Personal care device with thermal feedback and operating conditions display

Abstract

A personal care device such as a hair dryer with thermal feedback sensor near the air-outlet for automatic heating power reduction when a pre-determined threshold temperature has reached. The device further includes graphical and numerical displays indicating its operating conditions.

1 . A personal care device such as a hair dryer or a fan-heater including a main housing, a motor, a motor driven fan, a heating element, controlling means, a thermal sensor, said main housing defines an air-passageway having an air-inlet and an air-outlet, said heating element is disposed intermediate between said air-inlet and said air-outlet, said thermal sensor is disposed adjacent to said air-outlet and provides temperature information to said controller, said controlling means includes memory for storing temperature information and said controlling means includes means for comparing said temperature information received from said thermal sensor with the pre-stored temperature information, said controlling means causes said heating element to reduce heating power output according to a pre-determined manner when the received temperature information corresponds to a temperature which exceeds a pre-determined threshold.  
   
   
       2 . A device of  claim 1 , wherein said thermal sensor includes a negative temperature coefficient (“NTC”) device.  
   
   
       3 . A device of  claim 1 , wherein said pre-determined manner includes a plurality of pre-determined settings corresponding to a plurality of pre-determined discrete heating power and fan speed settings.  
   
   
       4 . A device of  claim 1 , further including display means on said main housing indicating the instantaneous operating conditions of said device.  
   
   
       5 . A device of  claim 4 , said display means includes graphical representations showing operating conditions of said device including fan speed level and triggering of ionizer for hair.  
   
   
       6 . A device of  claim 4 , said display means includes numerical display showing the instantaneous power of said heater.  
   
   
       7 . A device of  claim 6 , wherein said display further includes graphical representations showing operating conditions of said device including fan speed level and triggering of ionizer for hair.  
   
   
       8 . A device according to  claim 4 , said display include a LCD display screen.  
   
   
       9 . A device according to  claim 5 , said display include a LCD display screen.  
   
   
       10 . A device according to  claim 6 , said display include a LCD display screen.  
   
   
       11 . A device according to  claim 7 , said display include a LCD display screen.