an embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings . fig1 is a block diagram illustrating the basic construction of an embodiment of the present invention . the arrangement includes a microphone 1 for picking up korotkoff sounds ( hereafter referred to as &# 34 ; k - sounds &# 34 ;) and for producing an analog output signal indicative thereof . the input analog signal between range of 0 . 3 v and 2 . 0 v is converted into a 8 bit digital signal every 4 milliseconds ( ms ) by an analog - digital ( a / d ) converter 2 before being applied to an arithmetic circuit 3 . the latter serves as recognition means and is adapted to recognize a k - sound by processing a series of sound data signals obtained in digital form from the a / d converter 2 . the arithmetic circuit 3 comprises a one - chip cpu having a ram and a rom and is so illustrated that the various functions implemented by executing a program stored in the rom are shown in block form . the present invention is capable of implementing these functions efficiently with the limited memory and limited processing time given the cpu . numeral 4 denotes a display unit for displaying the fact that a k - sound has been recognized , for displaying other information as well . the arithmetic circuit 3 includes a data read - in unit 5 for reading the digital output signal from the a / d converter 2 into the arithmetic circuit 3 , a threshold value setting unit 6 which compares the newly read digital signal data from the data read - in unit 5 and the threshold value determined based upon the most recent k - sound . the arithmetic circuit 3 further includes a time generator for generating time information , and a memory ( ram ) 9 for storing a digital data as well as the time information prevailing at the instant of detection . the threshold value which is to be held in the threshold value setting unit 6 is calculated from the most recent k - sound in a k - sound recognition unit 15 in accordance with the following equation , if the newly read digital signal is larger than the most recent threshold value , the sign bit is set to &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;. this sign bit is included in the output 106 . if , on the contrary , the new data is smaller than the threshold value , the sign bit is set to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;. after completion of this operation , the digital data signal containing the sign bit is delivered to the memory 9 as digital signal data 106 . the sign bit is referred to by a c3 detector 10 in order to determine whether to produce a signal on line 113 or not . before continuing with the description of the functional blocks of the apparatus shown in fig1 let us discuss typical patterns of the k - sounds which are to be recognized by the apparatus . fig2 ( a ) is a typical pattern of a k - sound waveform recognized by the apparatus of the illustrated embodiment , and fig2 ( b ) illustrates the pattern when the signal level is inverted . as it is possible that the input waveform may represent two opposite waveforms , drawings illustrating the respective waveforms , for example , fig2 ( a ) and 2 ( b ), are provided in this application . the characteristic points of the k - sound waveform are the four points c 1 - c 4 shown in fig3 ( a ), ( b ). in order to help understanding of the present invention , level differences dp1 to dp3 and time regions t 1 to t 3 are labeled in fig3 a . they will be referred to in the following discussion . in the illustrated embodiment , a k - sound is recognized on the basis of the relationship among these four points . in fig3 ( a ), ( b ), the point c3 is defined as the point where the signal level attains an absolute extreme value , i . e ., the highest peak or lowest valley , and is a portion which has great significance for the purpose of k - sound recognition , described below . specifically , once the characteristic point c3 has been found , the characteristic points c1 , c2 , c4 are each obtained by a prescribed analytical method which starts from the point c3 . each of the functional blocks described below constitutes means for recognizing the abovementioned k - sound waveform patterns both reliably and efficiently . returning to fig1 numeral 10 is the c3 detector for detecting a relative ( local ) extreme value , i . e ., a maximum value or minimum value in the digital signal data read out of the memory 9 . numeral 11 designates a level inverter which , for the purpose of k - sound recognition , inverts the level of the signal waveform data , which is read out of the memory 9 , whenever necessary . a characteristic point detector 12 performs a predetermined calculation with regard to the signal waveform data read out of the memory 9 and time data to check for the presence of a waveform located at each of the characteristic points c1 , c2 , c4 . the characteristic point detector 12 comprises a time region setting unit 13 for generating prescribed time region data , and a k - sound discriminator 14 for discriminating whether sound data of a signal level forming a characteristic is present within the time region , and is adapted to detect each characteristic point in accordance with a predetermined calculation procedure , described below , when a signal indicating that the c3 point has been detected is received from the c3 detector 10 . the output of the k - sound discriminator 14 is applied to a k - sound recognition unit 15 , which examines the positional relationship among a collection of characteristic points found by the characteristic point detector 12 , in order to recognize a k - sound . the operation of the present embodiment comprising the foregoing elements will now be described . the output of the microphone 1 is an analog electric signal 101 indicative of a k - sound picked up by the microphone . the signal 101 is converted into a digital signal 102 at every 4 ms sampling instant by the a / d converter 2 . the digital signal 102 at the output of the a / d converter 2 is read into the arithmetic circuit 3 by the data read - in unit 5 and is applied to the threshold value setting unit 6 as a series of digital signal data 103 in a time series . the threshold value setting unit 6 sets a threshold value in dependence upon a signal 117 from the k - sound recognition unit 15 indicative of the magnitude of a k - sound which appeared last in accordance with equation 1 . by setting the threshold value to | c3 - p o |· β1 , the unit 6 reduces the influence of noise contained in the waveform data 103 . in order to suitably deal with a signal pattern input of any amplitude whatsoever at the start of measurement , no threshold value is set when measurement starts . after measurement starts , however , a threshold value is set upon predicting , from the magnitude of an immediately preceding k - sound , the smallest magnitude capable of being traversed by the next k - sound . more specifically , in a case where a k - sound has already appeared in the course of measurement , the threshold value setting unit 6 sets a threshold value in dynamic fashion in dependence upon the signal 117 from the k - sound discriminator 15 indicative of the magnitude of the threshold | c3 - p o |· β1 , thereby making it possible to detect the c3 point accurately and rapidly . accordingly , the threshold value setting unit 6 in the apparatus of the illustrated embodiment is different in nature from threshold value setting means in the conventional comparator method , in which a threshold value is set that is fixed with respect to the amplitude of the k - sound . the threshold value setting unit 6 delivers the digital signal data 106 to the memory 9 each 4 ms interval and also delivers timing signal 105 to the time generator 8 each sampling instant at the a / d converter 2 . the time generator 8 is a unit which cyclically counts timing information that increases every millisecond , by way of example . when the timing signal 105 is received from the threshold value setting unit 6 , the time generator 8 successively counts up a write - in address 120 of the memory 9 so that the digital signal data 106 from the threshold value setting unit 6 and prevailing clocked time information 107 are written into the memory in accordance with the counted up address . thus , the digital signal value data 106 and the time information 107 prevailing at the moment of detection are stored in the memory 9 . the time generator 8 also outputs a read - out address 120 of the memory 9 at a predetermined time interval and produces a read enable signal 121 when a read - out becomes possible . the digital signal data 106 stored in memory 9 is read by the c3 detector 10 and characteristic point detector 12 in accordance with the read enable signal 121 , whereby k - sound recognition processing is performed . in order that the memory 9 can be read from any address when k - sound recognition processing is executed , the characteristic point detector 12 provides the time generator 8 with an address designating signal 122 for designating a read - out address from which a read - out is to be started . the k - sound recognition processing will now be described with reference to the flowchart of fig4 ( a ) and 4 ( b ). in accordance with the read enable signal 121 from the time generator 8 , the c3 detector 10 reads sound data 108 out of the memory 9 in accordance with the successively stored time series , examines these data in regular order and executes processing for detecting the c3 point in the signal pattern shown in fig3 ( a ) or fig3 ( b ). in the first step s90 of the flowchart shown in fig4 ( a ) and ( b ), an inversion flag 10a internally of the c3 detector 10 is set to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;. when the inversion flag 10a is &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, an inversion indicating signal 109 is reset ; when the flag 10a is &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, the inversion designating flag 109 is set . when the inversion indicating signal 109 is in the reset state , the level inverter 11 delivers read - out data 110 from memory 9 directly to the characteristic point detector 12 as output data 111 . when the inversion indicating signal 109 is in the set state , the level inverter 11 inverts the read - out data from the memory 9 and delivers the result to the characteristic point detector 12 as the output data 111 . initially , the inversion flag 10a is set to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; and the inversion designating signal 109 is reset . consequently , the read - out data from memory 9 is applied as such to the characteristic point detector 12 . next , at a step s9l , the c3 detector 10 , in accordance with the read enable signal 121 , reads the digital signal data 106 from the threshold value setting unit 6 stored successively in memory 9 via , the a / d converter 2 out of the memory in the same order in which it was stored and compares this with digital signal data 106 read out immediately before . the time generator 8 exercises read - out control separate from the write - in of the digital signal data 106 . the reading of data from the memory 9 can be performed immediately by writing in the digital signal data 106 by means of the threshold value setting unit 6 . extreme value detection processing is executed from step s92 onward and is performed by a level comparison of digital signals at three consecutive points in the sound data 108 . thus , at the step s92 , digital signals at three consecutive points are compared to determine whether a valley point has been detected , that is , to check whether the level difference between adjacent ones of the points changes from a decreasing value to an increasing value . if a valley point is detected and this valley point is given a sign bit &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, that is the newly obtained digital signal data is determined by the c3 detector 10 to be larger than the current threshold value , this point is treated as being the characteristic point c3 and the program proceeds from the step s92 to a step s94 , at which the inversion flag 10a is set to &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; and the inversion indicating signal 109 is delivered to the level inverter 11 . the program then proceeds to a step s95 . when the inversion indicating signal 109 is delivered to the level inverter 11 , k - sound detection is performed . to this end , the level of each item of waveform data 110 corresponding to the characteristic points c 1 - c 4 in fig3 ( b ) and read out of the memory 9 is inverted with regard to a base line [ level p o shown in fig5 ( d ), ( e )] that will turn these levels into the signal pattern shown in fig3 ( a ). the inverted levels are delivered to the characteristic point detector 12 . if a valley point is not detected at the step s92 , the program proceeds to a step s93 , at which it is determined whether a peak c3 has been detected , that is , whether the level difference between adjacent ones of the three consecutive points changes from an increasing value to a decreasing value . if a peak is detected , this peak is determined as to whether the peak is exceeding the threshold value with referring to the sign bit included in the digital signal data 106 . if the peak is exceeding the threshold value , the peak is treated as being the characteristic point c3 and the program proceeds to a step s95 . if a peak is not detected at the step s93 , the program returns to the step s9l , the next item of digital signal data is read and processing for detecting a characteristic point c3 is performed again . if a peak point is detected at the step s93 , the inversion flag 10a remains at &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; and the program proceeds to the step s95 . this step calls for a characteristic point detection signal 113 to be sent from the c - point detector 10 to the characteristic point detector 12 to indicate that the detected point is a characteristic point . the program then proceeds to a step s104 . if a k - sound is recognized , what is detected first is the peak point . an example of the state in which the initial peak is detected is illustrated in fig5 ( a ). in response to the characteristic point detection signal 113 from the c3 detector 10 indicating that the c3 point has been detected , the characteristic point detector 12 initiates detection of each characteristic point of the digital signal data constituting a k - sound . this being performed by processing from step s104 onward . when the characteristic point detection signal 113 is received , the characteristic point detection circuit 12 produces the address designating signal 122 so that data stored in the memory 9 prior to detection of the characteristic point are read out of the memory sequentially in the same order that the data were stored . these data are stored in a ram . in other words , each item of data from c1 to c3 is stored every 4 ms sampling period in the ram at the instant c3 is detected . the step s104 calls for the time region setting unit 13 to set a predetermined time region t 1 the final instant of which is the position of c3 . the unit 13 produces a time region signal 114 indicative of this time region and applies the signal to the k - sound discriminator 14 . the setting of this time region can be accomplished by storing in a rom a predetermined value in accordance with the figures given in below . the set time region t 1 is illustrated in fig5 ( b ). according to the embodiment of the present invention , each time region t 1 , t 2 and t 3 have the values t 1 = 10 , t 2 = 15 and t 3 = 15 [× 4 ms ]. and these time region data have been stored previously in the rom which is constituting the time region setting unit 13 . next , the program proceeds to a step s105 , at which the k - sound discriminator 14 reads digital signal data within the time region t 1 set by the time region setting unit 13 and stored in the ram , detects a minimum value within the read data and treats this value as c2 [ fig5 ( c )]. the minimum level point is detected by comparing the levels of two points in the output data 111 from the level inverter 11 . next , a step s106 calls for a decision as to whether the level difference ( dp2 ) between c2 and c3 falls within a predetermined range . the upper and lower limits of this range are stored beforehand in the rom in accordance with the below table . according to the embodiment of the present invention , each level difference dp1 , dp2 and dp3 is given as follows . ______________________________________ lower limit upper limit______________________________________dp2 15 -- dp1 dp2 × α1 dp2 × α2dp3 dp1 × α3 dp2 × α4______________________________________ in the above table , the unit is 0 . 7 v / 256 and also , the level differences illustrated in fig3 a , dp1 , dp2 and dp3 , are given below . in fig5 ( c ), the level difference is not within the predetermined range , so that the program returns to the step s90 for detection of the next characteristic point . a valley point shown in fig5 ( d ) is detected by subsequent c3 detection processing . the program proceeds from the step s92 to the step s94 , the inversion flag 10a is set and , in the data read out of the memory 9 and stored in the ram , the input signal level is level - converted from p to 2p o - p ( where p o is a reference level ) by the level inverter 11 , thereby giving the waveform shown in fig5 ( e ). thus , the signal waveform is apparently inverted . next , the minimum point c2 is detected within the set time region t 1 through the steps s104 , s105 [ fig5 ( f )]. the decision step s106 now finds that the point c2 lies within the predetermined limits , so that the program proceeds from this step to a step s107 , where the time region setting unit 13 sets a predetermined time region t 2 the final instant whereof is the position of c2 . a signal 114 indicative of this time region is delivered to the k - sound discriminator 14 . the set time region t 2 is shown in fig5 ( g ). next , the program proceeds to a step s108 , at which the point ( value ) of a maximum level is detected within the time region t 2 and treated as c1 . the detection of the maximum level is performed by comparing the level between two points . this is followed by a step s109 , at which it is determined whether the level difference dp1 between c1 and c2 lies with a predetermined range . in fig5 ( h ), detection of c1 , c2 , c3 is judged to be improper and the program returns to the step s90 . the characteristic point detected next is c3 shown in fig5 ( i ) and no inversion is made of the read waveform by the level inverter 11 . at the step s104 , the time region t 1 is set as shown in fig5 ( j ), the characteristic point c2 shown in fig5 ( k ) is detected at the step s105 , the time region t 2 having the characteristic point c2 as its final instant is set at the step s107 , as shown in fig5 ( l ), and the maximum value c1 is detected within the time region t 2 shown in fig5 ( m ) at the step s108 . this is followed by the level decision step s109 , at which it is judged that detection of c1 , c2 , c3 is proper . the program then proceeds to a step s110 , at which the time region setting unit 13 sets a time region t 3 the final instant of which is the position of c3 , as shown in fig5 ( n ). next , at a step s111 , a digital signal data 103 within the time region t 3 is read out of the memory 9 , the point of a minimum level is detected and the point is treated as being c4 . this is shown in fig5 ( o ). this is followed by a step s112 , at which it is determined whether the level difference dp3 between c3 and c4 falls within a predetermined range . if the level difference does not fall within the predetermined range , the program returns to the step s90 . if the level difference does fall within the predetermined range , the signal is recognized to be a k - sound at a step s113 . since the present method is a very simple method of detecting the characteristic points c1 , c2 , c3 , c4 , it is suited to real - time processing performed by a one - chip cpu . furthermore , since the maximum value of a peak or the minimum value of a valley is detected within each predetermined time period , the influence of noise ( fig7 ) produced in the vicinity of extreme values of the k - sound waveform is almost nil . when the k - sound discriminator 14 successively detects the positions c3 , c2 , c1 and c4 , an output 115 is produced so as to inform the k - sound recognition unit 15 that the digital signal data should be treated as a k - sound . when the k - sound is recognized by the unit 15 , the unit performs a computation adapting equation 1 to obtain and to deliver the new threshold value to the threshold value setting unit 6 in order to renew the current threshold value . the recognized k - sound is delivered from the k - sound recognition unit 15 to the display unit via line 116 . in the illustrated embodiment , an example has been described in which characteristic points are detected upon inverting peaks and valleys of the signal waveform as reference characteristic points whenever necessary . however , it is permissible to execute processing without making the inversion or to treat a reference characteristic point solely as the waveform peak . in such case , the inversion flag and level inverter 11 can be deleted . according to the present invention as described above , the characteristics of a k - sound waveform are investigated directly . as a result , it is unnecessary to place a restriction upon the frequency band characteristic of a filter or to set a threshold value fixed with respect to the amplitude of a k - sound , as in the prior art . moreover , measurement precision is not readily influenced by the frequency component constituting the k - sound or by the effect of a disparity in the amplitude of the k - sound . further , according to the present invention , the maximum value or minimum value capable of being traversed by a k - sound signal constituent is detected within each set time region , unlike the conventional method in which maximum and minima are detected one by one while traversing the waveform in regular order . accordingly , the detection of candidates for characteristic points can be readily performed by a very short program and measurement precision is not influenced by fine ripple produced in the vicinity of extreme values of a k - sound waveform , particularly ripple due to a conversion error which readily occurs after the a / d conversion . according to the present invention , a plurality of signal patterns indicative of k - sounds can be recognized efficiently on a real - time basis in the limited memory and processing time given a one - chip cpu by using simple software programmed in such a manner that typical patterns of k - sound waveforms are recognized . by adopting an arrangement in which level inverting means is provided , a plurality of patterns can be recognized by a short program . as many apparently widely different embodiments of the present invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims .
disclosed is a blood pressure measurement apparatus in which a waveform discrimination method is used in the recognition of korotkoff sounds in the measurement of blood pressure by auscultation . in processing executed by the apparatus , the minimum point or maximum point of a signal waveform indicative of the sound of vibration produced by a blood vessel is detected , and a maximum value or minimum value point is detected within a predetermined time region the final instant of which is the point . if a level difference between the point and the point is within a predetermined range , there is detected a minimum value or maximum value point within a predetermined time region the final instant of which is . if a level difference between the point and the point is within a predetermined range , there is detected a maximum value or minimum value point within a predetermined time region the starting instant of which is the point . it is then discriminated whether a level difference between the point and the point falls within a predetermined range . control proceeds in successive fashion when each of these conditions is satisfied , with a korotkoff sound being recognized in the signal waveform when all of these conditions are satisfied .