JP4273524B2 - Toilet bowl cleaning system and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for automatically cleaning a toilet bowl, and more particularly, to a toilet bowl cleaning system with improved accuracy in determining whether or not a toilet bowl has been used.

  A urinal that uses a microwave sensor as a washing detection means, detects a urine flow and a human body as a Doppler signal, and further includes a silver-containing electrode in washing water, and controls energization of the silver-containing electrode according to the urine flow Doppler signal. An automatic cleaning apparatus is described in Patent Document 1.

JP 2003-184153 A

  As shown in FIG. 9, for example, the urinal 100 has a drain pipe 200 connected to another drain pipe 200 such as another toilet 110 or a hand-washer. For this reason, when other toilet bowl 110 or the like is used and wastewater flows into the drainage pipe 200, wind pressure is generated in the drainage pipe 200. This wind pressure may cause the water (sealed water) 130 of the trap 120 of the urinal 100 to sway.

  In a Doppler sensor using a microwave, a frequency shift is caused by the shaking of the sealing water 130 and a Doppler signal is output. For this reason, the shaking of the sealed water has caused a false detection that a person is present even though the person is not in front of the urinal 100.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to prevent erroneous detection due to shaking of the sealed water.

  A toilet flushing system according to an embodiment of the present invention responds to shaking of seal water from a Doppler sensor that detects a moving object in a bowl portion of the urinal and in front of the urinal, and a Doppler signal output from the Doppler sensor. A first filter that cuts off a signal in a frequency band to be detected; a first detection unit that detects that a person approaches the urinal using a Doppler signal that has passed through the first filter; A second filter that passes a signal in a frequency band corresponding to a person's movement from the Doppler signal output from the Doppler sensor, and the first detection means detects the approach of the person and then passes through the second filter. The second detection means for detecting the presence of a person in front of the urinal using the Doppler signal, and the second detection means do not detect the presence of the person in front of the urinal. When, and a cleaning instruction means for instructing to perform the cleaning of the urinal.

  In a preferred embodiment, the Doppler sensor may be a Doppler sensor using a 10 GHz microwave, and a frequency band corresponding to the shaking of the sealed water may be 0-15 Hz.

  In a preferred embodiment, the Doppler sensor is a Doppler sensor using a 10 GHz microwave, and a frequency band of a signal that the second filter passes may be 0 to 45 Hz or 15 to 40 Hz.

  In a preferred embodiment, from the Doppler signal output from the Doppler sensor, a urine flow is obtained using a third filter that passes a signal in a frequency band corresponding to the urine flow, and a Doppler signal that has passed through the third filter. You may make it further provide the 3rd detection means to detect.

  In a preferred embodiment, when the second detection means no longer detects the presence of a person in front of the urinal, the person is moved away from the urinal using the Doppler signal that has passed through the first filter. The apparatus further includes fourth detection means for detecting going. And the said washing | cleaning instruction | indication means may instruct | indicate the washing | cleaning of the said urinal when the said 4th detection means detects that a person is moving away.

In the toilet cleaning method according to one embodiment of the present invention , the Doppler sensor outputs a Doppler signal corresponding to the speed of the moving object in the ball portion of the urinal and in front of the urinal, After detecting that a person approaches the urinal using a signal in which the first frequency band corresponding to shaking is cut off, and detecting that a person approaches the urinal, The presence of the person in front of the urinal is detected using the signal including the second frequency band corresponding to the movement of the person among the Doppler signals, and the presence of the person in front of the urinal is not detected. Then, the urinal is washed.

  Hereinafter, a toilet cleaning system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of the toilet bowl cleaning system. The system includes a male urinal (hereinafter simply referred to as a toilet) 1, a Doppler sensor 2 for detecting a human body and urine flow, and a controller 3 for controlling toilet flushing. In FIG. 1, a side view of the toilet 1 is shown. Water (hereinafter referred to as “sealed water”) 12 accumulates in a trap 11 provided at a drain outlet at the lower part of the toilet bowl portion 10, and serves as a lid so as to prevent bad smell from coming out of the water pipe. The Doppler sensor 2 is installed on the upper surface in the toilet bowl part 10, and irradiates the microwave in the ball part 10 and the front of the toilet bowl, and receives the reflected wave. For this reason, the Doppler sensor 2 detects not only the movement and urine flow of the user in front of the toilet, but also the shaking of the sealed water 12, and outputs a Doppler signal described below.

The configuration of the Doppler sensor 2 is shown in FIG. In the Doppler sensor 2, the output unit 21 outputs a 10 GHz microwave, and the receiving unit 22 receives the reflected wave. The difference detection unit 23 takes a frequency difference between the output microwave and the reflected wave, and detects a Doppler signal (frequency shift). The amplitude of the Doppler signal output from the Doppler sensor 2 is proportional to the amplitude of the reflected wave. This Doppler signal is output to the controller 3. Here, when the frequency of the microwave output from the output unit 21 is F1, the frequency of the reflected wave received by the receiving unit 22 is F2, and the frequency ΔF of the Doppler signal, the following relationship is established.
ΔF = F1-F2 = 2 × F1 × (v / c)
c is the speed of light, and v is the moving speed of the object reflecting the microwave.

  FIG. 3 shows a functional configuration diagram of the controller 3. The controller 3 includes a preprocessing unit 31 that performs preprocessing of a Doppler signal, an analysis unit 32 that analyzes a signal after the preprocessing and controls a cleaning operation, and a valve that controls opening and closing of the valve 4 and drives toilet flushing And a drive circuit 33. For example, the preprocessing unit 31 can be realized by an electronic circuit, and the analysis unit 32 can be realized by causing a microcomputer to execute a predetermined computer program.

  The pre-processing unit 31 includes a low-pass filter (LPF) 311 that removes a high-frequency noise component from the Doppler signal output from the Doppler sensor 2, and a shift frequency band (hereinafter referred to as the urine flow) generated from the signal output from the LPF 31. A urine flow band pass filter 312 which is a band pass filter for passing a urine flow band). For example, the LPF 31 may cut a frequency greater than 330 Hz and pass a signal of 330 Hz or less. Further, the urine flow band is, for example, 60 to 330 Hz, and the urine flow band pass filter 312 may pass this band and cut frequencies other than this band (60 Hz or less and 330 Hz or more).

  The analysis unit 32 performs human body detection and urine flow detection using the preprocessed signal. First, the analysis unit 32 includes a urine flow detection unit 321 that detects a urine flow using a Doppler signal in the urine flow band that has passed through the urine flow band pass filter 312. The urine flow detection unit 321 notifies the control unit 328 whether or not a urine flow is detected.

  Furthermore, the analysis unit 32 switches the output destination of the Doppler signal that has passed through the LPF 311, and a shift frequency band (hereinafter referred to as a sealed band) generated by the shaking of the sealed water from the Doppler signal sent from the switching unit 322. A seal blocking filter 323 that removes water, an approach detection unit 324 and a distance detection unit 325 that detect a person approaching and moving away using a signal from which the seal water band has been removed, respectively, and a Doppler sent from the switching unit 322 A human band pass filter 326 that extracts a signal of a shift frequency band (hereinafter referred to as a human band) generated by the movement of a person from the signal, a human body detection unit 327 that detects the presence of a person using the human band signal, And a control unit 328 for controlling the cleaning operation of the toilet based on the outputs of the detection units 321, 324, 325, and 327.

  The switching unit 322 switches the output destination of the Doppler signal to one of the seal water blocking filter 323 and the human band pass filter 326 based on an instruction from the control unit 328. Further, the control unit 328 controls the cleaning operation of the toilet as a cleaning instruction unit (details will be described later) and manages the state of the system. In other words, this system detects a person A who is approaching the toilet bowl without detecting a person in front of the toilet bowl, and a person approaching the toilet bowl. There is a state B in which it is detected that the user is continuing, and a state C in which it is detected that a person has left the toilet. The control unit 328 determines the current state based on the outputs of the detection units 321, 324, 325, and 327, and instructs the switching unit 322 to switch the signal output destination. Details of this state switching determination will be described later. In the present embodiment, the control unit 328 instructs the switching unit 322 to output the Doppler signal from which the high frequency has been cut to the sealing water blocking filter 323 in the state A and the state C, and in the state B, the human being Instructs the band pass filter 326 to output.

  The sealing water blocking filter 323 is a bandpass filter for blocking a sealing band corresponding to the shaking of the sealing water from the Doppler signal from which the high frequency has been cut, and passing the frequency band corresponding to the movement of the person. According to the knowledge obtained by the inventors of the present invention, the sealing band is about 0 to 10 Hz and the human band is about 0 to 40 Hz. That is, the human band and the sealed water band have a band that overlaps and a band that does not overlap. Therefore, if the sealing water blocking filter 323 is a band-pass filter that passes a human band frequency band (here, 15 to 40 Hz band) that does not overlap with the sealed water band, the frequency of the human band from which the sealed water band is removed can be obtained. Only the included Doppler signal can be passed.

  Then, both the approach detection unit 324 and the away detection unit 325 detect that the person is approaching and that the person is moving away using the signal that has passed through the sealing band cutoff filter 323. The approach detection unit 324 notifies the control unit 328 of the presence / absence of a person approaching, and the distance detection unit 325 notifies the presence / absence of a person moving away. Here, since the signal from which the sealed water band has been removed is used as described above, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection due to the shaking of the sealed water. Detailed processing procedures of the approach detection unit 324 and the distance detection unit 325 will be described later.

  The human band pass filter 326 is a band pass filter for passing a human band signal from a Doppler signal from which a high frequency has been cut. In the present embodiment, the human band pass filter 326 passes a signal in a band of 0 to 40 Hz.

  The human body detection unit 327 performs human body detection processing for continuously confirming that there is a person in the state B in which there is a person in front of the toilet. For example, the human body detection unit 327 detects a person who is relatively close to the toilet using the human band signal output from the human band pass filter 326. Here, when there is a person at a close distance from the toilet, the intensity of the reflected wave increases, so the intensity of the Doppler signal output from the Doppler sensor 2 (the amplitude of the output signal) also increases. Therefore, the human body detection unit 327 detects the presence of a person near the toilet using the amplitude dispersion of the Doppler signal. The human body detection unit 327 notifies the control unit 328 whether a person is present within a predetermined distance from the toilet.

  The processing outline of this system will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, the horizontal axis indicates the elapsed time, and the vertical axis indicates (a) the output signal of the LPF 311, (b) the output signal of the urine flow bandpass filter 312, and (c) the output of the seal water blocking filter 323. A signal (d) indicates an output signal of each detection unit or the like.

  First, the toilet is not used at time 0, and is waiting for a person to approach the toilet. As in this case, when there is no output from any detection unit or the like for a predetermined time or in an initial state where the system starts operation, the system is in the state A. Therefore, at this time, based on an instruction from the control unit 328, the switching unit 322 outputs the signal (a) to the seal water blocking filter 323. Referring to (b), it can be confirmed that the amplitude of the output of the urine flow bandpass filter 312 is substantially zero.

During the time t ₁ -t ₂ , the amplitude of the output of the sealing water blocking filter 323 shown in (c) is large, and based on this output, the approach detection unit 324 detects the approach of a person according to the procedure described later. The controller 328 outputs a signal indicating human approach detection.

  When the control unit 328 receives a human approach detection signal, it instructs the valve drive circuit 33 to perform pre-cleaning. Then, the valve drive circuit 33 controls the opening and closing of the valve 4 to perform pre-cleaning. In addition, upon receiving a human approach detection signal, the control unit 328 causes the system to transition to the state B and instructs the switching unit 328 to switch the output destination. As a result, the output destination of the signal (a) from the switching unit 328 is switched to the human band pass filter 326.

From time t ₂ , the state becomes B, and the human body detection unit 327 detects the person in front of the toilet and outputs a signal to the control unit 328. Then, during time t ₃ -t ₄ , as shown in (b), the output amplitude of the urine flow bandpass filter increases, and it can be seen that the urine flow detector 321 detects the urine flow.

At time t _5, the signal output from the person detecting unit 327 is turned off. When the control unit 328 detects that the output signal of the human body detection unit 327 is turned off, the control unit 328 causes the system to transition to the state C. That is, the control unit 328 instructs the switching unit 322 to switch the signal output destination. As a result, the signal (a) is output from the switching unit 322 to the sealed water cutoff filter 323 again.

During the time t ₅ -t ₆ , the amplitude of the output of the sealing water blocking filter 323 is increased. Based on this output, the distance detection unit 325 detects that the person is moving away according to the procedure described later, and performs control. A signal indicating that a person has left is output to the unit 328.

Controller 328, at time t _7, an instruction to perform post-cleaning to the valve drive circuit 33. The valve drive circuit 33 controls the opening and closing of the valve 4 and performs post-cleaning between times t _{7 and} t ₈ .

  In the above process, the distance detection unit 325 detects that a person is moving away, but this process may be omitted. That is, when the human body detection unit 327 no longer detects that a person is present in front of the toilet bowl, the control unit 328 determines that the person is leaving the front of the toilet bowl, and performs post-washing. You may instruct.

  Next, a human approach determination sequence performed by the approach detection unit 324 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an output waveform of the sealing water blocking filter 323 for explaining the human approach determination. The approach detection unit 324 first determines whether a waveform of a predetermined amplitude (voltage) V1 in a predetermined frequency band f (here, 15 to 40 Hz) is continuously detected. The amplitude V1 of the waveform detected here is, for example, 110 to 700 mV. Then, after a signal in a predetermined frequency band f is continuously detected, it is determined whether or not a signal having an amplitude greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold V2 is detected. Here, the threshold amplitude V2 is, for example, 700 mV. Hereinafter, these detailed processes will be described using the flowchart of FIG. 6 with reference to FIG. In this process, two counters T1 and T2 for measuring time and a counter n for counting the number of detected waveforms are used.

  First, the two counters T1 and T2 are initialized to 0 (S101). When T1 = 0, 0 is set to the waveform counter n (S102, S103). That is, when T1 becomes 0, n is also reset.

  Next, when the amplitude of the signal is between V1 = 110 and 700 mV, it is determined whether the frequency of the detected signal is f = 15 to 40 Hz (S104, S105). The frequency can be determined by measuring the time from one peak to the next peak. When the condition is not satisfied in either step S104 or S105, the process returns to step S102. That is, the presence or absence of a signal in the frequency band of 15 to 40 Hz is detected in steps S104 and S105.

  When a signal of frequency f is detected (S105: Yes), 60 ms is set in the counter T1 (S106), and the waveform counter n is incremented (S107). T1 is automatically counted down over time. Then, it is determined whether the waveform counter n is 6 or more (S108). If the waveform counter n is not 6 or more, step S102 and subsequent steps are repeated (S108: No).

  Here, according to the above process, it is determined whether or not a predetermined number (here, 6) of waveforms having the frequency f or more are detected without leaving an interval of a predetermined time (here, 60 milliseconds) or more. . Thereby, it can prevent that the case where the waveform of the frequency f is detected intermittently etc. is detected erroneously. Then, when the waveform counter n is 6 or more in step S108, the person is approaching, so that the temporary approach detection state of the person approach is set (S109).

  After entering the provisionally confirmed state, 4 seconds are set in the counter T2 (S110). T2 is also automatically counted down over time. Then, when the amplitude of the waveform becomes V2 = 700 mV or more before T2 becomes 0, it is determined that a human approach has been detected (S111, S112, S113). That is, in this process, it is confirmed that the person detected in the process prior to step S109 has come closer to the toilet and the Doppler signal intensity has increased. Thereby, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection of a person who passes just in front of the toilet.

  Next, a person's distance determination sequence performed by the distance detection unit 325 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. This distance determination process is similar to the approach determination process of the approach detection unit 324 illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6. The differences between the two are as follows. That is, in the approach determination process, if a predetermined number n or more of waveforms are detected without an interval of the predetermined time T1 or more, a temporary determination state is set (S109 in FIG. 6), and then the Doppler signal strength is determined. However, in the distance determination process, the distance is determined when a predetermined number n or more of waveforms are detected without leaving an interval of the predetermined time T1 or longer.

  According to this embodiment, since the approaching person is detected using the signal from which the frequency band of the Doppler signal generated by the shaking of the sealing water is removed, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection due to the shaking of the sealing water.

  The above-described embodiments of the present invention are examples for explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art can implement the present invention in various other modes without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the preprocessing unit 31 is realized by an electronic circuit, and the analysis unit 32 is realized by a microcomputer. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto. For example, the preprocessing unit 31 may be realized by causing a microcomputer to execute a predetermined program, or part or all of the analysis unit 32 may be realized by hardware such as an electronic circuit.

It is a lineblock diagram of a toilet bowl washing system concerning one embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a configuration diagram of a Doppler sensor 2. FIG.

3 is a configuration diagram of a controller 3. FIG.

It is the output waveform of each filter and the output signal of each detection part.

It is a schematic diagram of the waveform for demonstrating person approach detection.

It is a flowchart of a person approach detection process.

It is a schematic diagram of the waveform for demonstrating human away detection.

It is a flowchart of a human away detection process.

It is a figure for demonstrating the background of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Toilet bowl, 2 ... Doppler sensor, 3 ... Controller, 4 ... Valve, 10 ... Ball part, 11 ... Trap, 12 ... Sealing water.

Claims (6)

  A Doppler sensor that detects a moving object in the ball portion of the urinal and in front of the urinal, and a first filter that blocks a signal in a frequency band corresponding to the shaking of the sealed water from the Doppler signal output by the Doppler sensor; The first detection means for detecting that a person approaches the urinal using the Doppler signal that has passed through the first filter, and the Doppler signal output by the Doppler sensor A second filter that passes a signal in a corresponding frequency band; and after the first detection means detects the approach of a person, the Doppler signal that has passed through the second filter is used in front of the urinal. A second detection means for detecting the presence of a person, and a washing instruction for instructing washing of the urinal when the second detection means no longer detects the presence of a person in front of the urinal Toilet bowl cleaning system and a stage.   The toilet bowl cleaning system according to claim 1, wherein the Doppler sensor is a Doppler sensor using a 10 GHz microwave, and a frequency band corresponding to the shaking of the sealed water is 0 to 15 Hz.   The toilet bowl cleaning system according to claim 1, wherein the Doppler sensor is a Doppler sensor using a microwave of 10 GHz, and a frequency band of a signal that the second filter passes is 0 to 45 Hz or 15 to 40 Hz.   From the Doppler signal output from the Doppler sensor, a third filter that passes a signal in a frequency band corresponding to the urine flow, and a third detection that detects the urine flow using the Doppler signal that has passed through the third filter. The toilet cleaning system according to claim 1, further comprising means.   When the second detection means no longer detects the presence of the person in front of the urinal, the second detection means detects that the person is moving away from the urinal using the Doppler signal that has passed through the first filter. The toilet cleaning system according to claim 1, further comprising a fourth detection unit, wherein the cleaning instruction unit instructs the cleaning of the urinal when the fourth detection unit detects that a person is moving away.   The Doppler sensor outputs a Doppler signal corresponding to the velocity of the moving object in the ball part of the urinal and in front of the urinal, and the first frequency band corresponding to the shaking of the sealed water is cut off from the Doppler signal. After detecting that a person approaches the urinal using a signal, and detecting that a person approaches the urinal, the first corresponding to the movement of the person in the Doppler signal is detected. A toilet cleaning method for detecting the presence of a person in front of the urinal using a signal including two frequency bands and cleaning the urinal when the presence of the person in front of the urinal is no longer detected.

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