User support apparatus

• US 20060009702A1
• Filed: 04/27/2005
• Published: 01/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Miyoshi, Takashi, Iwaki, Hidekazu, Kosaka, Akio
• Application Number:
  US11/115,827
• Publication Number:
  US 20060009702A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/520
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/20 Workers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0242 adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/00 Measuring for diagnostic purposes radiation diagnosis A61B6/00; diagnosis by ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves A61B8/00; Identification of persons
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/165 Evaluating the state of mind, e.g. depression, anxiety
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6814 Head

Abstract

A user support apparatus comprises a user information acquisition unit configured to obtain information regarding a user, a user state estimation unit configured to judge at least one of user'"'"'s position information, posture information, physical sate, and mental state as a user state based on the information obtained by the user information acquisition unit, and a user support unit configured to support at least one of user'"'"'s action, memory and thinking based on the user state estimated by the user state estimation unit.

Claims

1. A user support apparatus comprising:

a user information acquisition unit configured to obtain information regarding a user;

a user state estimation unit configured to estimate at least one of user'"'"'s position information, posture information, physical sate, and mental state as a user state based on the information obtained by the user information acquisition unit; and

a user support unit configured to support at least one of user'"'"'s action, memory and thinking based on the user state estimated by the user state estimation unit.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the user information acquisition unit includes an information disclosure degree adding unit configured to add an information disclosure degree as an attribute to designate at least one of the user and a system that disclose the user information.

3. A user support apparatus comprising:

a user sate estimation unit including at least two of a user external information acquisition unit configured to obtain user external information which is information sensed by a user, a user internal information acquisition unit configured to obtain user internal information which is user'"'"'s own information, and an environmental information acquisition unit configured to obtain environmental information around the user, and configured to estimate a user state containing at least one of user'"'"'s position information, posture information, physical state and mental state based on the pieces of information obtained by the acquisition units; and

a user support unit configured to support at least one of user'"'"'s action, memory and thinking based on the user state estimated by the user state estimation unit.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein at least one of the user external information acquisition unit and the user internal information acquisition unit is mounted to the user.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the user external information acquisition unit supports a range in which the user can feel by some of five senses, and obtains at least one of an image, a voice, an odor, an air temperature, a humidity, components in air, an atmospheric pressure, brightness, an ultraviolet ray amount, an electric wave, a magnetic field, a ground temperature, IC tag information, a distance, and a wind direction.

6. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein user external information acquisition unit obtains at least one of user'"'"'s position information and user'"'"'s posture information by using at least one of a one-dimensional range sensor, a two-dimensional range sensor, a gravitational direction sensor, an accelerometer sensor, an angular accelerometer sensor, a gyrosensor, position and posture estimation information based on sensing of a maker fixed to the outside, and a GPS signal.

7. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the user external information acquisition unit includes an interface configured to receive an input from the user.

8. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the user external information acquisition unit includes an information disclosure degree adding unit configured to add a disclosure range of information as an attribute to the information to be communicated.

9. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the user internal information acquisition unit obtains at least one of user'"'"'s perspiration amount, skin potential response and level, eye movement, electromyogram, electroencephologram, brain magnetic field, vial sign, facial expression, face color, voiceprint, shaking motion, body movement, blood sugar, body fat, blood flow, saliva components, breath components, excrement components, and sweat component information.

10. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the user internal information acquisition unit includes an information disclosure degree adding unit configured to add a disclosure range of information as an attribute to the communication to be communicated.

11. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the environmental information acquisition unit includes an environment sensing unit configured to support one of a range in which a user group including the user acts and a range likely to affect the user group, and to obtain at least one of an image, a sound, an odor, an air temperature, a humidity, components in air, an atmospheric pressure, brightness, an ultraviolet ray amount, an electric wave, a magnetic field, a ground temperature, IC tag information, a distance, and a wind direction.

12. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the environmental information acquisition unit obtains at least one of position information and posture information of the environmental information acquisition unit itself by using at least a one-dimensional range sensor, a two-dimensional range sensor, a gravitational direction sensor, an accelerometer, an angular accelerometer, a gyrosensor, and a GPS signal.

13. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising an environmental state estimation unit configured to recognize at least one of history of the use group, a movement of an object group, an operation record of at least one of a vehicle, an elevator, a gate and a door, and weather from the information obtained by the environmental information acquisition unit and to generate environmental state information.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the environmental state estimation unit includes a danger degree attribute setting unit configured to set a danger degree attribute in a virtual space based on at least one of the pieces of information obtained by the environmental information acquisition unit.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the danger degree attribute setting unit detects a moving object around the user based on at least one of the pieces of information obtained by the environmental information acquisition unit, and predicts a danger degree attribute after a fixed time.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the danger degree attribute setting unit includes an interface which receives a danger degree attribute input from the outside.

17. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising an environmental information recording unit configured to record the environmental information obtained by the environmental information acquisition unit.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the environmental information recording unit weights newly recording information based on at least one of at least one of the user external information, the user internal information, and the environmental information, and past information recorded in the environmental information recording unit.

19. The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the environmental information recording unit performs one of deletion and compression of information based on the weighting.

20. The apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising an environmental information recording unit configured to record the environmental state information obtained by the environmental state estimation unit.

21. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the environmental information recording unit weights newly recording information based on at least one of at least one of the user external information, the user internal information, and the environmental information, and past information recorded in the environmental information recording unit.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the environmental information recording unit performs one of deletion and compression of information based on the weighting.

23. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the user state estimation unit obtains an interest area based on at least one of the user external information, the user internal information, and the environmental information.

24. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the user state estimation unit includes a user experience information extracting unit configured to extract at least one of user'"'"'s position information, posture information, a point of attention, conversation contents, conversation opponent, face color of the conversation opponent, voice tone, and a visual line as user experience information based on at least one of the user external information, the user internal information and the environmental information.

25. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the user state estimation unit recognizes at least one of user'"'"'s degree of stress, degree of excitement, degree of impression, degree of fatigue, degree of attention, degree of fear, degree of concentration, degree of attention, degree of jubilation, degree of drowsiness, degree of excretion wish, and degree of appetite by using at least one of the user external information, the user internal information, the environmental information, and the user experience information extracted by the user experience information extracting unit.

26. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the user state estimation unit estimates user'"'"'s current action by using at least one of the user external information, the user internal information, the environmental information, and the user experience information extracted by the user experience information extracting unit.

27. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a user information recording unit configured to record the user external information, the user internal information, the environmental information, and the information obtained by the user state estimation unit.

28. The apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the user information recording unit weights newly recorded information based on at least one of at least one of the user external information, the user internal information, the environmental information, and the user experience information, and past information recorded in the user information recording unit.

29. The apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the user information recording unit performs one of deletion and compression of the information based on the weighting.

30. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising an information presenting unit configured to present information to the user.

31. The apparatus according to claim 30, wherein the information presenting unit is mounted to the user external information acquisition unit.

32. The apparatus according to claim 30, wherein the information presenting unit is mounted to the user internal information acquisition unit.

33. The apparatus according to claim 30, wherein the information presenting unit is mounted to the environmental information acquisition unit.

34. The apparatus according to claim 30, wherein:

at least one of the user internal information acquisition unit and the user external information acquisition unit includes an information disclosure degree adding unit configured to add an information disclosure degree indicating a disclosure range of information to the information to be communicated, and

the information presenting unit selects information to be presented based on the information disclosure degree added by the information disclosure degree adding unit.

35. The apparatus according to claim 30, wherein the information presenting unit presents the information by using at least one of a sound, an image, an odor, a tactile sense, and vibration.

36. A user support apparatus comprising:

user information obtaining means for obtaining information regarding a user;

user state estimation means for estimating at least one of user'"'"'s position information, posture information, physical sate, and mental state as a user state based on the information obtained by the user information obtaining means; and

user support means for supporting at least one of user'"'"'s action, memory and thinking based on the user state estimated by the user state estimation means.

37. A user support apparatus comprising:

user sate estimation means including at least two of user external information acquisition means for obtaining user external information which is information sensed by a user, user internal information acquisition means for obtaining user internal information which is user'"'"'s own information, and environmental information acquisition means for obtaining environmental information around the user, and for estimating a user state containing at least one of user'"'"'s position information, posture information, physical state and mental state based on the pieces of information obtained by the acquisition means; and

user support means for supporting at least one of user'"'"'s action, memory and thinking based on the user state estimated by the user state estimation means.