Patent ID: 8282584

Claim:
A massage chair adapted to give a massage to a user comprising: a massaging element attached to a vertically movable massaging unit; a body-shape-information acquisition section for acquiring body-shape information of the user based on loads imposed on said massaging element from respective regions of the user when said massaging unit is vertically moved in a first operation; a shoulder-position detection section for detecting a shoulder position of the user based on said body-shape information; and a shoulder-position identification section to thrust with forward pushing movement said massaging element in a direction toward the user at said detected shoulder, position while measuring a load imposed on said massaging element in a second operation, so as to determine, based on said measured load, whether the detected shoulder position is a true shoulder position, and, when the detected shoulder position is determined to be mismatched with said true shoulder position, to vertically move said massaging unit while re-measuring the load imposed on said massaging element in the second operation, so as to identify said true shoulder position based on said re-measured load, wherein said body-shape information is corrected based on the shoulder position identified by said shoulder-position identification section, and wherein the massage chair gives the massage to the user based on the identified shoulder position and the corrected body-shape information.