| US 7,532,925 B2 | ||
| Apparatus and method of evaluating degree of work comfort | ||
| Akira Kuramori, Kanagawa (Japan); Noritaka Koguchi, Kanagawa (Japan); Masayoshi Kamijo, Nagano (Japan); Tsugutake Sadoyama, Ibaraki (Japan); Satoshi Hosoya, Nagano (Japan); and Yoshio Shimizu, Nagano (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Appl. No. 10/522,023 PCT Filed Jul. 18, 2003, PCT No. PCT/JP03/09154 § 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jan. 21, 2005, PCT Pub. No. WO2004/008957, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 29, 2004. |
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| Prior Publication US 2005/0277843 A1, Dec. 15, 2005 | ||
| This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer. | ||
| Int. Cl. A61B 5/04 (2006.01); G08B 23/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 600—546 [340/576] | 18 Claims |
| 1. An apparatus for evaluating a degree of work comfort by measuring myoelectric potentials during a work activity which is
performed antagonistically by a pair of left and right muscles provided in a human body in bilaterally symmetrical relation,
the apparatus comprising:
a pair of detection sensors for detecting the myoelectric potentials of the pair of left and right muscles provided in the
human body in bilaterally symmetrical relation, the myoelectric potentials produced by actions of the pair of the muscles
of the human body during the work activity;
an amplifier for amplifying the pair of myoelectric potentials detected by the detection sensors;
a waveform processing unit for generating a synchronous contraction waveform of the pair of muscles from time-series waveforms
of the pair of amplified myoelectric potentials; and
an evaluation unit for evaluating a level of the degree of comfort of the work activity based on intensity information of
the generated synchronous contraction waveform or frequency information of the generated synchronous contraction waveform
contained in a specified intensity range,
wherein the waveform processing unit is configured to perform full-wave rectification with respect to the time-series waveforms
of the pair of myoelectric potentials and select, as a signal value of the synchronous contraction waveform, a smaller value
from two respective values at a given time in the time-series waveforms of the pair of myoelectric potentials that have been
subjected to the full-wave rectification, thereby generating the synchronous contraction waveform.
|