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US 2006/0186215 A1Published application
Personalized control of water faucet functions
OwnerJames Loganinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A faucet controller for accepting desired temperature, flow rate, spray configuration selections, and volume delivery limits from a user and for thereafter controlling the delivery of water through the faucet in accordance with the selections accepted from the user. A set of selector “preset” buttons is used to store the current flow state (temperature, flow rate, and spray configuration), as well as volume delivery limits when desired, and that stored state may then restored by pressing the present selector button used to store that prior state. A force feedback joystick may be used to control the faucet.
Claims20
Apparatus for controlling the operation of a faucet comprising, in combination;
- a water delivery system including a temperature controller for delivering water through said faucet at a controllable temperature and a flow rate controller for varying the rate at which water flows through said faucet, said water delivery system including a microprocessor programmed to:
- a) accept a temperature selection command from a user and to transmit commands to said temperature controller to adjust the temperature of said water flowing through said faucet to a selected temperature,
- b) accept a flow rate selection command from said user and to transmit commands to said flow rate controller to adjust the rate at which said water flows through said faucet to a selected flow rate,
- c) accept a capture command from a user for storing data values indicative of said selected temperature and said selected flow rate at the time said capture command is accepted, and
- d) accept a restore command from a user for retrieving previously stored data values and, responsive to said restore command, to employ said data values as retrieved to transmit commands to said water delivery system to deliver water through said faucet at said selected temperature and said selected flow rate.
2 more elements
Apparatus for controlling the flow of water through a faucet comprising, in combination,
- a source of hot water,
- a source of cold water,
- one or more electrically controllable valves for combining water from said source of hot water and from said source of cold water to deliver water through said faucet at a controllable temperature and flow rate,
- an input device for supplying control commands from a user,
- a display device for providing visual output information to said user, and
- a microprocessor programmed to perform operations including:
- responding to control commands from a user indicating a desired temperature by displaying said desired temperature on said display device and transmitting control signals to said one or more electrically controllable valves to deliver water through said faucet at said desired temperature, and
- responding to said commands from said user indicating a desired flow rate by displaying said desired flow rate on said display device and transmitting control signals to said one or more electrically controllable valves to deliver water through said faucet at said desired flow rate.
5 more elements
Apparatus for controlling the flow of water through a faucet comprising, in combination,
- a source of hot water,
- a source of cold water,
- one or more electrically controllable valves for combining water from said source of hot water and from said source of cold water to deliver water through said faucet at a controllable temperature and flow rate,
- a display device for providing visual output information to said user,
- a storage device for storing a plurality of different sets of operating parameters, each of said sets containing a specific temperature and a specific flow rate, and
- a microprocessor programmed to perform operations including:
- responding to control commands from a user indicating a desired temperature by displaying said desired temperature on said display device and transmitting control signals to said one or more electrically controllable valves to deliver water through said faucet at said desired temperature,
- responding to further control commands from said user indicating a desired flow rate by displaying said desired flow rate on said display device and transmitting control signals to said one or more electrically controllable valves to deliver water through said faucet at said desired flow rate,
- responding to a capture command from said user by storing the temperature and the flow rate at which water is being delivered through said faucet at the time said capture command is accepted in said storage device in one of said sets of operating parameters,
- accepting a restore command from said user specifying a selected one of said sets of operating parameters, and
- responsive to said restore command, transmitting control signals to said one or more controllable valves to again deliver water through said faucet at the temperature and flow rate contained in said selected one of said operating parameters.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.