Patent Grant
10501921
This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201710136359.5 filed on Mar. 8, 2017, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to the field of bathroom accessories, in particular to a toilet and a flushing control method thereof.
In the related art, in the case of flushing a toilet, usually contamination may not be removed completely due to such reasons as hydraulic pressure, or the toilet needs to be flushed for many times, so as to remove the contamination completely, resulting in a waste of water.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide a toilet and a flushing control method thereof, so as to completely remove the contamination in the toilet and save water.
In one aspect, the present disclosure provides in some embodiments a toilet, including: a toilet bowl; a toilet lid covering the toilet bowl; a water tank; a controller arranged at any one of the toilet bowl the toilet lid and the water tank; at least one image collector arranged at a surface of the toilet lid facing the toilet bowl and communicatively connected to the controller; and at least one sprayer movably arranged at the surface of the toilet lid facing the toilet bowl, connected to the water tank and communicatively connected to the controller.
According to the toilet in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the image collector, the controller and the sprayer are arranged at the surface of the toilet lid facing the toilet bowl. The image collector captures an image of an interior of the toilet bowl, and compares the captured image with a standard image. In the case that the image captured by the image collector is different from the standard image, the control acquires a position of coordinates of contamination according to the difference between the image captured by the image collector and the standard image, and control the sprayer to move to a corresponding position and spray water onto the contamination, so as to remove the contamination. As a result, it is able to completely remove the contamination in the toilet bowl through the sprayer.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, a guiding rail is arranged at the surface of the toilet lid facing the toilet bowl, and the sprayer is movably arranged on the guiding rail.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the guiding rail includes: a first guiding rail arranged at the surface of the toilet lid facing the toilet bowl; and a second guiding rail movably arranged on the first guiding rail and extending in a direction deviated from an extension direction of the first guiding rail. The sprayer is movably arranged on the second guiding rail.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the first guiding rail and the second guiding rail are each of a straight line form and perpendicular to each other.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the sprayer is rotatably arranged on the toilet lid.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the sprayer is capable of rotating relative to a direction perpendicular to the toilet lid at an angle of α, and 0°≤α<90°.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, 0°≤α≤45°.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the image collector is arranged at a center of the surface of the toilet lid facing the toilet bowl.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, there is a plurality of sprayers arranged at the surface of the toilet lid facing the toilet bowl and spaced apart from each other.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the sprayer is a high-pressure water nozzle capable of spraying water at a pressure of σ, and 1.0 MPa≤σ≤2.5 MPa.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the water tank includes a first water tank and a second water tank separated from the first water tank, the first water tank is in direct communication with an interior of the toilet bowl, and the sprayer is in communication with the second water tank through a pipe.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the image collector is movably arranged on the toilet lid.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the image collector is configured to, after flushing the toilet, capture an image of the interior of the toilet bowl and transmit the captured image to the controller.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the controller is configured to: receive the captured image from the image collector; compare the captured image with a standard image so as to determine whether or not the captured image is different from the standard image; and in the case that the captured image is different from the standard image, determine that contamination exists in the toilet bowl, determine a position of coordinates of the contamination in the toilet bowl according to the difference, and control the sprayer to move and spray water onto the contamination, so as to remove the contamination.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the standard image is pre-stored in the controller.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides in some embodiments a flushing control method for the toilet, including steps of: capturing, by an image collector, an image of an interior of the toilet; transmitting, by the image collector, the captured image to the controller, and determining, by the controller, whether or not the captured image is different from a standard image; in the case that the captured image is different from the standard image, controlling, by the controller, a sprayer to move and spray water to the interior of the toilet bowl; and in the case that the captured image is identical to the standard image, determining that contamination in the interior of the toilet has been removed.
The other aspects and the advantages of the present disclosure will be given as follows, or will become more apparent, or will be understood through practices.
In order to illustrate the technical solutions of the present disclosure in a clearer manner, the drawings desired for the present disclosure will be described hereinafter briefly. Obviously, the following drawings merely relate to some embodiments of the present disclosure, and based on these drawings, a person skilled in the art may obtain the other drawings without any creative effort.
In order to make the objects, the technical solutions and the advantages of the present disclosure more apparent, the present disclosure will be described hereinafter in a clear and complete manner in conjunction with the drawings and embodiments. Obviously, the following embodiments merely relate to a part of, rather than all of, the embodiments of the present disclosure, and based on these embodiments, a person skilled in the art may, without any creative effort, obtain the other embodiments, which also fall within the scope of the present disclosure.
Unless otherwise defined, any technical or scientific term used herein shall have the common meaning understood by a person of ordinary skills. Such words as “first” and “second” used in the specification and claims are merely used to differentiate different components rather than to represent any order, number or importance. Similarly, such words as “one” or “one of” are merely used to represent the existence of at least one member, rather than to limit the number thereof. Such words as “connect” or “connected to” may include electrical connection, direct or indirect, rather than to be limited to physical or mechanical connection. Such words as “on”, “under”, “left” and “right” are merely used to represent relative position relationship, and when an absolute position of the object is changed, the relative position relationship will be changed too.
In the following, a toilet 100 will be illustrated in view of
The present disclosure provides in some embodiments the toilet 100 which, as shown in
It should be appreciated that, the so-called “image collector” may be a device merely having a function of capturing an image, or a device merely having a function of recording a video, or a device having both of the functions. In addition, unless otherwise defined, the phrase “a plurality of” refers to two or more.
The toilet lid 2 is arranged on the toilet bowl 4, and it may be used to cover or expose the toilet bowl 4. For example, in a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the toilet lid 2 may be arranged on the toilet bowl 4 in a flip-flap manner. To be specific, one end of the toilet lid 2 may be connected to the toilet bowl 4 through a hinge, a pivot or the like, and the other end may be used to facilitate the covering or exposing of the toilet bowl 4. In this way, it is able to reliably connect the toilet lid 2 to the toilet bowl 4 and facilitate the use thereof.
The water tank 5 is in communication with an interior of the toilet bowl 4. In
The image collector 6 may capture an image (e.g., picture or video) of the interior of the toilet bowl, and the captured image may be compared with the standard image.
For example, a user may cover the toilet bowl 4 with the toilet lid 2 after use, so that the lower surface of the toilet lid 2 faces the toilet bowl 4. Then, the toilet may be flushed normally. Next, the image collector 6 may capture an image of the interior of the toilet bowl, and transmit the captured image to the controller 7. The controller 7 may compare the captured image with the standard image. In the case that the image from the image collector 6 is identical to the standard image, it means that the toilet 100 has been flushed successfully and the toilet bowl 4 is clean, and in the case that the image from the image collector 6 is different from the standard image, it means that the contamination still exists in the toilet 100. At this time, the controller 7 may acquire a position of coordinates of the contamination according to the difference between the image from the image collector 6 and the standard image, so as to control the sprayer 3 to move and spray water onto the contamination, thereby to remove the contamination. The standard image may be pre-stored in the controller 7. In this way, it is able to completely remove the contamination in the toilet bowl 4 through the sprayer 3 as compared with the related art where the contamination cannot be removed completely due to such reasons such insufficient hydraulic pressure or a waste of water exists due to repeated flushing operations, thereby to improve the flushing performance of the toilet 100, save water and reduce the cost of using the toilet 100.
It should be appreciated that, the so-called “flushing normally” refers to a conventional flushing operation for the toilet, e.g., a single flushing operation.
According to the toilet 100 in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the image collector 6, the controller 7 and the sprayer 3 are arranged at the surface of the toilet lid 2 facing the toilet bowl 4. The image collector 6 captures an image of the interior of the toilet bowl, and the captured image is compared with the standard image. In the case that the image from the image collector 6 is different from the standard image, the controller 7 may acquire the position of coordinates of the contamination according to the difference between the captured image and the standard image, and control the sprayer 3 to move to a corresponding position, so as to enable the sprayer to spray water onto the contamination, thereby to remove the contamination. As a result, it is able to completely remove the contamination in the toilet bowl 4 through the sprayer 3 as compared with the related art where the contamination cannot be removed completely due to such reasons such insufficient hydraulic pressure or a waste of water exists due to repeated flushing operations, thereby to improve the flushing performance of the toilet 100, save water and reduce the cost of using the toilet 100. In addition, it is unnecessary to remove the contamination in the toilet manually, thereby to facilitate the use of the toilet.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, a driving mechanism (not shown), e.g., an electric motor, may be arranged on the sprayer 3 so as to drive the sprayer 3 to move. The driving mechanism may be provided with a control unit communicatively connected to the controller 7, and a signal may be transmitted by the controller 7 to the control unit, so as to enable the control unit to control the sprayer 3 to move on the surface of the toilet lid 2 facing the toilet bowl 4.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, a guiding rail 21 is arranged at the surface of the toilet lid 2 facing the toilet bowl 4, and the sprayer 3 is movably arranged on the guiding rail 21. In this way, it is able for the sprayer 3 to stably and reliably move on the toilet lid 2, thereby to remove the contamination in the toilet bowl 4 in an accurate and complete manner through the sprayer 3.
To be specific, as shown in
For example, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the first guiding rail 211 and the second guiding rail 212 may each be of a straight line form and cross each other. In other words, an orthogonal projection of the first guiding rail 211 onto the toilet lid 2 crosses an orthogonal projection of the second guiding rail 212 onto the toilet lid 2. The second guiding rail 212 may be connected to a side of the first guiding rail 211 away from the toilet lid 2. In this way, it is able to, with a simple and delicate structure, move the sprayer 3 on the two-dimensional surface of the toilet lid 2 by controlling the movement of the sprayer 3 and the second guiding rail 212, thereby to completely flush the toilet bowl 4 in all directions through the sprayer 3 in an easy manner, and save the water. In addition, it is unnecessary to remove the contamination in the toilet bowl 4 manually, thereby to reduce the difficulty in cleaning the toilet 100 and facilitate the use thereof.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the first guiding rail 211 and the second guiding rail 212 may be each of a straight line form and arranged perpendicular to each other. At this time, one of the first guiding rail 211 and the second guiding rail 212 may be defined as an X-axis, the other may be defined as a Y-axis, and a midpoint of the first guiding rail 211 may be defined as an origin of a resultant coordinate system in a two-dimensional plane. In this way, through controlling the movement of the sprayer 3 and the second guiding rail 212, it is able to move the sprayer 3 on the two-dimensional surface of the toilet lid 2 randomly to a position corresponding to the contamination, thereby to completely flush the toilet in all directions and remove the contamination accurately. In addition, it is able to simplify a manufacture process of the guiding rail 211, thereby to reduce the manufacture cost.
For example, in a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the toilet lid 2 may be of an elliptical shape, the extension direction of the first guiding rail 211 may be identical to an extension direction of a short axis of the toilet lid 2 (i.e., a left-right direction in
It should be appreciated that, the so-called “elliptical shape” shall be understood in general, i.e., it is unnecessary for the “elliptical shape” to be a proper elliptical shape.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
For example, in the case that the contamination exists in the toilet bowl 4, the controller 7 may control the sprayer 3 to rotate, so as to enable the sprayer 3 to be aligned with the contamination and spray water onto the contamination to remove the contamination. In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the controller 7 may control the sprayer 3 to move to a position in proximity to the contamination, and then rotate the sprayer 3 by a certain angle, so as to enable the sprayer 3 to be aligned with the contamination and spray water onto the contamination to remove the contamination.
To be specific, as shown in
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, 0°≤α≤45°. In this way, it is able to simplify a structure of the sprayer 3 while removing the contamination in the toilet bowl 4 in all directions, thereby to improve the reliability of the sprayer 3, prolong its service life and reduce the manufacture cost.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the image collector is arranged at a center of the surface of the toilet lid 2 facing the toilet bowl 4. It should be appreciated that, the word “center” shall be understood in general, i.e., the image collector may not be located strictly at a center of the surface of the toilet lid 2 facing the toilet bowl 4. In this way, it is able for the image collector to capture an image of the interior of the toilet in all directions without the blind angle, thereby to acquire the positions (e.g., coordinates) of all the contamination in the toilet and completely remove the contamination in the toilet bowl 4.
In some other embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
It should be appreciated that, the controller 7 may also move one of the sprayers adjacent to the contamination according to the position of the contamination, so as to enable the sprayer adjacent to the contamination to spray onto the contamination. At this time, the other sprayers may spray water onto the contamination in an auxiliary manner or may not operate. In this way, it is able to reduce a movement distance and a movement time period of the sprayers, thereby to reduce the entire flushing time period, and improve the flushing efficiency and the flushing effect.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the sprayer 3 is a high-pressure water nozzle capable of spraying water at a pressure of σ, and 1.0 MPa≤σ≤2.5 MPa. The pressure may be set according to a type of the toilet 100, and thus will not be particularly defined herein. For example, the pressure of σ may be 1.0 MPa, 1.5 MPa, 2.0 MPa or 2.5 MPa. In this way, it is able for the sprayer 3 to spray the water at a certain pressure onto the contamination in the toilet bowl 4, so as to completely remove the contamination in the toilet bowl 4.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the pipe may pass through the toilet lid 2 and connected to the sprayer 3, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. It should be appreciated that, it is unnecessary for the pipe to pass through the toilet lid 2, as long as the second water tank is capable of being in communication with the sprayer 3 through the pipe.
According to the toilet 100 in the embodiments of the present disclosure, it is able to solve the problem in the related art where the contamination in the toilet cannot be removed completely due to such reasons as insufficient hydraulic pressure or a waste of water exists due to repeated flushing operations, thereby to improve the flushing performance of the toilet and reduce the cost of using the toilet 100. In addition, it is unnecessary to remove the contamination in the toilet manually, so as to facilitate the use thereof.
The present disclosure further provides in some embodiments a flushing control method for the toilet 100 which, as shown in
To be specific, after use or after the normal flushing operation of the toilet 100, the image collector 6 may capture an image of the interior of the toilet bowl 4, and transmit the captured image to the controller 7. The controller 7 may compare and analyze the captured image with the standard image, and determine whether or not the captured image is different from the standard image. In the case that the captured image is different from the standard image, it means that the contamination exists in the toilet bowl, and the controller 7 may acquire the position of coordinates of the contamination according to the difference between the captured image and the standard image, and control the sprayer 3 to move and spray water onto the contamination in the toilet bowl 4, so as to remove the contamination. In the case that the captured image is identical to the standard image, it means that the toilet 100 has been flushed completely, and the control process ends.
According to the flushing control method in the embodiments of the present disclosure, it is able to completely remove the contamination in the toilet bowl 4 through the sprayer 3 spraying water onto the contamination in the toilet bowl 4, so as to solve the problem in the related art where the contamination in the toilet bowl cannot be removed completely due to such reasons as insufficient hydraulic pressure or a waste of water exists due to repeated flushing operations, thereby to improve the flushing performance of the toilet, save water, and reduce the cost of using the toilet.
According to the flushing control method for the toilet 100 in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the image collector 6 captures an image of the interior of the toilet bowl 4, and the captured image is compared with the standard image so as to determine whether or not the contamination exists in the toilet bowl 4. In the case that the contamination exists in the toilet bowl 4, the controller 7 may acquire the position of coordinates of the contamination according to the difference between the captured image from the image collector 6 and the standard image, and control the sprayer 3 to move to a corresponding position and spray water onto the contamination in the toilet bowl 4, so as to remove the contamination. As a result, it is able to completely remove the contamination in the toilet bowl 4 through the sprayer 3, so as to solve the problem in the related art where the contamination in the toilet bowl cannot be removed completely due to such reasons as insufficient hydraulic pressure or a waste of water exists due to repeated flushing operations, thereby to improve the flushing performance of the toilet, save water and reduce the cost of using the toilet. In addition, it is unnecessary to remove the contamination in the toilet manually, thereby to facilitate the use thereof.
In the above description, such phrases as “an embodiment”, “one embodiment”, “some embodiments”, “e.g.” and “for example” are intended to illustrate that features, structures, materials or characteristics are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present disclosure, and these phrases do not necessarily refer to an identical embodiment or example. In addition, the features, structures, materials or characteristics may be combined in an appropriate manner in one or more embodiments or examples.
The above are merely the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Obviously, a person skilled in the art may make further modifications and improvements without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure, and these modifications and improvements shall also fall within the scope of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 1 0136359 | Mar 2017 | CN | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6745417 | Sumino | Jun 2004 | B2 |
| 10183308 | Choi | Jan 2019 | B2 |
| 20100146691 | Chan | Jun 2010 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 102979155 | Mar 2013 | CN |
| 104790484 | Jul 2015 | CN |
| 2510190 | Oct 2014 | ES |
| Entry |
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| First Office Action for Chinese Application No. 201710136359.5, dated Sep. 12, 2018, 7 pages. |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20180258625 A1 | Sep 2018 | US |
