Patent Application
20130240554
The present invention relates to a solution for detecting level of a consumable in a tissue dispenser.
Some major concerns in washrooms frequented by guests in public or semi-public areas, e.g. company washrooms and so on are to continuously provide a clean environment and that all consumables are available for the guests. For instance making sure that toilet tissue, paper towels, and liquid soap are available is of great concern for the guests but this should be balanced with the cost of janitors visiting the washroom frequently.
Consumables are most often located in dedicated dispensers fixedly located in the washroom and the janitor checks the level of each consumable and refills the dispenser as necessary. When janitors change or refills material in the dispensers on regular service intervals material is often wasted since if there is a small amount still left in the dispenser the janitor changes anyway in order to make sure that the consumable does not run out before the next service occasion. One problem for the janitor is to know which dispensers that needs to be refilled or how much material to bring on a service round. There is therefore a need for solutions where it is possible to monitor the use and report to the janitor if the consumable is running out. Solutions have thus been developed that automatically dispense the consumable and that therefore can keep track of the use and estimate the level left. These dispensers automatically dispense the consumable upon sensing the presence of a guest in the vicinity or if triggered in any other way, for instance through a user interface on the dispenser. However, this type of solution can also lead to waste of material since the automatic dispensing provide a pre defined amount of consumable which is not an appropriate amount for each guest at each occasion. There is therefore a need for a more flexible solution. One such solution is shown in WO2006065515 which illustrates a dispenser with a sensor for detecting identification information of a product, to communicate this to a central unit, and arranged to vary a dispensing parameter, such as the amount to dispense.
Each dispenser is arranged to receive a certain type of consumable/product with a range of different qualities available. There is a need for providing a cost effective solution and energy effective system for determining levels of products in dispenser and at the same time being able to determine type of product with good readability and repeatability.
International Application Publication No. WO 2007/067106 is directed towards a supply package and apparatus for dispensing sheet material. The apparatus comprises a housing arranged for receiving a supply of sheet material, a feed mechanism for advancing the sheet material through a discharge opening of the housing, a motor for driving the feed mechanism and a controller for powering the motor to drive the feed mechanism.
German Patent Application DE 200 16 735 is directed towards a detection system for a variety of donors and/or vending machines.
International Application Publication No. WO 2006/71148 is directed towards a dispensing unit comprising an outer front wall, two outer side walls, a housing for holding a pile of a continuous length of accordion-like folded web of towels of tissue paper or nonwoven comprising bundles, the outer front wall comprises an access opening to the pile, a dispensing opening for the web of towels and a feeding mechanism comprising a member for controlling the dispensing of the web of towels, a drive unit and a braking arrangement for the web of towels. A unit of consumable articles comprises the pile of bundles with connecting means between the bundles, which are insertable through the access opening into the housing in the dispensing unit and added to the bottom of the pile. The web of towels is dispensable from the upper part of the pile by feeding mechanism, which positions the web of towels in a starting mode in the dispensing opening.
International Application Publication No. WO 2007/068270 is directed towards a quantity detection means for sheet material stored as a supply roll. The detection means includes a control means which is arranged to compare the amount of rotation of a drive roller to the amount of rotation of the supply roll during the same time period. The application is also directed towards a dispenser, e.g., for paper towelling, including such a quantity detection device may provide a warning when the amount of sheet material has reached a predetermined threshold.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to alleviate at least some of the problems mentioned for the known solutions.
This is provided in a number of aspects where a first is a tissue dispenser. The tissue dispenser comprises a tissue holder arranged to receive a tissue product to be dispensed from the tissue dispenser and at least one detection device arranged on the tissue holder. The detection device comprises at least one processing unit, at least one communication interface, and at least two sensor elements each comprising a light source and a light detector and the two sensor elements being separated a distance from each other in at least one direction relative the tissue product. The detection device is arranged to transmit light from the light source and detect reflected light in the light detector and wherein the processing unit is arranged to obtain signals from the reflected light from the two sensor elements in relation to each other such that the level of tissue in the tissue holder can be determined and to communicate the obtained signals to a central server using the communication interface.
The dispenser arranged accordingly provides an accurate, reproducible, and flexible way of determining the level of the tissue product in the dispenser.
The processing unit may be arranged to detect a difference signal from the sensor elements, e.g. due to a different reflectivity from each reflectivity level of an area of the tissue or to different reflectivity of reflection fields located on the tissue product. This increases the reproducibility of the detection and may be used for determining the level of tissue product. The level may be determined in steps, e.g. in at least three levels related to need for providing refill: e.g. refill not needed, refill soon to be needed, refill is needed, or furthermore refill changed for another position. This type of level identification translates easily to the purpose of the level detection and provides a quick understanding of what need to be done by the janitor.
The light detector may comprise a photo detector or a light emitting diode (LED) operating in reverse mode. The use of a LED reduces cost for the optical components drastically.
The tissue dispenser may further comprise tissue refill and which refill have a reflectivity level of an area of the tissue or is provided with a reflective field located on the tissue product so as to provide a reflection reference with known reflectivity.
The communication from the tissue dispenser to the server is advantageously provided as wireless communication directly to the server or via a data collection unit. The data collection unit may be located in a washroom and collect data from a plurality of tissue dispensers. The light transmitter and detector may be provided as separate units or in the same unit. In one embodiment the detection unit only measures the signals from the sensor elements and relay this to the server but it should be appreciated that level determination may be provided in the detection unit or in the data collection unit.
The sensor elements are arranged to measure light reflected from the tissue product or the absence of reflected light due to the absence of tissue product. The tissue product may be provided with reflection fields on a side of the tissue product located towards the sensor elements. These reflection fields may be provided using different techniques as will be discussed in the detailed description and depending on these reflection fields, the absence of reflection field, and/or absence of tissue product different signal levels will be obtained by the sensor elements. The sensor elements may be provided using different types of components, combination of components, and optimized depending on type of tissue product to monitor level of. The signals may be communicated with any suitable type of wireless communications technology as will be discussed in the detailed description.
The determined level may be used for determining a cause of action, for instance when the level is getting below a certain level information about this may be transmitted from the server to for instance a janitor in charge of servicing the washroom that refill is needed on the next service round or if the level is below a threshold that refill is needed immediately and the janitor may make an extra service round to the washroom. In this manner the user frequenting the washroom may experience a better environment and reduce the risk for inconvenience of running out of tissue products during the visit.
The tissue product may have a reflectivity level of an area of the tissue, which for instance may be provided by the tissue product itself or through one or several reflection fields located on the tissue product. This will provide flexibility in providing capability of identifying a quality of the tissue product and/or increase the measurement signal, for instance by providing a difference signal between the two sensor elements. The reflectivity level of an area of the tissue product may be provided as a reflection reference and a signal related to the reflectivity may provide at least information about the identity of the product, the level, or the quality of the tissue product. The use of known reflectivity or reflection level may provide information about e.g. level of tissue product, type of tissue product, and/or quality of tissue product. The use of reflection references or at least one or a plurality of reflection fields is advantageous since it is possible to provide further information about the tissue product as indicated above and also provide a further resolution in detecting the current level.
Optical transmitters may be any suitable type generating light in the ultraviolet, infrared, or visible range, such as a lamp, laser, or light emitting diode (LED), and the optical detectors may also be any suitable type for detecting light, such as a photo detector or light emitting diode operating in reverse mode. LED's are cost effective and using them both as transmitters and detectors may provide a flexible and cost effective solution for this type of application which benefits from low cost and high volume components.
The present invention is also provided in a second aspect in the form of a method for detecting level of washroom tissue products and for handling washroom maintenance using the tissue dispenser of the first aspect. In the method one may also be provided with information about consumption by detecting a movement of a tissue refill. The detection device comprises at least two sensor elements and a movement is identified in a direction from a first sensor element to a second sensor element where a level is determined from a difference signal which in turn is determined by obtaining a first and a second sensor signal from the reflected light from each first and second sensor element respectively.
Furthermore, the present invention is realized in a third aspect: a system for handling refill of washroom tissue products using the tissue dispenser and a server. Optionally the system may also comprise a data collection unit collecting data from a plurality of tissue dispensers. The system may also be arranged to detect at least three different types of qualities of tissue product. The system may be arranged to utilize reflectivity level of an area or reflection fields, or the absence of reflection fields for determining the level of tissue product. The system provides a solution for alerting service personnel about the current status of tissue products levels.
Still another aspect of the present invention is provided, a sensor unit for detecting a level of a tissue product in a tissue holder. The sensor unit may comprise two sensor elements each comprising a light source and a light detector. The sensor elements may be separated from each other in at least one direction relative the tissue product. The sensor unit is arranged to detect at least one of reflected light from the light source and wherein the reflection is provided from at least one of a reflective field located at least on a part of a side of the tissue, an area without a reflective field, and the absence of tissue product and wherein the sensor unit is arranged to provide a difference signal from the two sensor elements comprising information relative the level of the tissue product.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is provided, a washroom tissue refill product arranged with at least one reflective field located on at least one side of the tissue refill product, for use together with a tissue dispenser according to the first aspect of the present invention. The reflective fields may comprise information about identity of the product. The identity of the product may be provided utilizing at least one of reflectivity of the reflective field and location of a plurality of reflective fields. The sensor unit is may be provided as a separate unit easily installed in dispenser providing a solution where the sensor unit may be retrofitted in dispenser and/or where it may be fitted with small amount of alterations of the dispensers.
LEDs are energy effective and have a long life time and thus provide a cost and energy efficient solution in this type of solution. Since the detection device may be battery operated it is also energy efficient and easy to install at different locations of interest.
In
The tissue dispensers may be one of two different types: dispensers providing a web of sheet material from a continuous roll of absorbent material and may be periodically perforated for separation or cut by the dispenser or dispensers providing pre cut tissue sheets stacked in a pile. For instance the former type is often used in toilet tissue dispensers and the latter in towel tissue dispensers providing paper for wiping hands after washing.
In
In
An exemplary sensor collection unit (SCU) 400 is shown in
Each sensor element may comprise a light transmitter 404 and 406, e.g. a LED, laser, or lamp, and a light detector, e.g. a LED or a photo detector 405 and 407. Each sensor elements may alternatively comprise both a light transmitter and a light detector in the same sensor unit, e.g. using a LED; this may be seen in
The light transmitter 404, 406 transmits light on to the tissue product, the light is reflected or is dissipated if no tissue product is available; thereafter the reflected light is detected by the detector 405, 407 or the LED detects the absence of tissue product. The LED detector may be a normal LED, e.g. similar to the LED transmitter, operating in “reverse” mode, i.e. when light is directed on to the LED a small current will be produced and this may be detected using appropriate amplification and filtering electronics. The light transmitted from the transmitter may be of any suitable wavelength including, but not limited to, visible, ultraviolet, or infrared wavelengths. It should be noted that the light transmitter and light detector may be separate components or they may be mounted in the same casing and provided as a single component.
The components of the SCU are mounted on a circuit board and appropriately mounted in a casing with light transmitter/detector openings. The SCU may further comprise a power supply, e.g. a battery, light transmitter/detector electronics, e.g. amplification circuitry, drive circuitry, filter circuitry, power supply control circuitry, and circuitry connecting the different functional elements together. The processing unit may comprise any suitable type of unit executing instructions sets of software or hardware program; the processing unit may for instance be a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a micro controller, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The memory unit may be arranged to hold instructions sets for operating the SCU, calibration data and other similar data, and measurement data from the at least one sensor. The processing device is also arranged to communicate with at least one external device, such as for instance a data collection unit (DCU). The memory unit may comprise at least one of a volatile and/or non-volatile memory type memory, for instance at least one of a read only memory, random access memory (RAM), electrical erasable programmable memory (EEPROM), flash memory, hard disk, and so on. The communication unit may be arrange to use any suitable short range communication method, for instance using publicly available unlicensed ISM band (industrial, scientific and medical), e.g. Bluetooth, Wireless local area network (WLAN) according to any suitable standard such as 802.11 standard series, or proprietary communication protocols. It should be appreciated that also long range communication protocols may be used, for instance GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, LTE, WCDMA, CDMA2000, and so on. It should be noted that ISM bands may operate at several different approximate center frequencies such as 6.78 MHz, 13.56 MHz, 27.12 MHz, 40.68 MHz, 433.92 MHz, 916 MHz, 2.45 GHz, 5.8 GHz, 24.125 GHz, 61.25 GHz, 122.5 GHz, and 245 GHz. For instance, a short range device (SRD) uses advantageously a low power radio communication solution operating at any suitable unlicensed wireless communication radio. The frequency interval for the sensing or the radio communication may be changed according to different demands, for instance depending on type of dispenser or battery consumption demands. The sensing intervals as well as the radio communication intervals might e.g. be in intervals of 1 per second, 1 per 10 seconds, 1 per minute, 1 per 5 minutes, every 480 seconds, 1 per 10 minutes, 1 per hour, 1 per day or any suitable time interval there between or longer or shorter
The data collection unit (DCU) 415 comprises, as seen in
It should be noted that even though an embodiment of the present invention has been exemplified with wireless communication between the SCU and DCU and the DCU and the server, alternatively wired connection may be utilized at either connection, e.g. using Ethernet standard. Furthermore, non radio based wireless communication protocols may be used between the SCU and DCU, e.g. infrared communication technology. Furthermore, alternatively, the SCU may communicate directly with the server or with equipment operated by the janitor using a long range wireless communication mode.
The level detector advantageously comprises two separate elements each with a transmitter and detector as discussed earlier. The two elements are separated a distance from each other relative the dispensed product in order to get readings on different parts of the dispensed product. This two elements feature may be useful for increasing the readability of the level detector. The tissue material may be arranged with a reflective field on a side of the refill, which reflective field may be used for reflecting the light from the transmitter and optionally providing a reference of known reflectivity. This reflective field may for instance be applied on only part of the tissue product side as will be discussed later below. However, it should be noted that the two separate elements may be arranged so as to detect different types of reflectivity of the tissue refill, for instance such as one sensor unit detects light reflected from a portion of the refill with a reflective field and the other sensor unit detects light reflected from a portion of the refill without a reflective field—thus signals from the two sensor units will be different and a difference signal may be provided increasing the signal to noise ratio and thus the readability of the level. By varying the reflectivity level of an area of the tissue product or the reflective field it is possible to provide identification of different types of material or different qualities of material. The sensor elements are arranged to detect different contrast values since the transmission light output may be calibrated and may therefore be considered known. Using fields with different reflectivity contrast, e.g. with different colors or grey scales, fields with density gradients, or different intensities, e.g. different intensities of colors, it is possible to provide information about the level, quality, type, and/or brand of the product—the solution may determine a measure of reflectivity level. The reflective field may be made of different dyes of different color, different intensities, a fluorescent material, a phosphorescent material, or different textures creating differences in reflectivity as compared to surrounding areas of the product. The fields may be printed or mechanically provided on the product. The reflectivity level of an area of the tissue may also refer to reflective properties of the tissue paper as well as a reflection field provided on the tissue paper. The reflectivity level of an area of the tissue provides a reflection reference which could provide info about the type of tissue product, quality of tissue product, etc. The reflection reference can also give information about the location on the tissue refill and can refer to the reflective properties of the tissue paper or reflective fields. It should thus be noted that the use of reflective fields is not necessary, but that reflection of the light may be provided directly on the material of the product; however, at the expense of possibly making it more difficult to detect the quality or type of the material. If the quality is to be determined without reflective fields, the sensor unit needs to determine the reflectivity level with higher accuracy and determine the quality from this measurement. The sensor elements are arranged to detect any area capable of reflecting light and/or the absence of tissue product. Use of UV transmitters/detectors may for instance be used to discriminate between virgin or recycled paper since they comprise different levels of whiteners that behave differently in UV light.
The placement of the sensor elements in the dispenser may be varied depending on the type of dispenser, dispenser height, and/or tissue product. For instance the sensor elements may be provided on a rail and may be repositioned and fastened on the rail if so needed.
As for large dispensers, they can be refilled as soon as there is space enough in the dispenser; a problem in such a situation may be that consumption might not be correctly monitored with only one SCU/detection device since it is placed somewhere close to a dispensing outlet, such that the last refill is detected by the SCU unit. In such cases more detection units, i.e. SCU(s) may be required in order to get a relevant level indication.
The sensor elements may comprise different types of light detectors, e.g. LEDs operating in different wavelength areas. One detector may operate in the UV area and the other in the visible or infrared area. Furthermore, the detectors may be of different quality providing different signals depending on the reflectivity level or reflective fields. The use of different types of detectors and/or transmitters may also be used for providing detection of quality of tissue product. The signal strength from the detector will vary depending on light provided and quality of tissue product, for instance reflective properties of recycled tissue paper will depend on recycled content and thus vary from different production batches whereas reflective properties in the visible regime will depend on paper brightness. This may be seen in table 1 below indicting reflectivity for different types of paper and detectors:
With the term recycled in table 1 is meant a paper comprising a high content of recycled paper, with the term virgin with a low content of recycled paper, and the term hybrid paper comprising both recycled and virgin paper.
The same differences may also be found when using different types of coloring of the transmitter and depending on type of light detector each color will give different responses in the light detector. Table 2 indicates differences in detector response as a function of color:
The detector range number indicates a wavelength range where the detector is optimized and is given in nanometers.
One may also combine different types of transmitters and detectors, for instance using a UV LED transmitter together with a RED LED 640 operating in reverse mode may give a good possibility to separate different qualities of paper. Recycled paper may give a low signal in the detector with ordinary LED sensors due to low brightness, whereas the UV sensor would yield a high signal due to high content of fluorescent material in the paper. In virgin qualities the opposite is true, where a LED 640 sensor will yield high signal strength due to the better reflection of the bright paper—the UV sensor yields low signal levels due to the low content of fluorescent material in the virgin paper. Combining the different types of transmitters and detectors may provide suitable separation of different qualities. It should be noted that the two sensor elements may also comprise different combinations.
In applications with a continuous roll of web material another variation of reflective field may be used as can be seen in
The analysis of the current product level, and/or possibly also product qualities, may be executed in the SCU, DCU, or the server. For instance, since the SCU advantageously is battery operated, the analysis is executed in the DCU or server in order to preserve power consumption and prolong the life time before battery replacement is needed. The frequency of detection that the SCU performs may also be adjusted depending on application and desired power consumption when the SCU is battery operated.
The data is transmitted to a server 1001 as illustrated in
The server may serve several locations of a customer and even several different customers. Customers may be for instance a cleaning company handling in turn one or several clients, office locations which handle their own cleaning or maintenance of washrooms, or organization such as schools, retirement homes, hospitals, and similar organizations providing locations with public or semi public washrooms.
The network 1010 may be any suitable network that may transmit data from the DCU to the server, including but not limited to 4G, 3G, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, LTE, IP based network, Ethernet, the Internet, or similar packet data enabled network solutions directly or in a combination of some of these solutions.
The operation of a central server and real time tracking of use of tissue products open up new revenue streams by providing new business cases, such as keeping track of statistics of use for tissue suppliers enabling more efficient manufacturing and distribution, decreasing service intervals of washrooms, more optimal scheduling of service personnel at different locations, decreasing stocks of tissue products, and so on.
It should be noted that the word “comprising” does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps than those listed and the words “a” or “an” preceding an element do not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements. It should further be noted that any reference signs do not limit the scope of the claims, that the invention may be at least in part implemented by means of both hardware and software, and that several “means” or “units” may be represented by the same item of hardware.
The above mentioned and described embodiments are only given as examples and should not be limiting to the present invention. Other solutions, uses, objectives, and functions within the scope of the invention as exemplified in the below described embodiments should be apparent for the person skilled in the art.
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
IP Internet Protocol
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP10/63543 | 9/15/2010 | WO | 00 | 6/6/2013 |
