WO2019207589A1

WO2019207589A1 - Contactless temperature control of fluid in a fluid dispenser

Info

Publication number: WO2019207589A1
Application number: PCT/IN2019/050025
Authority: WO
Inventors: Raghavendra Udupi NAIK; Buddhi Maduranga MAHIPALA SAMMU ARACHCHIGE
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2018-04-26
Filing date: 2019-01-11
Publication date: 2019-10-31
Anticipated expiration: 2020-10-26
Also published as: WO2019207589A8

Abstract

The present invention discloses a system and method for contactless temperature control of fluid in a fluid dispenser which does not require the user to come in contact with the control knobs of the fluid dispenser. The radar transmitter present in the system emits radio waves, portion of which gets reflected due to the obstruction caused by the hand gesture of a user and the reflected waves are processed accordingly to intercept the user requirement, thus avoiding the need for the user to come in contact, with the fluid dispenser at any point. The system may be optimal to use in any water dispenser including, but not limited to, faucets, shower, etc and finds application in places like aircraft, hospital etc. to make them hygienic.

Description

Contactless Temperature Control of Fluid in a Fluid Dispenser

The present invention relates to a system and method of contactless temperature control in a fluid dispenser for sanitary purposes; more specifically, the invention relates to a system that is capable of sensing human gestures and accordingly change temperature of fluid in a fluid dispenser.

Skin hygiene has been regarded as that of utmost importance for ages now as it is one of the most primary methods of reducing fecal-to-oral transition of infectionspreading microorganisms. Having a clean shower every day and after a heavy sweatinducing activity helps the dirt and germs to flow away from the body, helping it keep clean. The simple act of washing hands before eating or cooking meals prevents the chances of spreading diseases on a large scale, if not entirely.

However, the use of manually controlled fluid dispenser defeats the purpose of cleaning the skin to a great extent, as manually controlled fluid dispensers need the user to touch the dispenser for its operation. The fluid dispenser is often touched by several other users with several different disease-spreading microorganisms on their hands. As a result, users have larger exposure of microorganism as they touch the dispenser for cleaning their hands or shower. Thus, an automatic fluid dispenser that can sense a user wishing to use fluid is needed.

In some applications of advanced fluid dispensers, there are provisions for switching between hot and cold fluid. In this case too, the user is required to touch thefluid dispenser during use. It is not unlikely that the user will get soap froth while showering or germs while washing hands on the fluid dispenser, which will get transferred to the next user of the same mechanism. This can prove to be extremely dangerous at places like hospitals where different types of germs and diseases are omnipresent.

Apart from this, the utilization of contactless control of temperature of fluid in dispensers can only prove to be a boon at any other social organizations like offices, schools, and even domestic households.

Thus, in the light of this discussion, there is a dire need of a contactless temperature control in a fluid dispenser that does not need human contact for functioning and can work solely on the gestures and the movements done by the user in front of it.

Object of Invention

The principal object of the invention is to provide a system for contactless controlling temperature of fluid in a fluid dispenser.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method to emit radio waves and capture reflected radio waves.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method to characterize the properties of radio waves specific to pre-defined gesture of a use.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method to interpret the characteristics of the reflected radio waves and carry out a set of pre-defined tasks.

The invention provides a system and method for contactless temperature controlling of fluid in a fluid dispenser, the system is disposed with at least one radar transmitter configured to emit radio waves, at least one receiver disposed in proximity of the radar transmitter configured to intercept radio waves reflected due to obstruction created by a user’s gesture and at least one processor in communication with the receiver configured to analyze reflected radio waves and initiate a pre-defined command. The processor, which is communicatively coupled to at least one operable part of the fluid dispenser, relays the command to the operable part.

This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, throughout which, like reference letters indicate corresponding parts in the various figures.

The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following description with reference to the drawings, in which:
Fig. 1

illustrates exemplary embodiments where contactless temperature control of fluid is carried out in various fluid dispensers, in accordance with the present invention.
Fig. 2

depicts/illustrates an exemplary embodiment depicting the components and their working for contactless temperature control of fluid, in accordance with the present invention.
Fig. 3

depicts a flowchart illustrating the working of contactless temperature control of fluid in a dispenser, in accordance with the present invention.

The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and / or detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.

The embodiments herein provide a system and method for controlling temperature of fluid dispensed through a fluid dispenser in contactless manner i.e. a user may change the temperature of the fluid as per his/her requirement without physically touching the dispenser. The method comprising emission of radio waves from a radar transmitter; said radio waves get reflected by a pre-defined gesture of a user, reflected waves are detected by a receiver. The fluid dispenser is further disposed with a processor that interprets the reflected radio waves received by the receiver and relays command to one or more operable part contained in the fluid dispenser to get the associated task performed.

In the present disclosure, a fluid dispenser may be referred to as any outlet for the flow of fluid such as, but not limited to, faucets, showers, taps, sink, etc.

In the present disclosure, said dispenser mechanism may be extended to dispensing of any fluid, for the ease of the explanation, description provides the application of contactless mode of controlling the temperature of fluid in a fluid dispensing system with respect to a faucet that dispenses water.

To begin with, the invention talks about a faucet that has a radar transmitter embedded intrinsically. It is apparent to a person skilled in the art that radar is a system used for object-detection that uses radio waves to detect parameters such as, but not limited to, the motion, velocity, and range of the objects.

In one embodiment, the radar may be replaced with any known sensor in the art that is capable of detecting range, angle and velocity of an object.

The sensor consisting of the radar transmitter and the receiver is present in the vicinity of the faucet. The transmitter emits broad beam of radio waves, objects such as user’s hand within the beam scatter this energy, reflecting some portion back towards the receiver. Properties of the reflected wave, such as energy, time delay, and frequency shift capture rich information about the object’s characteristics and dynamics, including size, shape, orientation, material, distance, and velocity. The reflection of waves is caused due to the user gestures in front of the transmitter, and the radio wave reflected by the gesture is detected by the receiver present in the sensor. The received wave is then intercepted by a processor and commands for necessary tasks are relayed by the processor to one or more operable part of the faucet. Pre-defined gestures are assigned to actions like discharging hot or cold fluid.

Referring now to the drawings where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there are shown preferred embodiments.

Fig. 1A and Fig. 1B illustrate various exemplary embodiments 100 of contactless temperature control of water in water dispensers. Owing to the property of dispensing water, the system can be implemented in, but not limited to, faucets, showers and wash basins at domestic and/or public places. Fig.1A provides the system for contactless temperature control of water in a faucet 110 where the faucet 110 is disposed with a sensor 205 which emits radio waves and detects the reflected radio waves and thus, based on the user gesture that caused reflection, specific operation of faucet may be carried out.

Similarly, Fig.1B provides the system for contactless temperature control of water in a shower 120. Since, the system facilitates a user to change the temperature of water dispensed through shower 120 in a contactless mode, it only requires the user to be in the proximity of the sensor 205 and rules out the possibility of spreading bacteria or germs by contact.

Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment 200 depicting working of the components for contactless temperature control of fluid in a faucet.

The system 200 consists of a sensor 205 disposed in the faucet 110, where the sensor further comprising of a receiver 203 and a radar transmitter 204. The sensor 205 is externally connected to an indicator 208 and a processor 206. The processor 206 is further electrically connected or interfaced with one or more operable parts of the faucet110 such as one or more water inlet valve actuators 207 or a potentiometer (not shown in the fig) and the like.

Further, the radar transmitter 204 emits the radio waves which is scattered in the vicinity, some portion of emitted energy is reflected back to the radar 204 by predefined gesture or hand movement of a user. This reflection is detected by the receiver 203 and the same sent to the processor 206. The processor 206 can accurately detect and track components of complex motions caused by a user hand moving and triggers the associated operation.

In a preferred embodiment, the processor 206 is interfaced with hot and cold valve actuators 207 which inlets respective hot and cold water connected in to a water mixer 201. Based on the pre-defined user gesture, the processor 206 inlets the said hot and cold water in proportion into water mixer 201. The required temperature of water may be varied by the user by performing the pre-defined gestures or hand movements.

In an exemplary embodiment, the contactless temperature control of the fluid may be achieved using leap motion technology, where a device (about the size of a USB drive) consisting of a number of camera sensors tracks all movement inside its force field, and is remarkably accurate, down to 0.01mm.when a user gestures with his/her hand in front of the device, it tracks the fingers individually, and knows the difference between each gesture made by him/her. In another exemplary embodiment, the contactless temperature control of fluid may be accomplished through any of the number of other technologies such as structural sensor, Intel RealSense, Orbbec3D, Asus Xtion, Kinect and the like.

In one embodiment, the water mixer 201 may not be a separate chamber in the system, an ordinary T-elbow or a Y-elbow may serve as a water mixer 201 to add hot water coming from a water heater (not shown) and the cold water. The water heater is used for heating water; the heating mechanism implemented in the water heater may be any of electrical heating, solar heating, gas burner and the like. A thermostat (not shown) is also integrated with the water heater in order to prevent scalding; the thermostat may be referred to as a device which senses the temperature of the water in the water heater with a goal to maintain the temperature close to a standard value.

As discussed earlier, a set of hand movements along with associated tasks, which may be detected by the sensor 205 are predefined in the processor 206 and the replication of these gestures by the user signifies the particular task associated with that gesture to be performed. The pair of valves remains closed or in default state until any command is received from the processor 206. For example, consider if the user gestures for decrease in the water temperature, command for increase in the cold-water flow is relayed to the cold valve actuator 207 which in turn increases the amount of cold water in the water mixer 201 and this water 209 from water mixer 201 is dispensed to the user through an orifice 202. Similar mechanism works for increasing the water temperature in a water outlet.

In one embodiment, the specific set pre-defined gestures may be user hand movements which involve motion, range and velocity which are predefined and embedded in the processor 206 during the process of manufacturing of the system. For example, in another embodiment of the present invention, the gesture of palm/finger movement in front of the sensor 205 may be associated with changing the temperature of the dispensed water; wherein moving the hand from the left to right may increase the temperature of the water and moving the hand from right to left may decrease the temperature. There may be yet another embodiment of the present invention where the directions of the hand gestures and the associated tasks are interchanged.

In an additional embodiment of the present invention, if the water dispensed is in atomized form, all above tasks associated with the hand gestures as mentioned in previous embodiments may be achieved by varying the frequency of a potentiometer (not shown) disposed in the system.

In one exemplary embodiment, additionally there may be an IR sensor disposed in the faucet, a user may gesture in front of the sensor to avail contactless turning on and off of the faucet. In an additional embodiment, same technology may be implemented for operation of a contactless soap dispenser as well, where a user may be able to make necessary gesture and the soap dispenser will be triggered to dispense a controlled amount of soap solution to the user without the user having to physically press/touch the soap dispenser.

In one embodiment, the indicator 208 may be a panel of LEDs indicating the various temperatures of the water being dispensed. In an exemplary embodiment, the panel may consist of a range of shades of blue and red LEDs that may indicate the coldness or the hotness of the dispensed water accordingly.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the radar transmitter 204 may be a miniature radar chip that detects touch less gesture interaction such as soli.

In the preferred embodiment, the sensor 205 and the processor 206 are connected to each other wirelessly. Any person skilled in the art will realize that a wireless connection maybe a Bluetooth connection, ZigBee, WiMAX and the like. The reflected waves are transmitted using the aforementioned media for wireless transmission of radio waves.

Fig. 3 depicts a flowchart illustrating working of the contactless temperature control of fluid in a fluid dispenser in an exemplary embodiment. The radar transmitter present intrinsically in the sensor constantly emits radio waves 301. A user’s hand gesture in front of the sensor creates an obstruction due to which portions of emitted radio waves get reflected back to the receiver 302. The reflected waves are analyzed by the processor to extract the significance of the gesture made by the user 303. If the processed gesture signifies ‘hot’, water is first sent to the water heater ; next hot water from the water heater and cold water are mixed in water mixer and then dispensed through the orifice whereas in case of processed gesture signifying ‘cold’, water is dispensed from the mixer without adding hot water to it 304.

The main advantage of a contactless temperature control of water in a water dispenser is that it promotes cleaner and more hygienic environments thereby reduces the chances of spreading disease-causing germs through contact of the same surface.

A water dispenser with the provision of contactless temperature control of water may find its major application in domestic places, schools and professional organizations where a large number of people tend to use the same outlets of water multiples times through the day. Also, the present invention helps making the aircrafts hygienic as it would be possible to implement a fully contactless faucet with the aid of present invention.

Another major application may be at hospital and medical institutions where germs and diseases are very common. Avoiding touching the surface of the controller of the water dispenser can be one step towards reducing the contamination of the environment due to touch and assist in reducing the spread of disease through contact.

As the aforementioned system replaces the need of touching buttons or knobs in the traditional water dispensing systems for receiving hot and cold water, it can be easily implemented in any water dispenser. The automation for receiving hot or cold water as per requirement without having to come into contact with the dispenser physically makes the use of this system more feasible and desirable.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein, is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.

Claims

A system for contactless operation of a fluid dispenser, said system comprising:
at least one radar transmitter disposed in said system wherein said radar transmitter is configured to emit radio waves;
at least one receiver disposed in proximity of said radar transmitter wherein said receiver configured to intercept reflected said radio waves characterized in that said reflection of said radio waves is caused by obstruction created by a user’s gesture;
at least one processor in communication with said receiver wherein said processor configured to analyze said reflected radio wave and initiate a pre-defined command; and
said processor communicatively coupled to at least one operable part of said fluid dispenser wherein said processor relays said command to said operable part.
The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said command may be command for dispensing fluid of requisite temperature.
The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said system comprising a fluid mixer characterized in that hot fluid and cold fluid is mixed in said fluid mixer before dispensing to said user.
The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said system comprising an indicator characterized in that said indicator may be a panel of LEDs indicating the various temperatures of the fluid being dispensed.
The system as claimed in claim 3 wherein said fluid mixer comprising an orifice through which fluid is dispensed to said user.
A system for contactless operation of a faucet, said system comprising:
at least one radar transmitter disposed in said system wherein said radar transmitter is configured to emit radio waves;
at least one receiver disposed in proximity of said radar transmitter wherein said receiver configured to intercept reflected said radio waves characterized in that said reflection of said radio waves is caused by obstruction created by a user’s gesture;
at least one processor in communication with said receiver wherein said processor configured to analyze said reflected radio wave and initiate a pre-defined command; and
said processor communicatively coupled to at least one valve disposed in said faucet wherein said processor relays said command to said valve.
A method for contactless operation of a fluid dispenser, said method comprising:
emitting radio waves by at least one radar transmitter;
intercepting reflected said radio waves characterized in that said reflection of said radio waves is caused by obstruction created by a user’s gesture;
analyzing said reflected radio wave and initiating a pre-defined command; and
relaying said command to said operable part.
The method as claimed in claim 7 wherein said command may be command for dispensing fluid of requisite temperature.
The method as claimed in claim 7 wherein said method comprising mixing of hot water and cold water before dispensing to said user.
The method as claimed in claim 7 wherein said method comprising indicating various temperatures of the fluid being dispensed.