FALL DETECTION APPARATUS

• US 20090031808A1
• Filed: 07/25/2008
• Published: 02/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kawahara, Hideo
• Granted Patent: US 8,079,260 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/510
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/0891 with indication of predetermined acceleration values G01P15/135 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/18 in two or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/043 by detecting a free-fall condition
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 21/12 Raising and lowering; Back-spacing or forward-spacing along track; Returning to starting position otherwise than during transducing operation

Abstract

An electronic apparatus includes an acceleration detection unit configured to detect acceleration acting on the electronic apparatus, a noise removal unit configured to remove a noise component from an output of the acceleration detection unit, a first determination unit configured to determine whether output from the noise removal unit indicates acceleration equal to or less than a first acceleration, a second determination unit configured to determine whether output from the noise removal unit indicates acceleration equal to or less than a second acceleration, and a fall state determination unit configured to determine that the electronic apparatus is falling when the first determination unit detects that output from the noise removal unit is equal to or less than the first acceleration, or when the second determination unit determines that output from the noise removal unit is equal to or less than the second acceleration.

Claims

1. An electronic apparatus comprising:

an acceleration detection unit configured to detect acceleration acting on the electronic apparatus;

a noise removal unit configured to remove a noise component from an output of the acceleration detection unit;

a first determination unit configured to determine whether an output from the noise removal unit is a value indicating acceleration equal to or less than a first acceleration;

a second determination unit configured to determine whether the output from the noise removal unit is a value indicating acceleration equal to or less than a second acceleration; and

a fall state determination unit configured to determine that the electronic apparatus is falling when the first determination unit detects that the output from the noise removal unit is equal to or less than the first acceleration, or when the second determination unit detects that the output from the noise removal unit is equal to or less than the second acceleration.

2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acceleration detection unit is configured to detect accelerations in three axes directions that orthogonally cross,

wherein the first determination unit is configured to determine whether all accelerations detected by the acceleration detection unit, from which noise components are removed by the noise removal unit, are equal to or less than the first acceleration, and

wherein the second determination unit is configured to determine whether all accelerations detected by the acceleration detection unit are equal to or less than the second acceleration.

3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the noise removal unit acquires a top peak and a bottom peak from the output of the acceleration detection unit, and outputs a center value between the top peak and the bottom peak, and

wherein the first acceleration and the second acceleration are set to be the same value.

4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first acceleration is set to a value greater than the second acceleration.

5. An electronic apparatus comprising:

a vibration generation unit;

an acceleration detection unit configured to detect acceleration acting on the electronic apparatus;

a noise removal unit configured to remove a noise component from an output of the acceleration detection unit;

and

a fall state determination unit configured to determine that the electronic apparatus is falling when an output from the acceleration detection unit is a value indicating acceleration equal to or less than a first acceleration in a case of operating the vibration generation unit, and configured to determine that the electronic apparatus is falling when an output from the acceleration detection unit is a value indicating acceleration equal to or less than a second acceleration in a case of operating no vibration generation unit.

6. The electronic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the acceleration detection unit is configured to detect accelerations in three axes directions that orthogonally cross,

wherein the fall state determination unit determines that the electronic apparatus is falling by detecting whether all accelerations detected by the acceleration detection unit are equal to or less than the first acceleration or the second acceleration.

7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the vibration generation unit is an audio output unit.

8. The electronic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the noise removal unit acquires a top peak and a bottom peak from the output of the acceleration detection unit, and outputs a center value between the top peak and the bottom peak, and

wherein the first acceleration and the second acceleration are set to the same value.

9. The electronic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the first acceleration is set to a value greater than the second acceleration.