Automatic faucet

• US 5,758,688 A
• Filed: 11/12/1996
• Issued: 06/02/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Toto Limited
• Original Assignee: Toto Limited
• Inventors: Iwashita, Hiroyuki, Kaneko, Yoshiyuki, Seki, Mitsuyoshi, Kawabata, Takatoshi, Honda, Tadahiro, Hamanaka, Tatsumi, Murahashi, Toshiyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, KEVIN L
• Application Number:
  US08/747,343
• Time in Patent Office: 567 Days
• Field of Search: 251/129.04, 4/623, 4/304, 137/624.11
• US Class Current: 137/624.11
• CPC Class Codes: E03C 1/057 touchless, i.e. using sensors
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/86389 Programmer or timer

Abstract

In an automatic faucet having a hand sensor S to start and stop discharging water automatically, only hands can be detected accurately without detecting a washbowl (chinaware) and water stream erroneously. The sensor S comprises a light emitter and a light receiver. The directional axis d of a detection region (in which the light emitting region of the light emitter and the light receiving region of the light receiver are overlapped with each other) intersects the discharged water stream, and further the intersection angle between both is adjusted less than 70 degrees, irrespective of the flow rate of the discharged water. The reflected light levels detected by the light receiver are sampled periodically to calculate an average value and a variance value on the basis of at least eight most updated sampled data. Water discharge is started and stopped on the basis of the calculated average value and the variance value.

Claims

1. An automatic faucet for starting and stopping discharging water automatically by detecting presence or absence of hands with a non-contact reflection type active sensor, which comprises:

sampling data means for sampling data indicative of reflective signal levels on the active sensor periodically;

statistical calculating means for calculating at least one statistical value on the basis of a plurality of data from said sampling date means including updated data obtained by sampling; and

means for determining the presence or absence of hands on the basis of the statistical value for starting and stopping water discharging.

2. The automatic faucet of claim 1, wherein the statistical value is at least one of an average value, a variance value, and a standard deviation value.

3. The automatic faucet of claim 2, which further comprises reference level deciding means for deciding the average value as a reference level indicative of absence of both hands and discharged water, on condition that the variance value obtained at water stop is smaller than a constant value.

4. The automatic faucet of claim 3, wherein said means for determining the presence or absence of hands on the basis of a comparison result between the variance value and a predetermined threshold value.

5. The automatic faucet of claim 2, wherein said means for determining the presence or absence of hands on the basis of combination of a first comparison result between the average value and the reference level and a second comparison result between an absolute value of the most updated value and a predetermined threshold.

6. The automatic faucet of claim 2, which further comprises reference level deciding means for deciding the average value as a reference level indicative of absence of both hands and discharged water, on condition that a difference between the most updated data and the average value at water stop lies within a constant range.

7. The automatic faucet of claim 6, wherein said means for determining the presence or absence of hands on the basis of a comparison result between the most updated data and reference level data.

8. The automatic faucet of claim 1, which further comprises period control means for detecting significant fluctuations of the reflected signal levels on the basis of the statistical value at water stop to increase sampling frequency.

9. The automatic faucet of claim 1, wherein said determining means starts discharging water when the statistical value satisfies a predetermined first condition in a water stop status longer than a predetermined time, stops discharging water when the statistical value satisfies a predetermined second condition in a water discharge status, and restarts discharging water when the statistical value satisfies a predetermined third condition in a water stop status shorter than the predetermined time, the third condition being determined separately from the first condition.

10. The automatic faucet of claim 1, which further comprises:

a water discharge counter for counting the number of water discharges repeated continuously at time intervals shorter than a predetermined time; and

inhibiting means for inhibiting the continuously repeated water discharges when a value counted by said water discharge counter exceeds a predetermined value.

11. The automatic faucet of claim 1, wherein said determining means starts recharging water when the statistical value satisfies a predetermined first condition in a water stop status longer than a predetermined time, stops discharging water when the statistical value satisfies a predetermined second condition in a water discharge status, and restarts discharging water when the statistical value satisfies a predetermined third condition in a water stop status shorter than the predetermined time, which further comprises:

a water discharge counter for counting the number of times of water discharges continuously repeated at intervals shorter than a predetermined time; and

condition changing means for changing the first and third conditions into seperate conditions, when said water discharge counter counts a value more than a predetermined value.

12. The automatic faucet of claim 11, wherein until said water discharge counter counts a predetermined value, the first condition is such that any one of the average value and the variance value satisfies each predetermined condition, and wherein after said water discharge counter has counted the predetermined value, the first condition is changed into such that at least the variance value satisfies a predetermined condition.

13. The automatic faucet of claim 11, wherein until said water discharge counter counts a predetermined value, the first condition is such that water is discharged when a first comparison result of a difference between an average value and a reference value with a first predetermined value and a second comparison result of an absolute value of the most updated data with a second predetermined value both exceed a predetermined value, respectively;

and after the water discharge counter has counted the predetermined value, the second predetermined value is increased.