BODY MOVEMENT DETECTING APPARATUS AND BODY MOVEMENT DETECTING METHOD

• US 20100256531A1
• Filed: 03/24/2010
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tanita Corporation (Tanita)
• Original Assignee: Tanita Corporation (Tanita)
• Inventors: NISHIBAYASHI, Kenji
• Granted Patent: US 8,801,637 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/595
• 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 5/1038 Measuring plantar pressure during gait
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4866 Evaluating metabolism A61B5/083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 Pedometers

Abstract

There is provided a body movement detecting apparatus having a body movement data acquiring unit configured to detect a body movement of a user and acquire body movement data relating to the body movement and a computing unit configured to calculate consumed energy on the basis of the body movement data, including: a time data acquiring unit configured to acquire time data when the body movement data is acquired; a data accumulating unit being capable of accumulating the body movement data in correspondence with the time data; and a detection condition changing unit being capable of changing a detection condition for detecting the body movement on the basis of the body movement data and the time data accumulated in the data accumulating unit.

Claims

1. A body movement detecting apparatus having a body movement data acquiring unit configured to detect a body movement of a user and acquire body movement data relating to the body movement and a computing unit configured to calculate consumed energy on the basis of the body movement data, comprising:

a time data acquiring unit configured to acquire time data when the body movement data are acquired;

a data accumulating unit being capable of accumulating the body movement data in correspondence with the time data; and

a detection condition changing unit being capable of changing a detection condition for detecting the body movement on the basis of the body movement data and the time data accumulated in the data accumulating unit.

2. The body movement detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the time data include day of week and time of day when the body movement data are acquired.

3. The body movement detecting apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:

an activity pattern data acquiring unit configured to acquire activity pattern data of the user on the basis of the body movement data and the time data accumulated in the data accumulating unit, wherein

the detection condition changing unit is capable of changing the detection condition on the basis of the activity pattern data.

4. The body movement detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection condition is a threshold value relating to a body movement strength, and it is possible not to detect the body movement having the body movement strength which does not reach the threshold value by changing the detection condition by the detection condition changing unit.

5. The body movement detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection condition is a threshold value relating to determination whether or not the user is walking and/or running, and changing the detection condition by the detection condition changing unit increases the likelihood of determination that the user is walking and/or running in comparison with the state before the change.

6. The body movement detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a change to a power-saving mode is achieved by changing the detection condition by the detection condition changing unit.

7. The body movement detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the body movement data acquiring unit acquires the body movement data at every predetermined unit time, and the detection condition changing unit is capable of changing the detection condition at the every predetermined unit time.

8. A body movement detecting method including:

a body movement data acquiring step for detecting a body movement of a user and acquiring body movement data relating to the body movement; and

an energy computing step for calculating consumed energy on the basis of the body movement data, comprising;

a time data acquiring step for acquiring time data when the body movement data is acquired;

a data accumulating step being capable of accumulating the body movement data in correspondence with the time data;

a detection condition changing step being capable of changing a detection condition for detecting the body movement on the basis of the body movement data and the time data accumulated in the data accumulating unit.