MOBILE BODY CONTROL DEVICE AND MOBILE BODY CONTROL METHOD

• US 20110152709A1
• Filed: 09/18/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Riken, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Riken, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamada, Hitoshi, Takatani, Tomoya, Cichocki, Andrzej, Choi, Kyuwan, Ebe, Kazutoshi
• Application Number:
  US13/060,082
• Publication Number:
  US 20110152709A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/544
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 2203/18 by patient's head, eyes, facial muscles or voice
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 5/04 motor-driven A61G5/06 takes precedence; motor-operated rests A61G5/12; for vehicles with handlebars, equipped with three or more wheels B62K5/003, B62K5/023
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/84 Wheelchairs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/00 Aspects of pattern recognition specially adapted for signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/015 Input arrangements based on nervous system activity detection, e.g. brain waves [EEG] detection, electromyograms [EMG] detection, electrodermal response detection

Abstract

A mobile body control device includes: a brain activity detecting unit that detects brain activity information of a user; a brain signal separating unit that separates an artifact component from the brain activity information detected by the brain activity detecting unit; a control signal generating unit that slides a sampling period for extracting brain data, at predetermined intervals in an overlapped manner in the brain activity information from which the artifact component is separated, successively calculates feature values for the brain data within each of the sampling periods obtained by sliding, and generates a control signal based on the feature values calculated; and a drive control unit that drives and controls a mobile body with a user riding thereon, based on the control signal generated.

Claims

1. A mobile body control device comprising:

a brain activity detecting unit that detects brain activity information of a user;

a brain signal separating unit that separates an artifact component from the brain activity information detected by the brain activity detecting unit;

a control signal generating unit for sliding a sampling period for extracting brain data, at predetermined intervals in an overlapped manner in the brain activity information from which the artifact component is separated by the brain signal separating unit, successively calculating feature values for the brain data within each of the sampling periods obtained by sliding, and generating a control signal based on the feature values calculated; and

a drive control unit that drives and controls a mobile body with a user riding thereon, based on the control signal generated by the control signal generating unit.

2. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, further comprising a teacher signal generating unit that generates a teacher signal,

wherein the brain signal separating unit performs learning using the teacher signal generated by the teacher signal generating unit, and separates the artifact component depending on a user.

3. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, further comprising a teacher signal generating unit that generates a teacher signal,

wherein the control signal generating unit calculates a correlation between the feature values and the control signal by using the teacher signal generated by the teacher signal generating unit, and generates the control signal based on the feature values and the correlation calculated.

4. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a myoelectric potential detecting unit that detects a myoelectric potential of a user; and

a stop determining unit that determines whether or not to stop the mobile body based on the myoelectric potential detected by the myoelectric potential detecting unit,

wherein when the stop determining unit determines to stop the mobile body, the drive control unit controls the mobile body to be stopped.

5. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, wherein when the drive control unit successively receives a same control signal from the control signal generating unit a predetermined number of times or more, the drive control unit executes a control corresponding to the control signal.

6. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, wherein

the brain activity detecting unit includes a plurality of sensors that detect a brain wave signal of a user, and

the control signal generating unit slides a sampling period for extracting brain data, at predetermined intervals in an overlapped manner in a plurality of the brain wave signals which are detected by the plurality of sensors and from which the artifact component is separated, successively calculates feature values for the brain data within each of the sampling periods obtained by sliding, and generates a plurality of control signals based on the plurality of feature values calculated.

7. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, wherein the control signal generating unit comprises:

a signal generating unit that successively generates control signals corresponding to the feature values based on the feature values calculated and on a preset correlation between the feature values and the control signals; and

a signal selecting unit that divides the control signals successively generated by the signal generating unit into groups each having a predetermined number of successive control signals, selects at least one control signal from each of the groups, and outputs the selected control signal to the drive control unit.

8. The mobile body control device according to claim 7, wherein the signal selecting unit selects, for each of the groups, a control signal of a type which is largest in number in each of the groups, and outputs the selected control signal to the drive control unit.

9. The mobile body control device according to claim 7, wherein the signal selecting unit forms the groups each having a current control signal and successive previous control signals.

10. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, further comprising a myoelectric potential detecting unit that detects a myoelectric potential of a user, wherein

the control signal generating unit is capable of generating the control signal based on the myoelectric potential detected by the myoelectric potential detecting unit, and

when a control content based on the brain activity information is different from a control content based on the myoelectric potential, the control signal generating unit supplies the control signal indicating the control content based on the myoelectric potential to the drive control unit.

11. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, wherein the control signal generating unit sequentially makes judgment using the feature values, determines one control content by majority among a plurality of results of judgment sequentially made, and supplies the control signal indicating the control content determined by the majority to the drive control unit.

12. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, wherein

the brain activity detecting unit includes at least three sensor groups,

each of the at least three sensor groups includes at least one sensor that detects a brain wave signal of a user, and

the control signal generating unit determines one control content by majority when control contents based on the brain activity information detected by each of the sensor groups are different from each other, and supplies the control signal indicating the control content determined by the majority to the drive control unit.

13. The mobile body control device according to claim 1, further comprising a perception unit for allowing a user to perceive a control result based on the control signal generated by the control signal generating unit.

14. The mobile body control device according to claim 13, wherein the perception unit is a visual-feedback unit that visualizes the control result.

15. A mobile body control method comprising:

detecting brain activity information of a user;

separating an artifact component from the brain activity information detected;

sliding a sampling period for extracting brain data, at predetermined intervals in an overlapped manner in the brain activity information from which the artifact component is separated, and successively calculating feature values for the brain data within each of the sampling periods obtained by sliding;

generating a control signal based on the feature values calculated; and

driving and controlling a mobile body with the user riding thereon, based on the control signal generated.

16. A mobile body control device comprising:

brain activity detecting means for detecting brain activity information of a user;

brain signal separating means for separating an artifact component from the brain activity information detected by the brain activity detecting means;

control signal generating means for sliding a sampling period for extracting brain data, at predetermined intervals in an overlapped manner in the brain activity information from which the artifact component is separated by the brain signal separating means, successively calculating feature values for the brain data within each of the sampling periods obtained by sliding, and generating a control signal based on the feature values calculated; and

drive control means for driving and controlling a mobile body with a user riding thereon, based on the control signal generated by the control signal generating means.