Omron Healthcare Company Ltd.

Colgate Palmolive Company

Masashi Kitamura

Tadashi Koike

Takahide Tanaka

Hideaki Yoshida

Takashi Shigeno

Kazuya Andachi

Yukiko Mitsunami

Masayuki Fukutsuka

Hiroyuki Kato

Mamoru Katano

Yasuhiro Kawabata

Hideyuki Yamashita

Kosuke Abe

Sakae Morikawa

So Noguchi

Shuji Tsuruta

Kenji Eda

Takefumi Nakanishi

Yosuke Fujii

Izumi Hachimaru

Kai Zhong

Chun-Peng Zhang

Toshifumi Matsumoto

In one embodiment, the invention can be a brush unit detachable from a main body unit of an electric toothbrush. The brush unit includes: a light transmitting part included on a front surface of the brush unit, a plurality of tooth cleaning elements extending from the front surface of the brush unit in a pressing direction, wherein the light transmitting part directs more light in a first direction, which intersects the pressing direction, than in the pressing direction; and a light receiving part included on the front surface for receiving light; wherein the light transmitting part and the light receiving part are arranged on opposing sides of the plurality of tooth cleaning elements; and wherein the first direction lies within a plane including both the light transmitting part and the light receiving part.

Electric toothbrush, brush unit, and method for operating an electric toothbrush

An electric toothbrush that detects plaque on the teeth, ensures accurate plaque detection, and performs cleaning of plaque. The electric toothbrush may include a body having a gripping part and a stem with a brush unit detachably coupled to the body. The electric toothbrush may include a light emitting element for emitting light onto the tooth and a light receiving element for receiving light that reflects off of the tooth. A controller may be included to determine an amount of plaque on the tooth based on the amount of reflected light detected. The electric toothbrush may also include a fluid dispensing system that dispenses fluid based on the amount of reflected light detected. In some aspects, the electric toothbrush may operate in multiple oscillation modes, and it may only dispense fluid in some of the modes but not all of the modes.

Electric toothbrush and method for operating an electric toothbrush

The plaque detecting device of the present invention comprises a light emitting unit () which irradiates ultraviolet or blue excitation light (L) toward the tooth surface (), and a first and second light receiving units () which receive radiated light (L′) from the tooth surface (). The first light receiving unit extracts the spectral component of a first wavelength region including the wavelength range of fluorescent light specific to plaque from the radiated light (L′), and obtains a first output value corresponding to the intensity of that spectral component. The second light receiving unit extracts, from the radiated light (L′), the spectral component of a second wavelength region containing the wavelength range of the fluorescent light specific to enamel and having a predetermined lower limit wavelength below the lower limit wavelength of the first wavelength region, and obtains a second output value corresponding to the intensity of this spectral component. Determination of the relative magnitude of the ratio between the first output value and the second output value as compared to a first threshold value is performed. Determination of the relative magnitude of the difference between the first output value and the second output value as compared to a second threshold value is performed.

Plaque detecting device and toothbrush incorporating same

A plaque detecting device including a light emitting unit which irradiates light toward a tooth, and first and second light receiving units which receive radiated light from the tooth. The first light receiving unit extracts the spectral component of a first wavelength region containing fluorescent light specific to plaque and obtains a first output value corresponding to intensity of that spectral component. The second light receiving unit extracts the spectral component of a second wavelength region containing fluorescent light specific to enamel and obtains a second output value corresponding to the intensity of this spectral component. Determination of the relative magnitude of the ratio between the first output value and the second output value as compared to a first threshold value is performed. Determination of the relative magnitude of the difference between the first output value and the second output value as compared to a second threshold value is performed.

In one embodiment, the invention can be an electric toothbrush including a trajectory detecting module configured to detect a trajectory of movement of a brush, the trajectory including a plurality of positions; an attitude detecting module configured to detect an attitude of the brush; a site estimating module configured to estimate a brushing site for each of the plurality of positions of the trajectory, each estimated brushing site being based on the trajectory detected by the trajectory detecting module; and a back most tooth detecting module configured to detect a back most tooth based on a change of the attitude detected by the attitude detecting module; wherein the site estimating module is further configured to correct the estimated brushing site for each of the plurality of positions of the trajectory based on the estimated site of the detected back most tooth.

The plaque detecting device of the present invention comprises a light emitting unit () which irradiates ultraviolet or blue excitation light (L) toward the tooth surface (), and a first and second light receiving units () which receive radiated light (L') from the tooth surface (). The first light receiving unit extracts the spectral component of a first wavelength region including the wavelength range of fluorescent light specific to plaque from the radiated light (L&#x2032;), and obtains a first output value corresponding to the intensity of that spectral component. The second light receiving unit extracts, from the radiated light (L&#x2032;), the spectral component of a second wavelength region containing the wavelength range of the fluorescent light specific to enamel and having a predetermined lower limit wavelength below the lower limit wavelength of the first wavelength region, and obtains a second output value corresponding to the intensity of this spectral component. Determination of the relative magnitude of the ratio between the first output value and the second output value as compared to a first threshold value is performed. Determination of the relative magnitude of the difference between the first output value and the second output value as compared to a second threshold value is performed.

Plaque detecting device and toothbrush

In a blood pressure monitor, when a main unit is mounted on a mounting surface such as a desk, a bulging region of a first tube and a bulging region of a second tube, both located at a rear surface of the main unit, come into contact with the mounting surface. This can avoid the main unit from sliding even when the main unit is pulled by the first and second tubes. Consequently, a blood pressure monitor has a configuration in which the main unit is less likely to slide over the mounting surface even when the main unit is pulled by tubes connected to the main unit.

Blood pressure monitor

Sphygmomanometer

Growing community of inventors

Matsusaka, Japan

Masashi Kitamura