Capacitive touch on/off control for an automatic residential faucet

A faucet comprising:

• a spout;
• a passageway that conducts water flow through the spout;
• an electrically operable valve disposed within the passageway and having an opened position, in which water is free to flow through the passageway, and a closed position, in which the passageway is blocked;
• a manual valve disposed within the passageway in series with the electrically operable valve;
• a manual handle that controls the manual valve;
• a first capacitive touch-control that is positioned in the spout and that generates a first output signal while the first capacitive touch-control is in contact with a user;
• a second capacitive touch-control that is positioned in the manual handle and that generates a second output signal while the second capacitive touch-control is in contact with the user;
• a logical control that receives the first and second output signals, and which toggles the electrically operable valve between the opened position and the closed position when either the first output signal or the second output signal begins and ends within a period of time between a predetermined lower bound and a predetermined upper bound;
• and
• a proximity sensor that is sensitive to motion of objects within a detection zone of the proximity sensor;
• wherein the faucet has a manual mode, wherein the proximity sensor is inactive, and a hands-free mode, wherein the magnetically latching valve is toggled between the opened position and closed position in response to the proximity sensor, subject to being overridden by the output signal and logical control.

A faucet comprising:

• a spout;
• a passageway that conducts water flow through the spout;
• an electrically operable valve disposed within the passageway;
• a sensor operably connected to the electrically operable valve via a logical control, the logical control generating a control signal when the sensor senses an activation event having a duration less than a predetermined threshold;
• and
• wherein the electrically operable valve actuates in response to the control signal.