JP3700211B2 - Body motion induction device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a body motion inducing device for facilitating a minute posture change for a person who continues a sitting posture for a long time such as an OA worker, a vehicle driver, and the like, to reduce fatigue and low back pain.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, with the development of automobile road networks, driving at high speeds for a long time is frequently performed. Under such circumstances, the driver is forced to drive for a long time with a high load.However, if the body is restrained for a long time in the sitting position, it may cause physical problems due to poor blood circulation or static muscle fatigue. Fatigue and back pain occur. As means for solving this problem, various types of seats that cause a change in posture by changing the sheet shape have been proposed.
[0003]
For example, with respect to a vehicle seat, the timing at which the shape change is caused is based on the boarding time (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-44355), based on the vehicle speed and travel time (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-136340), and is performed almost periodically. (JP-A-4-224709, JP-A-5-168545, JP-A-5-317138) and the like.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional seat of this type, the shape changes at a timing that is completely unrelated to the intention and physical condition of the seated person, which not only makes the driver feel uncomfortable, but also tends to cause the driver to stress. There was a risk of adverse effects on driving operations. In addition, it has been found that unless the muscle activity is spontaneous, a large blood circulation improvement effect due to the pump action cannot be expected.
[0005]
In addition, there is a known method of controlling the pressing force of each part of the seat in order to return to an appropriate body pressure distribution when the body pressure distribution of the seated person changes, but the same body part is always pressed with a constant pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent ischemia and prevent fatigue due to poor blood circulation.
[0006]
Therefore, the present inventors have come to the following conclusion as a result of various experiments and considerations.
[0007]
(1) When the seat shape is automatically changed, if the seated person forcibly changes his / her posture when he / she does not want to change his / her posture, he / she feels uncomfortable and is liable to cause adverse effects or stress on work or driving operations. Therefore, it is more effective to change the state of the seat when the seated person wants to change the posture.
[0008]
(2) Therefore, the change in the state of the seat should be supplementary so as to make it easier for spontaneous posture changes to occur, the muscles move spontaneously to cause posture changes, and the blood circulation improvement effect by the muscle pumping action It is important to improve.
[0009]
(3) Fatigue and low back pain will inevitably occur if restrained for a long time, even if taking an appropriate sitting posture. In addition, since spontaneous body movements effective for reducing fatigue decrease with the passage of the sitting time, spontaneous posture changes must be continued intermittently at a certain frequency.
[0010]
(4) In order to prevent ischemia and improve blood circulation, it is necessary to be able to change the body pressure distribution without always keeping it constant.
[0011]
(5) Unnecessarily moving the whole body causes fatigue of the whole body, so it is necessary to induce spontaneous body movements that effectively reduce fatigue in the waist and in the waist where the fatigue concentrates when seated.
[0012]
The present inventors propose this invention based on the above knowledge.
[0013]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The body motion inducing device according to the present invention is provided in a seat so as to swing according to the body motion detected by the body motion detecting means for detecting minute movements of the body of the seated person. The body movement assisting means is provided.
[0014]
And , the body motion detecting means includes a posture change receiving unit that receives minute movements of the body of the seated person, and an energy conversion unit that converts the posture change amount received by the posture change receiving unit into mechanical energy. and constituted by, direct the energy converted by the energy conversion unit, characterized in that it further comprises a drive means for oscillating the body movement assisting means is transmitted to the body movement assisting means.
[0015]
It is preferable that the body motion detection means includes means for detecting a minute movement of the pelvis of the seated person. Further, on the SL body movement assisting means is constituted by an elastic plate bent in hairpin-like as the front plate portion and the flat plate-shaped back plate portion is formed with a convex curved surface, the posture change receiving unit It can be constituted by the above-mentioned front plate part .
[0016]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, when the occupant moves his body unconsciously due to fatigue, or when he / she moves voluntarily because he / she wants to move, the detected minute movement of the occupant's body is fed back, Since the seat state is changed so as to assist or amplify the movement of the seated person, there is little discomfort and spontaneous movement. There is an effect that hardly occurs.
[0017]
FIG. 17A is a graph showing a temporal change in the body movement frequency of a seated person when sitting on a normal seat, and shows a state where the body movement frequency decreases with time and fatigue is accumulated. Show. And when the state where fatigue is considerably accumulated is reached, the body motion frequency is increased due to the fatigue coping behavior, but at this point it is already too late.
[0018]
On the other hand, the body movement frequency of the seated person when sitting on the seat provided with the body motion inducing device according to the present invention is maintained as shown in FIG. It turns out that it is hard to get tired.
[0019]
In the present invention, the body movement assisting means, is provided on the seat so as to swing in accordance with the body movement detected by the body motion detecting means, said body motion detecting means, a minute movement of the seated person's body Consists of a posture change receiving unit that accepts it and an energy conversion unit that converts the amount of posture change received by the posture change receiving unit into mechanical energy, and directly or stores the energy converted by this energy conversion unit after, in Rukoto provided a drive means for oscillating the body movement assisting means is transmitted to the body movement assisting means, the body motion induction device according to the present invention without requiring a power source such as a motor Therefore, an inexpensive body motion inducing device can be provided.
[0020]
In addition, it is said that the upper part of the pelvis should be moved as a movement that minimizes the movement of the seated person's line of sight, upper limbs, and lower limbs and has a fatigue reducing effect. Therefore, as a body motion detection means for detecting minute movements of the seated person's body, means for detecting the motion of the upper part of the pelvis of the seated person is provided, and based on the motion of the upper part of the pelvis detected by this means, By changing the seat state so as to move, a remarkable fatigue reduction effect can be achieved .
[0021]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments and reference examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[0022]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vehicle seat to which a body motion inducing device according to the present invention is applied. This seat S is composed of a seat cushion 1 and a seat back 2. As shown in FIG. 2, a lumbar support 5 is provided inside the seat back 2 at a position where the pelvis 4 of the seated person 3 can be supported from behind.
[0023]
The lumbar support 5 is integrally formed by a back plate 5a made of a flat elastic plate and a front plate 5b made of an elastic plate bent from the upper end of the back plate 5a into a hairpin shape and having a convex curved surface toward the seated person 3. It is formed on, attached to swingably sheet S back and forth the lower end as the fulcrum F _1.
[0024]
Figure 3 is a first rear view functionally illustrating the configuration of a reference example of body movement-induced device, FIG 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. The lumbar support 5 is locked at its lower end so that the lumbar support 5 can swing about a shaft 7 extending in the horizontal direction from the seat frame 6 as a fulcrum F ₁ , and a cam 8 is located above the back plate 5 a of the lumbar support 5. It is in contact. The lumbar support 5 is swung by rotating the cam 8 by a motor 9 fixed to the seat frame 6.
[0025]
Further, between the front plate 5b and the back plate 5 at the substantially central portion of the lumbar support 5, a minute movement of the pelvis 4 portion of the seated person 3 is caused by a change in the distance between the front plate 5b and the back plate 5a. A displacement sensor 10 is provided for detecting. When the distance between the front plate 5b and the back plate 5a of the lumbar support 5 changes by a minute amount due to the minute body movement of the pelvis 4 of the seated person 3, the displacement sensor 10 detects this and detects it. A signal is sent to the controller 11, and the controller 11 is configured to amplify the body movement of the seated person 3 by turning on the motor 9 for a short time, rotating the cam 8 by a predetermined angle, and swinging the lumbar support 5. ing.
[0026]
Furthermore, the vertical positions of the displacement sensor 10 and the lumbar support 5 are adjusted according to the physique of the seated person 3 by making the mounting positions of the shaft 7 and the motor 9 relative to the seat frame 6 adjustable in the vertical direction. be able to.
[0027]
A waveform A in FIG. 5A shows a minute body movement of the pelvis 4 of the seated person 3 detected by the displacement sensor 10, and a waveform B in FIG. 5B is detected by the displacement sensor 10. Based on the body movement, the movement of the part of the pelvis 4 when the cam 8 is driven by the motor 9 is shown.
[0028]
As described above, in the present reference example , the lumbar support 5 is able to arouse or accelerate the spontaneous body movement of the seated person 3 based on the minute body movement of the body of the seated person 3 detected by the displacement sensor 10. Is to be displaced.
[0029]
FIG. 6 shows a graph showing the relationship between the amount of body movement (mm) and the blood flow (ml). The amount of body movement represents the amount of displacement of the upper end of the pelvis 4 in the direction perpendicular to the seat back 2, and the blood flow represents the lower limb blood flow measured by a laser Doppler blood flow meter. M ₁ indicates a range of body movement (20 mm or less) in which the blood flow does not increase sufficiently, and M ₂ indicates a body movement (100 mm or less) that does not hinder work or driving. Therefore, the amount of body movement due to the displacement of the seat back may be set within the range of 20 mm to 100 mm.
[0030]
FIG. 7 is a graph showing the relationship between the amount of perception and the amount of displacement D (extrusion or return amount: mm) of the seat back. T is a threshold value indicating the boundary of whether or not it is confirmed that the button is pressed, and the displacement D at that time is about 5 mm. D ₁ shows the range (0 to 5 mm) from the amount of displacement that humans cannot perceive to the amount of displacement that they know they are moving but do not think they are pushed, and D 2 is the displacement that does not hinder work or operation. The quantity (15 mm or less) is shown. Therefore, the one-time push-out amount or return amount of the seat back may be set within a range of 5 mm to 15 mm.
[0031]
FIG. 8 is a graph showing the relationship between the amount of one-time displacement of the seatback and the amount of body movement from FIGS. 6 and 7.
[0032]
FIG. 9 is a graph showing the relationship between body movement and the position of the lumbar support 5.
[0033]
Figure 10 is a perspective view showing functionally the form of implementation of the motion induction device according to the present invention, FIG. 11 is a sectional view thereof.
[0034]
In the present embodiment, a body motion inducing device is configured without using a special power source such as a motor or control, and a seat S having a lumbar support 5 similar to that shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, a body movement receiving part A that receives minute movements of the body of the seated person 3, and an energy conversion part B that converts the amount of posture change received by the body movement receiving part A into mechanical energy. And a drive unit 25 that transmits the energy converted by the energy conversion unit B directly or after accumulation to the body movement assistance unit D to drive the body movement assistance unit D. The energy conversion unit B constitutes a body motion detection unit.
[0035]
Also in the present embodiment, the lumbar support 5 includes a back plate 5a made of a flat elastic plate, and an elastic plate that is bent into a hairpin shape from the upper end of the back plate 5a and has a convex curved surface on the seated person 3 side. The bottom plate 5b is integrally formed with the front plate 5b, and the lower end is locked so that the shaft 7 extending in the horizontal direction from the seat frame 6 can swing about the fulcrum F ₁ . The cam 8 is in contact with the upper part.
[0036]
Inside the center portion of the lumbar support 5, a body motion detection rod 15 provided with a flange 15a in contact with the back surface of the front plate 5b of the lumbar support 5 at the front end is provided so as to penetrate the back plate 5a in the front-rear direction. A rack 16 is fixed to the rear end of the rod 15. A return spring 27 that biases the rod 15 toward the front plate 5 b is interposed between the flange 15 a of the rod 15 and the back plate 5 a of the lumbar support 5. The rack 16 is meshed with a gear 17 with a one-way clutch provided on the back side of the lumbar support 5. The gear 17 is rotated in one direction by a minute angle through the rack and pinion mechanism only by the backward movement of the rod 15 when the front plate 5b of the lumbar support 5 is pushed backward. It has become.
[0037]
The gear 17 and the cam 8 are respectively fixed at their axes to a flexible wire 18 as a rotation transmitting means provided between the back plate 5a of the lumbar support 5 and the seat frame 6, and the rotation of the gear 17 is prevented. It is transmitted to the cam 8 via the flexible wire 18.
[0038]
With the above configuration, minute movements of the body of the seated person 3 are received by the front plate 5b of the lumbar support 5 made of an elastic plate, and the received posture change amount of the seated person 3 is converted into a linear motion of the rod 15. Further, this linear motion is converted into a rotational motion by a rack and pinion mechanism comprising a rack 16 and a gear 17 with a one-way clutch, and this rotational motion is directly transmitted to the cam 8 which is a drive unit via the flexible wire 18. The support 5 is configured to swing by being driven by a cam 8.
[0039]
13 is a rear view more specifically showing the configuration shown in FIG. 10, and FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XIV-XIV in FIG.
[0040]
In FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the one-way clutch-equipped gear 17 is supported along with a worm 20 on a vertically extending shaft 19 provided on the back surface of the lumbar support 5, so Is transmitted to the worm wheel 21 via the worm 20.
[0041]
On the other hand, the cams 8 and 8 and the driven gear 23 for driving the lumbar support 5 are fixed to the horizontal shaft 22 rotatably supported at both ends by the seat frames 6 and 6, and the drive gear 24 meshed with the driven gear 23 is fixed to the drive gear 24. On the other hand, when the rotational motion of the worm wheel 21 is transmitted through the flexible wire 18, the cams 8 and 8 are rotated in one direction to swing the lumbar support 5.
[0042]
In the present embodiment, the rotational energy is directly transmitted from the gear 17 with a one-way clutch to the cam 8. For example, the rotational energy of the gear 17 with a one-way clutch is stored in a spring or the like. When the energy storage amount exceeds a predetermined value, the cam 8 may be rotated by releasing the stored energy.
[0043]
Further, although not shown, not only the lumbar support 5 but also the seat cushion 1 is provided with a thigh drive plate that is swung by the rotation of the cam, and is used for driving the thigh drive plate. You may make it rotate a cam via a flexible wire with the cam 8 for driving the lumbar support 5.
[0044]
In addition, means for changing the angle and / or height of the seat cushion seat surface, means for changing the seat back angle, and combinations thereof may be used in combination.
[0045]
FIG. 15 is an explanatory view schematically showing a second reference example of the body motion inducing device according to the present invention.
[0046]
In this reference example , instead of the lumbar support 5, a balloon 30 made of an elastic body filled with a liquid is provided at a portion of the seat back 2 where the lumbar support 5 is provided. By changing, the seat state is changed so that the spontaneous movement of the seated person 3 can be aroused or accelerated.
[0047]
That is, the balloon 30 is activated by the detection output of the displacement sensor 10 that detects a minute movement of the pelvis 4 of the seated person 3 and the liquid in the reserve tank 31 passes through the liquid passage 33 in which the backflow prevention valve 32 is interposed. And a pressure valve 36 provided in a liquid passage 35 leading from the balloon 30 to the reserve tank 31.
[0048]
Then, when the pump 34 is driven with the pressure valve 36 closing the liquid path 35 and the pressure of the liquid in the balloon 30 reaches a predetermined value P1, the pressure valve 36 is opened and the balloon 30 is opened as shown in FIG. The liquid inside is returned to the reserve tank 31, and when the pressure of the liquid in the balloon 30 is reduced to a predetermined value P2, the pressure valve 36 is closed.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vehicle seat to which a body motion induction device according to the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a state in which a lumbar support supports a seated person's pelvis from behind. a first reference example rear view FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 3 and FIG. 5 minute motion sites of the seated person's pelvis showing the structure functionally the dynamic induction device graph showing the perception of the relationship in response to one displacement of the graph 7 seatback showing the relationship between the body motion induced graph showing a body movement induced by the device 6 body movement amount and blood flow [ 8 of the body movement-induced apparatus according graph [10] the present invention showing the relationship between the position of the graph 9 body motion and lumbar support 5 showing the relationship between the one displacement body motion of the seat back cross-sectional view of the device of perspective view [11] Figure 10 shows a form of implementation functionally Figure Section along the implementation in the form of a functional block diagram Figure 13 is a rear view of a more specifically showing the configuration shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 14 line XIV-XIV in Figure 13 of the body motion induction device according to 2 of the present invention FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing a second reference example of the body motion inducing device according to the present invention. FIG. 16 is a graph showing the operation of the pressure valve. FIG. 17 is a diagram of the body motion inducing device according to the present invention. Figure for explanation of effects [Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Seat cushion 2 Seat back 3 Seated person 4 Pelvis 5 Lumber support 8 Cam 9 Motor 10 Displacement sensor 11 Controller 16 Rack 17 Gear with one-way clutch 18 Flexible wire

Claims (3)

Body movement detecting means for detecting minute movements of the body of the seated person,
Body movement assisting means provided in the seat so as to swing according to the body movement detected by the body movement detecting means ,
The body motion detecting means includes a posture change receiving unit that accepts minute movements of the seated person's body, and an energy conversion unit that converts the posture change received by the posture change receiving unit into mechanical energy. Become
A body motion inducing device further comprising drive means for directly transmitting energy converted by the energy conversion section to the body motion assisting means to swing the body motion assisting means . It said body motion detecting means, according to claim 1 Symbol placement of the body movement-induced device, characterized in that it consists of means for detecting small movements of the seated person's pelvis. Upper Kitai-driven auxiliary means comprises an elastic plate bent in hairpin-like as the front plate portion and the flat plate-shaped back plate portion is formed with a convex curved surface, the orientation change receiving section, the table motion induced apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the formed by the plate portion.

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