Claims
- 1. A hands-free towel dispenser comprising:(a) a housing for containing at least one roll of toweling; (b) a sensor for detecting an object; (c) a dispensing mechanism for dispensing toweling when said sensor detects the object; (d) at least one battery for powering said dispensing mechanism; and (e) control circuitry for controlling the dispensing mechanism, said control circuitry including a microprocessor and an oscillator circuit that turns power to the microprocessor on mad off at a predetermined frequency.
- 2. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein said housing includes a dispensing slot, trough which toweling is dispensed, and a door mounted on the housing and moveable relative to the housing between a first position at which the door covers the dispensing slot and a second position at which the dispensing slot is not covered by the door.
- 3. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 2, wherein said control circuitry includes a switch that detects the position of said door, and wherein said control circuitry prevents operation of said dispensing mechanism when said door is at the first position.
- 4. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein the control circuitry further includes an options control circuit that permits adjustment in the operation of the dispenser.
- 5. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 4, wherein said options control circuit includes means for adjusting the length of toweling dispensed.
- 6. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 4, wherein said options control circuit includes means for adjusting a delay between cycles of the dispensing mechanism.
- 7. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 4, wherein said options control circuit includes means for adjusting sensitivity of said sensor.
- 8. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 1, comprising a battery pack having a plurality of batteries.
- 9. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 8, further comprising an array of one or more photovoltaic cells.
- 10. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein said sensor comprises an active infra-red sensing circuit.
- 11. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 10, wherein said active infra-red sensing circuit comprises a light emitting diode and an infra-red sensor.
- 12. The hands-free towel dispenser according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined frequency is 7 Hz.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/085,289, filed on May 27, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,898; which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/603,051, filed on Feb. 16, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,291.
US Referenced Citations (31)
Foreign Referenced Citations (3)
Number |
Date |
Country |
2649603 |
Jan 1991 |
FR |
90009755 |
Sep 1990 |
WO |
WO 9958040 |
Nov 1999 |
WO |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
LaCour Systems, Inc. ille Toweltronic brochure. |
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/603051 |
Feb 1996 |
US |
Child |
09/085289 |
|
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/085289 |
May 1998 |
US |
Child |
09/538453 |
|
US |