GB2390892A

GB2390892A - Swipe switch

Info

Publication number: GB2390892A
Application number: GB0207593A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Matthew Paul Michael
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-03-14
Filing date: 2002-03-14
Publication date: 2004-01-21
Also published as: GB0207593D0

Abstract

A switch activated by swiping a hand across a sensor which detects infrared pulses emitted by an LED and reflected by the hand, can be powered from mains Live and Earth. The switch does not require a bulky transformer to step down the power supply, so is compact in size. To prevent accidental switching the hand must be closer than a critical distance to switch in order for it to activate.

Description

Mr Matthew P. Michael 47 Gresham Gardens, London NW I 1 SPA SWIPE SWITCH

This invention relates to a swipe switch which toggles connectivity on each hand swipe. (de: you swipe your hand across the switch and it switches on and swipe it again and it switches off.) Swipe switches are well known and mainly used for toilet flush activation, however they suffer from the disadvantages of protruding from their surroundings and also bulkyness. The object of the switch is to provide a futuristic switch that is concealed flush in its surrounding (eg:a wall). It will have security against acccidental switching, have lightweight circuitry and a good ease of use.

When activating my switch the user swipes their hand across the switch. The hand must be nearer than a "critical distance" from the screen; greater than which the switch will not work. This is protection against accidental activation from other movement near the switch.

Most electronic circuits are powered by power supplies containing enormous transformers and bulky components. I have invented a power supply which is part of my switch's circuitry which does away with the traditional transformer and is much smaller therefore, my switch is much smaller and can fit in places where other electronic circuitry would find impossible. (eg: a light switch back box so the switch could be used for electric lighting).

Most power supplies use mains Live, Neutral and Earth but my power supply only uses Live and Earth and so the switch can be used where no Neutral is present. (eg: in a light switch back box) Most switches usually protrude from their surroundings (eg:wall). My switch is concealed flush and is less of an eyesore.

Normally it is very difficult to see light switches in the dark when the light is off, my switch has a little Light Emitting Diode (LED) so you can see where the switch is in the dark if it is used as a lighting switch.

A detailed description follows:

The swipe switch circuit is connected up to the mains Live and Earth and the switch contacts are connected up to what ever needs switching. As we are dealing with mains all precautions are taken. The circuit is directly behind a thin plastic sheet or screen.

( A mark is on the screen just to the left of the sensor to indicate its position. To activate the switch hold your hand out, above the sensor and in the air (but near to the switch). See figure l. Swipe your hand across the switch. The switch will toggle on and offone state for each swipe.

Your hand must be nearer than a "critical distance" from the screen; greater than which the switch will not work. (ie the hand must be close to the plastic screen) An example of usage would be as a light switch where swiping the switch would turn the switch on and swiping it again would switch it offagain.

A description of workings follow:

A potential divider (P.D) is made up of the switch circuit as the lower resistor and a high wattage resistor is on the top. This is connected across the mains Live and Earth and a forward conducting rectifier diode is placed in the middle ofthe P.D. Thus the power supply of the circuit is sorted.

An osolator is made up to produce a pulse of about 5us approximately every 5ms.

This is fed inline to a infra red LED via a darlington pair transistor arrangement. The critical distance" is set by the amount of current running through the LED. An infra red photo diode picks up the pulses inverted reflected from the LED when an object is placed infront of the LED and photodiode. This is transistor inverted and amplified and sent to a high pass filter the output of which is rectified and fed to a transistor invertor amplifier, the transistor acts as a comparator not allowing any signals from the filter below approximately 0.7v to pass. The signal is then fed via another transistor inverter to a counter with the second least significant bit connected up to reset this is used as a toggle bistable.

The output of the counter forms the base of a high voltage darlington pair the emmitter of which is connected to earth. A potential divider (P. D) is made up of a relay coil as the lower resistor and a high wattage resistor is on the top. This is connected across the mains Live and collector of the above darlington and a forward conducting rectifier diode is placed in the middle ofthe P.D. A zener diode, smoothing capacitor and reversed biased diode is placed across the relay coil.

A resistor is connected to the rectifier diode and this is connected to a zener diode. A smoothing capacitor and low current LED in parallel is connected across the zener and earth.

Claims

( 3 CLAIMS

1. A swipe switch that has a power supply that does not include a transformer.

2. A swipe switch as in claim I that has lightweight circuitry that can fit in a small area.

3. A swipe switch as in claim I with a power supply that only uses mains Live and Earth and so the switch can be used where no Neutral is present.

4. A swipe switch as in claim I that mounts flush with its surroundings so that it is concealed.

5. A swipe switch as in claim I which only works when the users hand is closer than a "critical distance" set by the circuitry. This prevents accidental switching.

6. A swipe switch as in claim I with a Light Emitting Diode (LED) that lights when the switch is off so you can see where the switch is in the dark if it is used as a lighting switch.

7. A swipe switch substantially as described herein with reference to figure 1 and the content on the discription sheets.