The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 09, 2019
Filed:
Dec. 17, 2014
Colgate-palmolive Company, New York, NY (US);
Brian Bloch, Hillsborough, NJ (US);
Lars Ralf Rainer Lieberwirth, Glashuetten, DE;
Colgate-Palmolive Company, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A powered toothbrush apparatus with capacitive touch control is disclosed. The tooth brush includes a head portion having an oscillating tuft block driven by a motor, a handle portion, and an elastically deformable capacitive touch control panel mounted in the handle portion. In one embodiment, the control panel includes a plurality of capacitance sensor buttons each having movable sensor targets paired with a corresponding capacitance sensor electrically connected to a programmable microprocessor. Applying finger pressure on the control panel adjacent a sensor target changes capacitance of the sensor button. The microprocessor detects the change in capacitance, which controls the operating mode of the toothbrush including on/off, motor speed, brushing mode such as pulse, or other. A related operating method is disclosed.