Domestic appliance comprising door handle

Abstract

The household appliance according to the invention comprises a first electrode (10) electrically insulated from any electrically conductive material and arranged in a region above a door aperture that can be closed by a door (4), and a second electrode (12) arranged on a side of the door (4) and spaced apart from the first electrode (10). The electrodes (10, 12) are electrically insulated from each other. An electronic module (7) is arranged in the housing (2) in a region above the door aperture that can be closed by means of the door (4), which electronic module comprises an electronic circuit (8) and a controller (9) with integrated software facilitating capacitance measurement, which makes it possible to sense a touch by the user (6). The handle (5), by means of which the door (4) can be manipulated, is provided as an interface for sensing a touch by a user (6).

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a household appliance including a door handle, which is arranged on the outer side of the door of the household appliance, and by means of which the interior of the household appliance can be closed relative to the surroundings of the household appliance, wherein the door handle includes at least a part of an electronic system for cooperation between the household appliance and its user.

[0002] For example, the above-mentioned household appliances are disclosed in patent applications WO2020046150A1, EP3034948A1, WO2020046151A1. The known solutions mainly involve integrating an electronic touch sensing module on / in the door handle or the door of the household appliance, which significantly limits the design of the handle or the door of the appliance. In addition, the known solutions require an electrical connection between the door of the household appliance and the control unit of the appliance, which cooperates with the electronic module via a dedicated hinge or an electrical conductor. This particular feature has significant drawbacks, thus limiting the design and usefulness of the household appliance, preventing simple upgrading of existing appliances and complicating the assembly of the final household appliance. The above features also result in a higher cost of manufacturing the appliance.

[0003] The object of the present invention is to provide a household appliance of the above type that will remedy the drawbacks of the known solutions.

[0004] The object of the present invention is achieved by the features described in the characterizing part of claim 1. Details of the present invention are disclosed in the corresponding dependent claims.

[0005] The present invention relates to a household appliance including a door handle, which is arranged on the outer side of the household appliance door, and by means of which it is possible to close the interior of the household appliance relative to the surroundings of the household appliance, wherein the door handle includes at least one electronic system for cooperation between the household appliance and the user of the door handle of the household appliance or for enabling sensing of the user's touch command. Touch sensing is a technique based on measuring the capacitance between the handle of the appliance and / or any other conductive surface on the appliance and the ground potential.

[0006] The present invention will be described in further detail by way of non-limiting examples and with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 a schematic view from the front shows the household appliance, Figure 2 shows Figure 1 details of a cross-section of the household appliance shown in side view, Figure 3 a schematic view shows the interaction between the household appliance and the user, Figure 4A signal timeline during a single user interaction with a household appliance is shown schematically. Figure 5 A signal timeline during repeated user interactions with a household appliance is shown schematically, and Figure 6 Detection of the degree of opening or closing of the door of the household appliance is shown schematically.

[0007] Household appliance 1, such as an oven, a refrigerator, a dishwasher, a washing machine or the like, includes a housing 2 having at least one compartment 3 for receiving items to be heat-treated, stored or the like, wherein at least one of said compartments 3 can be closed by a single-part or multi-part door 4, which door 4 is fixed to the housing 2 of the household appliance 1 by hinges, preferably in such a way that the door 4 can be easily removed. The door 4 can be opened or closed by a handle 5 connected to the door 4.

[0008] The handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 is at least partly made of a conductive material, such as metal. According to the invention, the handle 5 serves as an interface for sensing the touch of a user 6, by means of which the door 4 of the household appliance 1 can be manipulated, wherein the handle 5 has to be electrically insulated from the door 4 of the household appliance 1 and other conductive elements of the housing 2 of the household appliance 1.

[0009] Furthermore, according to the invention, an electronic module 7 is provided, which is arranged inside the housing 2 of the household appliance 1, in the region above the door aperture, which door aperture can be closed by the door 4. The latter is preferably arranged in the region directly above the door aperture, which door aperture can be closed by the door 4. Furthermore, the electronic module 7 includes an electronic circuit 8, a controller 9 with integrated software facilitating capacitance measurement and a first electrode 10, the capacitance measurement enabling the sensing of the touch of a user 6. The electronic module 7 is arranged such that the first electrode 10 is electrically insulated from the housing 2 of the household appliance 1 or any conductive material.

[0010] The capacitance coupler 11 includes a first electrode 10 and a second electrode 12, the first electrode 10 being connected to the electronic module 7 and arranged in the region above the door aperture, which door aperture can be closed by the door 4, and the second electrode 12 being arranged on the side of the door 4 and spaced apart from the first electrode 10. The electrodes 10, 12 are electrically insulated from each other, for example by an air gap a. The capacitance coupler 11 facilitates indirectly measuring the capacitance between the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 and the ground potential in such a way that the first electrode 10 of the electronic module 7 is electrically isolated from the handle 5 of the household appliance 1, while the second electrode 12 is electrically connected to the handle 5 of the household appliance 1 by a conductor 13, which can be touched by the user 6.

[0011] The first electrode 10 is formed in such a way as to allow compensation for mechanical deviations and structural strains during the manufacture, assembly and use of the household appliance 1 according to the invention, where the first electrode 10 is formed of a flexible material, for example in the form of a spring.

[0012] The second electrode 12 provided on one side of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 is arranged on the upper rear side of the door 4 in such a way that whenever the door 4 of the household appliance 1 is in the position of closing the compartment 3, the second electrode 12 is aligned with the opposite first electrode 10. The second electrode 12 is electrically connected to the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 through an electrical conductor or other conductive component. At least one of the electrodes 10, 12 is electrically insulated from any other conductive part of the household appliance 1. In the illustrated embodiment, the second electrode 12 is electrically insulated from any other conductive part of the household appliance 1 through an insulating element 14. In the presented embodiment, it is provided that the electrode 12 is inserted into the plastic flange on the door 4 of the household appliance 1 by a technique for injecting metal parts into plastic. Furthermore, in a preferred embodiment, it is provided that the overlapping area of the electrodes 10, 12 is as large as possible, which improves the quality of capacitive touch and thus the sensitivity of the entire touch sensing system on the handle of the door 4 of the household appliance 1.

[0013] To operate the household appliance 1 according to the invention, a user interface 15 with a screen and appropriate markings is also provided. The user interface 15 and the electronic module 7 are connected to each other through an electronic communication interface 16 such as UART, I2C, LIN, SPI, discrete electrical signals, etc.

[0014] Through the capacitive coupler 11, the capacitance on the handle 5 of the household appliance 1 can be measured with minimal interference to the design of the door 4 of the household appliance 1, which eliminates the need to install the electronic module 7 in the handle 5 or the door 4 of the household appliance 1. There is also no need to install an electrical conductor between the door 4 of the household appliance 1 and the housing 2 of the household appliance 1, so that the touch sensing system is simply integrated on the handle 4 of the household appliance 1 when an existing household appliance is touched.

[0015] Figure 4 A timeline of the signal for identifying the mode of a one-time user touch interaction with the handle 5 of the door 4 is shown. The software of the electronic module 7, which is not the subject of the present invention, uses the measured capacitance value C r and the threshold capacitance value C pd for comparison to sense the touch of the handle 5 of the door 4 as long as the door 4 is closed, where the signal S v of the door 4 with value v0 sets the signal S r of the handle 5, which is used as a basis for identifying known touch patterns.

[0016] Capacitance value Cpd constitute the long - term average capacitance value C rp and the constant C td the sum of, C pr p constitutes the long - term average capacitance value C rp and the constant C tr the sum of. C td 、C tr represent constants that comply with this embodiment and are pre - determined, and they can optionally be determined or adjusted in real - time by means of advanced machine - learning algorithms.

[0017] Determine the time - interval values Ta, Tb, and Tc in advance and adjust them to the user experience required for the household appliance. The indicated values of the time intervals are Ta = 50ms, Tb = 320ms, and Tc = 320ms.

[0018] The electronic module 7 of the household appliance 1 according to the present invention performs three basic tasks: a) Perform periodic measurements, that is, sample the capacitance C r value between the handle 5 of the door 4 and the ground potential 17, where the capacitance C r is preferably measured in such a way that the time or sampling time between two consecutive measurements is constant and as short as possible, thus allowing for a quick response and the possibility of additional software processing of the signal, such as low - pass filtering, median filtering, value averaging, etc.; b) Convert the measured capacitance C r value of the handle 5 into a state signal S r of the user's touch on the door handle and a door - state signal S v , where the software of the electronic module 7 calculates the long - term average value of the measured capacitance C rp of the handle 5 of the household appliance 1 in the absence of user touch; when also calculating the difference between the current capacitance value C r and the long - term average capacitance value C rp , it is calculated after each capacitance measurement; if the difference is greater than the value of the constant C td , the value of the signal S r of the touch state is set to the value d1, otherwise the value of the signal is set to the value d0; based on the measured capacitance value C r , the state (open or closed) of the door is also determined and used for further signal processing; c) Identify known touch patterns, where the software of the electronic module 7 checks whether these conditions conform to any pre - determined touch patterns after each conversion of the measured capacitance value C r of the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1; the check of the sufficiency of the conditions is preferably based on the signal S of the state of touching the door handler Measurement of the time between temporally continuous changes, such as sensing a single touch, where sensing certain touch patterns on the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 may also take into account the measured capacitance value C r and the long-term average capacitance value C rp The calculated value of the difference between; whenever a valid touch pattern is sensed, information about the type of touch pattern is transmitted via the electronic communication interface 16 to the user interface 15 of the household appliance 1, where it is also possible to detect the degree to which the door 4 of the household appliance 1 is open or closed and transmit this information via the electronic communication interface 16 to the user interface 15 of the household appliance 1.

[0019] By reference to Figure 4 One possible embodiment of the process of sensing a single touch by a user on the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 according to the present invention is continued to be described.

[0020] Initially, at time t0, the user touches the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1, which reflects the measured capacitance value C r increase. At time t1, the user still touches the handle 5 of the door 4, where the capacitance value Cr rises above the touch sensing level C pd on the handle 5 of the door 4. The software sets the signal S r of the handle 5 to level d1 (touch) and starts the time measurement of the touch duration. At time t2, the user stops touching the handle 5 of the door 4, where at time t3, the measured capacitance value C r drops below the capacitance value C pd for touch sensing. Since the measured touch duration is shorter than the shortest allowable time interval Ta of the touch duration, this results in the first condition for touch pattern recognition not being met, so the software cancels the current touch pattern sensing process and sets the signal S r of the handle 5 to level d0 (no touch), after which the household appliance 1 is ready to recognize a new touch pattern.

[0021] At time t4, the user touches the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 again, which is reflected in the increase in the measured capacitance value C r . At time t5, the user still touches the handle 5 of the door 4, where the measured capacitance value C r rises above the capacitance level C pd for touch sensing on the handle 5 of the door 4. The software sets the signal S rSet to level d1 (touch) and start measuring the time of the touch duration. At time t6, the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4, where the measured time value of the touch duration is greater than the shortest allowable time interval Ta of the touch duration, which satisfies the first condition for touch pattern recognition. At time t7, the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4, where the software detects that the measured time value of the touch duration is greater than the longest allowable time interval Tb of the touch duration. Since the second condition for touch pattern sensing is not satisfied, the integrated software cancels the current touch pattern recognition process.

[0022] At time t8, the user stops touching the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1. At time t9, the measured capacitance value C r drops below the touch sensing capacitance C pd value level. The software sets the signal S r of the handle to level d0 (no touch), after which the household appliance 1 is ready to recognize a new touch pattern.

[0023] At time t 10 , the user touches the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance again, which is reflected in the increase of the measured capacitance value C r . When the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4, at time t 11 the measured capacitance value C r rises above the capacitance level C pd for touch sensing on the handle 5 of the door 4. The software sets the signal S r of the handle to level d1 (touch) and starts measuring the time of the touch duration. At time t 12 , the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4, where the measured value of the touch duration is greater than the shortest allowable time Ta of the touch duration, which satisfies the first condition for touch pattern recognition.

[0024] At time t 13 , the user stops touching the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1. At time t 14 the measured capacitance value C r drops below the touch sensing capacitance C pd value level. The measured time value of the touch duration is less than the longest allowable time interval Tb of the touch duration, which also satisfies the second condition for touch pattern recognition. The software sets the signal S r of the handle to level d0 (no touch), and starts measuring the time interval Tc of the response delay, within which the software will wait for a potential repeated touch on the handle 5 of the door 4.

[0025] At time t 15, the integrated software detects that the response delay time has timed out. Since no repeated touch is sensed on the handle 5 of door 4 during the response delay time, the last condition for touch pattern recognition is met. The software of the electronic module 7 transmits the information about the recognition of a single touch to the user interface 15 of the household appliance 1 via the communication interface 16, where the household appliance 1 is ready to recognize a new touch pattern.

[0026] In addition, one possible embodiment of the process for sensing a user's repeated touch on the handle 5 of door 4 of the household appliance 1 according to the present invention is continued to be described by referring to Figure 5 By comparing the measured capacitance value C r with the threshold capacitance value C pd for touch sensing on the handle 5 of door 4, and under the condition that the door 4 is closed and the door signal S v has a value v0, the software of the electronic module 7 sets the value of the handle signal S r which serves as the basis for recognizing known touch patterns.

[0027] The capacitance value C pd constitutes the sum of the long-term average capacitance value C rp and the constant C td . C pr p constitutes the sum of the long-term average capacitance value C rp and the constant C tr . C td 、C tr represent constants that follow this embodiment and are predetermined, and they can optionally be determined or adjusted in real time by means of advanced machine learning algorithms.

[0028] The time interval values Ta1…Ta n 、Tb1…Tb n and Tc1…Tc n are usually determined during the system development phase and adjusted based on the desired user experience of the household appliance. For a possible embodiment of the household appliance 1, for example, the indicated values Ta1 = Ta2 = Ta3 = 50 ms, Tb1 = Tb2 = Tb3 = 320 ms, Tc1 = Tc2 = Tc3 = 320 ms are used.

[0029] Initially, at time t0, the user touches the handle 5 of door 4 of the household appliance 1, which causes the measured capacitance value C r to increase. At time t1, the user is still touching the handle 5 of door 4, where the measured capacitance value C r rises to the capacitance value C pdThe above determines the touch sensing on the handle 5 of the door 4. The software sets the signal S of the handle r to level d1 (touch) and starts the time measurement of the touch duration. At time t2, the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4, where the measured time value of the touch duration is greater than the shortest allowable time interval Ta1 of the touch, which satisfies the first condition for touch pattern recognition.

[0030] At time t3, the user stops touching the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1. As a result, at time t4, the measured capacitance value C r drops below the capacitance value C pd . The measured time value of the touch duration is less than the longest allowable time interval Tb1 of the touch duration, which also satisfies the second condition for touch pattern recognition. The software sets the signal S of the handle r to value d0 (no touch), and starts measuring the time interval Tc1 of the response delay, during which it will wait for a potential repeated touch on the handle 5 of the door 4. If no repeated touch occurs until the timeout of the time interval Tc1 of the response delay, at time t8, the software sends information about recognizing one touch to the user interface 15 via the communication interface 16, and the user uses the user interface 15 to operate the household appliance 1. Thus, the system is ready to recognize a new touch pattern.

[0031] At time t6, the user touches the handle 5 of the door 4 again, which causes the measured capacitance value C r to increase. At time t7, the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4, where the measured capacitance value C r rises above the capacitance value C for touch sensing on the handle 5 of the door 4 pd . The software sets the signal S of the handle r to value d1 (touch) and starts the time measurement of the touch duration. When the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4 at time t9, the measured value of the time interval of the touch duration is greater than the shortest allowable time interval Ta2 of the touch duration, which satisfies the next condition for touch pattern recognition.

[0032] At time t 10 , the user stops touching the door 4's handle 5, where at time t 11 , the measured capacitance value C r drops below the capacitance value C for touch sensing on the handle 5 of the door 4 pd . The measured value of the time interval of the touch duration is less than the longest allowable time interval Tb2 of the touch duration, satisfying the next touch pattern recognition condition. The software sets the signal S of the handle rSet to the value d0 (no touch), and start measuring the time interval Tc2 of the response delay. During this time interval, the software will wait for potential repeated touches on the handle 5 of the door 4. If no repeated touch occurs until the timeout of the time interval Tc2 of the response delay, then at time t 15 , the software sends, via the communication interface 16, information regarding the recognition of two touches on the module 7 for operating the household appliance 1. Thus, the system is ready to recognize a new touch pattern.

[0033] At time t 13 , the user touches the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 again, which is reflected in the increased measured capacitance value C r . When at time t 14 , the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4, the measured capacitance value C r rises above the capacitance value C pd for touch recognition on the handle 5 of the door 4. The software sets the signal S r of the handle to the value d1 (touch), and starts measuring the time interval of the touch duration.

[0034] When at time t 16 , the user is still touching the handle 5 of the door 4, the measured time interval value of the touch duration is greater than the shortest allowed time interval Ta3 of the touch duration, which satisfies the next condition for touch pattern recognition.

[0035] At time t 17 , the user stops touching the handle 5 of the door 4, where at time t 18 , the measured capacitance value C r drops below the capacitance value C pd for touch sensing. The measured time interval value of the touch duration is less than the longest allowed time interval Tb3 of the touch duration, which satisfies the next condition for touch pattern recognition. The software sets the signal S r of the handle to the value d0 (no touch), and starts measuring the time interval Tc3 of the response delay. During this time interval, the software will wait for potential repeated touches on the handle 5 of the door 4.

[0036] At time t 20 , the software detects that the time interval Tc3 of the response delay has timed out. Since no repeated touch is sensed on the handle 5 of the door 4 during the time interval Tc3 of the response delay, the last condition for repeated touch pattern recognition is satisfied. Via the communication interface 16, the software sends the information regarding the recognition of the repeated touch to the user interface 15, and the user uses the user interface 15 to operate the household appliance 1. The system is ready to recognize a new touch pattern.

[0037] The described algorithm for touch pattern recognition allows the recognition of various combinations of consecutive touch counts and touch durations.

[0038] By Figure 6 continuing to show the time line of the signal in the case where the user opens and closes the door 4 of the household appliance 1. The software of the electronic module 7 compares the measured capacitance value C r with the threshold capacitance value C po to detect the degree of opening of the door 4 and the threshold capacitance value C pn to determine the open state of the door by detecting the appropriateness of the system operation.

[0039] Capacitance value C po constitutes the sum of the long-term average capacitance value C rp and the constant C to and, C pn constitutes the sum of the long-term average capacitance value C rp and the constant C tn and, C to 、C tn represent constants that conform to this embodiment and are predetermined, and they can optionally be determined or adjusted in real time by means of advanced machine learning algorithms.

[0040] At time t0, the user holds the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1, which is reflected in the increased measured capacitance value C r . As a result, at time t1, the measured capacitance value C r rises above the capacitance value C pd for touch sensing on the handle 5. The software sets the signal S r from the handle to the value d1 (touch) and starts the time measurement of the touch duration.

[0041] When at time t2, the user holds the handle 5 of the door 4 but has not started to open the door 4 yet, the measured time value of the touch duration is greater than the shortest allowable time interval Ta of the touch duration, which satisfies the first condition for touch pattern recognition.

[0042] At time t3, the user starts to open the door 4, where the electrodes 10, 12 of the capacitive coupler 11 start to move apart from each other, which causes the measured capacitance value C r to decrease. When the latter drops below the capacitance value C pd , the software sets the signal S r of the handle 5 to the value d0 (no touch) and starts measuring the time interval Tc of the response delay.

[0043] When the user continues to open door 4, at time t4, the measured capacitance value C r further decreases and reaches the capacitance value C of the threshold for detecting the degree of door opening po . The software sets the signal S of the door v to value v1 (open) and stops the implementation of the touch mode recognition algorithm. From this point on, the system does not allow touch sensing on the handle 5 of door 4.

[0044] At time t5, door 4 is opened to such an extent that when the electrodes 10, 12 of the capacitance coupler 11 are fully separated, further opening will not cause the measured value of capacitance C r to decrease.

[0045] At time t6, the user starts to close door 4, where the electrodes 10, 12 of the capacitance coupler 11 are fully separated from each other. The measured capacitance value C r remains constant until door 4 is closed to the extent that the electrodes 10, 12 of the capacitance coupler 11 are close to each other.

[0046] At time t7, the user closes door 4 to the extent that the measured capacitance value C r starts to increase, which is the result of the increasing overlapping surface area between the electrodes 10, 12 of the capacitance coupler 11.

[0047] When the user continues to close door 4, at time t8, they close the door to the extent that the measured capacitance value C r exceeds the capacitance value C of the threshold for sensing the degree of opening of door 4 po . The software sets the signal S of the door v to value v0 (closed), and starts measuring the time interval Td of the system calibration delay.

[0048] At time t9, door 4 stops at the final closed position, where the measured capacitance value C r stabilizes at a value that is generally not equal to the long-term average capacitance value C rp calculated before starting to open door 4.

[0049] At time t 10 , the software detects that the time of the system calibration delay has timed out and starts the system calibration process, which sets the value of the long-term average capacitance value C rp to the currently measured capacitance value C r , and at the same time recalculates the capacitance values C pd , C pr , C po and C pnIf the user does not touch the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1 at this time, the system is ready to perform touch sensing on the handle 5 of the door 4. In the opposite case, the system remains unresponsive to touch sensing until the user stops touching the handle 5 of the door 4.

[0050] At time t 11 , when the user stops touching the handle 5 of the door 4, the measured capacitance value C r decreases. At time t 12 , the measured capacitance value C r drops below the capacitance value C pr used to initiate system recalibration, where the software starts measuring the time interval Td for delayed system calibration.

[0051] At time t 13 , the software detects that the time for delayed system calibration has timed out and initiates the calibration process, which sets the value of the long - term average capacitance value C rp to the currently measured capacitance value C r . At the same time, new capacitance values C pd , C pr , C po and C pn are recalculated. The system is ready to perform touch sensing on the handle 5 of the door 4 of the household appliance 1.

Claims

1. A household appliance comprising a door handle, wherein the door is arranged on a housing and the handle is arranged on the outside of the door, wherein it is possible to close the interior of the household appliance relative to the surroundings of the household appliance by means of the door, and wherein the handle of the door comprises at least a part of an electronic system for cooperation of the household appliance with its user, characterized in that The household appliance comprises a capacitive coupler (11), the capacitive coupler comprising a first electrode (10) and a second electrode (12), the first electrode (10) being electrically insulated from any conductive material and being arranged in an area above the door opening which can be closed by means of the door (4), the second electrode (12) being arranged on a side of the door (4) and being spaced apart from the first electrode (10), wherein the electrodes (10, 12) are electrically insulated from each other, wherein the electronic module (7) is arranged inside the housing (2), in an area above the door opening which can be closed by means of the door (4), comprises a circuit (8) and a controller (9) with integrated software, the controller (9) facilitating capacitance measurements which enable sensing of a touch of a user (6), and wherein the handle (5) by means of which the door (4) can be manipulated is provided as an interface for sensing the touch of the user (6).

2. The household appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that The capacitive coupler (11) allows the capacitance and ground potential to be measured indirectly under the handle (5) of the door (4), so that the first electrode (10) is electrically isolated from the handle (5), while the second electrode (12) is electrically connected to the handle (5) through a conductor (13), and the user (6) can touch the handle (5).

3. The household appliance according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that The first electrode (10) is formed in such a way that it allows compensating for mechanical deviations and structural strains during manufacture, assembly and use of the household appliance (1).

4. The household appliance according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The second electrode (12) is arranged on the upper rear side of the door (4) so ​​that it is aligned with the opposite first electrode (10) when the door (4) is closed, wherein the second electrode (12) is electrically connected to the handle (5) of the door (4) and at the same time is electrically insulated from any other conductive part of the household appliance (1) by an insulating element (14).

5. The household appliance according to claim 3, characterized in that: The first electrode (10) is formed of a flexible material in the manner of a spring.

6. The household appliance according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The handle (5) of the door (4) is at least partially made of an electrically conductive material.

7. The household appliance according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The handle (5) is electrically insulated from the door (4) and other conductive elements of the housing (2).

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