Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
  • G01N33/00—Investigating or analysing materials by specific methods not covered by groups G01N1/00 - G01N31/00
  • G01N33/48—Biological material, e.g. blood, urine; Haemocytometers
  • G01N33/483—Physical analysis of biological material
  • G01N33/497—Physical analysis of biological material of gaseous biological material, e.g. breath
  • G01N33/4972—Determining alcohol content
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
  • G01N1/00—Sampling; Preparing specimens for investigation
  • G01N1/02—Devices for withdrawing samples
  • G01N1/22—Devices for withdrawing samples in the gaseous state
  • G01N1/24—Suction devices

Definitions

• a tester should be able to rapidly screen individuals with a device which is easily operated and un ⁇ obtrusive. For example, police officers should be able to screen stopped drivers or drivers at roadblocks even where breath mints or other breath odor reducers are being used. Further, unconscious individuals should easily be tested after a traffic accident or in an emergency room environment. Similarly, it would be desirable to screen employees in hazardous occupations as they report to work or to prevent access by intoxicated individuals to bars. The system should allow for easy, single-handed operation which is totally automatic. In most situations, the accuracy of such an ideal device need not be high since it would be used primarily for screening to be followed by a more accurate measurement for legal purposes after the initial screening.
• testing device appeared to have some other function than the alcohol testing one. This would help allay suspicions and would help prevent antagonizing those who are intoxicated.
• the present invention provides an air-borne chemical sensor, specifically for the chemical alcohol, which can be operated with one hand to initiate automatic sampling, testing, and display of the chemical concentration.
• the present invention further provides a dual func ⁇ tion device, specifically an air-borne alcohol sensor and flashlight, which can be operated with one hand, and more specifically by one switch.
• the present invention still further provides a visual display which can be digital or logarithmic to indicate
• the chemical concentration and which can be color coded to indicate zero, medium, or high levels of concentration.
• the present invention even further provides an air ⁇ borne chemical sensor system which includes a power supply monitored by a low power, intermittent indicator system.
• Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention
• Fig. 2 is a simplified schematic of the control por ⁇ tion of the present invention.
• Fig. 3 is a simplified schematic of the power supply indicator of the present invention.
• Fig. 1 therein is shown the alcohol sensor system 10 nd the flashlight 12. It should be noted, while it is not shown, that the alcohol sensor system is coaxial with the flashlight 12 in a housing which resembles a police standard flashlight.
• the alcohol sensor sysem 10 includes a power supply 14 connected by a lead 16 to a power indicator 18.
• the power supply 14 is further connected by a lead 20 to an activator 22, which contains a switch and a conventional RC time delay circuit.
• the activator 22 is connected by lead 24, lead 26, and clock lead 28 to the main controller 30.
• the main controller 30 is connected by leads 32 and 34 to a motor 36 which drives an impeller 38 which is dis ⁇ posed in a housing 40.
• the main controller 30 is further connected by a lead 42 to a chemical sensor 44 which is an alcohol sensitive fuel cell disposed in the housing 40.
• the impeller 38 circulates the air-borne alcohol past the chemical sensor 44.
• Both the main controller 30 and the chemical sensor 44 are connected by leads 46 and 48, respectively, to a display 50.
• the display 50 is a multi-color bar graph display of the type exemplified by the HDSP-4832 device manufactured by Hewlett Packard.
• the display 50 provides ten LED bar lamps, three of which are green, four are yellow and three are red.
• the main controller 30 is still further connected to the flashlight 12 by lead 52.
• the flashlight 12 is connected by a lead 54 to a heater 56.
• the heater 56 is further connected by a lead 58 to a temperature sensor 60.
• the chemical sensor 44, the heater 56 and the temperature sensor 60 abut each other and the heater 56 abuts the chemical sensor 44.
• the main controller 30 which consists of two JK flipflops 60 and 62.
• the flipflop 60 has its JK inputs connected to lead 24 and its clock input connected to lead 28.
• a lead 32 from the motor 36 is further connected to the set input of the flipflop 60.
• the Q output is connected to the lead 46 and the Q output is connected to the leads 34 and 42.
• the flipflop 62 has its J and K inputs connected to the leads 26, its clock input connected to the lead 28 and its Q output connected to the lead 52.
• a power indicator 18 which contains a fixed voltage reference 64 and a ground 66 which are connected to other parts of the alcohol sensor system 10 as would be evident to those skilled in the art.
• the lead 16 is connected to the ground 66 by a voltage divider made up of precision resistors 68 and 70.
• Resistors 68 and 70 are connected by a diode 72 to the base of a PNP transistor 74 and a resistor 76 which in turn is connected to the ground 66.
• the emitter of the transistor 74 is connected to the voltage reference 64 and its collector is connected via a resistor 78 to the base of an NPN transistor 80 which makes up the other transistor of an astable multi ⁇ vibrator.
• the emitter of the transistor 80 is connected to the ground 66 and the collector is connected to a light emitting diode 82 and thence by a resistor 84 and a capacitor 86 to the base of the transistor 74.
• the light emitting diode 82 is further connected by a resistor 88 to the power supply by the lead 16.
• the power supply 14 would be connected by leads to power all of the necessary electronic components, but these leads are not shown so as to simplify the drawings.
• Fig. 1 The operation of the entire system shown in Fig. 1 may be divided into three parts although the latter two may overlap; quiescent, sensing and secondary function.
• the power supply 14 which is generally a series of batteries, supplies power at a very low level to the power indicator 18, logic hights over the leads 24 and 28 to the main controller 30, and a logic low over the lead 26 to the main controller 30.
• the main controller 30 provides highs over leads 34 and 42 to the motor 36 and the chemical sensor 44, respectively, so the motor 36 is off and the chemical sensor 44 is held in a short-circuited condition. Lows are provided over leads 46 and 52 so the display 50 and flashlight 52, respective ⁇ ly, are in their off conditions. With a flashlight 12 off, the heater 56 and the temperature sensor 60 are also inoperative.
• Fig. 3 it may be seen that in the quiescent stae, the JK inputs of flipflop 60 are high and the JK inputs of the flipflop 62 are low to cause the Q outputs to be low and the Q' outputs to be high.
• a switch in the activator 22 is activated momentarily. This causes the inputs to the flipflop 60 to go low and the inputs to the flipflop 62 to go high while starting the time delay of the RC circuit in the activator 22 to provide a typically 0.5 second signal delay to the clock inputs of the flipflops 60 and 62.
• the low from the Q 1 output of the flipflop 60 causes the short circuit across the fuel cell to terminate and the fuel cell to start provid ⁇ ing an output proportional to the alcohol in the air pass ⁇ ing by the fuel cell.
• the low further turns on the motor 36 to cause the impeller 38 to pass through the housing 40.
• the motor 36 has an RC circuit which further provides that it will remain on for at least five seconds to provide a predetermined volume sample of air to the chemical sensor 44. While the motor 36 is operational, a high is provided to the set input of the flipflop 60 via lead 32 to prevent the sensing cycle from terminating.
• the display 50 is turned on by the high out of the Q output of flipflop 60 and provides a visual indication thereof. This is generally a greed light at the lowest bar level of the color bar graph display.
• the switch in the activator 22 is activated for longer than the RC circuit imposed time delay which causes the flipflops 60 and 62 to be clocked. At this point, the flipflop 60 will not change state since its inputs would be low. The flipflop 62 would change state so as to put a high on the lead 52 and cause the flashlight 12 to light.
• the chemical sensor 44 is a fuel cell which will recover most rapidly at a temperature of 40"C. Thus, if a number of readings in succession are desired, the flashlight 12 is activated to cause the heater 56 to heat the chemical sensor 44. If the temperature exceeds 40"C, the temperature sensor 60 shuts off the heater 56.
• the flipflop 62 may be made to change state and to turn the flashlight 12, the heater 56, and the temperature sensor 60 off.
• the power indicator 18 is substantially inoperative.
• the voltage at the junction of resistors 68 and 70 decrease to a certain predetermined level indicating that the power supply, generally some
• the transistors 74 and 80 alternately turn on and off at a rate determined by the capacitor 86 and resistor 84 to hunt for the non-existent stable state which defines an astable multivibrator. This oscillation causes an intermittent flashing of the LCD 82 to indicate that the power level, or the batteries, is low.
• the advantage of the power indicator 18 as configured is that it has a low power draw at all times and with the intermittent flashing of the LCD 82, a low battery indica ⁇ tion can be provided for three one and one-half volt bat ⁇ teries for approximately one week before the LED no longer flashes.
• the display 50 may be either a direct or logarithmic redout with the latter being utilized where wider dynamic range is desired. Therefore, it is to be understood that all matter set forth herein or shown are to be interpreted in an illustrative and not a limiting sense.

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• 1987
  • 1987-12-08 EP EP19880900329 patent/EP0293448A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1987-12-08 WO PCT/US1987/003253 patent/WO1988004419A1/en not_active Ceased

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