A switch device includes an operating knob on which a tilting operation is performed, a detected portion that tilts with the tilting operation of the operating knob, a detection portion that detects movement of the detected portion, and a substrate on which the detection portion is arranged. The detection portion is aligned in an in-plane direction of the substrate and performs a switching operation upon detection of movement of the detected portion in the in-plane direction.

The invention relates to a sensor for determining an output value, the sensor having: a detection unit configured to detect a sensor signal; a preprocessing unit configured to determine an intermediate signal on the basis of the sensor signal and of a predefined reference signal; and an evaluation unit that is trained in accordance with a machine learning method and that is configured to determine the output value on the basis of the intermediate signal.

A multi-measurement apparatus using a search-coil type sensor includes: sensor modules, each of which has one or more sensors including respective housings having respective inner spaces, respective cores formed to be inserted into the inner spaces of the housings, and respective coils which are each wound around a portion of an outer circumferential surface of each of the housings, the portion corresponding to a position of each of the cores; impedance matching units that are connected to a plurality of the sensors, respectively, and perform impedance matching; and amplifiers that are connected to the impedance matching units, respectively, and amplify a fine current and voltage generated during approach of objects to the sensors.

Disclosed is a device for detecting intention to lock or unlock a door of a motor vehicle, the device including at least a first inductive sensor, including a first target, an oscillating circuit including a coil, a unit measuring a resonant frequency of the circuit, and a printed circuit. The device includes a second inductive sensor including: a second target in the form of a loop, such that a first end of the loop is connected to a fixed potential, and a second end of the loop is connected to a switch having two states, in a first state, the second end of the loop is connected to the fixed potential, in a second state, the second end of the loop is connected to a floating potential; and a controller for the switch. The coil of the first inductive sensor is common to the second inductive sensor.

A first embodiment provides a manually operable castor assembly for a hospital bed, including a wheel unit fittable to a bed frame and provided with a lock actuator. A sensor unit is provided with a trigger element and a sensor element, the trigger element being located on the manually operable brake actuator and the sensor element being located on the wheel unit. Another embodiment provides a manually operable safety side panel assembly including a hinge assembly coupled to the panel element and attachable to a bed frame, and a sensor unit including a trigger element and a sensor element, the trigger element being located on the manually operable actuator and the sensor element being located on a part of the side panel or hinge assembly. Monitoring apparatus monitors the manually operable bed safety device and including a control unit coupled to the sensor unit and an indicator unit controllable by the control unit and operable to give an indication of the state of the device.

A proximity sensor that detects the distance between two coils is disclosed. In one example, the proximity sensor includes a reference signal generation circuit, a first coil, a second coil, a clock signal generation circuit, and a switched capacitor circuit. The reference signal generation circuit applies a first alternating voltage to the first coil and transmits a reference signal synchronized with the first alternating voltage to the clock signal generation circuit. The second coil is coupled with the first coil by magnetic field coupling to generate a second alternating voltage correlated with a coupling coefficient. The clock signal generation circuit transmits clock signals corresponding to the reference signal to the switched capacitor circuit, and the switched capacitor circuit detects a distance between the first coil and the second coil by acquiring the second alternating voltage at a timing when each of the clock signals changes.

A proximity switch is disclosed. In an embodiment, the proximity switch has a defined detection range and includes an oscillator, an oscillator amplifier, a temperature sensor, a microprocessor and a storage medium. The oscillator generates an alternating magnetic field and changes its oscillation state as a result of a target entering the detection range. The oscillator amplifier is configured to be controllable in an open-loop and closed-loop manner and has at least one amplifier stage. In this embodiment, the at least one amplifier stage has a controllable temperature compensation circuit which is configured to influence the oscillation behaviour of the oscillator based on compensation values received as control data from the microprocessor and/or from the storage medium, depending on a temperature detected by the temperature sensor. The disclosed embodiments also encompass a method for operating a proximity switch with temperature compensation.

A proximity sensor that detects the distance between two coils is disclosed. In one example, the proximity sensor includes a reference signal generation circuit, a first coil, a second coil, a clock signal generation circuit, and a switched capacitor circuit. The reference signal generation circuit applies a first alternating voltage to the first coil and transmits a reference signal synchronized with the first alternating voltage to the clock signal generation circuit. The second coil is coupled with the first coil by magnetic field coupling to generate a second alternating voltage correlated with a coupling coefficient. The clock signal generation circuit transmits clock signals corresponding to the reference signal to the switched capacitor circuit, and the switched capacitor circuit detects a distance between the first coil and the second coil by acquiring the second alternating voltage at a timing when each of the clock signals changes.

Disclosed is a device for detecting intention to lock or unlock a door of a motor vehicle, the device including at least a first inductive sensor, including a first target, an oscillating circuit including a coil, a unit measuring a resonant frequency of the circuit, and a printed circuit. The device includes a second inductive sensor including: a second target in the form of a loop, such that a first end of the loop is connected to a fixed potential, and a second end of the loop is connected to a switch having two states, in a first state, the second end of the loop is connected to the fixed potential, in a second state, the second end of the loop is connected to a floating potential; and a controller for the switch. The coil of the first inductive sensor is common to the second inductive sensor.

A switch device includes an operating knob on which a tilting operation is performed, a detected portion that tilts with the tilting operation of the operating knob, a detection portion that detects movement of the detected portion, and a substrate on which the detection portion is arranged. The detection portion is aligned in an in-plane direction of the substrate and performs a switching operation upon detection of movement of the detected portion in the in-plane direction.