JPS6039965B2 - pedometer - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a pedometer with reduced errors.

A pedometer that is attached to a person's waist, etc., detects the vertical movement of the human body when walking or running, and detects and displays the total number of steps taken. Since the sensor may be subjected to one or more vibrations, this is a cause of error in the displayed value, and this error becomes especially large when the sensitivity is set high so that it can be used even when walking slowly. was. For this,
When the output from the step sensor is input to the counter section, it is possible to eliminate abnormal signals by providing a fuwazai circuit that prevents the next output from the step sensor from entering the counter section for a certain period of time. However, the period of vertical movement of the human body is
There is a big difference between walking and running, and therefore, in order to reliably remove abnormal signals, the existence of a fuwazai circuit that must be adjusted to a specific vertical movement period is due to the fact that the vertical movement period is greatly different. In some cases, normal detection signals may also be removed, which may actually impede accurate step counting. The present invention was made with the aim of solving such problems in the conventional example, and it is possible to reliably remove abnormal signals even when the period of vertical movement of the human body is different, such as when walking or running. To provide a pedometer capable of accurately counting the number of steps.

The present invention provides a pedometer that includes a step sensor that detects vertical movement of a human body and outputs a detection signal, and a counter section that counts the detection signal. It is characterized by providing a dead band circuit that blocks new signal input to the counter section, and making the signal input blocking time in this dead band circuit variable. By blocking the input of the abnormal signal to the counter section and making the input blocking time in the Fuwa-Tai circuit variable, it is possible to match the period of vertical movement of the human body with the input blocking time. Regardless of the value of the circuit base, it is possible to reliably prevent abnormal signals from being input to the counter section, and it also prevents the situation where the fuwa-band circuit cuts even the original detection signal. It is designed to prevent

The present invention will be described below based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of the first embodiment, in which 1 is a step count sensor, 2 is a fuwazai circuit, 3 is a counter section, and 4 is a step length setting section.

The step sensor has a vibration detection mechanism in which a magnet 7 is attached to the tip of an arm 5 supported by a shaft 5a and held horizontally by a spring 6, and a reed switch 8 is provided corresponding to the magnet 7. When vertical vibrations are applied due to driving or running, the arm 5 swings up and down relative to the reed switch 8, so the magnet 7 attached to the tip of the arm 5 approaches or separates from the reed switch 8. The reed switch 8 opens and closes, and the detection signal waveform shown in FIG. 2a is output to point A of the output circuit. Here, P, is a normal pulse, and P2 is an extra pulse that causes an error. The signal input to the dead band circuit 2 is inverted by the inverter 9 and becomes the waveform at point B shown in FIG. The waveform obtained at point C is shown in FIG. 2c. Note that one resistor or multiple resistors R. , R2, . . . can be switched by a switch 13. When this waveform at point C is clipped and inverted at a constant reference voltage by the inverter 14, a waveform shown in FIG. 2d is obtained at point D. That is, a pulse P due to a normal detection signal waveform is converted into a pulse with a pulse width L, and a waveform including an extra pulse P2 is converted into a single pulse with a pulse width L+Q. Yes, this is the counter part 3
If the number of steps is counted by the number of steps counter 5 and displayed on the number of steps display section 16, it is possible to prevent the extra pulse P2 from being counted as a new pulse signal and causing an error.
The blocking time To is determined by the time constants of the resistor 10 and the capacitor 1, and the switch 13 controls the resistors R, . It can be changed arbitrarily by switching R2... On the other hand, the stride setting section 4 has a resistance r. , r2...
... can be switched by a switch 17 linked to the switch 13, and the step length setting signal obtained here is sent to the arithmetic processing circuit 18 along with the signal corresponding to the number of steps shown in FIG. The product of the step length and the number of steps according to the step length setting signal is calculated and the obtained distance is displayed on the distance display section 2.
Display as 0. Here, the stride length and the number of steps per unit time are usually 4.0 when walking and longer when running.
Since the period of vibration, which is the reciprocal of the number of steps, is longer when walking and shorter when running, the time constant of resistor 10 and capacitor 11 is used to set the stride length so that the blocking time To is made longer when the period is long and shortened when the period is short. The resistors R., R2, . By doing this, the blocking time is automatically and appropriately selected depending on whether the user is walking or running, or whether the user is walking slowly or walking far, and the number of steps and distance can be displayed without error. .
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the second embodiment, in which the signal output S shown in FIG. ，
Using the rise or fall of the pulse P, a hold signal S2 (shown in FIG. 4b) with a circular pulse width that rises with a certain time delay is added to the dead band circuit 2 to generate the hold signal S2.
The operation signal S3 shown in FIG. 4c is sent to the counter section 3 only when the signal output S is inputted when the signal is at the L level.

Therefore, the extra pulse P2 contained in the signal output S,
is erased in the operation signal S3, thereby preventing an error from appearing in the display of the counter section 3. In the figure, 22
is a reference oscillator, and 23 and 24 are adders. Note that the step count sensor in each of the above-mentioned embodiments may be any sensor as long as it can obtain an electrical signal according to the vertical acceleration caused by vibration, such as a sensor that detects the vibration of a magnet with a coil, a sensor that uses a strain gauge, or a sensor that uses vibrations. A combination of a switch and an optical switch can be used as appropriate.

As described above, the present invention is designed to block new signal input to the counter section in response to the detection signal from the step sensor, so that the blocking time can be adjusted. This prevents the detection signal input from being erroneously counted, and since the blocking time is variable, even when the vibration period varies greatly, such as when walking or running, the detection signal can be counted according to each period. By changing the blocking time, it is possible to reliably remove abnormal signals, and it is also possible to prevent the dead band circuit from cutting off the normal detection signal. There is an advantage that a small number of pedometers can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a connection diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 a to d are explanatory diagrams of the same operation as above, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of another embodiment, and Figs. 4 a to c are explanations of the operation of the same as above. It is a diagram. 1 is the step count sensor, 2 is the fuwa belt circuit, 3 is the counter section, 1
0 is a resistor, 11 is a capacitor, and 13 is a switch. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a pedometer that includes a step sensor that detects the vertical movement of a human body and outputs a detection signal, and a counter section that counts this detection signal, a new signal is input to the counter section in response to the detection signal from the step sensor. A pedometer comprising a dead band circuit for blocking the signal input and a variable signal input blocking time in the dead band circuit.