・ ・・ {X (tN), X (tN + τ),..., X (tN + (n-1) τ)} where the i-th point is represented by (Equation 3) Xin = {X (ti), (ti + τ),..., X (ti + (n-1) τ)｝.

With reference to a point X (0) on the attractor obtained in this way, the next point X (1) on the trajectory is orthogonal to the vector X (0) X (1), A point separated by a unit distance is defined as Y ₀ (0). Points at which τ time has elapsed for X (0) and Y ₀ (0) are defined as X (τ) and Y ₀ (τ). Then, the distance between X (0) and Y ₀ (0) is d ₀ (0), X
The distance between (τ) and Y ₀ (τ) is d ₀ (τ). At this time, the enlargement (reduction) rate of the distance between the two points after elapse of τ time is d
It is obtained by dividing ₀ (τ) by d ₀ (0).

Next, a point separated by a unit distance in the same direction as X (τ) and Y ₀ (τ) is defined as Y ₁ (0). X (τ),
The point when τ time has elapsed for Y ₁ (0) is represented by X (2
τ) and Y ₁ (τ). The distance between X (τ) and Y ₁ (0) is d ₁ (0), and the distance between X (2τ) and Y ₁ (τ) is d ₁
(Τ). At this time, the enlargement (reduction) rate of the distance between the two points after elapse of τ time can be obtained by dividing d ₁ (τ) by d ₁ (0).

This step is repeated, and the average of the enlargement (reduction) rate of the distance obtained in each step is the Lyapunov exponent. This can be generalized as follows.

[0041]

(Equation 1)

If the embedding dimension is, for example, three, a total of three Lyapunov exponents are obtained for each dimension, and the largest one among them is particularly called the maximum Lyapunov exponent. The display means 9 visually informs the user of the change in the maximum Lyapunov exponent using a graph.

Needless to say, it may be any part of the portion where the sensor part of the biological signal detecting means 7 or the environmental information detecting means 14 is provided or the protecting means 6.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of Embodiment 2 of the present invention. Although illustration of the protection means 6 in FIG. 1 is omitted in FIG. 3, it is assumed that all the blocks shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, the storage means 15 is configured to receive the calculation results from the calculation means 8 and sequentially record them, and to read the recorded data from the determination means 16.
Further, the calculation means 8 is configured to transmit the latest calculation result to the determination means 16.

In the above configuration, the determination means 16 obtains an average rate of change per unit time from the time series data stored in the storage means 15. This can be obtained by differentiating the data series. For example, when a sudden stress is applied to the user, the Lyapunov exponent is expected to decrease greatly in a short time. Judgment means 16
When a new data is received from the arithmetic means 8 and shows a tendency that is greatly different from the rate of change, it is determined that such a sudden stress may have been applied. A sudden change in physical condition during exercise or the like is likely to cause an accident or the like. The judging means 16 judges such a rapid change using a preset threshold value,
Output as a warning above. The threshold may be based on, for example, a time when a difference of ± 20% has occurred with respect to the past change rate. Further, the threshold may be set to a plurality of levels, and the determination may be made for each stage.

Further, in FIG. 3, the time counting means 13 is connected to the judgment means 16. As a result, the time information is sent to the determination means 16.

The living body has a biological rhythm called circadian variation, and shows a characteristic change at each time. FIG. 4 shows the maximum Lyapunov exponent and the daily change in heart rate. The horizontal axis represents time. At this time, the subject wakes up at around 7:20 am, but the Lyapunov exponent is greatly reduced before and after that. There are two pulse rates in the morning and afternoon. It is said that mountains seen in the afternoon may disappear with aging. It should be noted that the heart rate also has a negative correlation with the Lyapunov exponent here, but the ratio of the fluctuation range is considerably smaller than that of the Lyapunov exponent.

By thus taking into account the fact that the baseline of the biological signal fluctuates greatly during one day, more accurate determination can be made. In other words, in the time zone immediately after waking up, the baseline (the time during which the negative differential value continues) for determining that a break is necessary because the baseline originally tends to drop sharply is slightly relaxed, and the evening is relatively stable. In the time zone, it is necessary to tighten the criteria for judgment.
The storage means 7 stores a reference corresponding to each time zone.

Incidentally, it is expected that the life rhythm varies depending on the driver such as a night shift driver. In such a case, an input means for inputting the wake-up time is provided, and the time-measuring means is changed from the time of wake-up. Information may be used instead of time.

Further, the amount of change in the Lyapunov exponent per unit time can be known by using the timer 13. If a sudden change occurs in a short period of time, it means that the load was applied suddenly, and it is expected that fatigue will be more intense than when the load is applied slowly, and sudden accidents will be more likely to occur Is done. The judging means 16 can reflect such a change per time in the judgment.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 5 is an external view of a portable protective device according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. At the opening of the protection means 6, a mounting detection means 17 is provided. Mounting detection means 17
Has contacts 18a and 18b. In addition, a photovoltaic power generation means 19 is provided at a portion where the protection means 6 protects the back of the hand.

In the above arrangement, when the user wears the protection means 6, the inner cloth is pressed by the wrist and the contact 18a
The contact is detected by contact between the contact and the contact 18b, and the mounting is detected. When the attachment is detected, power is supplied to each unit (not shown) such as a display unit configured on the protection unit 6.

The photovoltaic power generation means 19 generates power by means of a solar cell and serves as a power source for various means such as display means.

[0054]

As described above, according to the present invention, the biological signal can be monitored only by mounting the protection means by configuring the protection means with the biological signal detection means, the calculation means and the display means. In addition, by disposing the display means on the back of the hand, there is an effect that a wider display area can be secured as compared with the wristwatch type.

Further, there is an effect that the state of the living body can be monitored with higher accuracy by the calculation means calculating the chaos index.

The storage means and the judgment means are provided, and the operation results are sequentially stored in the storage means. The judgment means compares the change rate of the past operation result with the change rate of the latest operation result, so that the change due to the stress load is obtained. There is an effect that can be captured.

Since the judgment conditions in the judgment means are changed in accordance with the time information, there is an effect that the judgment can be made in consideration of the biological rhythm.

Since the environmental information detecting means detects information such as the outside air and the snow temperature, there is an effect that the environmental information can be easily confirmed with the protective means mounted.

Since the determination means can know the amount of change in the chaos index per unit time by the time measurement means, there is an effect that the sharpness of the load on the mind and body can be clarified.

Then, the mounting detecting means detects the mounting of the protection means by the user, so that there is an effect that the power consumption in the case where the protective means is not mounted can be saved.

By providing the photovoltaic means on the surface of the protection means, the photovoltaic element can be arranged over a wide area, and there is an effect that sufficient electric power can be supplied.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a portable protective device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing a change in a biological signal when driving a car.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a portable protector according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing a daily change of a biological signal.

FIG. 5 is an external view of a portable protective device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a conventional portable protector technology.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 6 protection means 7 biological signal detection means 8 calculation means 9 display means 13 clocking means 14 environment information detection means 15 storage means 16 judgment means

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A protecting means for covering a part of a body, a biological signal detecting means provided on the protecting means for detecting a biological signal from a covering part, and a biological signal detected by the biological signal detecting means is quantitatively detected. A portable protector comprising: a calculation means for indexing the data; and a display means disposed on the protection means for displaying a calculation result of the calculation means. 2. The portable protective device according to claim 1, wherein the calculating means performs chaos processing on the biological signal to calculate a chaos index. 3. A storage means for storing a calculation result by a calculation means, and a determination means for determining a load on a user's mind and body based on a temporal change of the calculation result stored in the storage means, The portable protective device according to claim 1, wherein a result of the determination by the determination unit is displayed on a display unit. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a time measuring means, wherein the judging means changes a judgment criterion in accordance with time information from the time measuring means when judging a load on the body and mind of the user. Portable protective equipment. 5. Protecting means for covering a part of a body, environmental information detecting means disposed on the protecting means for detecting environmental information,
A display unit disposed on the protection unit for displaying environmental information detected by the environment information detection unit. 6. A time-measuring means, wherein the judging means changes a judgment criterion according to elapsed time information from the time-measuring means when judging a load on the body and mind of the user. Portable protective equipment as described. 7. A system according to claim 6, further comprising: mounting means for detecting the mounting of the protection means on the body, wherein the display means is operated only while the mounting detecting means detects the mounting of the protection means on the body. A portable protective device according to any one of claims 1 to 6. 8. The portable protective device according to claim 1, further comprising a photovoltaic device, wherein the portable device is operated using electric power from the photovoltaic device.