JPS6046992B2 - momentum meter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an exercise meter as a health equipment for people who do not have the space or time to exercise outdoors to compensate for lack of exercise or to train indoors.

Due to the recent remarkable spread of automobiles and the development of other means of transportation, the lack of exercise among people has become chronic, and together with obesity, it has become a social problem. However, the current situation is that there is no suitable exercise area in the overcrowded committee, and there are various obstacles that make it difficult to continue exercising every day in order to maintain good health.

Therefore, recently, a simple indoor traveling device as shown in FIG. 1 has been developed and is widely sold to the general public.

In the figure, 1 is a mat, 2 is a stand, 3 is a display,
When a person 4 runs on the spot on the mat 1, the number of steps is mechanically or electrically counted by a mat switch built into the mat 1, and the cumulative number of steps is displayed on a display '3. In particular, an electric type generates a pitch sound and the person 4 can run along with the rhythm. Using a treadmill like this is convenient in that you can easily exercise even if you don't have a large space, but since the amount of exercise is simply displayed as the number of steps, the accumulated count does not reflect the amount of exercise caused by strong running. It was not possible to determine whether the count was due to movement or slow walking, and therefore there was a problem in viewing the count as an immediate amount of movement.

The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a device that can accurately integrate the amount of momentum.

Fig. 2 shows the external appearance of a momentum meter according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 shows its main structure, Fig. 4 shows an electric circuit, and Fig. 5 shows the circuit of Fig. 4. A timing chart for explaining the operation is shown.

In the figure, 10 is a box-shaped case, and 11 is this case 1.
A display device using a liquid crystal or the like is attached to one side of the body, and 12 is a clip-shaped fixture for attaching the momentum meter of the present invention to the human body.

Inside the case 10 are a detector 13 for detecting the movement of a person, an electric circuit unit 14 for converting the detection results of the detector 13 into pulse signals, counting and integrating them, and the electric circuit unit 1.
A battery 15 is housed as a power source for operating 4. The detector 13 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 3, with a piezoelectric element 17 fixed to the inner bottom of the housing 16
It has a structure in which a steel ball 18, which is a moving member, is elastically supported by a spring 19 and disposed at the upper part of the inner part.

That is, when the detector 13 is shaken up and down, the steel ball 18 is moved up and down by the spring 19 and collides with the piezoelectric element 17.
As a result, a voltage corresponding to the impact force at that time is generated from the piezoelectric element 17, and a voltage J signal corresponding to the magnitude of the acceleration of the copper ball 18 can be extracted.
The electric circuit section 14 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 4, in which 20a to 20f are voltage comparators, 21a to 21f are differentiating circuits, 22 is an adder, and 23 is a counter circuit.

Voltage comparators 20a to 20f and differentiating circuits 21a to 21
f converts the output voltage of the detector 13 into a pulse signal, and the reference voltages of the voltage comparators 20a to 20f are set in stages. Figures 5A-H show the voltage waveforms in sections A-H in Figure 4.If a voltage like that shown in Figure 5A is generated from the detector 13, the output voltage will be The differential circuit 2
Voltage pulse signals as shown in FIGS. 5B to 5G are obtained from the outputs of 1a to 21f.

Then, the voltage pulse signals are added by an adder 22,
A pulse train as shown in FIG. 5H is obtained. The amount of exercise can be known by counting and integrating this pulse signal with the counter circuit 23 and displaying it on the display 11. At this time, since the output voltage of the detector 13 is a voltage proportional to the amount of exercise, the integrated amount displayed on the display 11 is the accurate amount of exercise. Note that an 0R circuit may be used in place of the adder 22 in the circuit shown in FIG. FIGS. 6A and 6B show a state in which the exercise meter according to the present invention is attached to a human body.

As shown in FIG. 6, the case 10 is provided with a clip-shaped attachment 12, which allows it to be easily attached to a belt 26 attached to the waist of the person 4. When the person 4 runs on the spot in this state, if he runs strongly, a large acceleration will be applied to his body, and if he is just walking, a small acceleration will be applied to his body. When the human body moves up and down, the entire detection unit 13 moves, and the steel ball 18 inside the detector 13 tries to stay still due to inertia, so it moves up and down. The more intense the movement, the greater the applied acceleration, so the steel ball 18 hits the piezoelectric element 17 more strongly, generating a larger voltage.
That is, since a voltage proportional to acceleration is converted into a pulse signal, and the pulse signal is counted, integrated, and displayed, an accurate amount of momentum can be determined. As is clear from the above explanation, according to the exercise meter of the present invention, it is possible to know the accurate amount of exercise according to walking and running movements, so even if the walking and running conditions vary, by looking at the cumulative display, It allows you to know exactly how much exercise you have done, and it can be configured with a simple circuit, making it a small, lightweight and compact device with low power consumption, and it does not get in the way when attached to the human body. Exercisers can exercise freely, anywhere and at any time, and know exactly how much they are exercising.

Moreover, the momentum meter of the present invention is characterized in that it can be manufactured at low cost. FIGS. 7 and 8 show other embodiments of the detector used in the momentum meter of the present invention, which will be explained below.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, an elastic disk-shaped piezoelectric element 26 is mounted floating in the middle part of a cylindrical housing 25, and a steel ball 27 as a moving member is mounted on the piezoelectric element 26.
The detector 28 is configured by fixing the .

Therefore, as the detector 28 moves up and down, stress is applied to the piezoelectric element 26 due to the weight of the steel ball 27, and as a result, the piezoelectric element 26 is largely deflected due to its own elasticity, and a large voltage is generated. By converting this voltage into a pulse signal, as described above, accurate momentum can be determined.
Note that the piezoelectric element 26 can be constructed by attaching a piezoelectric ceramic plate to a diaphragm. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 8, a piezoelectric element 32 is attached to the middle part of a plate spring 31, which has one end fixed to the inner wall surface of a box-shaped housing 29 and a steel ball 30 as a moving member attached to the other end. The detector 34 is constructed by enclosing a liquid 33 as a braking member for braking the movement of the moving member in the casing 29.

Therefore, as the detector 34 moves up and down, the leaf spring 31
is deflected, and the deflection force is transmitted to the piezoelectric element 32,
A voltage proportional to the deflection force is generated from the piezoelectric element 32, and by converting this voltage into a pulse signal, it is possible to accurately determine the amount of momentum as described above. In addition, in the case of this embodiment, since the steel ball 30 continues to oscillate if there is no liquid 33, not one voltage pulse is generated when one acceleration is applied, but several voltage pulses are generated. . In order to prevent this, a liquid 33 is sealed in the housing 29 to brake the swinging of the steel ball 30. Note that as a braking material, in addition to the liquid 33, the entire leaf spring 31 may be coated with rubber to serve as a braking member. As described above, the momentum meter according to the present invention can accurately determine the amount of exercise, can easily display the amount of exercise digitally, and has extremely high commercial value such as being small, lightweight, and inexpensive. It's expensive.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional simple indoor running device, Fig. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a momentum meter according to an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a detector used in the momentum meter. FIG. 4 is a block circuit diagram showing the electrical circuit of the momentum meter, FIG. 5 A-H is a timing chart showing the voltage waveform of A-H in FIG. 4, and FIG. Similarly, a perspective view showing the usage state in which the momentum meter is attached to a human body, FIG. 6B is a perspective view showing an enlarged view of the main parts, and FIGS. 7 and 8 respectively show detection methods used in the momentum meter of the present invention. It is a perspective view and a sectional view showing other examples of a container. 10... Case, 11... Display unit, 1
2...Mounting tool, 13, 28, 34...
Detector, 14... Electric circuit section, 15...
・Battery, 17, 26, 32...Piezoelectric element, 18, 27
, 30... steel ball, 19... spring, 31
...Plate spring, 33...Liquid.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A detector consisting of a moving member that moves according to the movement of a human body and a piezoelectric element that generates a voltage in response to mechanical stress applied by the moving member, and an output voltage of the detector. An electric circuit section that generates a pulse train proportional to the magnitude, counts and integrates the pulse train, a display that displays the integrated amount accumulated by this electric circuit section, and a case that houses these and can be attached to the human body. A momentum meter comprising: 2. The momentum meter according to claim 1, characterized in that the moving member is suspended and elastically supported from the piezoelectric element. 3. The momentum meter according to claim 1, characterized in that the piezoelectric element is composed of a piezoelectric ceramic plate attached to a diaphragm and has elasticity. 4 A detector is configured by a support member that elastically supports a moving member, a piezoelectric element attached to this support member, and a braking member that brakes the movement of the moving member, and a voltage is generated by bending the piezoelectric element. The momentum meter according to claim 1, characterized in that: 5. The momentum meter according to claim 3, wherein the moving member is elastically supported by the elasticity of the piezoelectric element.