The present invention relates to air hand dryers. The present invention also relates in particular to an air hand dryer that will detect the presence of the user and the interaction of the user with the air hand dryer and present information back to the user about said interaction.

Many people are affected by infections acquired in hospitals or from other sources associated with poor hygiene. The modern practice of the use of soap and washing hands has been credited as the greatest single step contributing to the largest reduction in preventable disease and death.

It is has been reported that more than 50% of all nosocomial infections in hospitals can be directly related to the transmission of harmful bacteria by healthcare workers who have not properly washed their hands before and after each patient contact. The best means to prevent transfer of these organisms from patient to patient and to reduce the emergence of resistant organisms is hand washing with soap and water between patient contacts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as other regulatory agencies recommend hand washing before and after each patient encounter. Unfortunately, reports indicate that healthcare workers adhere to hand washing guidelines less than 70% of the time. See O'Boyle, C. A. et al., "Understanding adherence to hand hygiene recommendations: the theory of planned behavior," Am J Infect Control., 29(6):352-360 (2001). Numerous strategies have been attempted to increase healthcare worker compliance to hand washing, but all have been largely unsuccessful. There is a need to improve hand hygiene further.

There are many possible reasons for non-compliance with recommended hand washing practices. For example, there may not be sufficient time to properly wash hands or some people simply forget to wash their hands. Others may not realize how infrequently or inadequately they comply with recommended hand washing practices. Others still may not fully understand the benefits of hand washing. Some or all of these issues may be addressed if means were provided to improve compliance. Similar concerns exist in other industries, such as those relating to the processing and preparation of food. In such areas monitoring systems have been

implemented. Whilst monitoring systems are, perhaps, acceptable to an employee in a factory type environment monitoring is neither acceptable or practical in any everyday environment, such as hospitals or restaurants. The washing of hands is a personal and ritual practice conducted in some reasonable privacy within private or public washrooms. Furthermore, if the persons do wash their hands, there is no way to easily determine whether they have followed a prescribed government and/or industry-approved regimen to ensure they washed properly. The vast majority of the population have not formally been taught how to properly cleanse their hands.

A report by D.R. Patrick, G. Findon and T.E. Miller entitled "Residual moisture determines the level of touch-contact-associated bacterial transfer following hand washing", published in Epidemiology & Infection (1997), discloses data relating to the use of hand dryers. This data relates the dryness of hands to the bacterial growth thereon. The data demonstrates that by encouraging the prolonged use of hand dryers (that is, ensuring that a user retains their hands in the heated air for a time sufficient to properly dry their hands) has beneficial health advantages.

The presence of air hand dryers in wash rooms has increased greatly over recent years, since they are attractive to the owner of the facility by offering low maintenance and low running costs, compared to the cost ofreplacing and removing paper products. However, typically the user does not have the patience or inclination to wait for their hands to be fully dry before leaving the air hand dryer.

As the reader is likely to recognise the use of an air hand dryer is a routine, mundane and joyless task undertaken out of a vague sense of well being and to conform to social practices. If your hands are not fully dry then the next task, typically opening a door or touching a light switch etc will then deposit the offending bacteria leading to a spread of bacteria etc.. In the development of air hand dryers this has been recognised and the art has taken the direction of providing ever more powerful air hand dryers that attempt to speed up drying time by more rapidly blowing the loose water off the hands and increasing the speed of evaporation. However, one of the components of the practice of using hand dryers, that is largely neglected, and is recognised as speeding up and increasing the effectiveness of a hand dryer, is the use of hand motion, such as hand rubbing, under the air stream. Despite there often being instructions on the device to rub hands during the drying cycle the hand rubbing adopted by the user is typically weak or non-existent. By rubbing hands water is spread over the hand, increasing the effective surface area, and removing wet spots on the hand, which remain when there is no hand rubbing. Additionally hand motion aids water loss on the hands by adding friction and heat into the surface of the hand. It also stimulates the peripheral vascular system to perfuse warm blood into the hands and help speed up water evaporation.

US6295410 discloses a hand dryer having a push button which activates a timer controlling the operation of a heater and fan motor.

WO2007123426 discloses an air hand dryer that seeks to encourage the user to stay at the machine by the use of an indicator. This is a user interface capable of providing to the user an indication of time remaining in a predetermined time drying cycle.

WO2007112016A2 discloses an air hand dryer with a programmable computer display that is linked to a remote computer that controls the display and shows adverts and other data to the user, unconnected to the drying cycle of the device.

It is an object of the invention to improve the effectiveness of air hand dryers by encouraging the user to engage more fully with the air hand dryer. In particular to improve effectiveness by encouraging the user to move their hands during use. In addition it is an object of the invention to not only encourage hand motion during the drying cycle, but to increase the vigour of the hand motion. In addition it is an object of the invention to increase the user's enjoyment of an air hand dryer and subsequently improve the percentage of users that use hand dryers and increase the frequency of the proper use of hand dryers until the user's hands are dry. The objective is achieved by constructing an air hand dryer that contains detecting means for detecting activity of the user, ideally the user's hands, in a monitoring area that is in proximity to the air hand dryer, and ideally is in proximity to the air stream of the air outlet of the air hand dryer. The detecting means links, via a control means, to an information supply means (i.e., a user interface), that provides information to the user about the activity of the user in the monitoring area and, thus, encouraging the user to start engaging with the apparatus, such as increasing hand motion; and/or maintenance of hand motion; and/or increased vigour of hand motion.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aspect of the invention is a hand drying apparatus comprising (i) a housing having an air inlet to draw in ambient air and having an air outlet to discharge the drawn in ambient air onto the hands of a user (ii) an air blowing means to move ambient air from the air inlet to the air outlet (iii) apparatus activation means operable by a user to activate the apparatus (iv) detecting means to determine activity or lack of activity of the user's hands within a monitoring area positioned in proximity to the air outlet (iv) information supply means and (v) control means that change the information supply means according to a signal received by the control means from the detecting means, wherein in use the information supply means is changed by the control means according to the signal the control means receives from the detecting means so as to encourage an increase in the activity of the user's hands within the monitoring area.

The "detecting means" may be any suitable detector known in the art that is capable of monitoring activity of an object within a monitoring area. The detecting means may be set up in such a way that it measures the initial activity of the user's hands onlyat one point after it enters into the monitoring area, and then sends a signal to the control means. However, ideally the detecting means monitors for changes in activity of the user's hands regularly or continuously and sends numerous signals to the control means. Preferably monitoring only occurs after apparatus activation. Examples of such detectors are; infra red reflective detectors (as detailed in para [20-22] of EP1908384A) such that they are adapted to provide a signal of the relative activity of the object. The detecting means may be set up in such a way as to provide an infrared light source and an infrared light receiver that creates a detection signal according to the amount of infrared light received by the receiver and into a control circuit within the detecting means. The control circuit compares a value of the detection signal compared with the previous signal to determine the state of activity whether it is increasing, decreasing, or is the same and transmits a signal. This signal Is fed into the control means. Alternative detecting means may be; a heat detector such that it is adapted to detect the heat reflected back from the hands and thereby detecting disruption of the heat stream from the outlet can detect activity of the hands. Alternatively the detecting means may be an air sensor that detects the amount of air being deflected by the hands of the user and thereby detecting disruption of the air stream from the outlet and the activity of the hands.

The "apparatus activation means" may be a switch operated by the user, such as a manual switch, or a button providing an electrical contact to activate the apparatus. Preferably the apparatus activation means is a detecting means that detects the presence of the user in a monitoring area and then activates the apparatus. These "detecting means", that act as the apparatus activation means, may also be the same detecting means that detect the activity of the user, as described above, or may be separate detecting means. If there are two detecting means on the apparatus (one for the presence of the user and the second for the activity of the user) then the determined monitoring areas can either be the same or different. When the detecting means are the same then the device may be set up in such a way that there is only one monitoring area. The detecting means that act as the apparatus activation means, may be set up in such a way to provide an infrared light source and an infrared light receiver that creates a detection signal according to the amount of infrared light received by the infrared receiver as determined by an integral control circuit. The control circuit compares the value of the detection signal compared with a predetermined reference value. In such a system the apparatus is made active only when the detection signal value is larger than the reference value, it is then determined that an object (hands) is inserted into the monitoring area and the apparatus is activated. A signal is then sent by the control circuit to the control means to activate the apparatus. The control circuit also may send a signal to the control means to deactivate the apparatus when reflection of light from the object (hands) is not detected and the value of the detection signal from the infrared light receiver becomes lower than the reference value. Other forms of detectors for the presence of an object (hands) in a monitoring area include passive infrared detectors that detect body heat and do not require an infrared light source.

The "monitoring area", as used for the presence of the user and/or the second for the activity of the user, is the space around the apparatus that the detector selected is capable of monitoring. Ideally the monitoring area is capable of being altered by the installer of the device to accommodate for any additional environmental factors, such as lighting or obstacles, to optimise the set up of the apparatus. The monitoring area may be illuminated by a light source to help guide the user to the monitoring area.

The "air blowing means" may be any sort of air blower that will move the ambient air from the inlet to the outlet, such as a centrifugal or an axial fan, an example of such a set up is a DC brushless motor (which can be an ordinary commutator motor or an induction motor), a driving circuit (connected to the control means) that drives the DC brushless motor, and an axial fan rotated by the DC brushless motor that moves the ambient air from the inlet to the outlet. Additionally, and optionally, a heater to heat the air before it's discharge from the air outlet is present in the air hand dryer,. The control means can affect actuation of the heater before, after or at the same time as actuation of the air blowing means. Additionally the control means may turn off the heater before, after or at the same time as actuation of the air blowing means. The air flow from the air blower is either constant or can be varied according to the signal from the detecting means. The heater when energised can vary in its heat output, according to the signal from the detecting means, or can produce a constant heat effect

The "information supply means" provides information to the user of the apparatus about the change in activity of the object (the user's hands) within the monitoring area and is controlled by the control means, in response to the signal received by the control means from the detecting means. The information may be provided to the user visually and/or audibly. Visually the information can be numerical, illustrative, figurative, quantitative or qualitative in representation. Ideally the information is represented visually in the form of a game, or a task, to be completed by increasing the speed of hand activity within the monitoring area.

Additionally, and optionally, an additional information supply means may be provided to indicate; power status of the device, standby mode, progression towards the completion of the drying cycle and/ or the period of time remaining of the drying cycle. All of the information supply means can be in the form of one unit on the apparatus or multiple units.

Preferably the information supply means is a visual display. Preferably the visual display comprises a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs). Preferably the light output from the visual display unit is on a location of the air hand dryer visible to a user. The screen can be a liquid crystal display (LCD) thin film transistor (TFT) digital colour screen, an example is a TFT with a display resolution of 1024 x 768 full-colour pixels. A low voltage differentiating system (LVDS) interface provides the ability to display 16 million colours simultaneously for image compatibility for JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP1 SWF and video formats.

Alternatively, or additionally, at least one of the user information means comprises a sound producing component that consist of a speaker and, optionally, an amplifier. An amplifier may not be necessary if using a low current system such as a piezoelectric speaker. However, if a speaker is connected to an output stage of a microcontroller some sort of signal amplification is likely to be needed. Sound producing means is connected to control means, that plays one or more the following; a welcome message upon device activation, instructions on how to use the device, instructions on completing a game or task as displayed on the user information means, some indication on completion of the drying cycle, final fanfare or farewell message, or any sort of sound that encourages the user to interact with the device. Preferably there is an LED or other lamp, flashing or otherwise, providing an indication that the apparatus is in a standby mode. Preferably the information supply means is a series of LEDs or the output of a series of LEDs. Preferably a plurality of LEDs provides said user information means in such a way as to indicate a progression towards the completion of the time until the hands are dry and/or the or a period of time left until the hands are dry.

The "control means'' may be any suitable microcontroller or microprocessor, for example a programmable interface controller (PIC). A microcontroller can be considered a self-contained system with a processor, memory and "peripherals". Microcontrollers usually contain from several to dozens of general purpose input/output pins (GPIO). GPIO pins are software configurable to either an input or an output state. When the GPIO pins are configured to an input state, they are used to read the detecting means, sensors or other external signals (such as an activation signal from the apparatus activation means). When configured to the output state the GPIO pins can drive external devices such as LEDs (such as the information means) or motor(s) (such as the air blowing means). The

microcontroller provides a real time (predictable, though not necessarily fast) response to events in the embedded system they are controlling. When certain events occur, an interrupt system can signal the processor to suspend processing of the current instruction sequence and to begin an interrupt service routine (ISR). The ISR will perform any processing required based on the source of the interrupt before instigating a master reset of the system and restarting the original instruction sequence. Possible interrupt sources include an input such as; from a button being pressed (apparatus activation means), and/or data received from the detecting means (such as an IR detector). The programs to control the microcontroller should fit in the available on-chip program memory. Compilers and assemblers are used to convert high-level language and assembler language codes into a compact machine code program for storage in the microcontroller's memory. Depending on the device, the program memory may be permanent, read-only memory that can only be programmed at the factory, or program memory may be field-alterable flash or erasable read-only memory.

The "peripherals" desirable in the microcontroller include the following: Depending upon the type of detecting means used the microcontroller may need an analogue to digital converter (ADC). Since processors are built to interpret and process digital data, i.e. binary 1's and 0's, they are not able to do anything with the analogue signals that may be sent to it by an analogue detector.

A timer may be needed in the microcontroller. One of the most common types is a programmable interval timer (PIT). A PIT counts down from a value to zero. Once it reaches zero, it sends an interrupt to the processor indicating that it has finished. A time processing unit (TPU) is a more sophisticated timer. In addition to counting down, the TPU can detect input events, generate output events, and perform other operations.

A dedicated pulse width modulation (PW ) block makes it possible for the processor of the microcontroller to control power converters, resistive loads, motors, etc., without using lots of the processing resource.

Preferably the microprocessor controls the deactivation of the blower and heater at the end of the drying cycle or responsive to hand removal from the sensor, or either. The control means can be preset with a drying period or have a variable drying time period depending upon the inputs received from the detector means and the microcontroller. The control means energises the information supply means to indicate progression towards the drying time.

In a further aspect of the invention is a forced air hand dryer, comprising an activity detector ( hand activity detector) placed in proximity to an outlet of the forced air hand dryer that is directly, or indirectly, linked to a user interface that provides information to the user (preferably about level of hand activity), such that when in use the user information provided by the user interface changes according to the change in activity (hand activity) detected by the activity detector.

In a further aspect the invention consists in a method of drying hands, the method comprising the use of an air hand drying apparatus that is capable of detecting the degree of activity of the user's hands during use of the apparatus and provide this information to the user.

It is envisaged that the air hand dryer may be used to dry other parts of the body such as; arm, hair, leg, body, finger nail, toe nail. Therefore, in the context of this invention the word hand and hand's in the claims can be substituted with any of the words above, in the singular or plural form.

DEFINITIONS

As used herein the term "and/ or" means "and" or "or", or both.

As used herein the term "(s)" following a noun means the singular and/or plural forms of that noun.

As used herein the term "activity" means any action of the user that interacts with the apparatus and improves the performance of the hand dryer in drying the user's hands, examples of such activities include a. movement - movement of the user's hands. Movement itself means any general movement of the hands of the user and includes one or more of the following, rubbing of the hands, shaking, patting, clapping, flicking, waving, cupping & flapping. b. position - position of the user's hands. The position of the hands is measured and the position is changed by providing information to the user to change the position.

The phrase 'comprising' as used in this specification means "consisting at least in part of. Likewise variations thereof, e.g. "comprises". As used herein "or either" following two options means, in addition to one option, the apparatus can perform both options depending which acts first. Preferred forms of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which;

Figure 1 - Is a perspective view of (1 ) an air hand dryer apparatus according to the invention. A light illuminates (2) to indicate when the unit is on. A series of interactive lights/LEDs (3) indicate how well the user is drying their hands, the speed of the lights illuminating around the circle changes depending on the change in hand activity, and provides a final 'score' to the user about how quickly the hands have been dried. A second set of interactive light LEDs (4) indicate how long the users has to complete hand drying cycle. An air blower (not shown) forces warmed air (8) onto damp hands through the outlet (5). Integrated speakers (6a&b) provide instructions about how the use the dryer and feedback to user about the change in activity of the user's hands and will play variable sounds to encourage the user and a final fanfare to indicate the end of the drying cycle. The sensor unit (7) includes an IR sensor and detects when hands are present in the monitoring area (9) and activates the apparatus, the air blower (not shown) and to turn on the air heater (not shown) to force warmed air (8) out of the outlet (5). The sensor unit (7) contains an IR sensor which also detects the change of movement of the user's hands in the monitoring area (9) and according to the change in the movement of the hands in the monitoring area changes the user interfaces (3), (4) and (6) through a microcontroller (not shown). The sensor unit (7) may also contain heat or air sensors that detect changes in the air flow or temperature caused by hand movement in the air stream. These additional sensors will also affect change in the user interfaces (3), (4) and (6), via the microcontroller, to encourage further interaction of the user with the apparatus.

Figure - 2 Is a block diagram of the apparatus. Detector (2) to monitor change in the user's movements and then sends a signal(s) to the Microcontroller (3). Microcontroller (3) receives and reads signal(s) from the Detector (2) and transfers this signal to the user in a relevant way through the Information Supply (4), for example through a 16-bit programmable interface controller.

Information Supply (4) provides information to the user about the change in activity of the user's hands and other appropriate information for example through LEDs, LCDs, loud speaker etc. Air Blower (5) is controlled by the Microcontroller (3), to move ambient air from the air inlet to the air outlet for example through a centrifugal fan, a squirrel cage fan, a screw type fan etc.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the basic operation, construction and the finer details of hand drying apparatus. An example of a conventional machine is disclosed in the aforementioned US 6295410.

The need to encourage the prolonged use of hand dryers stems from bacteria and its ability to flourish in moist conditions. Substantially reducing moisture in or on people's hands will reduce the likelihood of bacterial poisoning or

contamination. It will at least reduce the bacterial population on such hands.