Weighing scales – Structural installation – Furniture or room fixture
Patent
1986-04-09
1987-10-06
Miller, Jr., George H.
Weighing scales
Structural installation
Furniture or room fixture
177209, G01G 1952, G01G 504
Patent
active
046976566
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a device for weighing individuals on a toilet seat.
Bathroom scales have already been known for a long time. They are cumbersome, independent apparatuses, rarely used, whereas the weight of an individual is linked to his general state of health. To maintain this state of health, it is necessary regularly to monitor fluctuations in this weight.
The device according to the invention has as its object to show these possible fluctuations in weight without the particular obligation of monitoring, by placing the weighing device in a place where every individual in civilized countries goes, namely, the toilet seat.
According to a first embodiment of the device according to the invention, measurement of weight is performed by force sensors, or strain gages, working with an electronic computer defining the weight measured by said sensors and delivering a signal through an electronic formatting means to a digital display means, for example, a liquid crystal display or others. The display can be outside the seat. Any known measuring means can be used for furnishing the weight. According to a second embodiment of the device, weighing is performed by means of hydraulic sensors such as described in French patent No. 84 18 936. It comprises as least three points of resting on the toilet bowl made directly with hydraulic sensors molded in a single piece with the toilet seat; the hinge of the seat exhibits sufficient play so as not to disturb the measurement. Said sensors are each made up of a cylinder filled with hydraulic fluid transmitting pressure and closed fluid-tight by a flexible membrane resting on a shouldered piston resting on the bowl, guide and held by an extension of the sensor.
In a variant according to the invention the piston is replaced by a semirigid membrane fastened to the base of each of the sensors and having the function of putting the transmission fluid under direct static pressure as a function of the weight of the user, said pressure being displayed on a known type measuring means, for example, a needle pressure gage placed on an extension at the front of the seat.
The advantage of this invention are the following: the simple fact of sitting down on the toilet seat according to the invention; food intake more closely and consequently to contribute to maintaining a better state of health; absence of leaks and the very low production cost.
The invention is described in detail in the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings given by way of nonlimiting example and in which:
FIG. 1 shows, in top view, an embodiment of the weighing device according to the invention;
FIG. 2 shows, in section AA of FIG. 1, an example of the arrangement of the weight measuring means;
FIG. 3 shows, in perspective, an example of outside weight display;
FIG. 4 show diagrammatically, in top view, the hydraulic weighing device adapted according to the invention;
FIG. 5 shows, in section along BB of FIG. 4, the integration of a hydraulic sensor on a toilet seat;
FIG. 6 shows a variant of the hydraulic sensor also integrated in the seat by molding;
FIG. 7 shows, in section, the orifices for filling the transmission fluid and zero adjustment;
FIG. 8 and 9 show a simplified variant of FIG. 4.
As shown in FIG. 1, the device according to the invention comprises three force sensors 1, 2, 3 placed in a triangular resting on the upper edge of bowl 11. Said sensors are integrated in seat 4 and connected by electric conductors 5 to an electronic unit 6 fed by an electronic supply provided by a battery 7; said unit further comprises a means for formatting measurement signals delivered by the sensors transmitting the total weight to a digital display means 8 placed on an extension 9 of the front of seat 4. The measurement signal can be transmitted by wire to an outside display means 13 (FIG. 3) or else be sent without wire by a transmitter to a suitable electromagnetic receiver of known type. It is also possible to use a voice synthesis unit controlled by a switch.
FIG. 2 shows the arrangem
REFERENCES:
patent: 2057024 (1936-10-01), Gunnison
patent: 3949432 (1976-04-01), Ginsburg
patent: 4056156 (1977-11-01), Dayton
patent: 4489799 (1984-12-01), Menon
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