Battery condition detection in hand hygiene product dispensers

• US 10,539,620 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2018
• Issued: 01/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ecolab USA Incorporated (Ecolab, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ecolab USA Incorporated (Ecolab, Inc.)
• Inventors: Erickson, Joseph P., Slobodyan, Viktor
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Mirza F
• Application Number:
  US16/022,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20180306869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 572 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A47K 10/36 with mechanical dispensing, roll switching or cutting devices
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/16542 for batteries charge condition monitoring in G01R31/36
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3646 for indicating electrical conditions or variables, e.g. visual or audible indicators
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/382 Arrangements for monitoring battery or accumulator variables, e.g. SoC
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3835 involving only voltage measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/245 Reminder of hygiene compliance policies, e.g. of washing hands

Abstract

Systems and methods for detection and analysis of battery condition information may be used with respect to, for example, battery powered hand hygiene product dispensers. The battery condition information may be used to identify potential low battery conditions, the type of dispenser, the type or form of product dispensed, and/or to detect occurrence of a battery replacement event in a hand hygiene product dispenser. The battery condition information may further be used to determine a number of dispenses remaining for a hand hygiene product dispenser. The battery condition information may further be used to provide battery condition information for battery operated hand hygiene product dispensers in hand hygiene compliance systems.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of dispensers each configured to dispense a hand hygiene product, each dispenser configured to detect a dispense event and transmit a corresponding dispense event signal including dispenser identification information associated with the dispenser;

each of the plurality of dispensers further including;

one or more batteries configured to supply power to the dispenser; and

a voltage sensor that senses voltage information correlated to a battery voltage provided by the one or more batteries;

data storage media that stores low battery threshold data, the low battery threshold data including one or more low battery thresholds each corresponding to one of a plurality of dispenser types, and stores a plurality of discharge profiles each corresponding to one of the plurality of dispenser types and one of a plurality of dispensed product types; and

a computing device that, for at least one of the plurality of dispensers;

receives the voltage information and the dispenser identification information;

identifies one of the one or more low battery thresholds based on the dispenser identification information;

detects a low battery condition if the voltage information satisfies the identified low battery threshold;

identifies one of the plurality of discharge profiles based on the voltage information received from the dispenser and the dispenser identification information; and

identifies one of the plurality of dispensed product types corresponding to the identified discharge profile.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is further configured to detect a battery replacement event if the voltage information received from the dispenser includes a voltage increase having a predefined change in amplitude.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is further configured to detect a battery replacement event if the voltage information received from the dispenser includes a voltage increase having a predefined change in amplitude and occurring within a predefined period of time.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the dispensed product type includes one of a liquid, a gel, or a foam.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is further configured to determine a number of dispenses remaining based on the received voltage information.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device further generates at least one report including the dispenser data, the voltage information, a dispenser type, a dispensed product type, a battery type, and a current battery status for two or more of the plurality of dispensers.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of dispenser types includes a large dispenser type and a small dispenser type.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of dispensed product types includes a liquid product type, a gel product type, and a foam product type.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of discharge profiles includes a first discharge profile associated with a liquid product type, a second discharge profile associated with a gel product type, and a third discharge profile associated with a foam product type.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device generates, for display on a user computing device, a notification including the dispenser identification information, a battery status based on the received voltage information and the low battery threshold corresponding to the dispenser type, and the identified one of the plurality of dispensed product types.

23. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device generates, for display on a user computing device, a notification corresponding to the dispense event, the notification including the dispenser identification information associated with the dispense event, a battery status based on the received voltage information and the low battery threshold corresponding to the dispenser type, and the identified one of the plurality of dispensed product types.

24. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device generates, for display on a user computing device, a notification corresponding to a plurality of dispense events detected by the plurality of dispensers, the notification including, for each detected dispense event, the dispenser identification information associated with the dispense event, and a battery status based on the received voltage information associated with the dispense event and the low battery threshold corresponding to the dispenser type.

6. A system comprising:

a hand hygiene product dispenser associated with one of plurality of dispenser types and configured to dispense a hand hygiene product, the hand hygiene product dispenser including;

one or more batteries configured to supply power to the dispenser; and

a voltage sensor that senses voltage information correlated to a battery voltage of the one or more batteries;

the hand hygiene product dispenser configured to transmit dispenser data including dispenser identification information associated with the dispenser, the associated one of the plurality of dispenser types, and the voltage information;

data storage media that stores a plurality of low battery thresholds each corresponding to one of a plurality of dispenser types; and

a computing device configured to receive the dispenser data, the computing device further configured to identify one of the plurality of low battery thresholds based on the one of the plurality of dispenser types associated with the dispenser, the computing device further configured to detect a low battery condition if the voltage information satisfies the identified low battery threshold,

wherein the data storage media further stores a plurality of discharge profiles each corresponding to one of the plurality of dispenser types and one of a plurality of dispensed product types, and

the computing device identifies one of the plurality of discharge profiles based on the one of the plurality of dispenser types associated with the dispenser and based on the voltage information received from the dispenser over a period of time, and identifies one of the plurality of dispensed product types corresponding to the identified discharge profile.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the one or more low battery thresholds each correspond to a dispenser type and a dispensed product type.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the computing device is further configured to identify one of the one or more low battery thresholds based on the dispenser type and the dispensed product type.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the dispensed product type includes one of a liquid, a gel, or a foam.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the dispensed product type includes one of a sanitizer, a hand soap, a lotion, or an alcohol-based hand hygiene product.

11. The system of claim 6 further comprising generating a low battery condition message if a low battery condition is detected.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the low battery condition message is one of an electronic mail message, a text message, a voice mail message, an audible indicator, a visual indicator, or in a report.

13. The system of claim 6 wherein the computing device is further configured to generate a report including the identified one of the plurality of dispensed product types.

14. A system comprising:

a hand hygiene product dispenser including;

one or more batteries configured to supply power to the dispenser; and

a voltage sensor that senses voltage information correlated to a battery voltage of the one or more batteries;

the hand hygiene product dispenser configured to transmit the voltage information;

data storage media that stores one or more low battery thresholds each corresponding to a dispenser type, and that stores a plurality of discharge profiles each corresponding to one of a plurality of dispenser types and one of a plurality of dispensed product types; and

a computing device configured to receive the voltage information and identify one of the plurality of discharge profiles based on the voltage information received from the dispenser;

the computing device further configured to identify the one of the plurality of dispenser types and the one of the plurality of dispensed product types corresponding to the identified discharge profile, identify a low battery threshold based on the identified discharge profile, and detect a low battery condition if the voltage information satisfies the identified low battery threshold.

15. A system comprising:

a hand hygiene product dispenser, the dispenser defined by one of a plurality of dispenser types and including;

one or more batteries configured to supply power to the dispenser; and

a voltage sensor that senses voltage information correlated to a battery voltage of the one or more batteries;

the hand hygiene product dispenser configured to transmit dispenser data including the voltage information and dispenser identification information including the defined one of the plurality dispenser types;

data storage media that stores one or more discharge profiles each corresponding to one of the plurality of dispenser types and one of a plurality of dispensed product types; and

a computing device configured to receive the voltage information and the dispenser identification information, the computing device further configured to identify one of the plurality of discharge profiles based on the voltage information and the defined one of the plurality of dispenser types;

the computing device further configured to identify the dispensed product type corresponding to the identified discharge profile, identify a low battery threshold based on the identified discharge profile, and detect a low battery condition if the voltage information satisfies the identified low battery threshold.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the computing device is further configured to compare the identified dispensed product type with an authorized product type to determine whether the dispensed product type is an authorized product type.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the computing device is further configured to generate an unauthorized product type message if the dispensed product type is not an authorized product type.