Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Patent
1998-04-10
2000-08-22
Lefkowitz, Edward
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
3405681, 340999, G08B 2100
Patent
active
061079286
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to devices for sensing the presence of an object in a storage compartment, in particular a minibar. It also relates to a system for the remote collection of data originating from these sensor devices.
Hotel operators are particularly aware of the growing problems linked to the management of minibar installations. They encounter both difficulties in correctly invoicing consumption which is often based on erroneous consumption data supplied by the clients themselves at the end of their stay or collected by staff, and difficulties in efficiently managing the daily restocking of these minibars. Furthermore, they wish to be able to vary the price of the articles consumed in the minibar according to the type of client and particular events.
Systems for sensing objects intended for minibar management using presence sensors are already known for example by Patent DE-A-42 40 623.
There are also known models of minibars equipped with object presence sensors using feelers, which have the drawback however of being sensitive to impact and containing mechanical parts to form the contacts which may deteriorate over time. There are also infrared sensor devices which have the drawback of having a sensory response which is sometimes sensitive to the external characteristics of the object to be detected, in particular its color and packaging, and of implementing links by optical fibers which over time entail connection reliability problems.
Current devices have the common drawback of only providing information on the object's presence or absence, and do not therefore allow a truly quantitative and qualitative management of storage compartments and in particular minibars.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the invention is to overcome these drawbacks by offering a device for sensing the presence of objects in a storage compartment, in particular a minibar, which provides more information than just the presence or absence of the object, while being more solid, less sensitive to the external environment and cheaper than other sensor devices currently on offer.
This device for sensing the presence of an object in a storage compartment comprises a set of capacitive sensor modules each comprising two electrodes located close to a support intended to house an object and an oscillating circuit including the capacitance between these two electrodes, these electronic processing means co-operating with each capacitive sensor module to output sensor signals indicating the presence or absence of objects on each of the said supports.
According to the invention, the electronic processing means also cooperate with each capacitive sensor module in order to supply a capacitive signature of the objects present in the storage compartment.
Thus, thanks to the sensing of the capacitive signature of objects present in the storage compartment, it becomes possible to determine their identification in addition to their presence, thus contributing to better stock management. It should be noted that the notion of capacitive signature encompasses any information and measurement linked to an object's capacitive behavior, whether in a steady state (different capacitances measured in the presence or the absence of an object) or in a dynamic state (capacitance variation laws on removal or replacement of an object).
In particular, it can advantageously be envisaged for the capacitive signature of an object present in the storage compartment to include information indicating a modification of said object's geometric and/or volumetric characteristics.
In a preferred implementation of a sensor device according to the invention, the two electrodes of each capacitive sensor module have a geometry designed to keep a limited and approximately linear variation of the capacitance detected when an object is moved with respect to said capacitive sensor module. Furthermore, this geometry allows the sensing of objects of varying size, in particular objects having a smaller contact surface than the support
REFERENCES:
patent: 4293852 (1981-10-01), Rogers
patent: 4573041 (1986-02-01), Kitagawa et al.
patent: 4810957 (1989-03-01), Rubbmark et al.
patent: 4891755 (1990-01-01), Asher
BEC Etudes Commercialisations
Lefkowitz Edward
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