Work information processing device, method and program

Abstract

A task information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention receives an inter-body communication signal, which is outputted from an inter-body communication system in response to contact between a first person and a second person in the course of a task, detects the position of said contact within a time series on the basis of the received inter-body communication signal, and generates contact time series data indicating the detection results. The task information processing device then detects, from the contact time series data, a task interval in which the task was performed, extracts the contact time series data included in the detected task interval, detects a characteristic quantity of the contact in the task interval on the basis of the extracted contact time series data for the task interval, and infers the type of task on the basis of the detected characteristic quantity of the contact. The task information processing device then generates, for each task, task history information including information that expresses the inferred type of task.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] One aspect of the present invention relates to a work information processing device used in industries where people work in contact with other people, such as medical and nursing care settings, and a work information processing method and program executed by the device. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, human body communication technology has been attracting attention as one of the short-range wireless communication technologies. Human body communication technology is a communication technology that uses the human body as a transmission path, and when people carrying terminals come into contact with each other, information is transmitted between the terminals via each person's body (see, for example, Patent Document 1, Non-Patent Document 1 or 2).

[0003] Using this technology, for example, in a medical or nursing care setting, when medical personnel such as doctors or nurses or workers such as caregivers touch the body of a patient or person being cared for to perform various tasks, it becomes possible to record as a history which worker touched which person. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 4069061 [Non-patent literature]

[0005] [Non-Patent Document 1] Chizuru Yamao et al., "Business Strategy Using RedTacton, a Near-Body Electric Field Communication Technology," NTT Technical Journal, January 2010 [Non-Patent Document 2] Mitsuru Shinagawa, "Communication Technology Using the Human Body as a Transmission Path," Journal of the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers, Vol. 63, No. 11, pp. 1525-1530, 2009 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] However, while body-to-body communication technology can detect who has come into contact with whom, it cannot determine the type of work that was performed. For this reason, the parties involved must, for example, enter information such as the type of work into a work history management book after the work is completed, which places a heavy burden on the work.

[0007] The present invention has been made in light of the above-mentioned circumstances, and aims to provide a technique that makes it possible to record not only whether or not work has been performed, but also the type of work, thereby reducing the workload of workers. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] In order to solve the above problem, one aspect of a work information processing device or method according to the present invention receives a human body communication signal output from a human body communication system in response to contact between a first person and a second person during work, detects the time-series position of the contact based on the received human body communication signal, and generates contact time series data indicating the detection result. Then, a work section where the work was performed is detected from the contact time series data, and the contact time series data included in the detected work section is extracted, and based on the extracted contact time series data of the work section, 、 The contact in the working section A contact time histogram showing the frequency distribution of contact times is used as a feature of the contact. detection death, The detected contact Contact time frequency distribution patterns represented by contact time histograms The type of the work is estimated based on the above-mentioned. Then, work history information including information representing the estimated type of the work is generated and stored for each of the works.

[0009] According to one aspect of the present invention, a characteristic of the contact in the work is detected based on a human body communication signal output from a human body communication system in response to human contact associated with the work, the type of the work is estimated based on the characteristic of the contact, and work history information including information representing the type of the work is generated. Effect of the Invention

[0010] Therefore, it becomes possible to estimate the type of work based on the body-to-body communication signal and save it as a work history, which eliminates the need for workers to record the type of work in the work history themselves, significantly reducing their workload.

[0011] That is, according to one aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a technique that makes it possible to record not only whether or not work was performed, but also the type of work, thereby reducing the workload of workers. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a work management system including a work information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of a work information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a software configuration of the work information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure and processing contents of the work information processing executed by the work information processing device shown in FIGS. [Diagram 5] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a result of detecting task boundaries and an example of a result of generating a contact time histogram by the task information processing shown in FIG. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of work history information obtained by the work information processing shown in FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0014] [One embodiment] (Configuration example) (1) System FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a work management system including a work information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0015] The work management system of one embodiment comprises a human body communication system HC and a work information processing device WT that receives human body communication signals transmitted from the human body communication system HC, and the work information processing device WT is further capable of transmitting information between, for example, a server device SV on the cloud via a network NW.

[0016] The human body communication system HC is provided with a communication terminal T NU ,T PU Then, when the worker NU comes into contact with the worker PU, the communication terminal T NU ,T PU The communication terminal T NU ,T PU For simplicity, the communication terminal T NU ,T PU Although the communication terminal T NU ,T PU are actually arranged in contact with the bodies of the worker NU and the worker PU.

[0017] That is, the human body communication system HC transmits a communication signal that represents a time series change in contact of the worker NU with the worker PU during nursing or care work. NU ,T PU In the table, the worker ID and the worker ID for identifying the worker NU and the worker PU are inserted.

[0018] The server device SV is used, for example, to download programs required by the work information processing device WT, to share some of the functions of the work information processing device WT, and to centrally manage the work history information generated by the work information processing device WT together with work history information for other workers PU.

[0019] The network NW is composed of a wide area network including the Internet, and an access network for accessing the wide area network. As the access network, a wired or wireless LAN (Local Area Network) or a wired or wireless public network is used, but other communication lines such as a CATV line may also be used.

[0020] (2) Work information processing device WT 2 and 3 are block diagrams showing an example of the hardware configuration and software configuration, respectively, of a work information processing device WT according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0021] The work information processing device WT is, for example, a personal computer, and includes a control unit 1 using a hardware processor such as a central processing unit (CPU). A storage unit having a program storage unit 2 and a data storage unit 3, a communication I / F unit 4, and an input / output I / F unit 5 are connected to the control unit 1 via a bus 6.

[0022] The communication I / F unit 4 receives the human body communication signal transmitted from the human body communication system HC under the control of the control unit 1, and transmits and receives information data to and from the server device SV using a communication protocol defined by the network NW. As a wireless interface for receiving the human body communication signal transmitted from the human body communication system HC, a wireless interface adopting a low-power wireless data communication standard such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) or Wi-Fi (registered trademark) is used. As a communication interface for transmitting and receiving information data to and from the server device SV, a communication interface used in a wired or wireless LAN (Local Area Network) or a wireless communication interface used in a mobile communication network such as 4G or 5G is used.

[0023] An input device 51 and a display device 52 are connected to the input / output I / F unit 5. The input device 51 is, for example, a keyboard or a mouse, and is used by the worker NU to input information required for work management and to input output instructions for work history information. The display device 52 is, for example, a liquid crystal or organic EL display, and is used to display work management information such as work history information.

[0024] The program storage unit 2 is configured, for example, by combining a non-volatile memory such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive) as a storage medium that can be written to and read at any time, and a non-volatile memory such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), and stores application programs necessary for executing various control processes related to one embodiment of the present invention, in addition to middleware such as an OS (Operating System).

[0025] The data storage unit 3 is, for example, a combination of a non-volatile memory such as an HDD or SSD, which can be written to and read from at any time, and a volatile memory such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), as a storage medium, and is equipped with a contact data storage unit 31, a task-specific contact data storage unit 32, a task model storage unit 33, and a task history information storage unit 34 as main storage units according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0026] The contact data storage unit 31 is used to store time-series data indicating a period of contact detected from the human body communication signal transmitted from the human body communication system HC.

[0027] The task-specific contact data storage unit 32 is used to store task-specific contact time-series data generated by dividing the time-series data indicating the period during which the above-mentioned contact occurs into task sections.

[0028] The working model storage unit 33 is used to store learned data of the working model generated by pre-learning.

[0029] The work history information storage unit 34 is used to store work history information including a plurality of information elements necessary for managing each work. The information elements of the work history information include, for example, the type of work, the worker ID, the worker ID, and the start and end times of the work.

[0030] The control unit 1 includes, as processing functions according to an embodiment of the present invention, a body-to-body communication signal acquisition processing unit 11, a contact detection processing unit 12, an activity break detection processing unit 13, a contact time histogram generation processing unit 14, an activity type estimation processing unit 15, and an activity history information output processing unit 16. All of these processing units 11 to 16 are realized by causing a hardware processor of the control unit 1 to execute a program stored in the program storage unit 2.

[0031] The human body communication signal acquisition processing unit 11 receives the communication terminal T NU ,T PUThe communication I / F unit 4 receives the human body communication signal transmitted from the terminal 10 via the communication I / F unit 4, converts the received human body communication signal into digital data, and then passes it to the contact detection processing unit 12.

[0032] The contact detection processing unit 12 detects the periods of contact from the body-to-body communication signals, generates time-series data (hereinafter referred to as contact time-series data or simply contact data), and temporarily stores the data in the contact data storage unit 31.

[0033] The task division detection processing unit 13 reads the contact time series data from the contact data storage unit 31, and detects divisions of individual task sections from the read contact time series data. Then, it performs processing to store the contact time series data of each divided task section as task-specific contact time series data in the task-specific contact data storage unit 32. An example of a method for detecting divisions of task sections will be described in the operation example.

[0034] The contact time histogram generation processing unit 14 reads the contact time series data for each task from the task-specific contact data storage unit 32, and generates a contact time histogram based on the read contact time series data for each task. The contact time histogram represents the frequency distribution of contact times, that is, the distribution of the number of contacts for each contact time.

[0035] The task type estimation processing unit 15 estimates the task type for each task from the contact time frequency distribution pattern represented by the contact time histogram. Then, the task type estimation processing unit 15 generates task history information including the estimated task type for each task, and stores the generated task history information in the task history information storage unit 34.

[0036] When generating the work history information, the work type estimation processing unit 15 acquires the worker ID and the worker ID included in the body-to-body communication signal, and the start time and end time of each work obtained from a clock (not shown) when detecting the work division, and includes them in the work history information. Note that an example of a method for estimating the type of work will be described in the operation example.

[0037] The work history information output processing unit 16 reads out the corresponding work history information from the work history information storage unit 34 in response to the output instruction for the work history information input from the input device 51, and performs processing to display the information on the display device 52 as is or after editing, or to transmit the information to the server device SV.

[0038] (Example of operation) Next, an example of the operation of the work information processing device WT configured as above will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of a series of processing steps and processing contents by the work information processing device WT.

[0039] (1) Generation of contact time series data The control unit 1 of the work information processing device WT monitors input of an operation start request in step S10. In this state, for example, when the worker NU inputs an operation start request via the input device 51, the control unit 1 thereafter starts the process of generating work history information.

[0040] That is, in step S11, the control unit 1 of the work information processing device WT, under the control of the human body communication signal acquisition processing unit 11, NU ,T PU The communication I / F unit 4 receives the human body communication signal transmitted from the human body via the communication I / F unit 4, converts the received human body communication signal into digital data, and passes the digital data of the human body communication signal to the contact detection processing unit 12.

[0041] Next, in step S12, the control unit 1 of the work information processing device WT detects a period during which the human body is in contact from the human body communication signal under the control of the contact detection processing unit 12. This contact period is detected, for example, by detecting a period during which the amplitude of the human body communication signal is equal to or higher than a certain level. In step S13, the contact detection processing unit 12 stores contact time-series data indicating the detected contact period in the contact data storage unit 31.

[0042] (2) Detection of work areas Next, in step S14, the control unit 1 of the work information processing device WT detects boundaries between individual work sections from the contact time-series data under the control of the work boundary detection processing unit 13. The detection of boundaries between work sections is performed, for example, by detecting a non-work period of a certain length or more.

[0043] That is, in general, when nursing or care work is performed, multiple tasks are not performed consecutively, and there are often interval periods between tasks. When there is a period in which contact does not continue for a certain period of time or more, the task division detection processing unit 13 detects this period as the above-mentioned interval period and regards this as a task division.

[0044] The detection of the task division may be performed using data previously trained by, for example, recurrent neural network (RNN) machine learning. This method learns the contact distribution patterns in a time series for all expected tasks, and when a pattern other than these distribution patterns is detected, the section is determined to be a task division.

[0045] When the work section boundary is detected, the work boundary detection processing unit 13 stores the contact time series data for each of the divided work sections in the work-specific contact data storage unit 32 as work-specific contact time series data in step S15.

[0046] (3) Creating a contact time histogram Next, in step S16, the control unit 1 of the work information processing device WT reads the work-specific contact time series data from the work-specific contact data storage unit 32 under the control of the contact time histogram generation processing unit 14. Then, by statistically processing the read work-specific contact time series data, a contact time histogram is generated for each work, which indicates the distribution of the number of contacts by contact time. Figure 5 shows an example of this operation, and shows a case where, of the works W1 and W2 separated by the work separation detection process, the distribution of the number of contacts by time for each contact included in the work section for work W1 is obtained. Note that a contact time histogram is generated similarly for work W2.

[0047] (4) Estimation of type of work Next, in step S17, under the control of the task type estimation processing unit 15, the control unit 1 of the task information processing device WT estimates the task type for each task from the pattern of the contact time frequency distribution represented by the contact time histogram.

[0048] In this estimation process, for example, learned data of an activity model generated in advance by CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) machine learning is stored in the activity model storage unit 33. Then, a method is used to estimate the activity type based on the learned data of the activity model stored in the activity model storage unit 33. Note that, as another method for estimating the activity type, for example, a method of comparing the contact time distribution pattern of the contact time histogram with reference patterns of histograms for each activity acquired and stored in advance, and selecting the activity type with the smallest difference can also be applied.

[0049] Next, in step S18, the task type estimation processing unit 15 generates task history information for each task, and stores the generated task history information in the task history information storage unit 34. Fig. 6 shows an example of the configuration of the task history information. In this example, the task history information includes a task number, the estimated task type, a worker ID and a worker ID extracted from the body-to-body communication signal, and a start time and an end time for each task obtained from a clock (not shown) when detecting the task break.

[0050] (5) Output of work history information The control unit 1 of the work information processing device WT monitors input of an output request in step S19. In this state, when the worker NU inputs, for example, a request to display work history information on the input device 51, in step S20, the control unit 1 of the work information processing device WT reads out the corresponding work history information from the work history information storage unit 34 under the control of the work history information output processing unit 16, and outputs display data of the read out work history information from the input / output I / F unit 5 to the display device 52 for display.

[0051] At this time, the work history information output processing unit 16 may display the work history information as it is, but may also extract and display only data linked to the same worker ID in response to the operation of the worker NU while the work history information is displayed, or may extract and display only data linked to the same worker ID. In addition, it is also possible to extract and display only data of the same type of work, or to extract and display only data within a specified range, for example, by specifying a date or time period.

[0052] In addition, the work history information output processing unit 16 can transmit the above work history information from the communication I / F unit 4 to the server device SV in response to the operation of the worker NU, or edit it as appropriate and transmit it from the communication I / F unit 4 to the terminal of the worker PU or his / her family member.

[0053] (Action and effect) As described above, the work information processing device WT according to one embodiment receives a human body communication signal output from the human body communication system HC in association with a nursing or care work. Then, first, time series data of contact during the work is generated from the received human body communication signal, and contact time series data for each work is extracted by detecting task divisions from the contact time series data. Next, a contact time histogram is generated from the contact time series data, which indicates characteristics of the contact pattern in the work section, and the type of the work is estimated based on the contact time histogram, and work history information including information indicating the estimated type of work is generated.

[0054] Therefore, not only the presence or absence of contact during the worker's work but also the type of work is estimated and recorded in the work history information based on the body-to-body communication signal, which makes it possible to reduce the workload of the worker by eliminating the need for the worker to record the type of work.

[0055] In addition, for each task, the worker ID and the worker ID are extracted from the body-to-body communication signal at that time, and the start and end times of the task are generated and included in the task history information. Therefore, in addition to the type of task, the worker ID, the worker ID, and the start and end times of the task are automatically recorded in the task history information, which further reduces the burden on the worker.

[0056] Furthermore, since a contact time histogram is used when detecting the characteristics of the contact pattern for each task, the characteristics of the contact pattern can be detected with relatively simple processing, which reduces the processing load on the control unit required for estimating the type of task and shortens the processing time.

[0057] [Other embodiments] In the embodiment described above, a personal computer or the like installed at the work site is used as the work information processing device WT. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, all or part of the functions of the work information processing device WT according to the present invention may be provided in a server device SV on the cloud or the web. In this case, the personal computer at the work site operates as a relay terminal for transferring the human body communication signal to the server device.

[0058] In the embodiment described above, the case where the type of work is estimated from the human body communication signal and recorded in the work history information is taken as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the work time length for each type of work may be compared with a standard work time length generated by prior learning or the like, and the quality of the work, for example, the degree of carefulness, may be estimated based on the time difference, and the result may be recorded in the work history information. In addition, the work efficiency may be determined based on the time difference of the work time lengths, and the result may be recorded in the work history information.

[0059] In the above embodiment, the case of estimating the type of work in a nursing or care setting has been described as an example, but this invention can also be applied to teaching settings for osteopathy, acupuncture, massage, barbering, beauty, dance, gymnastics, etc. In addition, the type and configuration of the work information processing device, the content of the work boundary detection process, the contact feature extraction process, the work type estimation process, and the like can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist of this invention.

[0060] Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, the above description is merely an example of the present invention in every respect. It goes without saying that various improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. In other words, in implementing the present invention, a specific configuration according to the embodiment may be appropriately adopted.

[0061] In short, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment as it is, and in the implementation stage, the components can be modified and embodied without departing from the gist of the invention. In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining multiple components disclosed in the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, components from different embodiments may be appropriately combined. [Explanation of symbols]

[0062] WT: Work information processing device HC: Human body communication system T NU ,T PU …Communication terminal NW…Network SV: Server device 1...Control unit 2...Program memory section 3. Data storage section 4. Communication I / F section 5...Input / output interface 6…Bus 11...Body-to-body communication signal acquisition processing unit 12...Contact detection processing unit 13...Work division detection processing unit 14...Contact time histogram generating processing unit 15...Work type estimation processing unit 16...Work history information output processing unit 31... Contact data storage unit 32...Work-specific contact data storage section 33...Working model memory unit 34...Work history information storage unit

Claims

1. A work information processing device connectable to a human body communication system that outputs a human body communication signal transmitted between a first person and a second person when the first person and the second person come into contact with each other during work, a contact detection processing unit that receives the human body communication signal output from the human body communication system, detects a time-series position of the contact based on the received human body communication signal, and generates contact time-series data indicating the detection result; a work section detection processing unit that detects a work section in which the work was performed from the contact time-series data and extracts the contact time-series data included in the detected work section; a contact feature amount detection processing unit that detects a contact time histogram representing a frequency distribution of contact times for the contacts in the work section as a feature amount of the contact based on the contact time series data included in the work section; an estimation processing unit that estimates a type of the task based on a pattern of a frequency distribution of the contact time represented by the detected contact time histogram; a work history information generation processing unit that generates work history information including information that represents the estimated type of the work for each of the works; A work information processing device comprising:

2. the work history information generation processing unit extracts identification information of the first person and the second person from the human body communication signal, and generates, for each of the tasks, the work history information further including the extracted identification information of the first person and the second person. The work information processing device according to claim 1 .

3. the work history information generation processing unit generates information representing a start time and an end time of the work section, and generates the work history information for each of the tasks, the work history information further including information representing the start time and the end time of the generated work section. The work information processing device according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The work information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the contact feature amount detection processing unit detects a contact time frequency distribution representing the number of contacts for each contact time in the work section, based on the contact time-series data included in the work section.

5. 1. A work information processing method executed by a device connectable to a human body communication system that outputs a human body communication signal transmitted between a first person and a second person when the first person and the second person come into contact with each other during work, comprising: receiving the human body communication signal output from the human body communication system, detecting a time-series position of the contact based on the received human body communication signal, and generating contact time-series data indicating the detection result; detecting a work section in which the work was performed from the contact time-series data, and extracting the contact time-series data included in the detected work section; detecting a contact time histogram representing a frequency distribution of contact times for the contacts in the work section as a feature amount of the contact based on the contact time series data included in the work section; A step of estimating the type of the work based on a pattern of a frequency distribution of the contact time represented by the detected contact time histogram; generating work history information including information representing the type of the estimated work for each of the works; A work information processing method comprising the steps of:

6. 5. A program for causing a processor included in the work information processing apparatus to execute processing by each of the processing units included in the work information processing apparatus according to claim 1.

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