Apparatus and method for evaluating equipment operability

• US 7,533,001 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2006
• Issued: 05/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Nozaki, Naoyuki, Kidera, Masayuki, Demizu, Koji, Nishiyama, Wataru
• Primary Examiner(s): Nghiem; Michael P
• Application Number:
  US11/510,655
• Publication Number:
  US 20070162237A1
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 702/22, 702/41, 702/85, 715/848
• US Class Current: 702/182
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/17 Mechanical parametric or variational design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

The equipment operability evaluation apparatus calculates the operating posture of a human body model based on the physique information about a human body model in a physique management table, the operation information in an operation management table, and the target information in a target management table, arranges an equipment model and the human body model taking the calculated operating posture in a three-dimensional virtual space, displays a view image of a three-dimensional virtual space from the point of view of the human body model, and determines the visibility about the target operation area of the equipment model displayed on the view image and the readability of a character string.

Claims

1. An apparatus for evaluating equipment operability which evaluates operability of equipment, comprising:

a physique management unit managing physique information about a human body model as a copy of a shape of a human body;

a target management unit managing a human body part of the human body model and a target position to which the human body part is to be moved as target information;

a posture calculation unit calculating an operating posture taken when the human body model is operating an equipment model as a copy of a shape of the equipment using the target position as a watch point of the human body model based on the physique information about the human body model managed by the physique management unit and the target information managed by the target management unit;

a simulation unit arranging the equipment model and the human body model taking the operating posture calculated by the posture calculation unit in a three-dimensional virtual space, and displaying a view image as an image of the three-dimensional virtual space viewed from the point of view of the human body model taking the operating posture;

a view determination unit determining whether or not a visual identification target part is in the range of the view of the human body model using the information about the visual identification target part as the part of the equipment model to be visually confirmed by the human body model, wherein the view determination unit includes a first determination unit determining visibility of a visual identification target part of the equipment model displayed on the view image and readability of a character string associated with the visual identification target part based on the information about the visual identification target part; and

a second determination unit determining the operability of the equipment based on a determination result by the first determination unit.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first determination unit performs a visual identification determining process for determining whether or not the visual identification target part can be visually identified based on a difference between a color of the visual identification target part displayed on the view image and a color of a background area of the visual identification target part on the view image, or a difference between brightness of the visual identification target part displayed on the view image and brightness of the background area of the visual identification target part on the view image.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a character string setting unit setting attribute information about a character string associated with the visual identification target part,

wherein the first determination unit calculates a distance at which the human body model having a predetermined eyesight can visually identified the character string based on the set attribute information about a character string associated with the visual identification target part, information about a direction of a line of sight to the character string of the human body model, and information about the predetermined eyesight of the human body model, and determines readability of the character string based on a comparison result between the calculated distance at which the character string can be visually identified and an actual distance between the human body model and the character string in the three-dimensional virtual space.

4. An apparatus for evaluating equipment operability, comprising:

a physique management unit managing physique information about a human body model as a copy of a shape of a human body;

a target management unit managing a human body part of the human body model and a target position to which the human body part is to be moved as target information;

a posture calculation unit calculating an operating posture taken when the human body model is operating an equipment model as a copy of a shape of the equipment using the target position as a watch point of the human body model based on the physique information about the human body model managed by the physique management unit and the target information managed by the target management unit;

a simulation unit arranging the equipment model and the human body model taking the operating posture calculated by the posture calculation unit in a three-dimensional virtual space, and displaying a view image as an image of the three-dimensional virtual space viewed from the point of view of the human body model taking the operating posture;

a view determination unit determining whether or not a visual identification target part is in the range of the view of the human body model using the information about the visual identification target part as the part of the equipment model to be visually confirmed by the human body model; and

a target part management unit managing information about a target part as a part to be operated by the human body model as associated with the target position managed by the target management unit,

wherein the target part management unit keeps a relative position of the target part to the target position associated with the target part constant, and

wherein the posture calculation unit calculates the operating posture as the posture taken by the human body model operating the equipment model using the target position as a watch point of the human body model based on the physique information about the human body model managed by the physique management unit, target information managed by the target management unit, and information about target part managed by the target part management unit.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the posture calculation unit calculates a posture for allowing the human body part managed as the target information about a human body model having a physique corresponding to the physique information about the human body model to move to the target position associated with the target part and for allowing the human body model to visually confirm the visual identification target part.

6. An apparatus for evaluating equipment operability, comprising:

a physique management unit managing physique information about a human body model as a copy of a share of a human body;

a target management unit managing a human body part of the human body model and a target position to which the human body part is to be moved as target information;

a posture calculation unit calculating an operating posture taken when the human body model is operating an equipment model as a copy of a share of the equipment using the target position as a watch point of the human body model based on the physique information about the human body model managed by the physique management unit and the target information managed by the target management unit;

a simulation unit arranging the equipment model and the human body model taking the operating posture calculated by the posture calculation unit in a three-dimensional virtual space, and displaying a view image as an image of the three-dimensional virtual space viewed from the point of view of the human body model taking the operating posture;

a view determination unit determining whether or not a visual identification target part is in the range of the view of the human body model using the information about the visual identification target part as the part of the equipment model to be visually confirmed by the human body model; and

an operating posture management unit managing an order in which the human body model takes the operating posture and the target information for use in calculating the operating posture for each operating posture taken by the human body model,

wherein the posture calculation unit calculates the operating posture of the human body model in the order in which the human body model takes the operating posture managed by the operating posture management unit.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the first determination unit determines whether or not a target position for use in calculating a next operating posture taken by the human body model in a range of view of the human body model for each operating posture taken by the human body model.