CN105890709B

CN105890709B - Detection device, liquid level measurement method and power socket

Info

Publication number: CN105890709B
Application number: CN201610227014.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 胡师贤; 周研瀚
Original assignee: Touchplus Information Corp
Current assignee: Touchplus Information Corp
Priority date: 2015-04-14
Filing date: 2016-04-13
Publication date: 2020-05-15
Anticipated expiration: 2036-04-13
Also published as: CN105890709A; TW201636584A

Abstract

The application discloses detection device, liquid level measurement method and relevant supply socket, this detection device is applied to the detection of measuring the thing appearance and changing, and it contains: the capacitive sensing electrode unit is arranged at one side of the object to be detected, has a distance with the object to be detected, and generates different sensing capacitance characteristics due to the shape change of the object to be detected; and the control circuit chip is electrically connected with the capacitive sensing electrode unit and used for generating a numerical value representing the shape change of the detected object according to different induction capacitance characteristics generated by the capacitive sensing electrode unit. The invention can utilize a plurality of separated electrodes arranged along a one-dimensional direction to respectively sense, then estimate the approximate position of the liquid level according to the change of the induction capacitance acquired by each electrode, and then more accurately calculate the position of the liquid level by utilizing the electrode grouping technology.

Description

Detection device, liquid level measurement method and power socket

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a detection device, a liquid level measurement method and a related power socket, and more particularly, to a detection device, a liquid level measurement method and a related power socket which can be applied to external deformation detection of a sample.

Background

The detection of the amount of liquid in the conventional container is usually accomplished by an intrusive method, such as using a float, for example, a toilet tank or a fuel tank of an automobile. However, the use of buoys, etc. requires a complex and wearing mechanical structure and has its negative effect on the sealing of the vessel, and it is a main object of the related art means of the present invention to improve these disadvantages.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention mainly relates to a detection device, which is applied to the detection of the shape change of a detected object and comprises: the capacitive sensing electrode unit is arranged at one side of the object to be detected, has a distance with the object to be detected, and generates different sensing capacitance characteristics due to the shape change of the object to be detected; and the control circuit chip is electrically connected with the capacitive sensing electrode unit and used for generating a numerical value representing the shape change of the detected object according to different induction capacitance characteristics generated by the capacitive sensing electrode unit.

The object to be measured can be a liquid conductor, and the change of the shape of the object to be measured can be the change of the liquid level of the liquid conductor.

The object to be measured can be a solid conductor, and the shape change of the object to be measured can be the shape change of the solid conductor generated by the temperature or humidity.

The capacitive sensing electrode unit may include a plurality of separation electrodes arranged along a one-dimensional direction, the control circuit chip is electrically connected to the plurality of separation electrodes arranged along the one-dimensional direction, and performs capacitive sensing on the plurality of separation electrodes, respectively, to obtain a plurality of sensing capacitance differences sensed between a plurality of adjacent separation electrodes of the plurality of electrodes, to select an extremum or an adjacent separation electrode group closest to the extremum from the plurality of sensing capacitance differences, and to estimate a liquid level position according to the adjacent separation electrode group.

Another aspect of the present invention is a liquid level measurement method comprising the steps of: respectively carrying out capacitance sensing on a plurality of separated electrodes arranged along a one-dimensional direction;

acquiring a plurality of induction capacity difference values sensed between a plurality of groups of adjacent separation electrodes in the plurality of electrodes; and selecting an extreme value or an adjacent separation electrode group corresponding to the closest extreme value from the plurality of induction capacitance difference values, and estimating the liquid level position according to the adjacent separation electrode group.

The liquid level measuring method may further include the steps of: connecting a plurality of separated electrodes in parallel to form a large-area equivalent electrode to form a plurality of adjacent large-area equivalent electrode groups; and obtaining an extreme value in absolute values of the capacitance difference values sensed by the large-area equivalent electrode groups, wherein the position corresponding to the extreme value represents a more accurate liquid level position.

Another aspect of the present invention is a power outlet for receiving power provided by a power source, comprising: the sensing unit is used for sending out a proximity signal when sensing that the fingers of a user are close to the periphery of the power socket; a controlled switch electrically connected to the power supply; and a control circuit chip, electrically connected to the sensing unit and the controlled switch, for controlling the controlled switch to be in a closed state in response to a proximity signal sent by the sensing unit, and otherwise controlling the controlled switch to be in a conductive state in response to not receiving the proximity signal.

In the above power socket, the sensing unit may be a capacitive sensing electrode unit.

The power socket can be used for placing a plug, the plug is provided with an induction auxiliary conductor structure which can be electrically contacted with fingers of a user, one end of the induction auxiliary conductor structure is exposed out of the surface of the plug and can be electrically contacted with the plug when the user holds the plug, and when the user holds the plug and places the plug into the socket, the sensing unit in the socket can sense the induction auxiliary conductor structure which can be regarded as the extension of the fingers in an isolated manner.

In the above power socket, the sensing unit may be a proximity switch or a proximity sensing device.

Drawings

Other features, objects and advantages of the present application will become more apparent upon reading of the following detailed description of non-limiting embodiments thereof, made with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

fig. 1a is a schematic structural diagram of a water quantity and water quality detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 1b is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 1c is a schematic diagram of a capacitive sensing electrode unit completed by fifteen separate electrodes arranged along an axial direction according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 1d is a schematic diagram of estimating a liquid level position according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 1e is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of detecting whether there is a high-low head difference between a true circle and a plane according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 1f is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2a is a schematic view of another embodiment of the capacitive sensing electrode unit according to the present invention.

Fig. 2b is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the capacitive sensing electrode unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 3a is a schematic structural configuration diagram of a modular smart display completed by the capacitive sensing technology of the present invention.

FIG. 3b is a schematic structural configuration diagram of a modular scientific screen using the capacitive sensing technology of the present invention.

Fig. 3c is a schematic diagram of a circuit function block of the modular scientific screen shown in fig. 3 b.

In the figure:

water quantity and water quality detection device 1

Capacitive sensing electrode unit 11

Control circuit chip 12

Container 10

Liquid level line 101

Container 109

Capacitive sensing electrode unit 119

Outer casing 199

Control circuit chip 129

Touch input interface 139

Separation electrodes 1400 to 1414

Absolute value a1 of first difference

Absolute value a2 of the second difference

Absolute value a3 of third difference

Quadratic curve equation C

Extreme value m

Measured object 180

Capacitive sensing electrode unit 181

Control circuit chip 182

Sensing electrodes

171, 172

Substrate 170

Power supply 2

Socket 20

Capacitive sensing electrode unit 21

Control circuit chip 22

Controlled switch 23

Socket 29

Sensing electrodes

291, 292

Plug 28

Induction

auxiliary conductor structures

281, 282

Touch display 40

External device 41

Accommodating space 401

Signal connector 402

Partition screen 30

Upper edge 301

Side wall 300

Illumination light source 31

Illumination light source 32

Touch control keyboard 33

Flat panel display 34

Power switch 35

Wireless charging stand 36

Loudspeaker 37

Docking station 38

Indoor telephone 39

Action calculation device 50

The tiles 51.

Detailed Description

The present application will be described in further detail with reference to the following drawings and examples. It is to be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the relevant invention and not restrictive of the invention. It should be noted that, for convenience of description, only the portions related to the present invention are shown in the drawings.

It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present application may be combined with each other without conflict. The present application will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

Referring to fig. 1a, a schematic structural diagram of a water quantity and quality detecting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, and the water quantity and quality detecting apparatus 1 mainly includes a capacitive sensing electrode unit 11 and a control circuit chip 12, which can be mainly used to detect a liquid level in a container 10 to estimate a liquid quantity. The container 10 is preferably made of a material having no shielding capability and a high dielectric constant, such as a non-conductive material, and the strip-shaped capacitive sensing electrode unit 11 may be attached to the outer surface of the container 10 by extending in the vertical direction as shown in the figure. In this way, the capacitive sensing electrode unit 11 can sense the two sides of the liquid level line 101 to present different capacitance characteristics, so that the control circuit chip 12 can determine the position of the liquid level line 101 according to the sensing result of the capacitive sensing electrode unit 11, and further easily calculate the liquid amount in the container 10 without contacting the object to be measured and without intruding into the container 10.

Furthermore, since different liquids or the same solvent but different solute, or the same solvent, solute but different solute amount may have different dielectric coefficients, there is a great chance that the type of the liquid or the change of some characteristics of the liquid can be determined by the sensing and calculation of the capacitive sensing electrode unit 11 and the control circuit chip 12. For example, when the milk or soymilk is deteriorated due to expiration, the capacitance characteristics will be different, so the device of the present invention can effectively sense the difference and detect the change of the milk or soymilk. In addition, the concept of the present invention can be applied to industries for brewing alcoholic beverages, vinegar, and the like, and further, automatic control can be achieved.

Furthermore, the container 10 does not need to be made of a material having no shielding ability and a high dielectric coefficient for all the materials, but can be made of a material having no shielding ability and a high dielectric coefficient at the side wall of the container to which the capacitive sensing electrode unit 11 is attached, for example, the container body can be made of a metal having a high strength, and a thin and long pipeline made of plastic is connected from the bottom and extends upward, and the liquid level of the thin and long pipeline is the same as the liquid level in the container body, and the capacitive sensing electrode unit 11 of the present invention can be attached thereto. In addition, the present invention can be used to sense the level change of other liquids besides water, such as mercury, and thus can be used to achieve the function of a thermometer.

Referring to fig. 1b, which is a schematic structural view of another embodiment provided by the embodiments of the present invention, mainly directed to a liquid volume detection device developed for storing high temperature liquid, because the container 109 of the present embodiment is used for storing high temperature liquid, the capacitive sensing electrode unit 119 cannot be directly attached to the sidewall of the container 109 for measurement, but is disposed on the inner sidewall of the outer shell 199 at a distance (e.g., 1mm in the figure), and because the capacitive sensing electrode unit 119 of the present invention can sense at a distance, the measurement of the liquid level of the high temperature liquid in the container 109 can still be completed by using the control circuit chip 129 electrically connected to the capacitive sensing electrode unit 119. The control circuit chip 129 may further be electrically connected to a touch input interface 139 completed by a capacitive touch switch sensing electrode, wherein the touch input interface 139 is provided for a user to perform a touch gesture operation for operating the high temperature liquid storage device, the control circuit chip 129 may simultaneously perform the driving of the capacitive sensing electrode unit 119 and the control of the touch input interface 139, and the related art may refer to a case previously filed by the applicant, for example, taiwan application No. 104105100 filed on 2015, 2, 13. The high temperature liquid storage device may be a thermos or other similar device that may generate high temperature liquid or gas.

For the details of the capacitive sensing electrode units (11, 119) and the control circuit chip (12, 129), reference may be made to the cases previously filed by the applicant, such as the chinese application No. filed as 2014, 10/09: 201410526889.7, and "control signal generating method, control interface device, and control system" of chinese application No. 201410611424.1, filed 2014, 11, and 4, are described in detail. In order to optimize the resolution of the liquid level judgment, the device can also adopt the following method to measure: first, a plurality of separated electrodes are arranged along a one-dimensional direction to respectively sense, then, the approximate position of the liquid level is estimated according to the change of the induction capacitance acquired by each electrode, and then, the position of the liquid level is calculated more accurately by using the electrode grouping technology.

As shown in FIG. 1c, the present invention can estimate the approximate position of the liquid level by using the difference of the induced capacitances between two adjacent separation electrodes of fifteen separation electrodes 1400-1414 arranged along an axial direction. In detail, a plurality of differences obtained by comparing the difference of the induced capacitance between two adjacent separated electrodes (e.g. separated electrodes 1400 and 1401, separated electrodes 1401 and 1402, etc.) are compared, wherein if the two adjacent separated electrodes are both located in the coverage of the liquid or if neither of the two adjacent separated electrodes is located in the coverage of the liquid, the difference obtained by the comparison is close to zero, and if the two adjacent separated electrodes are located at two ends of the liquid level boundary, the difference obtained by the comparison is maximum (positive value) or minimum (negative value). In other words, an adjacent separating electrode group corresponding to the extreme value or the closest extreme value is selected from all the differences, so that it can be preliminarily estimated that the liquid surface is approximately located between the adjacent separating electrode groups, for example, the vicinity of the separating electrodes 1408 to 1409 in fig. 1 c. In order to estimate the position of the liquid level more accurately, the present invention can further perform measurement and estimation by using a method of separating electrode grouping, first, a control circuit chip (not shown in the figure) connects three separating electrodes in parallel to form an electrode with a larger equivalent area, so that the strength of the sensing capacitor can be improved, thereby increasing the accuracy of estimating the position of the liquid level. In the above embodiment, it is determined that the liquid level is approximately located in the separating electrodes 1408 to 1409 of fig. 1c, so that the absolute value of the first difference obtained by comparing the capacitance values sensed by the equivalent electrodes connected in parallel with the three separating electrodes 1405 to 1407 with the capacitance values sensed by the equivalent electrodes connected in parallel with the three separating electrodes 1408 to 1410 is used, the second difference obtained by comparing the capacitance values sensed by the equivalent electrodes connected in parallel with the three separating electrodes 1406 to 1408 with the capacitance values sensed by the equivalent electrodes connected in parallel with the three separating electrodes 1409 to 1411 is used, and the third difference obtained by comparing the capacitance values sensed by the equivalent electrodes connected in parallel with the three separating electrodes 1407 to 1409 with the capacitance values sensed by the equivalent electrodes connected in parallel with the three separating electrodes 1410 to 1411 is used, and the absolute values a1, b, c and c of the first difference are used, The absolute value a2 of the second difference, the absolute value a3 of the third difference, and a default quadratic curve equation (e.g. parabolic equation) C are used to estimate an extreme value (e.g. maximum) m in the difference, and the position corresponding to the extreme value represents a more accurate liquid level position, which is schematically shown in fig. 1 d.

Of course, in addition to the above embodiments that can be used to detect liquids, the present invention can also be used to detect changes in volume, area, length, or shape of a solid due to deformation, which can be converted into measurements of other physical quantities. For example, in the mechanism for measuring humidity, the core component may be a coil spring formed by combining two different materials, because one surface of the double-layer composite sheet coil spring is an elastic alloy which does not substantially deform with humidity change, and the other surface of the double-layer composite sheet coil spring may be a humidity-sensitive polymer material which expands or contracts with humidity change, so that the coil spring formed by combining the two materials mechanically deforms with humidity change, and the area of a circle formed by the coil spring becomes larger or smaller. The capacitive sensing electrode unit of the invention can be used for sensing the change of the area of the capacitive sensing electrode unit and finally converting the area into digital data representing the change of humidity.

A similar mechanism can also be applied to the mechanism of temperature measurement, and the core component can be a thermosensitive component with high sensitivity to temperature, and the basic principle of mechanical deformation with temperature change is that the thermosensitive component is composed of two different metals, wherein each of the two metals has different thermal expansion coefficients, and when the temperature is increased or decreased, one is more extended (or shortened) and the other is less, so that bending deformation is generated. The capacitive sensing electrode unit of the invention can be used for sensing the shape change of the capacitive sensing electrode unit and finally converting the shape change into digital data representing the temperature change.

In addition, please refer to fig. 1e, which shows another embodiment of the present invention for detecting whether there is a high-low difference between a true circle and a plane. When the object to be measured is an object with high dielectric coefficient, such as an aluminum ring or a metal plate, direct measurement can be performed, but if the dielectric coefficient of the object to be measured is not high enough, a mark made of a material with high dielectric coefficient can be attached to the surface of the object to be measured to assist measurement, and the capacitive sensing electrode unit 181 and the control circuit chip 182 which are located on one side of the object to be measured 180 can be used for measuring whether the aluminum ring or the tire is a true circle or a plane at intervals.

Furthermore, as shown in fig. 1f, two or more sets of sensing

electrodes

171 and 172 are respectively disposed on two corresponding surfaces of a substrate 170, and the variation of the thickness of the substrate 170 can be estimated by measuring the variation of the coupling capacitance between the sensing

electrodes

171 and 172, and if the substrate 170 is a material that expands with heat and contracts with cold, the variation of the coupling capacitance between the sensing

electrodes

171 and 172 can represent the distribution state of the surface temperature of the substrate 170.

Referring to fig. 2a, another embodiment of the present invention is accomplished by using the capacitive sensing electrode unit, which mainly includes a power socket 20, the power socket 20 can be disposed on a wall or an extension line, and the power socket mainly includes a capacitive sensing electrode unit 21 with an isolation sensing capability, a control circuit chip 22 thereof, and a controlled switch 23, wherein the power socket 20 and the power source 2 are electrically connected through the controlled switch 23. The capacitive sensing electrode unit 21 with the space sensing capability can be used for sensing whether the hand of the user approaches the periphery of the socket 20, when the hand and the foot of the user approach the periphery of the socket 20, the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21 sends out a proximity signal, and the control circuit chip 22 can control the controlled switch 23 to be in a closed state according to the proximity signal sent out by the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21, so that when a plug (not shown) of a handheld electric appliance of the user approaches the socket 20, the power of a power supply cannot be transmitted to the socket 20, and therefore, the user can be ensured not to have the worry of electric shock when plugging and unplugging the plug of the electric appliance. Until the user's hand leaves the electrical plug and leaves the socket 20, the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21 will not send out the approach signal any more, and the control circuit chip 22 can control the controlled switch 23 to be in the on state according to the sensing result of the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21. Of course, the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21 may be implemented by other proximity switches or proximity sensing devices instead.

In addition, in order to avoid the malfunction of stopping power supply caused by the approach of hands during normal operation of the electric appliance, the embodiment shown in FIG. 2b can be used instead, wherein the socket 29 is provided with

sensing electrodes

291, 292, the plug 28 of the user-held electrical appliance is provided with sensing

auxiliary conductor structures

281, 282 capable of electrically contacting with the fingers of the user, one end of the sensing

auxiliary conductor structures

281, 282 is exposed on the surface of the plug 28 for electrically contacting with the plug 28 when the user holds the plug 28, at this time, when the user holds the plug 28 and inserts it into the receptacle 29, the sensing electrodes 291,292 inside the receptacle 29 will sense the sensing auxiliary conductor structures 281,282, which can be seen as finger extensions, in the air, therefore, the control circuit chip 22 (not shown in this figure) in fig. 2a can control the controlled switch 27 to be in the off state according to the sensing result of the

sensing electrodes

291, 292. On the contrary, when the user's hand leaves the plug 28, the

sensing electrodes

291 and 292 inside the socket 29 cannot sense the finger, so the control circuit chip 22 (not shown in this figure) can control the controlled switch 27 to be in the on state according to the sensing result of the

sensing electrodes

291 and 292.

Referring to fig. 3a, a schematic diagram of a structural configuration of a modular smart display using the capacitive sensing technology of the present invention is shown, the main concept of the present invention can be referred to the case of the applicant previously filed, for example, the application of the chinese application No. 201410551027.X with the application date of 10/17/2014, the control module and the touch display suitable for the same, which mainly uses the touch display 40 in the case as the core, provides the accommodating space 401 and the signal connector 402 on the back or the side of the touch display 40, in which various external devices 41 can be inserted, and the external devices 41 with the modularized design can be inserted into the accommodating space 401 and connected with the touch display through the signal connector 402 or the wireless signal transmission manner, the area of the external device 41 with the modular design can be designed into several sizes, so as to facilitate the user to insert into the accommodating space with the corresponding size. The external device 41 may be a tv tuner module, a wireless network module, a speaker, a hard disk, or a smart phone, a tablet computer, or a notebook computer carried by the user.

Referring to fig. 3b, a schematic structural configuration diagram of a modular scientific screen completed by the capacitive sensing technology of the present invention is mainly applicable to an office environment, wherein the power socket 20 with the space sensing capability can be integrated on a partition screen 30 for electric shock protection. In addition, in order to achieve the purpose of illumination and energy saving, the illumination light source is fixedly arranged on the upper edge 301 or the side wall 300 of the compartment screen 30, and can be movably accommodated in the upper edge 301 or the side wall 300 of the compartment screen 30. As shown in fig. 3b, the illumination source 31 fixedly disposed on the upper edge 301 of the partition screen 30 can be used as an auxiliary illumination source in the office environment, while the illumination source 32 movably received in the upper edge 301 of the partition screen 30 can be used as a main illumination source in the office environment. Furthermore, the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21, the control circuit chip 22 and the controlled switch 23 with the space sensing capability similar to those in fig. 2a may be integrated in both the illumination source 31 and the illumination source 32, so that when the user's hand approaches the periphery of the illumination source 31 or the illumination source 32, the control circuit chip 22 may control the controlled switch 23 to switch between the on state and the off state according to the sensing result of the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21, so as to make the illumination source 31 or the illumination source 32 emit light or extinguish, or even the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21 and the control circuit chip 22 with the space sensing capability may be used to sense the touch frequency or the sliding gesture of the user, so as to control the brightness of the illumination source 31 or the illumination source 32. Of course, the capacitive sensing electrode unit 21 may be implemented by other proximity switches or proximity sensing devices instead.

In addition, a touch keyboard 33 and a flat panel display 34 with touch function, which are completed by capacitive sensing technology, can be integrated on the desktop and the wall in the drawings, wherein the embodiment of the touch keyboard 33 can refer to cases previously applied by the applicant, for example, taiwan application No. 101136948 of application No. 10/5/2012, and the embodiment of the touch keyboard 34 can refer to cases previously applied by the applicant, and the application No. 201451027. X of application No. 10551027. 10/17/2014, for example, the application No. 2014 and the touch display thereof can be applied to cases previously applied by the applicant. Moreover, the partition screen 30 may further integrate a power switch 35, a wireless charging base 36, a speaker 37, a Docking station (Docking station)38 with touch control function, and an indoor phone 39, wherein the power switch 35 and the Docking station (Docking station)38 with touch control function may refer to the cases previously applied by the applicant, such as the application "touch device" of chinese application No. 201410401129.3 with application date of 2014 8, 15, and the application "touch sensing device and touch system" of chinese application No. 201410670593.2 with application date of 2014 11, 21, while the wireless charging base 36 and the speaker 37 may be extended to the existing products, and thus are not described again. Therefore, in the office environment, it is not necessary to fixedly set a host computer to provide the computing capability, but only an information device (not shown) with computing capability, such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, or a notebook computer, which is carried by a user, is required to be connected with a Docking station (Docking station)38 through a wired connection (e.g., a USB slot) or a wireless connection (e.g., a wireless bluetooth), and the information device can be charged by using the power socket 20 or the wireless charging socket 36.

In addition, in order to facilitate the user to assemble the partition screen arbitrarily according to the requirement, the illumination source 31, the illumination source 32, the touch keyboard 33, the flat panel display 34 with touch function, the power switch 35, the wireless charging base 36, the speaker 37, the Docking station (Docking station)38 with touch function, the indoor phone 39, and other devices on the partition screen 30 of the present invention can be designed as separate but mutually-spliced modules, and the area of the modules can be planned into several sizes to facilitate the user to splice into the screen. For example, in a partition screen support of a conventional office, a plurality of wiring board devices can be added at different positions, each wiring board has a plurality of types of signal connectors, such as a power socket, a telephone signal line socket, a network signal line socket, a universal bus socket, and an HDMI socket, and the position of each type of signal connector is a fixed default position, and the signal connectors at the same position are connected in series, so that the above modules can be assembled and connected with signals only by completing the required connectors at specific positions.

Referring to fig. 3c, it is a schematic diagram of the circuit function block of the modular scientific screen shown in fig. 3b, wherein it is assumed that the flat panel display 34 with touch function is taken as a core, and the touch keyboard 33, the speaker 37, and the Docking station (Docking station)38 with touch function can be connected to the flat panel display 34 with touch function through signal lines or wireless connections. For example, when a user connects the mobile computing device (e.g., a smart phone, a tablet computer, or a notebook computer) 50 with a touch-enabled Docking station (Docking station)38, the touch keyboard 33 can be directly used to input an instruction to the mobile computing device 50, and the touch-enabled flat panel display 34 can be used to display the instruction, and the speaker 37 can be used to play a sound.

In addition, the present embodiment can also integrate the floor tile 51 with isolated touch control into the office space or business place of the present invention, and by sensing the person passing over the floor tile, there can be many applications, such as statistics of the people tide distribution of the booth in the store, or the automation control of the office, etc. For the details of the floor tile 51, reference is made to the descriptions related to the capacitive image sensing system of taiwan application No. 104105100 filed on 2015, 2/13 and the wireless control system, the touch sensing electrode integration module, the touch module and the manufacturing method thereof filed on 2015, 2/17, 104105476 filed on taiwan application No. 104105476. The functions of how the tiles 51 are manufactured and how they are connected in series, powered and signaled are described.

In summary, the embodiments of the present invention provide various apparatuses and methods for sensing by using a capacitive sensing electrode unit and a control circuit chip, which can be used to improve the disadvantages of the conventional methods. Although the present invention has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments, and various changes and modifications can be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A detection device applied to detection of shape change of a detected object is characterized by comprising:

a capacitance sensing electrode unit arranged at one side of the tested object, having a distance with the tested object, and generating different sensing capacitance characteristics due to the shape change of the tested object; and

a control circuit chip electrically connected to the capacitive sensing electrode unit for generating a value representing the shape change of the object to be measured according to the different induced capacitance characteristics generated by the capacitive sensing electrode unit, wherein the capacitive sensing electrode unit comprises a plurality of separated electrodes arranged along the one-dimensional direction, the control circuit chip is electrically connected with the separated electrodes arranged along the one-dimensional direction, and a first number of adjacent separated electrodes are connected in parallel to form a large-area equivalent electrode to form a plurality of adjacent large-area equivalent electrode groups by using the electrode grouping technology, so that the strength of the sensing capacitor is improved, and obtaining the extreme value of the absolute values of the differences of the capacitance values sensed by the adjacent large-area equivalent electrode groups, the position corresponding to the extreme value is the position representing the shape change of the tested object, and the first number is greater than or equal to two.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the object is a liquid conductor, and the change in shape of the object is a change in liquid level of the liquid conductor.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the object is a solid conductor, and the shape of the object changes in response to temperature or humidity.

4. The detecting device for detecting the shape variation of the object under test as claimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of separated electrodes are arranged along a one-dimensional direction for sensing respectively, a plurality of induced capacitance differences are obtained as sensed between a plurality of adjacent separated electrodes of the plurality of separated electrodes, an adjacent separated electrode set corresponding to an extreme value or a closest extreme value is selected from the plurality of induced capacitance differences, an approximate position of the outline of the object under test is estimated according to the adjacent separated electrode set, the electrode grouping technique is to connect a first number of continuous separated electrodes near the approximate position in parallel to form a large-area equivalent electrode set, and obtain the absolute values of the three capacitance values sensed by three adjacent large-area equivalent electrode sets, and a default quadratic curve equation is used to estimate an extreme value, the position corresponding to the extreme value represents the precise position of the detected object contour.

5. A method of measuring a liquid level, comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of separation electrodes arranged in a one-dimensional direction;

by utilizing an electrode grouping technology, a first number of adjacent separated electrodes are connected in parallel to form a large-area equivalent electrode to form a plurality of adjacent large-area equivalent electrode groups, so that the strength of the induction capacitor is improved; and

and obtaining an extreme value in absolute values of the capacitance difference values sensed by the adjacent large-area equivalent electrode groups, wherein the position corresponding to the extreme value represents an accurate liquid level position, and the first number is greater than or equal to two.

6. The liquid level measuring method according to claim 5, further comprising the steps of: firstly, acquiring a plurality of induction capacitance differences sensed between a plurality of groups of adjacent separation electrodes in the plurality of electrodes; and

selecting an extreme value or an adjacent separation electrode group corresponding to the closest extreme value from the plurality of induced capacitance difference values, and estimating an approximate position of the liquid level according to the adjacent separation electrode group, wherein the electrode grouping technology is to connect a first number of continuous separation electrodes near the approximate position in parallel to form a large-area equivalent electrode to form a plurality of adjacent large-area equivalent electrode groups, acquire absolute values of three capacitance value differences sensed by the three adjacent large-area equivalent electrode groups, and estimate an extreme value by using the absolute values of the three capacitance value differences and a default quadratic curve equation, wherein the position corresponding to the extreme value represents an accurate position of the liquid level.