Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-02
2002-10-01
Hofsass, Jeffery (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S003430, C340S511000, C340S870030, C340S628000, C340S661000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06459377
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an abnormal condition detecting system, and particularly, to an abnormal condition detecting system detecting an abnormal condition of a user at his/her residence by monitoring the frequency of use of a home infrastructure (basic life equipment) in the residence.
2. Description of the Background Art
The simplest way of monitoring the use frequency of a home infrastructure (basic life equipment) installed in a residence, such as a bathroom or a refrigerator, is to detect opening and dosing of a door (the door of a bathroom, the door of a refrigerator or the like).
Technologies for detecting or monitoring opening and closing of a door are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 59-220893, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 7-293072, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 7-180447 and so forth. Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 59-220893 describes an apparatus for surely monitoring a doorway to an important area by detecting and monitoring opening/dosing of a door and the check-out period of a key. Moreover, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 7-293072 describes a technology related to a controlled access system that monitors entrance and exit of a person from/to each room in a building by detecting opening/closing of a door. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 7-180447 describes a technology related to an apparatus for opening/closing a garage door using a remote control, which is directed to safe guiding of a car into the garage at the time of parking.
In addition, an example of a technology for monitoring abnormality of various home infrastructures such as gas, water and electricity, irrespective of opening/dosing of a door, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 6-317368. In the disclosure, a technology related to a simple remote monitoring system of an air conditioner utilizing a communication device for a micon gas meter or the like is described.
In recent years, the number of senior citizens who live alone without any relatives or acquaintances in the neighborhood has increased with declining birthrate, trend toward the nuclear family, improved life expectancy and so forth, raising social problems. There are some cases such that an aged person who lives alone falls down at home without nobody noticing for a long period of several days to several months, or that a neighbor who became suspicious visits such an aged person only to find him/her already passed away.
In order to solve such problems, the national and local governments have been trying to reinforce social welfare systems. Moreover, many private enterprises have been participating in social works such as a helper-leasing business.
However, such social welfare systems and services have not been satisfactory for solving the problems described above. This is because the national and local governments run such social services mainly for physically-handicapped and seriously-ill people in view of welfare budget. Therefore, senior citizens who merely live alone without any relatives have necessarily been given lower priorities and thus have not been able to receive appropriate services.
On the other hand, the fee for helpers provided by private enterprises are expensive. In addition, people who live alone generally tend to refuse strangers entering their home. Therefore, such social services provided by private enterprises have been utilized only in special cases where a person has difficulty in spending daily life or where a person lives with somebody and hence has no anxiety for a stranger coming into his/her home.
Thus, there has been a need for development of a technology for supporting the lives of senior citizens living alone and reassuring them in some way, not depending on the government welfare systems or the private social services.
However, the conventional technologies described earlier were developed mainly for the purpose of assuring security rather than for supporting people living alone in case of emergency. Thus, the conventional technologies could not deal with abnormal circumstances of people living alone and thus were no solutions to the problems described above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an abnormal condition detecting system that can appropriately detect an abnormal condition of an inhabitant and that can take prompt action thereon.
The object of the present invention described above can be achieved by an abnormal condition detecting system having features described below. According to an aspect of the present invention, an abnormal condition detecting system includes an acquisition unit acquiring information related to use of a home infrastructure in a residence; a count unit counting the number of uses of the home infrastructure during a certain time period starting at every predetermined interval, based on the acquired information related to use; a determination unit determining whether or not the counted number of uses is at most a predetermined value; and a recognition unit recognizing an abnormal condition of a user using the home infrastructure when the determination unit determines that the counted number of uses is at most a predetermined value.
According to the present invention, the number of uses of the infrastructure within a certain period beginning at every predetermined interval is counted, for example, on a daily or weekly basis. Then, if the counted number of uses is no higher than a predetermined value, it is recognized that the user (inhabitant at the residence) using the infrastructure is in an abnormal condition. The number of uses is counted at predetermined intervals in view of the life cycle of the user, so that such an abnormal condition can be more appropriately determined based on the counted number.
Therefore, an abnormal condition detecting system that can appropriately detect an abnormal condition of an inhabitant and that can take prompt action thereon may be provided.
Preferably, the certain period is shorter than the predetermined interval.
Accordingly, the time period for which the number of uses of the infrastructure is counted (a certain period) is made shorter, and hence there is a time period for which no counting is performed. Thus, certain time with lower possibilities of counting may be excluded from the counting period (a certain period), for example, by leaving the time at which the inhabitant is often out not counted. This can eliminate disparity in the number of uses of the infrastructure that could be generated by special circumstances, facilitating detection of the difference between normal and abnormal conditions.
Therefore, the number of uses of a home infrastructure can be balanced, allowing more appropriate detection of an abnormal condition.
Preferably, the abnormal condition detecting system further includes a detection unit detecting use of the home infrastructure; and a first communication unit transmitting information related to the detected use of the home infrastructure to the acquisition unit.
According to the present invention, the result detected by the detection unit is transmitted to the acquisition unit by the first communication unit. This allows the detection unit (and the first communication unit) to be provided in a manner physically separated from the device (a main device; hereinafter referred to as “parent device
1
”) configured by the acquisition unit, the count unit, the determination unit and the recognition unit.
Therefore, the degree of freedom relative to the use of the entire system may be extended such that the detection unit (and the first communication unit) may be installed directly onto a home infrastructure such as a bathroom door and that parent device
1
is installed near an AC power-supply. Furthermore, extensibility of the system can also be increased, such that the detection unit (and the first communication unit) may be installed later.
Preferably, when there are a plurality of detection units in the abnormal condition detecting system, the fir
Otsuki Takashi
Sakai Tatsuya
Hofsass Jeffery
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Previl Daniel
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
LandOfFree
Abnormal condition detecting system detecting abnormal... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Abnormal condition detecting system detecting abnormal..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Abnormal condition detecting system detecting abnormal... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2998583