Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Haruo Sugai

Yukio Yamamura

Takafumi Hamabe

Masamichi Miyaguchi

Fumihiro Nishio

Makoto Fukutani

Hikoyoshi Hara

Masatoshi Dairin

Kazumi Ookawa

Koichi Hashimoto

Akihide Sugawa

Kazuhiro Ochi

Takahisa Ozawa

Youichi Shinomiya

Norio Yamada

Hironobu Sakaue

Hiroshi Moriwaki

Shinpei Otuka

Naoto Sayama

Katsuji Nakamura

Satoru Makita

Ryuji Yamada

Atsuhiro Saitou

Eiji Masutani

Hiroyuki Hojyo

Hiroyuki Noda

Yoshinori Matsue

Takao Goto

A housing is adapted to be placed on a floor and is provided on its top face with a left foot supportand a right foot supportsrespectively bearing left and right feet of a user. A drive unitis provided to displace the left and right foot supportsandin a mutually linked manner. The drive unitis configured to reciprocate the left and right foot supportsandin a forward/rearward direction respectively along individual travel paths La, Lb, while varying a lateral distance between said left and right foot supports with regard to representative points of the left and right foot supports. The lateral distance between forward ends of the travel paths is made greater than the lateral distance between rearward ends of the travel paths.

Passive exercise assisting device

Massaging device

Biological-signal detecting device

In a lounger-type massage machine, a back support is reclinable relative to a seat. There is provided a leg rest which is movable between a retracted position where the leg rest is retracted to be held below the seat and a projected position where the leg rest is extended outwardly in front of the seat. A sheet is extended to cover the seat and the leg rest. There is provided a looseness prevention mechanism which pulls an end of the sheet inwardly so as to prevent the loosening of the sheet in both the retracted position and the projected position of the leg rest.

Lounger-type massage machine

A massaging apparatus has a capability of self-adjusting a massage strength for giving an optimum massaging effect for individual users. The apparatus includes a supporting frame on which a user rest and an applicator projecting from the supporting frame to be pressed against a user's body. The applicator is driven to move for applying a massaging force to the user's body. A pressure sensor is provided to monitor a pressure applied back to the applicator from the user's body as a counter-action of applying the massaging force to the user's body and to provide an output indicative of the monitored pressure. A strength-adjustor is included to vary a projecting amount of the applicator from the supporting frame and/or an operational speed of moving the applicator in order to adjust a massage strength applied to the user's body. The massaging apparatus is characterized to include an auto-controller which is connected to receive the output from the pressure sensor and actuates the strength-adjustor in order to increase and decrease the massage strength in such a manner as to follow the monitored pressure. Whereby, the apparatus is enabled to self-adjust the massage strength in proportion to a force at which the user has its back or desired portion pressed against the applicator.

Massaging apparatus having self-adjusting constant strength and

A hydromassaging apparatus for use in a bathtub comprises a housing provided with a pump for drawing water from the bathtub to provide a forced flow of water through a flow channel leading from the pump to a plurality of spouts. Air is intermixed into the forced water flow downstream of the pump to generate a water-air mixture to be discharged out of the sprouts into the bathtub water. At least one of the spouts is provided with a directional nozzle which is movable relative to the spout for adjusting the direction of the water-air mixture into the bathtub. The directional nozzle projects from the housing to be accessible by the user and is kept in fluid communication with the corresponding spout while it is angularly displaced within a limited range of angles relative to an axis of the spout so as to discharge the water-air jet therethrough. When the directional nozzle is tilted beyond the limited range of angles, it becomes out of fluid communication with the spout to thereby stop discharging the water-air jet through the nozzle and in turn permits the water-air mixture to be discharged through the other spout or spouts. In this manner, the water-air mixture can be can be discharged selectively through the different spouts simply by manipulating the directional nozzle to change its angular position.

Hydromassaging apparatus for use in a bathtub

A rocking massage chair wherein massaging wheel elements and their drive mechanism are disposed in backrest part of the chair while a motor for driving an operating shaft of the drive mechanism is disposed in seating part of the chair, whereby the relatively heavy motor is located on forward side of a rocking center of the chair so as to keep the center of gravity of the chair always on the forward side and thus to prevent the chair from overturning rearward.

Rocking massage chair

A massaging apparatus comprises a pair of massaging wheels obliquely and eccentrically attached to a main shaft, a shifting mechanism for shifting the massaging wheels and main shaft in the direction of the length of a chair back rest or a bed, and a spacing changing mechanism for changing the spacing between the massaging wheels. The apparatus is designed to detect the position of the pair of massaging wheels and the spacing therebetween. It further comprises position selecting switches associated with the neck, shoulders, back and waist of the human body. When any one of these position selecting switches is operated, the shifting mechanism and the spacing changing mechanism as well as the rotative direction of the main shaft are automatically controlled in accordance with the detected shifted position and spacing of the massaging wheels.

Massaging apparatus

A massage apparatus performable massaging actions substantially in the same mode as of manual actions by massagers is provided. In driving mechanism for massaging attachments with which massaging force is applied to user's suffering body part, driving and driven side gears are arranged to provide an unequal velocity ratio so that rotating velocity of the driven side gear will be varied as rotated by the driving side gear, whereby the massaging attachments are pushed toward the suffering body part when the velocity of the driven side gear is low and thus with a slowly gradually increased force whereas the pushed attachments are released from the body part when the velocity is high and thus with a quickly decreased force.

Massage apparatus

A massaging apparatus wherein electric driving means rotates a tubular driving shaft to which opposing disk elements of massaging means is mounted eccentrically as inclined with respect to the shaft's axis and movably in its axial direction. Means for adjusting massaging range determined by mutual distance of the disk elements is mounted on an inner shaft disposed coaxially within the driving shaft and coupled at an end thereto through a clutch. Upon manual operation of the clutch, the inner shaft is disconnected from the driving shaft and the massaging range adjusting means shifts along the inner shaft as rotated by the driving shaft being rotated to move the disk elements toward and away from each other. All the components are compactly mounted onto a single support frame except manual operating means for the driving means and clutch which is remote from apparatus body.

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Hikone, Japan

Haruo Sugai