US20250194869A1

US20250194869A1 - Automatic toilet paper dispenser

Info

Publication number: US20250194869A1
Application number: US18/539,768
Authority: US
Inventors: Jason Franco Reyes
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2023-12-14
Filing date: 2023-12-14
Publication date: 2025-06-19

Abstract

An automatic toilet paper dispenser, including a wall mounted container, including a container body disposed on at least a portion of an external surface to store a roll of toilet paper therein, and a dispensing aperture disposed on at least a portion of the container body to facilitate extraction of at least one sheet of the roll of toilet paper therefrom, a motion sensor disposed on at least a portion of the container body to detect movement by a user within a predetermined proximity, and a motor disposed within at least a portion of the container body to automatically extract the at least one sheet of the roll of toilet paper through the dispensing aperture in response to the motion sensor detecting movement by the user.

Description

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present general inventive concept relates generally to a toilet paper, and particularly, to an automatic toilet paper dispenser.

2. Description of the Related Art

Maintaining cleanliness after using a bathroom is an important practice of good hygiene. However, bathrooms for men do not provide proper equipment to have practice hygiene. Specifically, urinals do not have toilet paper that allow men to dry themselves after urinating like a standard commode and/or latrine.
As a result, most men tend to stand over the urinal after urinating and shake any residual urine into the bowl. However, shaking doesn't always stop excess urine from leaking onto undergarments, which causes stains on clothes and/or leaves behind an odor.
Therefore, there is a need for an automatic toilet paper dispenser disposed at a urinal that provides toilet paper to maintain hygiene.

SUMMARY

The present general inventive concept provides an automatic toilet paper dispenser.
Additional features and utilities of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept.
The foregoing and/or other features and utilities of the present general inventive concept may be achieved by providing an automatic toilet paper dispenser, including a wall mounted container, including a container body disposed on at least a portion of an external surface to store a roll of toilet paper therein, and a dispensing aperture disposed on at least a portion of the container body to facilitate extraction of at least one sheet of the roll of toilet paper therefrom, a motion sensor disposed on at least a portion of the container body to detect movement by a user within a predetermined proximity, and a motor disposed within at least a portion of the container body to automatically extract the at least one sheet of the roll of toilet paper through the dispensing aperture in response to the motion sensor detecting movement by the user.
The dispensing aperture may have a size corresponding to a size of the at least one sheet of the roll of toilet paper.
The automatic toilet paper dispenser may further include a control unit disposed within at least a portion of the container body.
The control unit may determine a volume level within the container body based on a size of the roll of toilet paper within the container body.
The control unit may control a number of sheets dispensed by the motor through the dispensing aperture in response to the motion sensor detecting movement.
The automatic toilet paper dispenser may further include a dispensing light disposed on at least a portion of the container body to illuminate in response to movement by the motor and the at least one sheet of paper of the roll of toilet paper moving through the dispensing aperture.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other features and utilities of the present generally inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a front perspective view of an automatic toilet paper dispenser, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various example embodiments (a.k.a., exemplary embodiments) will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which some example embodiments are illustrated. In the FIGURES, the thicknesses of lines, layers and/or regions may be exaggerated for clarity.
Accordingly, while example embodiments are capable of various modifications and alternative forms, embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the figures and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit example embodiments to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, example embodiments are to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the disclosure. Like numbers refer to like/similar elements throughout the detailed description.
It is understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (e.g., “between” versus “directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.).
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes” and/or “including,” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which example embodiments belong. It will be further understood that terms, e.g., those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art. However, should the present disclosure give a specific meaning to a term deviating from a meaning commonly understood by one of ordinary skill, this meaning is to be taken into account in the specific context this definition is given herein.

LIST OF COMPONENTS

- Automatic Toilet Paper Dispenser 100
- Wall Mounted Container 110
- Container Body 111
- Dispensing Aperture 112
- Motion Sensor 120
- Motor 130
- Control Unit 140
- Dispensing Light 150
- Status Lights 160
- First Status Light 161
- Second Status Light 162
- Third Status Light 163

FIG. 1 illustrates a front perspective view of an automatic toilet paper dispenser 100, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept.
The automatic toilet paper dispenser 100 may be constructed from at least one of metal, plastic, wood, and rubber, etc., but is not limited thereto.
The automatic toilet paper dispenser 100 may include a wall mounted container 110, a motion sensor 120, a motor 130, a control unit 140, a dispensing light 150, and a plurality of status lights 160, but is not limited thereto.
The wall mounted container 110 may include a container body 111 and a dispensing aperture 112, but is not limited thereto.
Referring to FIG. 1 , the container body 111 is illustrated to have an arcuate shape. However, the container body 111 may be rectangular, spherical, cylindrical, triangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal, or any other shape known to one of ordinary skill in the art, but is not limited thereto.
The container body 111 may be disposed on at least a portion of an external surface 20. For example, the container body 111 may be disposed on at least a portion of a wall surrounding a urinal. Moreover, the container body 111 may receive and/or store a roll of toilet paper 10 therein.
The dispensing aperture 112 may be disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111. The dispensing aperture 112 may facilitate movement of at least one sheet 11 of the roll of toilet paper 10 therethrough. In other words, the dispensing aperture 112 may facilitate extraction of the at least one sheet 11 of the roll of toilet paper 10 from the container body 111.
The motion sensor 120 may be disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111. The motion sensor 120 may detect movement within a predetermined proximity (e.g., five inches, ten inches, two feet, etc.) therefrom. For example, the motion sensor 120 may detect movement of a hand of a user (e.g., hand waving), a face of the user, and/or a torso of the user.
The motor 130 may be disposed within at least a portion of the container body 111. The motor 130 may move (i.e., rotate) in response to the motion sensor 120 detecting movement within the predetermined proximity. As such, the at least one sheet 11 of the roll of toilet paper 10 may be automatically extracted from the container body 111 in response to the motion sensor 120 detecting movement.
The control unit 140 may include a processing unit (e.g., a processor, a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller), a storage unit (e.g., a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM)), and a volume sensor, but is not limited thereto.
The control unit 140 may be disposed within at least a portion of the container body 111, and/or connected to the motion sensor 120 and/or the motor 130. The control unit 140 may detect a volume level within the container body 111. More specifically, the control unit 140 may detect the volume level based on a size of the roll of toilet paper 10 within the container body 111. As such, the control unit 140 may determine the roll of toilet paper 10 within the container body 111 is running low in response to a decrease in the volume level. Also, the control unit 140 may be programmed to recognize a full volume level, an empty volume level, and/or a low volume level (e.g., ten percent of the full volume level, twenty percent of the full volume level, thirty percent of the full volume level) based on the volume level.
Furthermore, the control unit 140 may determine a number of sheets dispensed by the roll of toilet paper 10. For example, the control unit 140 may be programmed to allow the motor 130 to dispense one sheet, two sheets, and/or three sheets in response to the motion sensor 130 detecting movement. However, the control unit 140 may be programmed to dispense any number of sheets of the roll of toilet paper 10 by the motor 130.
The dispensing light 150 may be disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111 and/or connected to the control unit 140. The dispensing light 150 may illuminate in response to movement by the motor 130, such that the dispensing light 150 may illuminate a blue color. In other words, the dispensing light 150 may turn on in response to the at least one sheet 11 being dispensed from the container body 111 by the motor 130. Subsequently, the dispensing light 150 may turn off in response to the motor 130 being stopped from moving by the control unit 140.
The plurality of status lights 160 may include a first status light 161, a second status light 162, and a third status light 163, but is not limited thereto.
The first status light 161 may be disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111. The first status light 161 may illuminate a first color (e.g., red) and/or flash in response to the control unit 140 detecting the roll of toilet paper 10 needs to be replaced and/or the container body 111 is at the empty volume level.
The second status light 162 may be disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111. The second status light 162 may illuminate a second color (e.g., yellow) and/or flash in response to the control unit 140 detecting the roll of toilet paper 10 is running low and/or the container body 111 is at the low volume level.
The third status light 163 may be disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111. The third status light 163 may illuminate a third color (e.g., green) and/or flash in response to the control unit 140 detecting the roll of toilet paper 10 is new and/or the container body 111 is at the full volume level.
Therefore, the automatic toilet paper dispenser 100 may allow men to practice good hygiene while using the urinal by wiping themselves after urinating, which helps prevent leakage, odors, and/or staining of undergarments. Moreover, the automatic toilet paper dispenser 100 may indicate a level of use for the roll of toilet paper 10.
The present general inventive concept may include an automatic toilet paper dispenser 100, including a wall mounted container 110, including a container body 111 disposed on at least a portion of an external surface 20 to store a roll of toilet paper 10 therein, and a dispensing aperture 112 disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111 to facilitate extraction of at least one sheet 11 of the roll of toilet paper 10 therefrom, a motion sensor 120 disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111 to detect movement by a user within a predetermined proximity, and a motor 130 disposed within at least a portion of the container body 111 to automatically extract the at least one sheet 11 of the roll of toilet paper 10 through the dispensing aperture 112 in response to the motion sensor 120 detecting movement by the user.
The dispensing aperture 112 may have a size corresponding to a size of the at least one sheet 11 of the roll of toilet paper 10.
The automatic toilet paper dispenser 100 may further include a control unit 140 disposed within at least a portion of the container body 111.
The control unit 140 may determine a volume level within the container body 111 based on a size of the roll of toilet paper 10 within the container body 111.
The control unit 140 may control a number of sheets dispensed by the motor 130 through the dispensing aperture 112 in response to the motion sensor 120 detecting movement.
The automatic toilet paper dispenser 100 may further include a dispensing light 150 disposed on at least a portion of the container body 111 to illuminate in response to movement by the motor 130 and the at least one sheet of paper 11 of the roll of toilet paper 10 moving through the dispensing aperture 112.
Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An automatic toilet paper dispenser, comprising:

a wall mounted container, comprising:

a container body disposed on at least a portion of an external surface to store a roll of toilet paper therein, and

a dispensing aperture disposed on at least a portion of the container body to facilitate extraction of at least one sheet of the roll of toilet paper therefrom;

a motion sensor disposed on at least a portion of the container body to detect movement by a user within a predetermined proximity; and

a motor disposed within at least a portion of the container body to automatically extract the at least one sheet of the roll of toilet paper through the dispensing aperture in response to the motion sensor detecting movement by the user.

2. The automatic toilet paper dispenser of claim 1, wherein the dispensing aperture has a size corresponding to a size of the at least one sheet of the roll of toilet paper.

3. The automatic toilet paper dispenser of claim 1, further comprising:

a control unit disposed within at least a portion of the container body.

4. The automatic toilet paper dispenser of claim 3, wherein the control unit determines a volume level within the container body based on a size of the roll of toilet paper within the container body.

5. The automatic toilet paper dispenser of claim 3, wherein the control unit controls a number of sheets dispensed by the motor through the dispensing aperture in response to the motion sensor detecting movement.

6. The automatic toilet paper dispenser of claim 1, further comprising:

a dispensing light disposed on at least a portion of the container body to illuminate in response to movement by the motor and the at least one sheet of paper of the roll of toilet paper moving through the dispensing aperture.