Urination detection method and urination detection device

Abstract

To provide a urination detection method and a urination detection device capable of detecting a urination amount in a diaper, which can accurately detect a urination amount even when urine spreads in a diaper after urination.SOLUTION: A urination detection device detects an amount of urine in a diaper, and comprises: a sensor unit having an electrode and arranged outside a urine absorption part of the diaper; a measurement unit that measures the capacitance of the electrode to obtain an output value; a change amount acquisition unit that calculates a change amount based on the most recent value at the start of urination of the output value; a timing unit that obtains a urination interval, which is a time between urinations, based on the output value; and a correction unit that corrects the value of the change amount. In the second and subsequent urinations, the correction unit divides the value of the change amount due to the urination by the square root of the urination interval between the urination and the previous urination to obtain the value of a change amount after correction.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a urination detection method and a urination detection device that can detect the amount of urine in a diaper. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, the number of elderly people who require care has increased, and so has the number of people who wear diapers. Currently, in nursing care facilities, diapers are changed regularly at a set time regardless of whether the person has urinated or not. This change is also done while the person is sleeping, which disturbs the sleep of the person. Therefore, it is desirable not to change the diaper if there is no urination or if there is urination but the diaper has enough room to absorb the urination, and therefore there has been a demand for a means to accurately grasp the presence or absence of urination and the amount of urination from the outside of the diaper.

[0003] Conventionally, there are various sensors for obtaining information on the urination state in the diaper as such a means. These include disposable ones that are placed inside the diaper to directly detect urination, and reusable ones that are placed outside the diaper to detect urination without contacting the urine. However, disposable ones have a problem of being a large economic burden, and non-contact reusable ones have a problem of low quantitative accuracy with respect to the amount of urination.

[0004] Therefore, the inventor of the present application has proposed a urination detection device shown in Patent Document 1. This device is equipped with a reusable sensor that is placed on the outside of the diaper and detects urination without coming into contact with the urine, and the sensor has two electrodes that distinguish between changes in capacitance due to urination and changes in capacitance due to disturbances, eliminating the effects of disturbances and accurately detecting the amount of urination. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] JP 2020-120911 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] In the device of the embodiment of Patent Document 1, urination is detected by a decrease in the mutual capacitance between a pair of electrodes, and the amount of urination is detected by a linear relationship between the decrease in the mutual capacitance and the amount of urination. The decrease in the mutual capacitance is a cumulative value based on an initial value (value in a state where there is no urination), and the same applies below. Here, the results of an experiment to confirm the relationship between the decrease in the mutual capacitance and the amount of urination are shown in the graph of FIG. 6. The experiment was a model experiment in which tap water was poured as pseudo-urine, and an actual urination experiment by two subjects, and the decrease in the mutual capacitance was evaluated 10 minutes after pouring water and urination. The graph shows the amount of absorption of the diaper (= amount of poured water and amount of urination) on the horizontal axis and the decrease in the mutual capacitance on the vertical axis. However, the numerical value shown as the decrease is the output raw data and does not represent the actual electrostatic capacitance (the same applies to all the following graphs). As a result of this experiment, it was confirmed that the amount of urination and the decrease in the mutual capacitance show a good linear relationship in both the model experiment and the actual urination experiment.

[0007] However, when urine is urinated in a diaper, the urine absorbed in the diaper spreads within the diaper over time. There is a concern that the spread of urine may affect the mutual capacitance measurement by the sensor. Therefore, an experiment was conducted in which water was poured into the diaper at different time intervals. More specifically, 50 ml of water was poured into the diaper at 10-minute and 1-hour intervals, and the mutual capacitance was measured by the sensor. The results are shown by the solid line in the graph of Figure 7. In the graph, the horizontal axis represents time and the left vertical axis represents the amount of decrease in mutual capacitance. The right vertical axis represents the time differential value of the amount of decrease in mutual capacitance, and this value is also shown by the dashed line. According to this, after pouring water, the amount of decrease gradually decreases over time due to the spread of urine within the diaper. And because the amount of decrease gradually decreases, the amount of decrease increases when the time interval between pouring water is longer, even if the amount of poured water is the same. In other words, even if the amount of water injected (urinary volume) is the same, the mutual capacity gradually decreases over time, so if the time of urination is unknown, the accurate amount of urine cannot be detected.

[0008] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and aims to provide a urination detection method and a urination detection device that detect the amount of urine in a diaper and can accurately detect the amount of urine even if urine spreads inside the diaper after urination. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The method of the present invention includes a change acquisition process for calculating the amount of change in the capacitance output value of an electrode placed outside the urine absorption part of the diaper, based on the value at the start of the most recent urination, a timing process for obtaining the urination interval, which is the time between urinations, based on the output value, and a correction process for correcting the value of the amount of change, wherein the correction process is characterized in that, for the second or subsequent urination, the value of the amount of change due to that urination is divided by the square root of the urination interval between that urination and the previous urination to obtain a corrected value of the amount of change.

[0010] The device of the present invention detects the amount of urine in a diaper and comprises a sensor unit equipped with an electrode and positioned outside the urine absorption part of the diaper, a measurement unit that measures the capacitance of the electrode to obtain an output value, a change acquisition unit that calculates the amount of change in the output value based on the value at the start of the most recent urination, a timing unit that obtains the urination interval, which is the time between urinations, based on the output value, and a correction unit that corrects the value of the amount of change, wherein the correction unit, in the second or subsequent urinations, divides the value of the amount of change due to the urination by the square root of the urination interval between the urination and the previous urination to obtain a corrected value of the amount of change.

[0011] The number of electrodes may be one or more, and the capacitance of the electrodes includes both the self-capacitance of one electrode and the mutual capacitance between multiple electrodes. Furthermore, "based on the output value" includes any of the cases where the output value itself is used, where another value calculated from the output value itself is used, and where both are used. Effect of the Invention

[0012] According to the present invention, the effect of urine spreading in the diaper can be cancelled by correcting the amount of capacitance change due to urination based on the urination interval. In other words, since it is assumed that urine spreads in a plane and isotropically in the diaper, the corrected amount of change obtained by dividing the amount of change by the square root of the urination interval has a linear relationship with the amount of urine excreted in the target urination. Then, the corrected amount of decrease obtained by accumulating the corrected amount of change has a linear relationship with the accumulated amount of urine excreted. This makes it possible to accurately detect the amount of urine excreted even if urine spreads in the diaper after urination. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0013] [Figure 1] 1A and 1B are explanatory diagrams of the principle of urination detection according to the present invention, in which (a) shows a dry diaper before urine absorption, and (b) shows a wet diaper after urine absorption. [Diagram 2] 1 is a graph showing the relationship between the amount of change and the absorption capacity in an experiment to confirm the effect of the present invention, where (a) shows the case without correction and (b) shows the case with correction. [Diagram 3] 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a urination detection device of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a sensor unit. [Diagram 5] 4 is a flow chart of a program for causing a terminal to function for the present invention; [Figure 6] 13 is a graph showing the results of an experiment confirming the relationship between the amount of reduction in mutual capacitance and the amount of urination. [Figure 7] 1 is a graph showing the results of an experiment to confirm the effect of urine spreading inside a diaper. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0014] The details of the urination detection method and urination detection device of the present invention will be described below. The present invention detects the amount of urine in a diaper, and can be applied to both humans and animals such as dogs and cats, but here we will take the case of humans as an example. The embodiment shown here uses mutual capacitance between two electrodes.

[0015] First, the basic principle of urination detection in the present invention will be described. In the urination detection method and urination detection device of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a sensor unit 1 having a plurality of (here, two) electrodes 11a, 11b spaced apart from each other is arranged outside the urine absorption part of the diaper, and the output value of the mutual capacitance between these electrodes 11a, 11b is used. In actual nursing care situations, a pad-type diaper P and a tape-type diaper T are often worn overlapping each other, as shown in FIG. 1. The sensor unit 1 is arranged outside the urine absorption part Pa of the pad-type diaper P. As shown in FIG. 1(a), when a pulse voltage is applied to one of the two electrodes 11a, 11b (transmitting electrode), an electric field line F is formed between the other electrode (receiving electrode). Then, as shown in FIG. 1(b), when urination occurs, the urine absorption part Pa of the pad-type diaper P contains urine (moisture) and the permittivity increases. Then, since the human body B can be considered to be grounded, a part of the electric field F is shifted to the human body B side, so that the electric field F between the two electrodes 11a and 11b is reduced, and the mutual capacitance is reduced. This reduction in mutual capacitance is what detects urination.

[0016] In this way, the occurrence of urination is detected by the decrease in mutual capacitance, but when attempting to quantitatively detect the amount of urination from the decrease in mutual capacitance, as described above, the spread of urine inside the diaper after urination has an effect. Therefore, the urination detection method of the present invention is used.

[0017] This urination detection method includes a change amount acquisition process for calculating the amount of change in the output value of mutual capacitance between two electrodes obtained as described above, based on the value at the start of the most recent urination, a timing process for obtaining the urination interval, which is the time between urinations, based on the output value, and a correction process for correcting the value of the amount of change.

[0018] First, in the process of acquiring the amount of change, the difference between the output value of the mutual capacitance (which may be raw data or the amount of decrease based on the initial value) after a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes) has elapsed since the start of urination (the point at which the mutual capacitance has decreased) and the output value at the start of urination is calculated to obtain the amount of change. Note that since the mutual capacitance decreases due to urination, the amount of change is a negative value.

[0019] Next, in the timing process, the urination interval is calculated from the most recent urination time and the time of the urination immediately before that. The time of urination is found by time-differentiating the output value of the mutual capacitance. That is, as shown in FIG. 7, when urination occurs, the mutual capacitance decreases (left vertical axis), so the time derivative (right vertical axis) value shows a sharp peak where urination occurred (the position of the peak of the time derivative corresponds to the position of the triangle mark indicating urination (water injection) in each of the 10-minute interval and the 1-hour interval). Therefore, the time when the value of the time derivative exceeds a predetermined threshold value can be regarded as the time of urination. However, since the urination interval is not defined in the first urination, this method is applied to the second and subsequent urinations.

[0020] Next, in the correction process, the value of the change due to the urination is divided by the square root of the urination interval between the urination and the previous urination to obtain the value of the corrected change. That is, the corrected change is calculated by the following formula (1). The corrected change obtained in this way is a value that excludes the influence of the spread of urine in the diaper after urination.

number

[0021] Here, an experiment was conducted to confirm the effect of the urination detection method of the present invention. In the experiment, a diaper (absorbent pad) with a maximum absorption capacity of 450 ml was attached to a model simulating a human body, and measurements were performed using a urination detection device described below. Tap water was poured into this pad five times at regular intervals of 50 ml each so that the total amount of water poured was 250 ml. The water pouring intervals were set to four intervals: 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours, and the output value of the mutual capacitance 10 minutes after the water pouring was measured.

[0022] Figure 2 is a graph showing the amount of change based on each output value, where (a) is without correction and (b) is with correction. The horizontal axis is the absorbent capacity of the pad (ml), and the vertical axis is (a) the amount of change (counts), and (b) the amount of change after correction (counts / √min). However, as mentioned above, the correction is applied to the second and subsequent urinations (fillings), so the value for the first fill in (b) is the same as the value without correction in (a). If there is no effect from the spread of urine in the diaper, the amount of change will be linearly related to the amount of fill at each fill, and since the amount of fill in this experiment was the same at 50 ml, the amount of change should be the same in all cases. In the case of (a) without correction, the amount of change is constant up to the second fill (filling 100 ml = absorbent capacity 350 ml) regardless of the fill interval. However, after the third water injection (150 ml injection = 300 ml of absorption capacity), the more the number of water injections and the longer the interval between water injections, the greater the influence of urine spreading in the diaper, and the value of the change becomes larger in the negative direction. On the other hand, when the correction (b) is applied, the amount of change is roughly constant regardless of the number of water injections and the interval between water injections. Therefore, it was confirmed that the influence of urine spreading in the diaper can be eliminated by the correction of the urination detection method of the present invention.

[0023] Also, the amount of change corresponds to the amount of water poured in one time, while the amount of decrease corresponds to the total amount of water poured in, and the cumulative amount of change is the amount of decrease. If there is no effect of the spread of urine in the diaper, the amount of decrease will have a linear relationship with the total amount of water poured in, and as described above, a constant value of the amount of change can be obtained by correction, so that a proportional constant that expresses the relationship between the amount of decrease and the amount of water poured in (amount of urination) when this urination detection device is used can be found. This makes it possible to accurately detect the amount of urination from the amount of decrease without being affected by the spread of urine in the diaper.

[0024] In this way, according to the urination detection method of the present invention, the influence of the spread of urine in the diaper can be canceled by correcting the change in mutual capacitance due to urination by the urination interval. In other words, since it is assumed that urine spreads in a plane and isotropically in the diaper, the corrected change amount obtained by dividing the change amount by the square root of the urination interval has a linear relationship with the amount of urine excreted in the target urination. Then, the corrected decrease amount obtained by accumulating the corrected change amount has a linear relationship with the accumulated amount of urine excreted. As a result, the amount of urine excreted can be accurately detected even if urine spreads in the diaper after urination.

[0025] Next, a urination detection device for carrying out the urination detection method of the present invention will be specifically described. As shown in Fig. 3, the urination detection device includes a sensor unit 1, a measurement unit 2, and a terminal 100.

[0026] The sensor unit 1 has two electrodes 11a, 11b made of copper foil formed on the surface of a substrate 12 made of a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) film, and has a shape as shown in Fig. 4. The substrate 12 is 0.025 mm thick and has a long rectangular shape with only both ends being wider. One side of the wider area is slightly narrower than the other, with the narrower side (left side in Fig. 4) being the ventral side and the wider side (right side in Fig. 4) being the posterior side. The total length from the ventral side to the posterior side is 500 mm, and the width of the wider part is 160 mm. The electrodes 11a and 11b have a thickness of 0.08 mm, bases 111a and 111b extending along the edge of the substrate 12, and a plurality of comb teeth 112a and 112b extending from one base 111a and 111b toward the opposing other base 111b and 111a in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the substrate 12 (the vertical direction in FIG. 4). The comb teeth 112a of one electrode 11a and the comb teeth 112b of the other electrode 11b are alternately arranged between the two bases 111a and 111b. The width of the electrodes 11a and 11b is 10 mm, and the electrodes 11a and 11b are spaced apart from each other by a distance of 10 mm.

[0027] The measuring unit 2 includes a microcomputer (not shown) mounted on a circuit board, and the circuit board is housed in a plastic case. The microcomputer can measure capacitance by a mutual capacitance method, and is connected to the abdominal side (left side in FIG. 4) of the two electrodes 11a, 11b of the sensor unit 1 by wiring 13. Thus, the measuring unit 2 measures the mutual capacitance between the two electrodes 11a, 11b to obtain an output value. The microcomputer also includes a communication unit (not shown) for transmitting data of the measured output value of the mutual capacitance to an external terminal 100.

[0028] The sensor unit 1 and measurement unit 2 thus configured are attached to a diaper cover that is placed over a diaper worn by a person. More specifically, the sensor unit 1 is attached by sewing to the inside of the diaper cover, and by placing the diaper cover over the diaper, the sensor unit 1 is positioned outside the urine absorption part of the diaper. The measurement unit 2 is attached to the diaper cover by a hook-and-loop fastener so that it can be freely attached and detached.

[0029] Next, the terminal 100 will be described. The terminal 100 is a smartphone or a tablet, and as shown in Fig. 3, includes a display 101 as a display unit that displays information, a touch panel 102 as an input unit that accepts operation input, a CPU 103 that executes program commands in sequence, a storage device (memory) 104 that stores programs and other data, and a communication device 105 for wirelessly connecting to other devices such as the measurement unit 2 and the Internet. The display 101 and the touch panel 102 are integrally formed, and the buttons and images themselves displayed on the display 101 function as the input unit through the touch panel 102. In addition to the touch panel 102, the input unit may include an operating mechanism such as a mechanical button.

[0030] The terminal 100 may be a personal computer or a dedicated terminal, in which case it has a keyboard instead of (or in addition to) a touch panel as an input unit.

[0031] The terminal 100 is wirelessly connected to the measurement unit 2 by the communication device 105, receives an output value of the mutual capacitance between the two electrodes 11a, 11b of the sensor unit 1 measured by the measurement unit 2, and stores it in the storage device 104. The terminal 100 includes a detection unit 6 that detects the occurrence of urination, a change amount acquisition unit 3 that calculates an amount of change based on the output value with respect to the value at the start of the most recent urination, a timing unit 4 that obtains a urination interval that is the time between urinations based on the output value, a correction unit 5 that corrects the value of the amount of change, a decrease amount acquisition unit 7 that accumulates the corrected amount of change to obtain a corrected decrease amount, a urination amount acquisition unit 8 that obtains an accumulated urination amount based on the value of the corrected decrease amount, and a warning unit 9 that warns when the accumulated urination amount exceeds a predetermined value.

[0032] However, the detection unit 6, the change amount acquisition unit 3, the clock unit 4, the correction unit 5, the decrease amount acquisition unit 7, the urination amount acquisition unit 8, and the warning unit 9 are hardware that the terminal 100 functions as each unit through software installed in the terminal 100 (the above units are indicated by dotted lines in FIG. 3 to indicate the difference from other components that are hardware themselves). That is, a program (app) for that purpose is installed in the terminal 100, and each process is executed sequentially by starting the program. Then, at each processing stage of the program, the terminal 100 that is hardware includes the detection unit 6, the change amount acquisition unit 3, the clock unit 4, the correction unit 5, the decrease amount acquisition unit 7, the urination amount acquisition unit 8, and the warning unit 9. The flow of the program processing will be described below. Note that FIG. 5 shows a flowchart showing the flow of the program processing.

[0033] First, the program causes the terminal 100 to execute a detection step S1. By executing the detection step S1, the terminal 100 is provided with a detection unit 6. The detection unit 6 provided in the terminal 100 detects the occurrence of urination based on the output value of the mutual capacitance stored in the storage device 104 (which may be raw data measured by the measurement unit 2, or may be a decrease amount based on an initial value). That is, the detection unit 6 time-differentiates the output value of the mutual capacitance. Since the mutual capacitance decreases when there is urination as described above, the time-differentiated value shows a sharp peak at the time when there is urination, as shown in FIG. 7. Therefore, the detection unit 6 determines that there is urination when the value of the time-differentiated value exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The detection unit 6 then stores the time when there is urination in the storage device 104 and displays it on the display 101.

[0034] Next, the program causes terminal 100 to execute calculation step S2. By executing calculation step S2, terminal 100 is provided with a change amount acquisition unit 3. The change amount acquisition unit 3 provided in terminal 100 calculates the amount of change based on the output value with the value at the most recent start of urination as a reference. That is, the change amount acquisition unit 3 calculates the difference between the output value of the mutual capacitance a predetermined time (e.g., 10 minutes) after detection unit 6 detects urination and the output value at the time when urination occurred, as the amount of change, and stores it in storage device 104.

[0035] Next, the program causes the terminal 100 to execute a timing step S3. By executing the timing step S3, the terminal 100 is provided with a timing unit 4. The timing unit 4 provided in the terminal 100 obtains a urination interval, which is a time between urinations, based on an output value. That is, when there is a second or subsequent urination, the timing unit 4 calculates a urination interval from the time of the most recent urination detected by the detection unit 6 and the time of the previous urination, stores the calculated urination interval in the storage device 104, and displays the calculated urination interval on the display 101. By displaying the urination time and urination interval on the display 101, the urination pattern can be understood. Note that, since the urination interval is not defined in the first urination, the timing step S3, the correction step S4, and the reduction amount acquisition step S5 are not performed, and the urination amount acquisition step S6 is performed next.

[0036] Next, the program causes terminal 100 to execute correction step S4. By executing correction step S4, terminal 100 is provided with correction unit 5. Correction unit 5 provided in terminal 100 corrects the value of the amount of change. That is, in the second and subsequent urinations, correction unit 5 divides the value of the amount of change due to the urination by the square root of the urination interval between the urination and the previous urination to obtain a corrected amount of change, and stores the corrected amount of change in storage device 104.

[0037] Next, the program causes the terminal 100 to execute a decrease amount acquisition step S5. By executing the decrease amount acquisition step S5, the terminal 100 is provided with a decrease amount acquisition unit 7. The decrease amount acquisition unit 7 provided in the terminal 100 accumulates the corrected change amount to obtain the corrected decrease amount. That is, in the second or subsequent urination, the decrease amount acquisition unit 7 calculates the sum of the corrected change amount due to the urination and the corrected decrease amount in the previous urination, sets it as the corrected decrease amount for the urination, and stores it in the storage device 104.

[0038] Next, the program causes the terminal 100 to execute a urination amount acquisition step S6. By executing the urination amount acquisition step S6, the terminal 100 is provided with a urination amount acquisition unit 8. The urination amount acquisition unit 8 provided in the terminal 100 obtains the cumulative urination amount based on the value of the corrected decrease amount. That is, in the second and subsequent urinations, the urination amount acquisition unit 8 calculates the product of the corrected decrease amount and a predetermined constant to obtain the urination amount. Since the corrected decrease amount and the cumulative urination amount have a linear relationship, the predetermined constant (proportional constant) is obtained by an experiment or the like and is stored in the storage device 104 in advance. In addition, in the first urination, the urination amount acquisition unit 8 calculates the product of the change amount value and a predetermined constant instead of the corrected decrease amount to obtain the urination amount. The calculated urination amount is stored in the storage device 104 and is displayed on the display 101.

[0039] Next, the program causes the terminal 100 to execute a warning step S7. By executing the warning step S7, the terminal 100 is provided with a warning unit 9. The warning unit 9 provided in the terminal 100 warns the user that the cumulative amount of urination exceeds a predetermined value. That is, the cumulative amount of urination is compared with the predetermined value, and if the cumulative amount of urination does not exceed the predetermined value, the process returns to the detection step S1 and the same flow is repeated. If the cumulative amount of urination exceeds the predetermined value, the warning unit 9 warns the user that the amount of urination has exceeded the predetermined value, that is, that the diaper needs to be changed, by displaying on the display 101 or by sound. The predetermined value is the amount of urination that requires a diaper change, and is stored in the storage device 104 in advance. This completes the series of operations of the program. After the diaper is changed, the program is executed again from the beginning.

[0040] According to such a urination detection device, by implementing the urination detection method of the present invention, the measurement values ​​by the sensor unit 1 and the measurement unit 2 can be corrected to accurately detect the amount of urination even if the urine spreads inside the diaper after urination. Since the correction is performed on the terminal 100 side, it can be applied to various conventional devices for detecting urination.

[0041] The urination detection method and urination detection device of the above embodiment use the mutual capacitance between two electrodes, but as another embodiment, the self-capacitance of one electrode may be used. In this case, the permittivity increases as the urine absorption part of the diaper absorbs urine (moisture) due to urination, and the self-capacitance also increases. This increase in self-capacitance detects urination. If there is no effect of the spread of urine in the diaper, the change in the output value of the self-capacitance will be linearly related to the amount of urine discharged at each urination. In reality, however, the self-capacitance gradually increases over time due to the spread of urine in the diaper. Therefore, the urination detection method of the present invention divides the value of the change by the square root of the urination interval to obtain a corrected change value, thereby eliminating the effect of the spread of urine. Since the self-capacitance increases due to urination, the change becomes a positive value, but the positive and negative values ​​are reversed in this respect, and the self-capacitance can be corrected in exactly the same way as the mutual capacitance.

[0042] The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be modified as appropriate within the scope of the invention. For example, when calculating the urination interval, the time of urination may be calculated from the output value itself, rather than from the time differential value of the output value of the mutual capacitance or self-capacitance. The shape of the electrodes of the sensor unit can be changed as appropriate depending on whether the subject is a human or an animal, and the material of the electrodes may be a conductor such as carbon or aluminum. Furthermore, the sensor unit may include electrodes for detecting the influence of disturbance in addition to electrodes for detecting urination in the diaper. The sensor unit and the measurement unit may be attached in any manner, for example, the sensor unit may be directly attached to the diaper so as to be disposed outside the urine absorption unit, and the measurement unit may be stored in a pocket provided in the diaper cover. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the value measured by the measurement unit is corrected in the terminal, but the microcomputer of the measurement unit may include a change amount acquisition unit, a timer unit, and a correction unit, and the correction may be performed in the measurement unit. In addition, the program for causing the terminal to function as each part of the present invention may have a different processing order than that shown in the flowchart, may perform multiple processes simultaneously, may exclude some processes, or may add other processes. [Explanation of symbols]

[0043] 1 Sensor section 2 Measuring part 3. Change amount acquisition section 4 Timing section 5. Correction section 11a,11b electrode

Claims

1. a change amount acquisition step of calculating the change amount of the capacitance output value of the electrode placed on the outside of the urine absorption part of the diaper, based on the value at the start of the most recent urination; a timing step of obtaining a urination interval, which is a time between urinations, based on the output value; A correction step of correcting the value of the change amount, The urination detection method, characterized in that the correction process comprises, for the second or subsequent urination, dividing the value of the amount of change due to the urination by the square root of the urination interval between the urination and the previous urination to obtain a corrected value of the amount of change.

2. This detects the amount of urine in the diaper. The device comprises a sensor section having electrodes and disposed on the outside of a urine absorbing section of the diaper, a measuring section for measuring the capacitance of the electrodes to obtain an output value, a change amount acquiring section for calculating an amount of change in the output value based on a value at the start of the most recent urination, a timing section for acquiring a urination interval, which is the time between urinations, based on the output value, and a correction section for correcting the value of the amount of change, The urination detection device is characterized in that the correction unit, in the second or subsequent urination, divides the value of the change due to the urination by the square root of the urination interval between the urination and the previous urination to obtain a corrected value of the change.

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