Apparatuses, including systems and devices (“vaporizers”), for vaporizing material to form an inhalable aerosol that include capacitive lips sensing to regulate the temperature of the vaporizer, including transiently boosting the temperature. Methods of operating a vaporizer having a capacitive lip sensor are also described.

An aerosol provision system for generating aerosol for user inhalation is disclosed. The aerosol provision system comprises a replaceable part comprising a substrate providing aerosol generating material for generating the aerosol for user inhalation and a reusable part comprising: a housing including an interface configured to operatively engage with the replaceable part, and an air channel configured at least partially in the housing to provide a passage of air drawn by user inhalation to receive the aerosol generated from the aerosol generating material, a detector configured to detect the passage of air drawn through the air channel; at least one aerosol generating element disposed with respect to the interface and configured, in use, to generate aerosol from the aerosol generating material, and a control circuit configured to receive a signal from the detector indicating an amount of air drawn by the user and to control the at least one aerosol generating element to generate the aerosol selectively from different regions of the aerosol generating material in response to the amount of air drawn through the air channel.

The invention relates to an electrical heating device (1), in particular for a motor vehicle, the device (1) comprising: —a heating element (3) supplied with power at high voltage, —a control unit (5) supplied with power at low voltage and configured to receive a low-voltage electrical signal, the control unit (5) comprising at least one printed circuit (12) with at least one surface configured to receive electronic components; —at least one transmission cable (10) configured to transmit the low-voltage electric signal to the control unit (5), characterised in that the control unit (5) comprises at least one positioning element (20) configured to position the transmission cable (10) inside the control unit (5) and in that the positioning element (20) comprises at least one electrically insulating material.

A multi-purpose detection circuit for object detection and vehicle position determination is described. For example, the circuit is configurable for detecting foreign metallic objects, living objects, and a vehicle or type of vehicle above an inductive wireless power transmitter. The circuit is also configurable for determining the vehicle's position relative to the inductive wireless power transmitter. An example apparatus includes a measurement circuit including a multiplexer, electrically connected to a plurality of inductive and capacitive sense circuits, for measuring one or more electrical characteristics in each of the inductive and capacitive sense circuits according to a predetermined time multiplexing scheme. The apparatus further includes a control and evaluation circuit for evaluating the measured electrical characteristics and determining at least one of a presence of a metallic object, a living object, a vehicle, or a type of vehicle, and a vehicle position based on changes in the measured electrical characteristics.

Methods and vaporizer apparatuses that estimate, measure and/or predict the amount of vapor and/or material (including active ingredients) released by the vaporizer apparatus. In particular, described herein are electronic vaporizers and methods of using them that determine a dose/amount of vapor and/or a material in the vapor based primarily or exclusively on the electrical and thermal properties, e.g., power or energy applied to the vaporizing element (e.g., heating coil) and the temperature of the material immediately before and as it is vaporized. Dose information may be used to control operation of the device and/or reported to the user.

An electro-mechanical energy regulator for controlling an application of power supplied to a heating element of a cooking appliance that provides simmer operation is provided. The temperature and/or mode of operation is made via a user interface knob that is coupled to a switching control cam. This cam has an outer profile configured to drive a switching element via a power switch cam follower to close two power line contacts to power a heater. The heater drives a bimetal element whose deflection forces a temperature control switching element to close to enable power to flow to the heating element. The regulator also includes a cooking mode selector operable to open and close a pair of electrical contacts coupled in series with the heating element, and a diode coupled in parallel with the pair of electrical contacts.

The heater 72 of the heater portion includes the linear portions 78 and the bend portions 77. A resistance value per unit length of the bend portions 77 at least at a temperature within a temperature range of no less than 700° C. and no more than 900° C. is lower than a resistance value per unit length of the linear portions 78.

A vaporizer device includes a resistive heating element; circuitry configured to control delivery of electrical power to the resistive heating element from a power source; and a controller configured to perform operations including: receiving inputs representative of a power delivery to the resistive heating element, a temperature of the resistive heating element, and/or a flow rate of air past the resistive heating element; predicting, using the received inputs, an amount of evaporation of the vaporizable material at the resistive heating element; and controlling the power delivery to the resistive heating element in response to the predicted amount of evaporation of the vaporizable material, the controlling including increasing or decreasing an instantaneous power delivery to the heating element such that a target aerosol yield is produced. Related devices, systems, methods, and articles are also described.

A model-based control method includes: (a) acquiring temperature control data including temperature data of each of a plurality of zones of a temperature control member provided in a processing apparatus, temperature of each of the plurality of zones being individually controllable; (b) for each zone, specifying a temperature of another zone that is weight-averaged by a weighting coefficient determined according to a magnitude of heat transfer with the another zone; (c) for each zone, specifying a parameter of a state-space model of multi-input/single-output using the specified temperature of the another zone and the temperature control data; (d) creating a state-space model of multi-input/multi-output by assigning the specified parameter of the state-space model of multi-input/single-output to each element of the state-space model of multi-input/multi-output; and (e) controlling the temperature of each of the plurality of zones of the temperature control member using the state-space model of multi-input/multi-output.

A beverage heating receptacle device for heating a beverage includes a shell, which defines an interior space and which is formed to define a receptacle having an annular sidewall that extends from a bottom to an open top. A beverage is positionable in the receptacle. A heating element is engaged to the shell and is positioned in the interior space proximate to an inner section of the annular sidewall and an upper section of the bottom. A base is selectively engageable to the receptacle so that the base extends from the bottom. A battery is positioned in the base and is operationally engaged to the heating element upon engagement of the base to the receptacle. The battery thus is enabled to selectively power the heating element to heat the beverage.