Backrest with fingers providing kneading massage

A massage machine, comprising:

• a backrest of a chair, bed or the like for supporting the back of a user to be massaged;
• a kneading shaft supported in the backrest and reciprocatingly movable along a longitudinal direction of the backrest;
• a pair of therapeutic fingers connected to the kneading shaft and movable toward or away from each other by the rotation of the kneading shaft;
• a first drive motor associated with the therapeutic fingers and having a shaft rotatable in the forward or reverse direction in order for the therapeutic fingers to move along a longitudinal direction of the backrest;
• a second drive motor connected to the kneading shaft and for rotating the kneading shaft to move the therapeutic fingers toward or away from each other;
• detection means provided in the vicinity of the kneading shaft and for sensing the rotation of the kneading shaft, the detecting means being adapted to detect the smallest spacing between the therapeutic fingers by making a first signal when the therapeutic fingers are spaced from each other by the smallest distance and to detect the largest spacing between the therapeutic fingers by making a second signal when the therapeutic fingers are spaced from each other by the largest distance;
• control means connected to the detection means and for controlling the rotation of the first and second drive motors;
• and
• the control means being operative to drive the second drive motor to move the therapeutic fingers toward or away from each other, and to drive the first drive motor into forward or reverse rotation depending on the signals sent from the detection means, to move the therapeutic fingers along the longitudinal direction ofthe backrest, so that combination of the moves caused by the first and second motors provides the therapeutic fingers with a movement toward an oblique direction in the backrest.