JP3075779B2 - Massage machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a massage machine, and more particularly, to an upper body contact portion with which the upper body of a massaged person (user) abuts, a pair of massagers (fir balls) for pressing a massage site, The present invention relates to a chair-type or bed-type massage machine including a control unit for controlling a pressing force of a treatment element on a massage site.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this type of massage machine,
The upper body contact part where the upper body of the massaged person contacts,
A pair of treatment elements provided to be reciprocable along the spine of the massaged person inside the upper body contact part and pressing the massage site via the upper body contact part, and a treatment element for reciprocating the pair of treatment elements. Moving means, pressing force detecting means for detecting the pressing force on the massage part of the treatment element,
There is known a device provided with a control unit for controlling the pressing force of the treatment element based on the detection result of the pressing force detecting means.

In such a massage machine, a massaged person designates a massage site such as a head, a neck, a shoulder, a back, a waist and a hip, and designates a pressing force of a treatment element. To do this, the user had to use various switches or volume knobs.

[0004]

However, such a massage machine has the following problems. In other words, if the body shape is different due to the sex or age of the massaged person, the massage site is also detected differently. For this reason, a part different from the part specified by various switches or a volume type knob is massaged, and there is a possibility that the massaged person may receive unpleasant massage. Such inconvenience has also occurred when the same massaged person has different ways of sitting on a chair or lying on a bed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a massage machine capable of comfortably massaging a part desired by a person to be massaged.

[0006]

The massage machine of the present invention takes the following two forms. That is, the first mode is a pair of upper body contact portions for contacting the upper body of the massaged person, and a pair of the upper body contact portions provided to be reciprocable within the upper body contact portions and pressing the massage site via the upper body contact portions. A treatment element, treatment element moving means for reciprocating the pair of treatment elements, pressing force detection means for detecting the pressing force of the treatment element on the massage site, and angle detection for detecting the angle of the treatment element to the massage area Means, a control unit for controlling the pressing force and the angle of the treatment element based on the detection result by the pressing force detection means, and a massage part from the pressing force curve obtained when the treatment element moves within its movable range. A control unit for detecting a massage part from the part detecting means by fuzzy inference, and a rule or member of fuzzy inference. Tsu is a massage machine comprising; and a memory device for storing up function.

That is, the gist of the first massage machine is that a specific fuzzy (FUZZY) inference mechanism is provided in a control unit for controlling the pressing force of the treatment element based on the detection result by the pressing force detecting means. . The fuzzy inference mechanism includes a specific arithmetic unit and a memory device. This arithmetic unit detects a massage part from the part detection means by fuzzy inference. Further, the memory device stores rules of fuzzy inference and membership functions.

A second aspect of the present invention provides an upper body contact portion for contacting the upper body of a person to be massaged, and a reciprocating movement provided inside the upper body contact portion. The pair of treatment elements to be pressed, the treatment element moving means for reciprocating the pair of treatment elements, the pressing force detecting means for detecting the pressing force of the treatment element on the massage part, and the angle of the treatment element to the massage part. Angle detecting means for detecting, a control unit for controlling the pressing force and angle of the treatment element based on the detection result by the pressing force detecting means, and a pressing force curve obtained when the treatment element moves within its movable range. A calculating device for determining a pressing force and an angle of the treatment element on the massage site by fuzzy inference; Is a massage machine made by and a memory device for storing the rules and membership functions of the argument.

That is, the gist of the second massage machine is that a specific fuzzy inference mechanism is provided in a control unit for controlling the pressing force of the treatment element based on the detection result by the pressing force detecting means. The fuzzy inference mechanism includes a specific arithmetic unit and a memory device. This arithmetic unit determines the pressing force and angle of the massager on the massage site by fuzzy inference. Further, the memory device stores rules of fuzzy control and membership functions.

The fuzzy inference in the present invention is represented by "IF- (Antecedent part) THEN (Consequent part)" as follows, and is an information processing method in fuzzy theory. This fuzzy inference consists of the following steps. That is, rules are determined. Determine the membership function. Fuzzy inference using rules for each input. The degree of output adoption is determined from the grade of the antecedent part. The output membership function of each rule is synthesized to determine the output.

Here, the fuzzy theory is an effective means for modeling human knowledge, and is a theory that enables non-numerical information processing in combination with software and hardware. Also, the membership function is a set concept that quantitatively represents a set of fuzzy subsets (elements with "unclear boundaries" in consideration of the meaning of words and the ambiguity of concepts). ) Is a function that expresses the degree included in the section [0, 1] by a real value. The grade is a value of a membership function indicating the degree of ambiguity, and is a numerical value in the section [0, 1].

In order to perform such fuzzy inference, the two massage machines of the present invention are provided with a unique fuzzy operation device and a memory device for storing the rules and membership functions of fuzzy inference. .

It is more preferable that the detection of the massage part by the part detecting means is performed before the massage is performed, for example, as follows. That is, when the massaged person sits down on the chair and leans on the backrest, the main switch is turned ON. Then, the part detection lamp in the display unit is turned on, and detection of the massage part is started. Confirm that the lamp is turned off and the detection is completed, and enter your preferred massage method. As described above, the massage part is detected as the initial operation of the massage, and the appropriate massage is performed according to the part. In addition,
Even if the massage method is input immediately after the main switch is turned on, it is also possible to set so that the region detection is always performed before the massage operation starts.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited by this.

FIG. 1 is a structural explanatory view of the inside of a chair type massage machine M viewed from the side. In FIG. 1, the rotation of a vertical motor 9 located at the lowest position inside the backrest of the chair in the massage machine M is reduced by a pulley and a belt and transmitted to a screw shaft (main shaft) 12. The elevating unit 10 and the screw shaft 12 are connected to each other by a screw member 26 because they are fixed to the elevating unit 10. The elevating unit 10 rotates the female screw member 2 by the forward / reverse rotation of the screw shaft 12.
6 to move up and down along the screw shaft 12.

The lifting unit 10 reaches the upper limit switch 13 as it continues to ascend, and reaches the lower limit switch 14 as it continues to descend. The vertical position can be recognized by detecting a pulse from a vertical movement detecting magnet reed switch (not shown). Each time the screw shaft 12 makes one rotation, a magnet (not shown) attached to the screw shaft 12 passes in front of the reed switch, and a pulse is generated.

Inside the lifting unit 10, the rotation of the arm motor 8 is transmitted to the worm shaft 19. The arm 16 and the worm wheel 11 are screwed to a horizontal rotation shaft 21 fixed to the lifting unit 10. The worm wheel 11 has a fan shape, and rotation from the worm shaft 19 is transmitted. As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of left and right massage treatment elements (fir balls) 15, 15 are attached to the upper end of the arm 16 via a horizontal attachment shaft 20.

When the worm wheel 11 rotates in one direction, the treatment elements 15 rotate around the rotation shaft 21 in an obliquely upward direction (in a direction away from the massaged person). When the worm wheel 11 rotates in the other direction, the treatment element 15
15 rotates obliquely downward (in a direction approaching the massaged person) around the rotation shaft 21. The range of such movement is limited by the contact of the worm wheel 11 with the upper limit switch 17 and the lower limit switch 18. Further, the angle of movement, that is, the angle of the treatment elements 15 with respect to the massage site can be determined by obtaining a rotation pulse of the worm shaft 19 by the angle sensor 2 as angle detection means.

The arm 16 is provided with the load sensor 1 as a pressing force detecting means. This load sensor 1
Is for detecting the pressing force (load) of the treatment elements 15 on the massage site. That is, the load applied to the arm 16 is detected and converted into an electric signal. The massage machine M further includes a control unit as shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, 3 is a body shape detection (region detection) calculation device, 4 is a first memory device, 5 is a fuzzy calculation device, 6
Denotes a second memory device, and 7 denotes a motor control circuit, all of which constitute a control unit.

Next, fuzzy inference for detecting a massage site will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. When the power switch is turned on, the up / down motor 9 starts rotating. And the lifting unit 10
Is lowered until the lower limit switch 14 as the home position for performing body shape detection is turned on (S
1). When the home position is detected, the vertical motor 9 is stopped, and the arm motor 8 is controlled so that the load on the arm 16 becomes a constant value (10 kgf). When the load reaches a certain value, the vertical motor 9 is turned on, and the lifting unit 10 starts to be lifted (S2).

Then, the data from the angle sensor 2 is sampled at regular time intervals while fuzzy controlling the arm motor 8 so as to always maintain a constant load. The obtained angle data is stored in the first memory device 4 (S
3). When the upper limit switch 13 is turned on, the vertical motor 9 is stopped. Thus, the body shape detection ends (S4). FIG. 6 shows the obtained angle data.

From the extreme points A, B, C, D, and E in FIG. 6, it is detected that each is a hip, a waist, a shoulder, a neck, and a head (S5). Then, the value of the time axis (horizontal axis) is stored in the first memory device 4 (S6). Based on the stored angle data and the part data from the head part to the head part, the set load of each part at the time of load control is calculated (S7), and this is again set to the first position
It is stored in the memory device 4 (S8). The data at the time of the set load is shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, the standard load is 1
It is set to 5 kgf. Also, the waist B is slightly stronger.
The neck D is set at 10 kgf, which is slightly weaker, at 0 kgf.

Next, fuzzy inference for determining the pressing force and angle of the massager on the massage site will be described.
8 to 11 show membership functions and rules of fuzzy control. As the input, the set load data m obtained by the body shape detection and the signal of the load sensor 1 are used. Then, a fuzzy operation is performed in which the deviation e and the difference value Δe are input and the power of the arm motor 8 is output.

FIG. 8 shows an input membership function of the deviation e, FIG. 9 shows an input membership function of the difference value Δe of the deviation e, and FIG. 10 shows an output membership function of the motor power. FIG. 11 shows control rules.
It is expressed in the format of “IF to (consequent part) THEN (consequent part)”. The antecedent is an inference proposition containing fuzzy variables.
The consequent part is not a fuzzy variable but is represented by a real value as shown in FIG. Here, the power of the motor is controlled based on nine control rules.

8 to 11, NB is Neg
ative Big, NM is Negative Medium, NS is Negati
ve Small, ZR is Approximately Zero, PS is Posi
tiveSmall, PM is Positive Medium, PB is Positi
ve Big is shown.

The signal x obtained from the load sensor 1 and the load target m from the body shape detection calculation device 3 are input to the fuzzy calculation device 5, and a fuzzy calculation input (1) e = mx
And a calculation input (2) are processed into a difference value of a value a predetermined time before Δe = e, and stored in the second memory device 6. next,
The power C of the motor is fuzzy inferred based on the input / output membership function and the control rules. Based on the obtained power C of the motor, the motor control circuit 7
Is controlled to achieve the target load m. The vertical motor 9 rotates at a constant rotational speed in this embodiment, but can easily be changed according to the body shape of the massaged person.

In the chair type massage machine M, since the difference value Δe of the deviation e is used as an input condition in addition to the deviation e, a sudden shock of the treatment elements 15 to the massaged person can be reduced. can do. Further, based on the information obtained by the body shape detection, fuzzy inference can be performed by dividing into membership functions and rules according to the body shape, so that a massage more suitable for human senses can be performed.

In this chair type massage machine M, the load of the arm 16 is constant (for example, 10 kgf).
As described above, the same fuzzy inference as described above can be performed by using the difference e from the load sensor 1 and the difference value Δe of the difference e as an input, so that the massage part detection according to the body shape of the massaged person can be performed. Become.

[0029]

Since the massage machine of the present invention is configured as described above, it is possible to comfortably massage a part desired by the massaged person, and to the massaged person during the detection of the massaged part and during the massage. It is safe without sudden shock.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration explanatory view of the inside of a chair-type massage machine according to an embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the side.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration explanatory view of a treatment element and an arm of the massage machine as viewed from the back.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a body shape detection routine of the massage machine.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a target control load value determination routine of the massage machine.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a control unit of the massage machine.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a pressing force curve when a massage site is detected by the massage machine.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a relationship between a target load value and a vertical position count value in the massage machine.

FIG. 8 is a view showing an input membership function of a deviation e in the massage machine.

FIG. 9 shows a difference value Δe of a deviation e in the massage machine.
The figure which shows the input membership function of.

FIG. 10 is a view showing an output membership function of motor power in the massage machine.

FIG. 11 is a view showing rules of fuzzy inference in the massage machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 load sensor (pressing force detecting means) 2 angle sensor (angle detecting means) 3 body shape detection arithmetic device (control unit) 4 first memory device (control unit) 5 fuzzy arithmetic device (control unit) 6 second memory device (control) 7) Motor control circuit (control unit) 8 Arm motor 9 Vertical motor 10 Elevating unit 11 Worm wheel 12 Screw shaft 13 Upper limit switch 14 Lower limit switch 15 Treatment element (fir ball) 16 arm

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61H 7/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An upper body contact portion for contacting the upper body of a person to be massaged, and a pair of treatment elements provided so as to be able to reciprocate inside the upper body contact portion and pressing a massage site via the upper body contact portion. A treatment element moving means for reciprocating the pair of treatment elements, a pressing force detection means for detecting a pressing force of the treatment element on the massage site, and an angle detection means for detecting an angle of the treatment element to the massage site, A control unit that controls the pressing force and angle of the treatment element based on the detection result by the pressing force detection unit, and a part that detects a massage part from a pressing force curve obtained when the treatment element moves within the movable range. A control unit for detecting a massage site from the site detection unit by fuzzy inference, and a fuzzy inference rule and membership function Massage machine comprising; and a memory device for storing. 2. An upper body contact portion for contacting the upper body of a massaged person, and a pair of treatment elements provided so as to be reciprocally movable inside the upper body contact portion and pressing a massage site via the upper body contact portion. A treatment element moving means for reciprocating the pair of treatment elements, a pressing force detection means for detecting a pressing force of the treatment element on the massage site, and an angle detection means for detecting an angle of the treatment element to the massage site, A control unit that controls the pressing force and angle of the treatment element based on the detection result by the pressing force detection unit, and a part that detects a massage part from a pressing force curve obtained when the treatment element moves within the movable range. An arithmetic unit for determining the pressing force and angle of the treatment element on the massage site by fuzzy inference, and a rule or member for fuzzy inference. Massage machine comprising; and a memory device for storing the membership function.