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US 10,948,101 B2Granted
Noise-responsive control of a sensing system
AssigneeMasco Canada Limited
InventorsDavid Paul Morrish, Bryan Fisher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fluid dispensing device and method for controlling the device are provided. The device includes a housing defining a fluid outlet. A valve controls the flow of fluid to the outlet. A sensor is configured to detect an object outside of and proximate to the housing. A solenoid is configured to move the valve between an open position and a closed position. A controller is configured to receive the output signal of the sensor, determine a characteristic of noise in the output signal such as a level of noise; adjust at least one of a sampling rate of the output signal and an amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to the characteristic of noise in the output signal, and transmit a control signal to the solenoid responsive to the output signal.
Claims25
A fluid dispensing device, comprising:
- a housing defining a fluid outlet;
- a valve controlling a flow of fluid to the fluid outlet;
- a sensor configured to detect an object outside of and proximate to the housing;
- a solenoid configured to move the valve between an open position and a closed position;
- and,
- a controller configured to
- receive the output signal of the sensor;
- perform a process for addressing noise in the output signal including
- determining a characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- and,
- adjusting at least one of a sampling rate of the output signal or an amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to the characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- and,
- transmit a control signal to the solenoid responsive to the output signal,
- wherein the controller is further configured, in determining the characteristic of noise in the output signal, to calculate a root mean square value of the output signal, and to apply a high pass filter to the output signal prior to calculating the root mean square value of the output signal.
11 more elements
A fluid dispensing device, comprising:
- a housing defining a fluid outlet;
- a valve controlling a flow of fluid to the fluid outlet;
- a sensor configured to detect an object outside of and proximate to the housing;
- a solenoid configured to move the valve between an open position and a closed position;
- and,
- a controller configured to
- receive the output signal of the sensor;
- perform a process for addressing noise in the output signal including
- determining a characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- and,
- adjusting at least one of a sampling rate of the output signal or an amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to the characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- and,
- transmit a control signal to the solenoid responsive to the output signal
- wherein the controller is further configured, in determining the characteristic of noise in the output signal, to:
- apply a transform to the output signal to obtain a frequency domain signal;
- and,
- perform a numerical analysis of the frequency domain signal.
14 more elements
A fluid dispensing device, comprising:
- a housing defining a fluid outlet;
- a valve controlling a flow of fluid to the fluid outlet;
- a sensor configured to detect an object outside of and proximate to the housing;
- a solenoid configured to move the valve between an open position and a closed position;
- and,
- a controller configured to
- receive the output signal of the sensor;
- perform a process for addressing noise in the output signal including
- determining a characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- and,
- adjusting at least one of a sampling rate of the output signal or an amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to the characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- and,
- transmit a control signal to the solenoid responsive to the output signal
- wherein the controller is further configured to increase the at least one of the sampling rate of the output signal or the amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to a user command received through an input/output interface of the controller.
11 more elements
A method for controlling a fluid dispensing device, comprising the steps of:
- receiving an output signal of a sensor configured to detect an object outside of and proximate to a housing of the fluid dispensing device;
- determining a characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- adjusting at least one of a sampling rate of the output signal or an amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to the characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- and
- transmitting, responsive to the output signal, a control signal to a solenoid configured to move a valve between an open position and a closed position to control the flow of fluid to a fluid outlet defined in the housing,
- wherein the determining step includes the sub step of calculating a root mean square value of the output signal,
- wherein the determining step further includes the sub step of applying a high pass filter to the output signal prior to calculating the root mean square value of the output signal.
4 more elements
A method for controlling a fluid dispensing device, comprising the steps of:
- receiving an output signal of a sensor configured to detect an object outside of and proximate to a housing of the fluid dispensing device;
- determining a characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- adjusting at least one of a sampling rate of the output signal or an amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to the characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- and
- transmitting, responsive to the output signal, a control signal to a solenoid configured to move a valve between an open position and a closed position to control the flow of fluid to a fluid outlet defined in the housing,
- wherein the determining step includes the substeps:
- applying a transform of the output signal to obtain a frequency domain signal;
- and,
- calculating a power spectral density of the frequency domain signal.
6 more elements
A method for controlling a fluid dispensing device, comprising the steps of:
- receiving an output signal of a sensor configured to detect an object outside of and proximate to a housing of the fluid dispensing device;
- determining a characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- adjusting at least one of a sampling rate of the output signal or an amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to the characteristic of noise in the output signal;
- transmitting, responsive to the output signal, a control signal to a solenoid configured to move a valve between an open position and a closed position to control the flow of fluid to a fluid outlet defined in the housing;
- and
- increasing the at least one of the sampling rate of the output signal and the amount of filtering of the output signal responsive to a user command.
3 more elements
A method of operating a sensing system, which includes a load that receives power from a power source, a controller in communication with the load, and a sensor in communication with the controller, and wherein the method includes the following steps:
- a) receiving an output signal from the sensor;
- b) applying a high pass filter to the output signal;
- c) further processing the output signal to determine a value associated with the signal, including at least one of i) calculating a root mean square (RMS) of the sampled signal or ii) applying a transform to the output signal to obtain a frequency domain signal and performing a numerical analysis of the frequency domain signal;
- d) determining whether the value is above a threshold;
- and
- e) identifying a type of the power source of the sensing system, including
- e1) determining that the power source is an alternating current power source, when the value is determined to be above the threshold, otherwise,
- e2) determining that the power source is a direct current power source.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.