JP2003033337A - Apparatus for observing human stationary body movements and estimating energy consumption associated with the movements - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide an apparatus capable of estimating energy consumption due to an arbitrary stationary body exercise based on a subject's weight and kinetic energy reflecting complicated exercise of each body part. SOLUTION: A means for photographing a subject who performs stationary body movement at a predetermined photographing place from a plurality of cameras from different directions, and a method in which images of the subject photographed by these cameras are converted into digital data, taken into a computer, and the like. A moving body analyzing unit that performs eye stereo processing and converts three-dimensional displacement of each part of the body of the subject into time series data, and displacement time series data of each body part obtained by the moving body analyzing unit, and a subject obtained separately. Based on the mass information of each part of the body, kinetic energy integrating means for integrating the kinetic energy of each part of the body, and output means for converting the kinetic energy value obtained by this means into the energy consumption of the subject and outputting it Energy consumption estimating device equipped with

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for estimating energy consumption due to physical exercise, and more specifically to a device for estimating energy consumption by observing stationary physical exercise.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An apparatus (energy consumption estimation apparatus) for observing a stationary human body movement and estimating the energy consumption accompanying the movement is disclosed in JP 2001-95969 A (conventional example 1) and JP 2000. -70242 gazette (prior art example 2) etc. are disclosed. The energy consumption estimation apparatus of the conventional example 1 estimates the energy consumption for the exercise by assuming that the game by the step game device which has become popular in recent years is a stationary body exercise. In this game device, when the player starts the game, music is acoustically output, and images (step instruction images) sequentially instructing steps to be taken by the player are scroll-displayed on the display. The player takes steps on a predetermined table according to the instruction image. The table has a built-in sensor for detecting the step position, and if the step position and timing of the player match the step position being instructed to be displayed, the score is counted. The energy consumption estimation device of Conventional Example 1 counts the number of steps taken,
Energy consumed in one step is added to present energy consumed during the game after the game ends.

The energy consumption estimating apparatus disclosed in the conventional example 2 photographs the body movement of a subject and detects the movement amount and movement speed of each body part such as an arm or leg. And
Energy consumption is estimated based on the energy metabolism rate calculated from the movement amount and the movement speed.

[0004]

The energy consumption estimating apparatus of the first conventional example calculates the energy consumption for a predetermined physical exercise (step). Therefore, it is not possible to estimate the energy consumption for any physical exercise such as waving limbs or twisting the upper body.

The energy consumption estimating apparatus of the conventional example 2 is
Kinetic energy is calculated based on the moving distance and moving speed of each part of the body. As is well known, when an object is moving at a certain speed, the kinetic energy increases in proportion to the mass. However, in Conventional Example 2, the weight of the subject, that is, the mass is not reflected at all. Therefore, it is not possible to accurately estimate the energy consumption. Furthermore, in Conventional Example 2, it can be applied only to the translational motion of each part of the body, and the kinetic energy accompanying the rotational motion is ignored.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus capable of estimating the energy consumption amount associated with an arbitrary stationary body movement based on the weight of the subject and the kinetic energy reflecting the complicated movement of each body part. I am trying.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to achieve the above object, and is an apparatus for observing a stationary body movement of a human and estimating an energy consumption amount accompanying the movement. A first aspect of the present invention is a computer for photographing a subject who performs stationary physical exercise at a predetermined photographing location with a plurality of cameras from different directions, and converting the images of the subject photographed by these cameras into digital data. And a multi-view stereo process to capture the three-dimensional displacement of each body part of the subject into time series data, and the displacement time series data of each body part obtained by this moving body analysis means, separately. Based on the acquired mass information of each part of the body of the subject, a kinetic energy integrating means for integrating the kinetic energy of each part of the body, and the kinetic energy value obtained by this means is converted into the energy consumption of the subject and output. An apparatus for estimating the energy consumption amount associated with exercise by observing the stationary body movement of a human being provided with an output means for

A second aspect of the invention comprises a weight measuring means for detecting the weight of the subject, wherein the moving body analyzing means estimates the volume of each part of the body in the course of the multi-eye stereo processing, and the kinetic energy integrating means. Is a method for observing a stationary human body movement based on the estimated volume of each body portion and the mass information of each body portion based on the weight of the subject, and energy consumption accompanying the movement. A device for estimating quantity.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The energy consumption estimation apparatus of the present invention uses the energy consumption amount due to a stationary body movement as a kinetic energy value (J) accompanying a three-dimensional displacement of each part of the body. Converted to the amount (Cal) and output.

=== Configuration of Energy Consumption Estimation Device =
== FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of an energy consumption estimation apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention. This device 1 is a subject 1
Stage 2, where 0 is the place to perform stationary physical exercise,
A plurality of CCD cameras 3 for photographing the subject 10 on the stage 2, and various information processing such as capturing and digitally processing the images of the subject photographed by these cameras 3 to finally perform the physical movement of the subject. And a computer 4 for converting and outputting the kinetic energy value associated with the energy consumption amount.

In this embodiment, a pressure sensor 5 is laid on the floor surface of the stage 2 and outputs an electric signal (load detection signal) corresponding to the load applied to the floor surface by the subject 10 during exercise. Further, three CCD cameras 3 are used, and each camera 3 is installed so as to photograph the inside of the stage 2 from the outside of the stage 2. The optical axis of each camera 3 is set so as to match the xyz orthogonal coordinate axes with the plane parallel to the floor as the xy plane.

As the computer 4, a general personal computer equipped with a display and a keyboard can be adopted. An interface for sampling captured images from the three cameras 3 and load detection signals from the pressure-sensitive sensor 5 and loading them as digital data is mounted.

Energy consumption estimating apparatus 1 of this embodiment
With the above-mentioned configuration, the computer 4 receives the images captured by the three cameras 3 and the load detection signal from the pressure-sensitive sensor 5.
The kinetic energy consumed by the subject 10 who performs physical exercise on the stage 2 during a predetermined time is calculated, and the kinetic energy value is converted into an energy consumption amount and output.

=== Modeling of Subject === The three cameras 3 respectively measure the body of the subject 10 by xy · y.
The computer 4 captures an image projected on each of the z and zx planes, and the computer 4 performs multi-view stereo processing on the image data of each plane to generate polygon data for describing the three-dimensional shape and size of the subject 10. To generate. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing polygon data of the subject 10 generated by the multi-view stereo processing. In this embodiment, the shape of the head is approximated to a sphere, the shapes of other parts are approximated to a cylinder, and the body of the subject is represented by a total of 10 simplified body parts.

=== Kinetic Energy === The computer 4 uses the captured image of the subject 10 to examine the subject 1
The polygonal data of 0 is generated, and the kinetic energy when the subject 10 actually performs the physical exercise on the stage 2 is calculated to estimate the energy consumption amount. In this embodiment, each part of the body is regarded as a rigid body having a uniform density, and is calculated by applying it to a well-known kinetic energy equation.

[0016] In general, first, the volume and weight of the body of the subject 10 are acquired and the density is calculated. Then, the mass of each part is obtained from the volume of each part of the body. The position of each part of the body is acquired for each sampling cycle, and the time-series displacement of the position is obtained to acquire the moving distance of the center of gravity in each part of the body and the displacement angle associated with the rotational movement. In this embodiment, the moving distance of the center of gravity of each part of the body is divided by the sampling period to obtain the moving speed, and the kinetic energy is calculated from the moving speed and the mass of each part of the body. In addition, corresponding to the rotational movement that does not involve the movement of the center of gravity, points other than the center of gravity in each part of the body are set as characteristic points, and the presence or absence of rotational movement is detected by the time series displacement of these characteristic points. , Find the displacement angle of the rotary motion. The angular velocity is calculated by dividing the displacement angle by the sampling period. Also,
The moment of inertia can be obtained from the polygonal shape of the body part and the displacement of the characteristic points, and the kinetic energy associated with the rotational movement can be calculated.

=== Body Measurement of Subject === In order to obtain the mass of each part of the body, first, the weight of the subject 10 is estimated. In this embodiment, the weight is estimated based on the load detection signal output by the pressure sensor 5. In order to actually estimate the weight of the test subject 10, the test subject 10 may be made to stand still on the stage 2 before starting the physical exercise. The load detection signal output at that time almost accurately represents the weight. Alternatively, computer 4
Monitors the time series displacement of the polygon data of subject 10,
The weight can also be estimated by acquiring the load detection signal when it is determined that the subject 10 is stationary. The weight may be estimated from the average value of the load detection signals output within the predetermined period.

Next, the volume of the subject is estimated. The volume is
In the coordinate system used when the computer 4 generates the polygon data of the subject, it can be calculated if the actual distance between two points is known in advance. For example, a line segment having a predetermined length may be drawn on the stage, and how long the upper and lower ends, or the left and right ends of the screen imaged by the camera 3 actually correspond to. May be entered in the computer in advance. Then, the actual volume of the subject can be obtained by associating the actual dimensions with the polygon data of the subject, and the body density of the subject can be calculated by dividing the total volume by the body weight.

=== Estimation of Energy Consumption === The computer 4 gives a signal to the subject standing on the stage to start physical exercise by voice or display. Starting from this start point, the computer 4 acquires the images captured by the three cameras 3 and the load detection signal from the pressure-sensitive sensor 5, and acquires the weight of the subject 10 and the estimated values of the whole body volume to obtain the body. Calculate the density. Further, the volume of each body part is calculated from the polygon data of each body part of the subject 10 generated by the multi-view stereo processing, and the body density is multiplied by this to obtain the mass of each part. Then, the kinetic energy for each part of the body is calculated for each sampling cycle based on the above-described kinetic energy calculation method, and the kinetic energy value is accumulated until the end of the body exercise.

At the end of the physical exercise, the kinetic energy value (J: Joule) accumulated up to that point is converted into a heat quantity conversion coefficient ≈
Calculate energy consumption (Cal: calories) by dividing by 4.185. This calculated value is displayed and output on a computer display as an estimated value of energy consumption.

=== Other Embodiments / Modifications / Supplements ==
= The above examples "estimate" the energy expenditure associated with stationary physical exercise. However, when scientifically assessing kinetic energy, such as sports medicine, we "measure" energy consumption. Generally, a subject is put on a mask to which a tube is connected, and exhaled air that is exhaled by body movement is guided to an airbag or the like through the tube and collected. The amount of carbon dioxide in exhaled air collected during the process of physical exercise is analyzed, and the amount of oxygen consumed by respiration is calculated. The amount of heat when the oxygen burns is the energy consumption.

Therefore, using the energy consumption estimating apparatus of the embodiment, while the subject is performing physical exercise, the energy consumption is measured by the above energy consumption measuring system, and the kinetic energy and the energy consumption calculated by the estimating apparatus are measured. The coefficient for converting kinetic energy into energy consumption is obtained from the correlation with the measured value of the amount. By doing so, the kinetic energy calculated by the energy consumption estimation device can be converted into the energy consumption with accuracy close to the actual measurement value.

In the above embodiment, the weight of the subject is calculated based on the load detection signal from the pressure sensitive sensor. of course,
The weight may be directly input from the keyboard of the computer.

As for the volume of the body, if the height is numerically input in advance, the three-dimensional size of the subject can be acquired based on the ratio of the height and the length of each body part, and the volume can be calculated.

The multi-view stereo processing is to specify the three-dimensional shape and size of a subject based on the images taken by a plurality of cameras. In the above embodiment, three cameras were used. If the number of cameras is large, the exact shape and size of the subject can be specified, but the processing takes time. If two cameras are used, the accuracy and processing of hidden lines may become unstable, but real-time processing is easy to perform in applications for observing moving objects. Of course, the installation position and optical axis of each camera are not limited to those in the above embodiment,
Install multiple cameras on the same straight line or on the same plane,
It may be set appropriately such as by installing the cameras so that the optical axes thereof are parallel to each other.

[0026]

According to the present invention, it is possible to estimate the energy consumption amount associated with an arbitrary stationary body movement based on the weight of the subject and the kinetic energy reflecting the complicated movement of each body part.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an energy consumption estimation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of polygon data of a subject generated by performing multi-view stereo processing by a computer that constitutes the above-described embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Energy consumption estimation device 2 stages 3 CCD camera 4 computers 5 Pressure sensor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for observing stationary human body movements and estimating energy consumption accompanying the movements, wherein a plurality of cameras are used as subjects to perform stationary body movements at a predetermined photographing location. A means for photographing from a direction, and a moving body analyzing means for converting the three-dimensional displacement of each body part of the subject into time-series data by converting the images of the subject photographed by these cameras into digital data, loading it into a computer, and performing multi-view stereo processing. And a kinetic energy accumulating means for accumulating the kinetic energy of each part of the body based on the displacement time-series data of each part of the body obtained by this moving body analysis means and the mass information of each part of the body of the subject acquired separately. And output means for converting the kinetic energy value obtained by this means into the energy consumption of the subject and outputting it. 2. The weight measuring means for detecting the weight of a test subject according to claim 1, wherein the moving body analyzing means estimates the volume of each part of the body in the process of the multi-eye stereo processing, and integrates the kinetic energy. The means observes a stationary body movement of a human, characterized by acquiring mass information of each body portion based on the estimated volume of each body portion and the weight of the subject, and the energy accompanying the movement. A device for estimating consumption.