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Household appliance having a physical alteration element

  • US 9,271,627 B2
  • Filed: 08/28/2012
  • Issued: 03/01/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A household appliance for treating at least one item according to at least one cycle of operation, comprising:

  • a treating chamber for receiving the at least one item for treatment according to the at least one cycle of operation;

    a treating chemistry dispenser receiving a unit dose container, where the unit dose container itself has an optically sensible element;

    a physical alteration element located proximate to the treating chemistry dispenser and operable to physically alter at least a portion of the optically sensible element; and

    an optical sensor located proximate the unit dose container to optically sense a presence of the optically sensible element and provide an output indicative of the presence of the optically sensible element;

    wherein the physical alteration element sufficiently physically alters enough of the optically sensible element of the unit dose container that the output from the optical sensor is indicative of the physical alteration of the optically sensible element of the unit dose container upon physical alteration of the unit dose container by the physical alteration element.

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