Rain sensor with selectively reconfigurable fractal based sensors/capacitors
First Claim
1. A rain sensor comprising:
- a sensing circuit comprising a plurality of sensing capacitors supported by a vehicle window,one or more of the sensing capacitors being sensitive to moisture on an external surface of the window and including first and second spaced apart capacitor electrodes that are substantially coplanar; and
a switching circuit for selectively coupling the plurality of sensing capacitors to read-out circuitry of the rain sensor; and
wherein at least part of at least one of the sensing capacitors has a fractal geometry.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and/or method for sensing the presence of moisture (e.g., rain) and/or other material(s) on a window such as a vehicle window (e.g., vehicle windshield, sunroof or backlite). In certain example embodiments, a plurality of sensing capacitors are supported by a window such as a vehicle windshield, the capacitors each having a different field and/or pattern. A sensing circuit outputs an analog signal that is based on and/or related to the capacitances of one or more of the sensing capacitors. In certain example embodiments, a switching circuit is provided in order to selectively switch between different sensing capacitors or combinations thereof (or even possibly antennas and/or bands), in order to change the sensing field being analyzed and/or change the feature being searched for. For example, in certain example embodiments, the switching circuit may selectively switch between: (a) capacitor(s) for detecting rain on an exterior surface of the window, and (b) capacitor(s) for detecting one or more of ice on an exterior surface of the window, mist on an exterior surface of the window, and/or moisture on an interior surface of the window.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A rain sensor comprising:
-
a sensing circuit comprising a plurality of sensing capacitors supported by a vehicle window, one or more of the sensing capacitors being sensitive to moisture on an external surface of the window and including first and second spaced apart capacitor electrodes that are substantially coplanar; and a switching circuit for selectively coupling the plurality of sensing capacitors to read-out circuitry of the rain sensor; and wherein at least part of at least one of the sensing capacitors has a fractal geometry. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. An electronic device comprising:
-
a rain sensing circuit comprising a plurality of different fractal capacitor sensors, and a switching circuit for selectively coupling different ones or combinations of the fractal capacitor sensors to read-out circuitry. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification