Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Thomas A Mignone

Jeffrey P Rudd

David Malcom Howie

James M Pellegrini

Levi G Fox

James Pelligrini

David M Howie

A capacitive touch switch suitable for use in areas with high environmental and electrical contamination employs a complex excitation signal that is demodulated to better distinguish it from environmental effects. Improved discrimination allows these sensed signals to be offset against a signal developed by a reference electrode to allow the system to operate robustly with contamination on the electrodes that would otherwise trigger or obscure pulses.

Pulsed antenna capacitive touch switch

A method for communicating data is disclosed. The method includes receiving a sequence of electrical pulses during an interval having a pre-determined time period, the sequence of electrical pulses representing a message from one of a plurality of devices, determining the number of received electrical pulses in the sequence of electrical pulses, and decoding the message based on the determined number of electrical pulses received during the interval.

Pulse-based communication for devices connected to a bus

Growing community of inventors

North Falmouth, MA, United States of America

Thomas A Mignone