Emz-hanauer Gmbh & Co Kgaa

Lukas Schade

Manfredi Signorino

Martin Brabec

Georg SPIEßL

Sophia Grimm

Günter Zühlke

Josef Irlbacher

An ice maker for a domestic refrigeration device with an ice-making tray having a plurality of freezing cavities, a support structure installed in the refrigeration device and rotatably supporting the ice-making tray, a rotational drive unit arranged on the support structure for driving the ice-making tray in rotation relative to the support structure, and at least one pair of electrodes arranged spaced apart from one another and having an electrical capacitance which is influenced by the contents of at least some of the freezing cavities. In addition, an electric measuring and control circuit is adapted to determine a capacitance measurement variable which is representative of the electrical capacitance of the electrode pair and to activate the rotational drive unit for rotation of the ice-making tray relative to the support structure in dependence on the fulfilment of at least one condition relating to the capacitance measurement variable.

Ice maker with capacitive ice detection

A capacitive proximity control device () for a domestic washing machine () or other domestic electrical appliance is proposed. In some embodiments, the proximity control device comprises two planar sensor electrodes () arranged on a door () of the washing machine at a spatial distance from one another. An electronic assembly is connected to the two sensor electrodes, which electronic assembly is adapted to generate, in association with each of the two sensor electrodes, an electrical sensor signal which is representative of a change in a capacitance associated with the sensor electrode in question. By mutual correlation of the two sensor signals, the electronic assembly is able to determine a proximity operation of the control device. A shielding electrode can be arranged in the spatial region between the two sensor electrodes.

Proximity control device and domestic electrical appliance equipped therewith

The invention relates to a system for detecting an input and controlling at least one downstream device, wherein the system comprises at least one sensor device and an evaluation and control device connected to the sensor device for signalling purposes, wherein the at least one sensor device detects an input signal which varies at least over time in the form of a movement, wherein the evaluation and control device evaluates at least the time profile of the detected input signal, wherein at least one evaluation condition is specified, and wherein the downstream device is activated when the at least one evaluation condition is met.

System for detecting an input and controlling at least one downstream device

A light sensor device is disclosed for installation in a heat-using domestic electrical appliance such as, for example, a washing machine or a dishwasher and permits the implementation of a touch-free operating function, for example an automatic door opening function. The light sensor device includes in some embodiments: a window element which is formed of light-permeable material and is arranged with space on a first window side for hand movements; a first light source arrangement arranged to radiate visible light into the window element; a second light source arrangement which is arranged to radiate infrared light through the window element from a second window side opposite the first window side; and a photodetector arrangement which is sensitive to infrared light of the second light source arrangement and is arranged on the second window side, for detecting infrared light which strikes the photodetector arrangement from the window element.

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Nabburg, Germany

Lukas Schade