Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Mechanical control system
Reexamination Certificate
2002-10-01
2004-06-22
Picard, Leo (Department: 2125)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Mechanical control system
C340S573100, C340S501000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06754561
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an object state sensing apparatus, an object state sensing method, a home electronic appliance, a network adapter and a medium that are effective in sensing an object, such as a human body, in each room of a house.
BACKGROUND TECHNOLOGY
As for a conventional method of sensing the existence of a person in a room, there is the well-known system wherein one tremor sensing-type human body sensor is installed on, for example, on a ceiling so that human body sensing is carried out according to the movement of a person who has come into a room. This system has a problem wherein the human body sensor cannot sense a person in a room in the case that the person is stationery when reading, sleeping, or the like, and cannot detect the person's presence. That is to say, the sensor cannot distinguish the case wherein the person in the room is stationary from the case wherein the person has actually left the room, although the system can be built at a low cost because the tremor sensing-type human body sensor is inexpensive.
As a method for solving the above described problem, there is the well-known technology in Japanese unexamined patent publication H6 (1994)-230144, for example.
FIG. 6
shows a configuration view of the technology described in Japanese unexamined patent publication H6 (1994)-230144. Human body sensors are denoted as
1010
and
1020
, wherein
1010
has a view of an entrance to a room while
1020
has a view of the inside of the room, and it is necessary for the respective sensing ranges to be determined so as not to overlap. Human body sensing information generation parts that sense the existence of responses of the two human body sensors and which output human body sensing information are denoted as
1030
and
1040
. In addition, a determination part for determining if a person has left based on the human body sensing information received from the human body sensing information generation parts
1030
and
1040
is denoted as
1050
.
The operation thereof is described in the following. The human body sensing information generation parts
1030
and
1040
output “1” in the case that there is a response and “0” in the case that there is no response, according to the existence of a response of the human body sensors
1010
and
1020
. The room exit determination part
1050
monitors the output history of the human body sensing information generation parts
1030
and
1040
and determines that a person has left a room in the case of the occurrence of a certain sequence of response histories as shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1
passing
stationary
moving
starting to
through
activity
in room
in room
exit room
entrance
response
0
0
1
1
of 1010
response
0
1
1
0
of 1020
determi-
present
present
present
absent
nation
in room
in room
in room
from room
As described above, in the human body sensing system described in Japanese unexamined patent publication H6 (1994)-230144, two tremor sensing-type human body sensors having views of the entrances to one room and the inside of the room respectively are installed on the ceiling of the room so that the entrances into and exits out of the room can be monitored according to the chronological history of the responses of the two sensors and, therefore, the exits out of the room can be clearly sensed resulting in an increase in the precision of human body sensing.
In addition, as a technology similar to that of Japanese unexamined patent publication H6 (1994)-230144, there is a method of improving the precision of human body sensing by installing tremor sensing-type human body sensors on the ceiling of each room, in corridors outside of rooms, in hallways, or the like, and by using the same method as in Japanese unexamined patent publication H6 (1994)-230144.
However, there is a problem wherein disadvantage arises in cost in the case that the above described conventional human body sensing system is desired to be applied to a house having a plurality of rooms. For example, in a house having a layout of four rooms surrounding a corridor, the number of human body sensors required is two/each room×four rooms=eight according to the technology in Japanese unexamined patent publication H6 (1994)-230144 and one/each room×four rooms+one in corridor=five, at a minimum, according to the above described technology similar to that of Japanese unexamined patent publication H6 (1994)-230144.
That is to say, there is a problem wherein disadvantage arises in cost because the required number of human body sensors becomes large in conventional human body sensing systems.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention takes the problem with the conventional human body sensing system into consideration and a purpose thereof is to provide an object state sensing apparatus, an object state sensing method, a home electronic appliance, a network adapter and a medium with a high precision of human body sensing by a small number of sensors wherein one human body sensor per room is installed; in the above case one per room×four rooms=four human body sensors, for example, are installed, and wherein pattern of movement, including time for moving between rooms, is learned and, in the case that a response of a human body sensor in one room ceases to be detected, the human body sensing information of all of the other rooms is monitored so as to extract the pattern of movement, so that whether or not the person has exited is determined based on the degree of similarity between the extracted pattern of movement and the learned pattern of movement.
That is to say, a purpose of the present invention is to provide an object state sensing apparatus, an object state sensing method, a home electronic appliance, a network adapter and a medium that have a high precision of human body sensing despite the use of a small number of sensors.
To solve the above-described problems, One aspect of the present invention is an object state sensing apparatus comprising:
a state sensing information generation part for generating state sensing information showing the state of an object in two, or more, predetermined regions by means of moving body sensors, at least one of which is installed in each of said predetermined regions, for sensing the movement of said object; and
a determination part for specifying a predetermined region wherein said state sensing information has changed and for determining the state of said object in said specified predetermined region by utilizing said state sensing information of a predetermined region that is different from the specified predetermined region.
Another aspect of the present invention is the object state sensing apparatus,
wherein said two, or more, predetermined regions are respective rooms within a house,
wherein said condition sensing information is information showing either the sensed condition wherein said object is sensed or the non-sensed condition wherein said object is not sensed,
wherein said condition sensing information generation part generates said condition sensing information of each of said rooms from the existence of a response of a moving body sensor of each of said rooms, and
wherein said determination part has a condition sensing information change monitoring part for specifying a room, from among the respective rooms within said house, wherein said condition sensing information has changed from the sensed condition to the non-sensed condition.
Still another aspect of the present invention (corresponding to claim
3
) is the object state sensing apparatus according to the 2nd invention, wherein said determination part comprises:
a non-specified room response sensing part for finding a movement pattern which is a pattern with respect to the movement between the respective rooms by checking, in the case that said state sensing information change monitoring part has specified a room wherein said state sensing information has changed from the sensed state to the non-sensed state, the state sensing information of a room other than said specif
Matsubayashi Shigeaki
Matsui Masaru
Nagamitsu Sachio
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Picard Leo
RatnerPrestia
Shechtman Sean P.
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