U.S. Philips Corporation

Teruo Hishiki

Makoto Onodera

Takeshi Iso

Geert Geertsma

Yukihiko Atsumi

Akinori Takie

Johannes Ijntema

Lambert J Folmer

Jacob F Verrij

Jouw Van Den Akker

Yoshihiro Shibuya

The invention relates to a shaving apparatus comprising a housing (1) and at least one hair-cutting member (6). In order to prevent a user from irritating and injuring the skin during shaving, as far as possible, the shaving apparatus comprises means for warning the user when a given preset force is exceeded. The means can be, for example, one or more sensors which measure the force between the hair-cutting member and the housing during shaving. The sensor can be, for example, a Hall sensor (21), which is secured to the housing and which cooperates with an annular magnet (19), which is secured to a coupling pin (11) for driving the rotary hair-cutting member (6). The invention can also be used in wet-shavers.

Shaving apparatus

A shaving system with two main components: an electric shaver and a remote device which has a display unit for presenting specific data to the user. The remote device may further comprise a mirror. The mirror and the display unit may be combined to form a single unit. The display unit may be incorporated in the mirror, which for this purpose may be implemented as a partly transparent mirror with the display unit mounted on the backside of the mirror. Additionally, the remote device may perform the function of charging stand for a rechargeable battery of the shaver. In that case the remote device has a docking bay for receiving the shaver. The shaver's battery is charged via electrical contacts between the remote device and the electric shaver, or by means of coils in the remote device and the shaver. The display unit displays status information of the shaver and provides feedback to the user during shaving. The remote device may further be implemented with knobs, buttons or slide controls to adjust shaving parameters in the shaver. Also environmental sensors may be incorporated in the remote device to inform the electric shaver of information relevant to shaving comfort. The data exchange between the remote device and the electric shaver is performed through wireless communication, which for some functions is a two-way communication.

Electric shaving system

An electric shaver comprises a housing (1) formed as a grip, a shaving head (2) comprising at least one cutting unit (11) having an outer cutting member (16) and an inner cutting member which is rotatable relative to the outer cutting member, and drive element for driving the inner cutting member, the shaving head being pivotably connected to the housing. In known shavers the motor is accommodated in the shaving head, resulting in a poor balance and poor contact between the shaving head and the skin. According to the invention the shaver is characterized in that a motor (5) belonging to the drive element is accommodated inside the housing (1), the drive element being adapted to follow the pivotal movements of the shaving head (2) relative to the housing. Preferably, the drive element comprises flexible coupling element, for example a pulley-belt transmission (9, 12, 15) but alternatively the drive element may comprise a universal joint.

Electric shaver

The discharge capacity of a secondary battery, e.g. a Ni-Cd battery, has a maximum value at room temperature and gradually decreases both with an increase and decrease of ambient temperature. The battery discharge capacity also varies inversely with the number of battery charge/discharge cycles of the battery. A circuit for measuring the remaining discharge capacity of the secondary battery comprises a capacitor (23) whose temperature and age-variation characteristics are very similar to those of the discharge capacity of the secondary battery. The current flowing through the battery and motor (13) is detected by a series resistor (17). A voltage follower (20) responds to the detected voltage and drives a resistor (24), so that capacitor (23) is discharged at a rate determined by the resistor (24) current. The capacitor voltage is compared with a predetermined value by a hysteresis comparator (29) which controls the ON/OFF state of a transistor (21) in accordance with the comparison. The comparator output pulses, i.e., the capacitor charge/discharge cycles, are counted by a counter (31). Since the capacitance variation of the capacitor corresponds to the variation in battery discharge capacity with ambient temperature and also with the time of use, the counter (31) indicates very accurately the remaining battery capacity

Circuit for measuring the capacity of a battery

A device for determining the charge status of a battery (4) when it is discharged by a load (R.sub.L) and/or when it is charged by a power-supply circuit (1) in which a value representing the nominal charging time and discharging time respectively is stored in first (10) and second adjusting means (11) respectively and is applied to computing means (12). In response to clock pulses applied to the computing means by a clock means (13), the computing means calculate the charge status of the battery by expressing the elapsed discharging or charging time as a fraction of the adjusted discharging time and charging time respectively. The computed charge status is indicated by indicator means (14). During discharging and charging an actual charge status is detected by first (7) and second (16) detection means. In the case of a difference between the computed and the actual charge status, correction means (15) corrects the computed charge status and the value stored in the adjusting means (10, 11) is updated so that during a subsequent discharging or charging cycle the computed charge status conforms more closely to the actual charge status.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Teruo Hishiki