Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Kusuo Iwanaga

Hiroyuki Inbe

Izumi Mihara

Akihiro Michimori

Kazumi Ookawa

Satoru Makita

Relax inducing device with heartbeat detection unit

A bioinstrumentation device utilizes an optical fiber for measuring biological parameters such as heart rate and breathing rate of a human subject. The device utilizes an optical fiber as a sensing element for sensing minute load variations resulting from the heart beating and breathing of the human subject and therefore indicative of the heart rate and the breathing rate. The device includes a base and a movable member movable relative to the base. The movable member is connected to a support structure for the human body and receives the minute load variations from the living body so as to vibrate in response thereto. Disposed between the base and the movable member is the optical fiber which is capable of resiliently deforming with changing characteristic of its internal reflectivity. A light source is disposed adjacent to the input end of the optical fiber to feed a light through the optical fiber. The light emitted from the optical fiber is received by a light sensor disposed adjacent to the output end of the optical fiber. An analyzing circuit is provided to analyze a variation in the amount of the light received at the light sensor due to the changing internal reflectivity of the optical fiber being deformed so as to determine the biological parameter. A retainer structure is included to keep the optical fiber bent with an initial curvature such that the optical fiber is caused to deform with a varying curvature from the initial curvature in response to minute load variations indicative of the biological parameters to be measured.

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Osaka, Japan

Kusuo Iwanaga