WO2005055791A1

WO2005055791A1 - Improvements relating to dryers

Info

Publication number: WO2005055791A1
Application number: PCT/AU2004/000362
Authority: WO
Inventors: Damien Francis Madden; David Stanley; Zoran Avtarovski
Original assignee: Madden C D Investments Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2003-12-12
Filing date: 2004-03-23
Publication date: 2005-06-23
Also published as: AU2003101012B4; AU2003101012A4

Abstract

A dryer (1) comprising: blower means (5) for providing a stream of drying air, actuation means (11) for actuating the blower means, an electronic screen (13) for displaying images, and an electronic processor (15) for creating the images on the electronic screen.

Description

IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO DRYERS

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to improvements in hand dryers. In a particular non-limiting aspect, it relates to an advertising messaging system incorporating hand dryers which can be used in washrooms.

Background of the Invention

Advertisers are continually seeking new methods of advertising and marketing their products. They are especially interested in approaches which can be incorporated in environments where the target group will inevitably take notice of the advertising concerned. Furthermore, there is a need to be able to change advertising messages at will and to give the option of displaying other forms of messages or images such as warnings, aircraft or other vehicle departure and arrival times, etc. In addition, it is preferable that any advertising technique can be targeted in a gender specific manner.

As part of most advertising/marketing campaigns, it is also desirable that the advertising medium employs a feedback mechanism which allows the advertiser to know when, where and how often the advertising is coming to the attention of consumers.

Given the nature of desirable advertising/marketing parameters discussed above, applicants have determined that the washroom can be seen as a sterile environment which presents an excellent area for advertising, as it eliminates clutter. In particular, the hand dryer is a central point that has potential to capture a significant amount of a user's attention during use of the hand dryer. Typically, this attention span may be between 15 and 21 seconds for operation of the dryer. In addition, because the hand dryer already has a power source, it is well suited for the addition of electronic media advertising. Given the fact that it is used in washrooms, the advertising can even be gender specific. As well, it is suited to being able to capture data concerning usage and to be located in environments where it can be connected to the Internet, especially by wireless connections, so that the advertising can be controlled by one or more central servers.

Disclosure of the Invention

A dryer comprising: blower means for providing a stream of drying air, actuation means for actuating the blower means, an electronic screen for displaying images, and an electronic processor for creating the images on the electronic screen responsive to actuation of the blower means.

Suitably, the dryer includes a housing for the blower means. The actuation means, electronic screen and electronic processor may also be located within or on the housing.

Typically, the dryer will include an outlet nozzle for directing a stream of drying air. The drying air may be heated such as by conventional electric coil or other heating.

The electronic screen may comprise an LCD screen. It may be mounted on an upper part of the front face of the dryer so that it is readily visible by a person using the dryer. The LCD screen may be actuated by the actuation means. It may also have a passive mode where it displays images when the actuation means are not actuated and an active mode where it displays different images after the actuation means have been actuated.

The electronic processor may comprise a Biscuit PC. It may be connected to a server. It may be connected to the server via the Internet. The connection between the electronic processor and the Internet may comprise a wireless connection. Thus, the server may comprise a vehicle whereby the images displayed on the electronic screen can be controlled or changed from a remote location. A multitude of dryers according to the invention may be controlled in this fashion by a central server.

It is anticipated that dryers according to the invention controlled by servers in the fashion hereinbefore described may be located in washrooms at airports, shopping centres, gaming venues, sporting stadiums, libraries, galleries and any other public areas. The images displayed in these various areas may be targeted to take account of the preferences of the demographics of individuals frequenting these areas.

Furthermore, the dryers may be configured so as to report to the server the number of times they have been actuated in a particular location as well as the times and dates of actuation. In this way, such information can be electronically processed to give very useful marketing feedback and information.

Preferred aspects of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawing

Figure 1 shows an x-ray side on elevation of a dryer according to the invention mounted on a wall; Figure 2 shows an elevational front on x-ray view of the dryer of Figure 1; Figure 3 shows an exploded view of the housing of the dryer shown in Figures 1 and 2; Figure 4 shows a block diagram of the electrical components of the dryer of Figure 1; Figure 5 shows a block diagram of an activation sequence for the dryer of Figure 1; and Figure 6 shows a block diagram illustrating the communication network incorporating dryers according to the invention. Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment

The various elements identified by numerals in the drawings are listed in the following integer list.

Integer List

1 Dryer 2 Wall 3 Housing 5 Blower 6 Motor 7 Outlet nozzle 9 Front face 11 Sensor 13 Screen 15 Electronic processor 17 Sheet metal enclosure 18 Grill 19 Rear adapter plate 21 Lower front face 23 Clear fascia panel 25 Upper fascia panel 26 Extruded rail 27 End cap 30 Hand dryer 31 Image display hardware assembly 33 Power supply plug 34 Power cable 35 Printed circuit board 36 Blower motor 37 Heating element 38 Infra red sensor 40 Cable 41 Power supply 42 Motherboard 43 Hard disc drive 44 Modem/wireless 45 Liquid crystal display 46 Inverter 47 Cooling fan 50 Sensing 51 Dryer activation 52 Blower activation 53 Detection 54 Log 55 Update 56 Server log 57 Display signs 58 Passive mode 59 Passive mode 60 Dryer - wireless and GPRS enabled 61 Wireless access router /receiver 62 DCL link 63 Internet 64 Server 65 Computers 66 Telecommunication base station

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, there is shown a dryer generally designated 1 mounted on a wall 2.

The dryer comprises a housing 3 which will be described in more detail hereinafter. Mounted within the housing is a blower 5 driven by a motor 6 and arranged so as to blow a stream of air through the outlet nozzle 7 low down on the front face 9 of the housing.

A sensor 11 adapted to sense hands placed under the outlet nozzle 7 is mounted on the grill 18 forming the bottom panel of the housing 3. The sensor is arranged to actuate the blower so that it blows a stream of dry air, especially electrically heated hot air to dry the hands of a user.

The sensor is also connected to the electronic processor 15 in such a fashion that the electronic processor will display an electronic image on the screen 13, which may typically be an LCD screen, located at an upper part of the front face of the housing. The operation of the electronic processor in providing images for the screen in response to the sensor sensing hands of a user will be described in more detail hereinafter.

The housing 3 is shown in exploded form in Figure 3. It comprises a sheet metal enclosure 17 having a lowermost panel 18 in the form of a grill.

A rear adaptor plate 19 can be secured to a wall and the sheet metal enclosure can then be hung off the rear adaptor plate.

The front face 9 of the housing includes a lower front face 21 through which the nozzle 7 may protrude. It also includes a clear fascia panel 23 which sits over the top and protects the LCD screen 13.

An upper fascia panel 25 closes off the top of the front face and the arrangement of panels in the front is secured between the extruded rails 26. End caps 27 are used to close off the ends of the extruded rails. The Biscuit PC or "Brick" used in the dryer may be manufactured and then inserted into the pre-designed dryer casing shown in the drawings. It forms part of the electronic processor 15. The "Brick" will comprise a 6.4" 640 x 480 TFT and invertor to suit, 533 MHz - 3.5 embedded PC with 128m SDRAM, a 30gb 2.5 Hard Drive, a GPRS Module or Wi-fi Network Card, Antenna High 900/1800 MHz Sma and Power Supply. These components can be supplied and assembled onto a standard housing and then inserted in the dryer. The internal spacing of the component carrier and power supply allows for additional functionality to be added to the Brick at a later stage.

In Figure 4, the electrical componentry is shown in broad outline. Broadly speaking, it can be divided into two main components, namely a hand dryer portion generally designated 30 which may take the form of standard hand dryers currently available on the market and an image display hardware assembly 31 forming part of the now modified hand dryer.

A power supply plug 33 supplies power to both the hand dryer portion 30 and image display assembly 31 via the power cable 34.

The hand dryer includes the printed circuit board 35 which directs electrical power to the blower motor 36 and heating element 37 when activated by a signal from the infra red sensor 38.

Upon activation, the printed circuit board 35 sends a signal via cable 40 to the motherboard 42 having its own separate power supply 41.

The motherboard is associated with a hard disc drive 43 for retaining programming and data in memory and a modem/wireless 44 for communication with an external source of electronic instructions via a server.

The motherboard provides signals for the liquid crystal display 45 and an inverter 46 controls the cooling fans 47. Referring to Figure 5, a typical series of operating steps for the dryer may occur as follows :- Box 50 - hands are placed under the infra red beam of the dryer which senses their presence. Box 51 - the hand dryer is activated via signals from the printed circuit board. Box 52 - the element and blower of the dryer are activated. Box 53 - the image display hardware assembly detects the change of state arising from activation of the printed circuit board. Box 54 - data relating to time of activation and any other processing parameters are logged on to the hard disc of the image display hardware assembly. Box 55 - the imaged display hardware assembly connects to a server to send logs and receive updated media schedule. Box 56 - the server receives the logs and sends updated schedules. Box 57 - signal from the image display hardware assembly activates a change in mode in the liquid crystal display to change the display from the passive mode in box 59 to the active mode of box 57. Box 58 - after a defined time the signal from the image display hardware assembly returns the liquid crystal to display to the passive mode.

The software design can be divided between a central server and the electronics in the dryer. Dryers will communicate with the central server for updating the media schedule, media files and to upload activity log files. Access to the server will be via a GPRS/Wi-Fi connection to the Internet. The dryers will implement a scheduling system which breaks the day up into 8 zones of 3 hours. These zones will be used to schedule media and consolidate log files. The schedule will determine how each message is handled during each zone. Multiple dryers at a range of locations can simultaneously display images as required.

The dryers will have two modes of activity. A latent mode, during which each layer unit will deliver media files scheduled to play during latent periods, and an active mode, which is triggered with the activation of the dryer unit (ie. drying of hands in the washroom) which plays media scheduled to be played during the active mode. The dryer will display a banner manner across the bottom of the screen. The banner will consist of rendered text sourced from a database.

There will suitably be a Linux operating system, firewall security and software required for managed media delivery. The software may consist of two applications; (a) Media Player - This application will display and manage playback and logging. The application will access scheduling information from the database. (b)(i) Communication Tool - This application will be responsible for communication with the server on a regular basis. Log files will be uploaded and any changes to the scheduled will be downloaded. The application will also manage the GPRS modem and connection to the mobile carrier's network or Wi-Fi network card connected to a DSL connection, (ii) Communication from hand dryer to hand dryer, server to hand dryer or hand dryer to third parties using Wi-Fi. Third parties include public access within the 802.11G spectrum.

The dryer server software can provide a hub for dryers in the field. It can facilitate storage of log files, administration of the remote and provide reporting on dryer activity. The server may communicate with the dryers via the Internet and may only provide pull data - where it responds to enquiries from the dryers, it may not instigate communications only respond to requests. This has dual advantages in reducing the server load and increasing security.

The dryer server can authenticate dryers, using a unique ID and password and if successful can write the log data to the server database. The server database can be used to monitor campaign efficacy and activity. If the dryers have not sent a successful request to the server for a set period of time an email can be sent to a predetermined address. The server may also respond to request for files from dryers by streaming the appropriate media files to the server. The server may allow for authorized site users to view on-line reports about the specific campaign activity. The key report may be activity by campaign - an authorized site user may be able to view an activity summary of the chosen campaign which will list the number of dryers that a campaign is or was active on, the number of views of the campaign in the last 7 days and other campaign specifics. There may be an option to drill down further into the information and view information for the specific venue where the campaign is or was active. Dryer activity may be held on the server. This telemetry function can be used to monitor the performance of dryers. Information can include the number of views, time since last request and current status. It may include diagnosis of the dryer machine.

Figure 6 shows a typical block diagram for the communication network which can carry out the steps described previously. A number of dryers 60 which include wireless and GPRS enablement communicate with a wireless access point router/receiver 61 which in turn connects via a DCL link to the Internet 63. The Internet connects with a server 64 which receives and transmits data and instructions from computers 65 operated by the owners of the system or their clients. A telecommunication base station 66 may be used to transmit and receive signals in preference to, in addition to or as an alternative to the wireless access router/receiver 61.

Whilst the above description includes the preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be understood that many variations, alterations, modifications and/or additions may be introduced into the constructions and arrangements of parts previously described without departing from the essential features or the spirit or ambit of the invention.

It will be also understood that where the word "comprise", and variations such as "comprises" and "comprising", are used in this specification, unless the context requires otherwise such use is intended to imply the inclusion of a stated feature or features but is not to be taken as excluding the presence of other feature or features.

The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an aclcnowledgment or any form of suggestion that such prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia.

Claims

1. A dryer comprising: blower means for providing a stream of drying air, actuation means for actuating the blower means, an electronic screen for displaying images, and an electronic processor for creating the images on the electronic screen responsive to actuation of the blower means.

2. A dryer according to claim 1 comprising, a housing for the blower means, and an outlet nozzle for directing the stream of drying air, wherein the electronic screen comprises an LCD screen.

3. A dryer according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the actuation means also actuates provision of images on the electronic screen.

4. A dryer according to any one of the preceding claims comprising, an electric heating element for heating the stream of drying air and memory means for storing images electronically.

5. A dryer according to claim 1 or claim 2 comprising a wireless connection between the Internet and the electronic processor for enabling the images to be created or controlled from a remote location.

6. A dryer according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the actuation means comprises a sensor for sensing the presence of a hand or other body parts placed generally in line with the direction of the stream of drying air.

7. An advertising and communication network comprising a plurality of dryers in accordance with any one of the preceding claims set up for operation in a plurality of washrooms, wherein the electronic processors are adapted to receive signals from a common source and to display images on the electronic screen.

8. An advertising and communication network according to claim 7 wherein the common source comprises a server connected to the Internet.

9. An advertising and communication network according to claim 7 or claim 8 wherein each of the plurality of dryers comprises a dryer in accordance with any one of claims 1 to 6.

10. A method of displaying images on an advertising and communication network according to any one of claims 7 to 9 comprising, transmitting the images electronically from a server to the plurality of dryers, and activating display of the images on each dryer in response to activation of the diyer by a user.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein the images comprise any one or- more of messages, warnings, video images and still images.

12. A method according to claim 10 or claim 11 wherein each dryer displays alternative images during periods when each dryer is not activated by a user.

13. A method according to any one of claims 10 to 12 comprising, sending signals denoting usage from each dryer when activated by a user to the server, and generating an electronic log of dryer usage from the signals denoting usage received by the server.

14. A dryer according to any one of claims 1 to 6 substantially as hereinbefore described.

15. An advertising and communication network according to claim 7 substantially s hereinbefore described.

16. A method according to claim 10 substantially as hereinbefore described.