RECHARGEABLE SEALED SMART EATING CUTLERY AND ITS CHARGING CASE

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a rechargeable waterproof smart cutlery and its charging case.

[0002] By smart, we mean a specific electronic device that 1- helps to eat slowly by warning the user if he eats too quickly 2- allows recharging.

[0003] Cutlery means a fork, a spoon or a chopstick.

[0004] The present invention proposes a solution which allows 1 - machine washing of the smart cutlery 2 - rapid recharging of the power supply of its electronic circuit without affecting the sealing 3 - an optimized manufacturing cost price.

[0005] Cutlery needs to be washed after every meal. Making the cutlery smart requires regular recharging of the battery that powers the electronics that control the cutlery's intelligence. There is no smart cutlery solution in the prior art that is waterproof. There are smart cutlery solutions that are battery-powered or recharged by wire. There are notably FR 2870096 A1 and FR 2900809 A1 that do not offer a solution for waterproofing. Document FR 3 000 371 A1 discloses the preamble of claim 1. The problem with integrating an external power source to repower the cutlery is that it requires frequent access to the terminals of the smart circuit to be able to recharge it. This access to the circuit terminals makes waterproofing extremely complicated and therefore too expensive to be integrated into a table cutlery under acceptable cost conditions.

[0006] The three main constraints posed by a smart rechargeable table cutlery are 1 - Fit in a reduced mechanical volume 2 - Be washed regularly 3 - Be used regularly and therefore recharged regularly.

[0007] It is therefore understood that to solve this problem, it is necessary to design an optimized electronic circuit that fits particularly well with the mechanical elements. The invention therefore responds to a double electronic and mechanical constraint to succeed in achieving its objective.

[0008] It is also understood that the mouthing measurement is a measurement that is taken during the meal and that with the variety of users and the variety of meal condition situations is subtle, fast and versatile. This measurement must be able to be effectively detected and filtered by the electronic device. The invention is defined by the features of claim 1.

[0009] In a main aspect, the invention provides an intelligent circuit which comprises an electronic circuit comprising a charging circuit, a detection circuit, a warning circuit coupled to a supercapacitor housed in a waterproof box with two terminals in contact on the one hand with the cutlery head and on the other hand with the handle of the cutlery.

[0010] In one aspect of the invention, the two parts of the cutlery each cooperate in two ways with the electronic circuit: For the cutlery head 1 - be the mouthing detection probe 2 - be the Plus charging terminal of the circuit. For the cutlery handle 1 - be the detection reference of the circuit 2 - be the Minus charging terminal of the charging circuit.

[0011] It is therefore understood that the invention proposes a new sixfold cooperation between the electronic circuit and the two parts of the cutlery, namely: 1 - a mechanical cooperation so that the assembled assembly has excellent mechanical strength 2 - a mechanical cooperation so that the two terminals of the circuit are in electrical contact with the two parts of the cutlery 3 - a mechanical cooperation so that the assembly constitutes a sealed assembly 4 - an electronic cooperation so that the assembly detects the mouthing events 5 - an electronic cooperation so that the same assembly recharges through the same terminals which allow the detection 6 - a double mechanical-electronic cooperation of the assembly with a box for recharging the cutlery.

[0012] The invention will be better understood by reading the attached figures in which: [ Fig 1 ] represents a view of the two parts of the cover [ Fig 2 ] represents a top view of the electronic card [ Fig 3 ] represents a side view of the electronic card [ Fig 4 ] represents a side view of the electronic card in its protective case [ Fig 5 ] represents the assembly of the electronic card in its case with the two covered parts [ Fig 6 ] represents the cutlery in its recharging case [ Fig 7 ] represents the overall diagram of the intelligent electronic circuit [ Fig 8 ] represents the diagram which specifies the detection circuit of the intelligent electronic circuit

[0013] [ Fig 1 ] represents a view of the two cutlery parts with a cutlery head (1) which includes teeth and a shoulder for connecting to the handle and a cutlery handle (2). The two joined cutlery parts reproduce the general shape of a cutlery. They are separated in the immediate vicinity of the shoulder of the cutlery head. This solution makes it possible to provide a maximum gripping surface of the handle which will ensure permanent contact with the hand of the cutlery handle (2) when the user holds the cutlery by the handle (2).

[0014] [ Fig 2 ] represents a top view of the electronic card (10). The electronic card comprises a so-called core circuit (17) with a chip and a dedicated electrical circuit which connects it to the charging and detection elements described later. The core circuit (17) is powered at the terminals (B+, B-) of a power supply. The card comprises 1 - a ground contact pad, called the Minus contact pad (12) which is connected directly to the Minus terminal (B-) of the circuit 2 - a so-called Plus contact pad (11) which is connected through the core circuit (17) to the terminal (B+) 3 - warning outputs (15) which are a vibrator (15a) and an LED light (15b) which are connected to the core circuit (17). The function of the warning outputs (17) is to inform the user by a vibrating or luminous warning signal on the fact that he is eating too fast or not.

[0015] [ Fig 3 ] represents a side view of the electronic card (10), on which a supercapacitor (20) is connected to the power supply terminals (B+, B-); As everyone knows, a supercapacitor is a capacity having the possibility of storing a significant quantity of charges, thus making it possible to release the power supply current from the electronic circuit. The novelty is that the supercapacitors (20) do not power smart cutlery until today for many reasons, including that the charge storage was insufficient for the electricity demand necessary in the design of electronic circuits as known.Progress being made both on the charging capacity by volume environment and the design of the electronic circuit itself which according to our invention radically reduces consumption, it becomes possible with the combination of these advances to design only now a power supply by super capacity provided that the major trick of recharging the circuit by the two parts of cover was imagined. In short, the integration of a super capacity within an intelligent cover is made possible by the combined means of technological progress on the super capacity, technological progress on the electronic circuit and the invention of the integration of a new charging circuit which is compatible with these technological progress themselves.The two contact springs are visible, the Plus terminal contact spring (21) and the Minus terminal contact spring (22) which respectively make contact by being welded to the Plus contact pads (11) and Minus contact pad (12).

[0016] [ Fig 4 ] represents a side view of the electronic card inscribed in its protective case (30). The case forms a waterproof shell from which only the two contact springs (21, 22) emerge and are flush. A possible solution for creating a seal within the case is to fill the interior of the case with insulating resin.

[0017] [ Fig 5 ] represents the assembly of the electronic card in its case with the two parts of cover (1, 2) with the case (30) which is attached to the two parts of the cover and creates the rigidity to maintain the shape of a cover for the whole. The specific attachment means for attaching the case for mechanical strength are not described in this patent, but the feasibility is obviously possible by numerous means which are either gluing, or mechanical strength by means of attachment slides, or mechanical strength by means of rivets.

[0018] [ Fig 6 ] represents the cutlery in its recharging case (50) which includes an external power supply (53) of electrical energy, herein represented by a set of two so-called stick batteries, but which also come from a solar panel. The specificity of the case is that it includes a timing circuit (58) which takes the shape of the cutlery and which follows the path of the case contacts (51, 52) which come respectively to make contact from the Plus and Minus power supply terminals of the power supply (53) respectively in contact with the cutlery head (1) for the case head contact (51) and with the handle (2) for the case handle contact (52).

[0019] [ Fig 7 ] represents the overall diagram of the intelligent electronic circuit which explains how precisely the definition of the circuit makes the assembly as described functional. The board (10) houses from right to left - A power supply circuit (103) with the Plus terminal (B+) at potential (V+), the terminal (B-) at potential (V-) in this case to ground - A warning circuit (102) which includes the warning outputs (15), in this case the buzzer (15a) and the LED light (15b). The warning outputs are driven by an output on the computing chip (87). - A detection circuit (101) described later which detects the mouthing of the cutlery head by means in particular of a voltage division circuit on unregulated power supply, by coupling of pull-up resistance, ground resistance and inverted transistor.This circuit makes it possible to detect large resistances and therefore that of the body which connects the fork head to the fork handle when the user brings the fork to the mouth - A charging circuit (100) which cleverly short-circuits the detection circuit (101), in the event that the charging circuit is powered by an energy source. The short-circuit being in this case carried out by a diode called a charging diode whose threshold value is cleverly calibrated to 0.7 V, that is to say which short-circuits this branch of the circuit if the person is eating and which on the other hand allows the power supply to pass, typically above the voltage of the supercapacitor plus 0.7 V, and allows the supercapacitor to be charged, if the cutlery is stored in its case and subjected to a charging voltage.

[0020] [ Fig 8] represents the diagram that specifies the detection circuit of the intelligent electronic circuit. It should be noted that this circuit does not respond to any other known circuit since its constraint is to detect a very low voltage variation signal between - a power supply by a supercapacitor which empties and which therefore offers a voltage which is not stable and which decreases during use - a microcontroller which has its own microelectric properties which can disturb the detection circuit - a charging circuit which must not disturb the measurement. Traditionally the solution that would be proposed for a short circuit detection by putting the cutlery in the mouth would be to use an operational amplifier or a comparator. The problem is that these two solutions require a stabilized supply voltage, which is not the case in the case of power supply by a supercapacitor.Clearly, given the elements stated above, this solution could not be functional because the operational amplifier would intervene between floating terminals and would therefore not succeed in filtering the events. The circuit must therefore combine the constraints of digital and analog by detecting an event between two variable voltages. The proposed solution is to use a so-called pull-up resistor (83) of high value, that is to say in Mega ohm. It is connected between the base of a transistor (81) and the V+ of the supercapacitor. The transistor (81) is of the reverse polarity type called PNP. The pull-up resistor pulls the potential upwards to avoid false detections. The assembly of the pull-up resistor and the resistance of the human body constitutes a voltage divider connected to the base of the transistor (81).At the transistor output there is a so-called ground resistor (82) of several hundred kilo ohms avoiding disturbing the input stage of the transistor. On the collector of the transistor is connected the detection input of the calculation chip (87). The whole is functional due to the fine calibration of the resistors surrounding the transistor. These calibrations make it possible to detect the presence of a high value resistance like that of the human body. In a way this part of the circuit functions as a detector of very high resistance in mega ohm meter. The use of a megohmmeter is impossible since in these devices the supply voltage is stable. And finally the fact of freeing oneself from a voltage regulator to allow the use of traditional components, makes it possible to mix the functions of charge and detection. With a voltage regulator it would be impossible to join the pins.

Claims

1. - Intelligent cutlery for guiding the user in its feeding speed made by the assembly of a cutlery head (1) of a cutlery handle (2) mechanically assembled with a protective housing (30) of an electronic card (10), the electronic card (10) comprises two power supply terminals (B +, B-) and a Minus contact pad (12) which is directly connected to the Minus power supply terminal (B-) of the circuit, a Plus contact pad (11) connected through the core circuit (17) to the terminal (B +), contact springs (21, 22) respectively make contact between the cutlery head (1) and the Plus contact pad (11) and between the cutlery handle (2) and the Minus contact pad (12) characterized in that the protective housing (30) is sealed by a tamper-evident closure, the power supply is housed in the protective housing (30) and is a rechargeable super capacity (20), the cutlery is rechargeable in a case (50) by positioning by means of a timing circuit (58) in contact the cutlery head with the Plus terminal of an external power supply (53) and the cutlery handle with the Minus terminal of this external power supply (53).

2. - Intelligent cutlery for guiding the user in his feeding speed according to claim 1 characterized in that the core circuit (17) of the electronic card (10) comprises a warning circuit (102) with warning outputs (15), buzzer (15a), LED light (15b), the warning outputs being driven by an output on the chip of a computing chip (87), a detection circuit (101) which detects the mouthing of the cutlery head by means of a voltage division circuit on unregulated power supply, by coupling of pull-up resistor (83), ground resistor (82) and inverted transistor (81) which is connected to an input of the computing chip (87), a charging circuit (100) which by means of a diode at the threshold lower than the charging voltage cleverly short-circuits the detection circuit (101), in case the charging circuit is powered by the external energy source (53).