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US 7,980,421 B2Granted
Optically keyed dispenser
AssigneeGotohti.com Inc.
InventorsHeiner Ophardt, Andrew Jones
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of controlling operation of a mechanism, preferably a dispenser, having a removable component comprises measuring electromagnetic radiation passing through a waveguide carrying at least in part on the removable component and permitting operation of the mechanism only when the measured electromagnetic radiation corresponds with one or more pre-selected parameters. Preferably, the method involves directing emitted electromagnetic radiation with pre-selected input parameters selected from a plurality of input parameters.
Claims18
A method of controlling operation of a mechanism having a removable component removably coupled thereto, comprising the steps of:
- measuring electromagnetic radiation passing through a plurality of waveguides carried on a removable, replaceable component, and
- permitting operation of the mechanism only when measured electromagnetic radiation passing through two or more waveguides complies with one or more pre-selected output parameters,
- the removable component has a plurality of waveguides, and
- the method including measuring the electromagnetic radiation passing through two or more of said waveguides, and
- preventing operation of the mechanism when the measured electromagnetic radiation of a first of the waveguides does not comply with the pre-selected output parameters for the first waveguide and the measured electromagnetic radiation of a second of the waveguides does not comply with the pre-selected output parameters for the second waveguide.
2 more elements
A dispensing system comprising:
- a reservoir assembly including a reservoir containing material to be dispensed and an activation unit,
- the reservoir assembly removably coupled to the activation unit for replacement by a similar reservoir assembly,
- a plurality of electromagnetic radiation waveguides, each having an inlet and an outlet and providing a path for transmission of electromagnetic radiation from the inlet to the outlet,
- an electromagnetic radiation sensor carried by the activation unit sensing electromagnetic radiation from each waveguide via its respective outlet,
- at least part of one of the waveguides carried by the reservoir assembly and removable therewith, and
- a control mechanism to determine if the electromagnetic radiation sensed by the sensor for each waveguide appropriately correlates to a pre-selected electromagnetic radiation profile for each waveguide,
- the control mechanism preventing operation of the dispensing system from dispensing the material when the measured electromagnetic radiation of a first of the waveguides does not comply with the pre-selected radiation profile of the first of the waveguides and the measured electromagnetic radiation of a second of the waveguides does not comply with the pre-selected radiation profile of the second of the waveguides.
4 more elements
A method of controlling operation of a dispensing mechanism having a removable component removably coupled thereto,
- the removable component including a reservoir containing a volume of material to be dispensed,
- the method comprising the steps of:
- determining if a removable, replaceable component has a first keying attribute which complies with a first pre-selected attribute and has a second keying attribute which complies with a second pre-selected attribute,
- preventing operation of the dispensing mechanism with the removable, replaceable component which does not have the first keying attribute which complies with the first pre-selected attribute and does not have the second keying attribute which complies with the second pre-selected attribute,
- estimating the volume of material dispensed by counting activation of a pump mechanism dispensing the material to be dispensed,
- resetting said counting to zero after the removal of the removable component and its replacement with a removable component which has the first keying attribute which complies with the first pre-selected attribute and has the second keying attribute which complies with the second pre-selected attribute, and
- permitting operation of the dispensing mechanism after the removal of the removable component and its replacement with a removable component which has the first keying attribute which complies with the first pre-selected attribute and does not have the second keying attribute which complies with the second pre-selected attribute but only until an estimate of the volume of material dispensed by counting approximates a volume representative of a volume of the reservoir.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.