A toothbrush for providing historic brushing performance
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorWilhelmus Johannes Joseph STUT
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided is a toothbrush adapted to provide an indication of historic brushing performance of a user. In particular, an oral surface of the user engaged by the cleaning element of the toothbrush by a location sensor. A feedback component integrated with the toothbrush then provides an indicator of stored historic brushing performance values corresponding to the oral surface engaged by the cleaning element. In this way, feedback regarding previous tooth brushing sessions may be conveyed to the user without the need for an external display. Moreover, this also reduces the chance of confusion by a user regarding the identification of oral surfaces that may require a change in brushing behavior.
Claims14
A toothbrush adapted to provide an indication of historic brushing performance of a user comprising:
- a location sensor configured to determine a positioning of a cleaning element of the toothbrush;
- a memory module configured to store historic brushing performance values corresponding to oral surfaces of the user;
- a feedback component integrated with the toothbrush, the feedback component comprising a sensory output means;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- determine an oral surface of the user engaged by the cleaning element of the toothbrush based on an output from the location sensor;
- and
- to control the feedback component to provide an indicator of stored historic brushing performance values corresponding to the oral surface engaged by the cleaning element;
- and
- wherein the toothbrush is operable in a brushing state, in which a vibration source causes vibration of the cleaning element, and in a non-brushing state in which the vibration source is inactive;
- and
- wherein the processor is configured to control the provision of the indicator of the historic brushing performance when the toothbrush is in the non-brushing state, as the toothbrush is moved along the oral surfaces of the user.
A method for providing an indication of historic tooth-brushing performance of a user, wherein the toothbrush is operable in a brushing state, in which a vibration source causes vibration of the cleaning element, and in a non-brushing state in which the vibration source is inactive, the method comprising:
- in the non-brushing state, determining an oral surface of the user engaged by a cleaning element of a toothbrush;
- obtaining historic brushing performance values corresponding to oral surfaces of the user, and
- controlling a feedback means integrated in the toothbrush to provide, as the toothbrush is moved along the oral surfaces of the user, an indicator of the historic brushing performance values of the oral surface corresponding to the oral surface engaged by the cleaning element, wherein the indicator comprises a sensory output.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.