BODYCARE DEVICE

Abstract

A bodycare device such as a facial skincare device performs a skincare procedure on a subject, in a series of zones of the skin of the subject, with each zone receiving a different skincare routine. The device (1) has an interchangeable treatment head (3) to perform the skincare procedure. A controller (10) controls the treatment head to perform the skincare procedure. A sensor (14) detects an individual treatment head (3) when fitted to the device, by detecting and reading data from a tag (15) on the treatment head, which automatically selects the sequence of skincare routines to be performed by the device on the zones of the skin of the subject.

Claims

1. A skincare device for performing a skincare procedure on a subject, comprising: a drive train to receive and drive an interchangeable treatment head to perform the skincare procedure, wherein the drive train includes a drive shaft to receive the interchangeable treatment head, a motor configuration to rotate the drive shaft and/or apply a vibratory motion to the drive shaft; a controller to control the drive train so that the treatment head performs the skincare procedure; and a sensor to detect an individual treatment head when fitted on the drive train; the controller being responsive to the sensor to control the drive train to perform the skincare procedure in a sequence of individual skincare routines suited to respective zones of the body of the subject in dependence on the individual treatment head fitted to the drive train, and wherein the controller is further operable to control the motor configuration so as to control drive parameters for the drive train for each of the skincare routines individually

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller has an associated memory with stored values for the drive parameters of the sequence of individual skincare routines suited to respective zones of the skin of the subject in dependence on the individual treatment head fitted to the drive train.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor is configured to detect wirelessly an identity device on the treatment head fitted to the drive train.

4. A device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the sensor includes a NFC device configured to detect a RFID tag on the treatment head.

5. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein motor configuration comprises a first motor coupled to rotate the drive shaft, and a second motor that comprises drive coil and a magnetic member configured to impart a vibratory motion to the drive shaft.

6. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the drive parameters include the speed or direction of rotation of the drive train for each of the skincare routines individually.

7. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the drive parameters include the frequency or amplitude of the vibratory motion of the drive train for the skincare routines individually.

8. A device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the drive parameters include an amplitude modulation applied to the vibratory motion of the drive train for the skincare routines individually.

9. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the drive parameters include the duration of each of the skincare routines individually.

10. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller is configured in response to the sensor providing a signal corresponding to a particular treatment head, to retrieve the stored values of the drive parameters for the detected treatment head from the memory, and control the drive train to perform the sequence of individual routines suited to respective zones of the skin of the subject in accordance with the drive parameters retrieved from the memory for the particular treatment head.

11. A device as claimed in claim 1, and including at least one said interchangeable treatment head.

12. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the skin care routines are editable or adaptable by a user.

13. A computer program to be run by a processor to be coupled to the skincare device as claimed in claim 1, to control selectively the drive parameters stored in the memory for the individual treatment head.

14. A computer program as claimed in claim 13, wherein the skin care routines are editable or adaptable by a user.

15. A computer program as claimed in claim 13, to be run by a mobile communication device to wirelessly communicate with the skincare device to control selectively the drive parameters stored in the memory for the individual treatment head and/or communicate with a remote data source to update or modify user preferred stored values of the drive parameters.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0046] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0047] FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a facial skincare device, with a charging cradle and interchangeable head;

[0048] FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the facial skincare device in use by a subject;

[0049] FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of the major components of the facial skincare device, and a Smartphone for programming operational characteristics of the device;

[0050] FIG. 4 illustrates different zones of the face of the user;

[0051] FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the motor configuration, gear train and treatment head of the skincare device;

[0052] FIG. 6 is a graph of motor speed as a function of time for different, individual skincare routines;

[0053] FIG. 7 is a graph of vibration frequency and modulation as a function of time for different, individual skincare routines;

[0054] FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a routine performed by a microcontroller in the device; and

[0055] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram for modifying drive parameters for the device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0056] Referring to FIG. 1, a handheld bodycare device 1 has a waterproof housing 2 together with a rotary and vibratory treatment head 3 that can be applied to the skin of a subject to perform a skincare procedure as illustrated schematically in FIG. 2. Herein, the bodycare device 1 is further also indicated as skincare device 1.

[0057] The treatment head 3 is interchangeable and may comprise a skincare scrubbing element such as a brush with bristles 4 suited to perform a particular skincare procedure, such as pore cleansing, exfoliating, massaging or brushing, with the bristles being selected to suit normal, sensitive or extra-sensitive skin. Thus, the treatment head 3 shown in FIG. 1 may be replaced by interchangeable treatment head 3 with bristles 4 suited to perform a different skincare procedure to the treatment head 3.

[0058] As shown in FIG. 3, the interchangeable treatment head 3 is received on a drive shaft 5 which is driven by a drive train which may include a first electric motor 7, a reduction gear 7 and a second electric motor 8. The first electric motor 6 rotates the drive shaft 5 through the reduction gear train 7, and the second, vibratory motor 8 imparts a vibratory motion to the drive shaft 5 in addition to the rotation produced by the first motor 6. The first and second motors 6, 8 receive respective electrical drive currents from a rechargeable battery 9 under the control of a microcontroller 10. The rechargeable battery 9 is charged through an inductive charger 11 which includes an inductive coil and rectifier arrangement 12 within the housing 2, which is inductively coupled to an AC driven coil within a charging cradle 13 illustrated in FIG. 1, in which the device is received when not in use. The charging arrangement may operate generally in the manner of the charger provided for the VisaPure facial cleaning brush manufactured and sold by Royal Philips N.V.

[0059] Referring to FIG. 3, the housing 2 includes a wireless transceiver, typically in the form of a near field communication (NFC) transceiver 14 which acts as a sensor to detect the identity of the interchangeable treatment head 3 when fitted to the drive shaft 5. To this end, the treatment head 3 is provided with an identity tag in the form of a RFID passive tag 15 attached to the treatment head 3. However, it will be appreciated that an active RFID tag could be used.

[0060] The microcontroller 10 has an associated memory 16 which stores data corresponding to a series of drive parameters that are selected by the microcontroller to control operation of the motor configuration 6, 8 to perform the skincare procedure which specifically corresponds to the identity of the treatment head 3 fitted on the drive shaft 5.

[0061] The device also includes a signalling device in the form of a LED 17 and an on/off switch 18 for the entire device, together an on/off switch 19 for the NFC transceiver 14 to conserve power when the treatment head has been fitted to the device 1.

[0062] The configuration of the first and second motors 6, 8 and the reduction gear 7 is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 5. The motor 6 runs continuously in operation and transmits to torque through the reduction gear 7 to the rotary drive shaft 5, onto which the treatment head 3 is received at one end with a push-fit (the bristles 4 of the treatment head being omitted in FIG. 5 for purposes of clarity). The NFC transceiver 14 has an associated transmit/receive coil 20 which communicates with the RFID tag 15 on the treatment head 3, so as to ascertain the identity of the treatment head fitted to the shaft 5.

[0063] The second motor 8 imparts a longitudinal, axial, vibratory motion to the drive shaft 5, in addition to the rotation of the shaft produced by the first motor 6. The second motor includes a flux assembly or magnetic member 21 which cooperates with a drive coil or solenoid 22 that receives current from the microcontroller 10 to impart a vibratory motion to the drive shaft 5. A more detailed explanation of the construction and operation of the first and second motors 6, 8 can be found in WO2014009177A1.

[0064] Alternative motor configurations to rotate and/or apply a vibratory motion to the drive shaft 5 of the drive train are possible. For example, the vibratory motion applied to the drive train need not necessarily be produced by the second motor 8. Instead, a mechanical arrangement may be provided so that on rotation of the shaft 5, it is subject to a hammer action axially so as to produce the vibratory motion. Alternatively, a vibrating plate may impart the vibratory motion to the shaft 5.

[0065] In use, the skincare device 1 performs a skincare procedure in a sequence of individual skincare routines suited to respective zones of the skin of the subject in dependence on the individual treatment head fitted to the drive shaft 5. For this example of the facial skincare device 1, the subject's face is considered to consist of zones I, II, III, IV as illustrated in FIG. 4 and an individual skincare routine is performed using the treatment head 3 for each of the zones in a predetermined sequence. It will however be appreciated that the device may be configured to work on more or less than four such facial zones.

[0066] Drive parameters used for the motors 6, 8 to perform the treatment routines for the individual zones I, II, III, IV are illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7. For zone I, the treatment head 3 is driven by the first motor 6 at speed v.sub.1, for a time t.sub.1. Also, as shown in FIG. 7 the vibration produced by the second motor 8 has a frequency f.sub.1. The frequency may be modulated with a modulation f.sub.1 mod.sub.1.

[0067] When the treatment routine has been completed for zone I, the motors 6, 8 pause for a time t.sub.p1 to allow the user to move the treatment head 3 to perform a treatment routine specifically configured for zone II. The motors 6, 8 then run for a period t.sub.2, with the first motor 6 driving the treatment head 3 at a speed v.sub.2 which is different from v.sub.1, and motor 8 imparts a vibration of frequency f.sub.2 modulated with a modulation f.sub.2 mod.sub.2.

[0068] When the treatment routine has been completed for zone II, the motors 6, 8 pause for a time t.sub.p2 to allow the user to move the treatment head to perform a treatment routine specifically configured for zone III. As shown in FIG. 6, the direction of rotation of the treatment head is reversed for zone III and IV, which is signalled by a drive parameter s=1 for zones I and II and s=1 for zones. It will appreciated that the pair of zones I and IV and zone pair II and III are symmetrically disposed on the subject's face and so the same routines can be applied to the zone pairs but with the motor 6 running in opposite directions of rotation.

[0069] A set of drive parameters that can be stored in the RFID tag 15 are shown in TABLE 1

TABLE-US-00001 parameter description t1[s] time for facial zone (I) & (IV) t2 [s] Time for facial zone (II) & (III) tmod1 [s] Modulation period time for facial zone (I) & (IV) tmod2 [s] Modulation period time for facial zone (II) & (III) tmod1 [s] Modulation period time for facial zone (I) & (IV) tmod2 [s] Modulation period time for facial zone (II) & (III) s [] Rotation direction change between zone (II) & (III) v1l [rpm] Low rotation speed for facial zone (I) & (IV) v2l [rpm] Low rotation speed for facial zone (II) & (III) f1l [hz] Low vibration frequency for facial zone (I) & (IV) f2l [hz] Low vibration frequency for facial zone (II) & (III) fmod1l [] Low modulation frequency range for facial zone (I) & (IV) fmod2l [] Low modulation frequency range for facial zone (II) & (III) v1h [rpm] High rotation speed for facial zone (I) & (IV) v2h [rpm] High rotation speed for facial zone (II) & (III) f1h [hz] High vibration frequency for facial zone (I) & (IV) f2h [hz] High vibration frequency for facial zone (II) & (III) fmod1h [] High modulation frequency range for facial zone (I) & (IV) fmod2h [] High modulation frequency range for facial zone (II) & (III) gen Device generation for which attachment is valid attld Attachment identifier to specify the type of attachment

[0070] Data for the parameters shown in Table 1 may be stored in terms of a maximum value, minimum value, step size and number of steps to allow control of the individual treatment routines for the zones.

[0071] FIG. 8 shows a process performed by the microcontroller 10 to perform the treatment routines of the skincare procedure for the respective zones I-IV. At step 800 the fitting of a treatment head 3 to the drive shaft 5 is detected by the transceiver 14 detecting the RFID tag 15.

[0072] At step 801, the drive parameters for the treatment head 3 fitted to the drive shaft are looked up, either by reading them from the data stored on the RFID tag by means of transceiver 14 or, if they have previously been stored in the memory 16, by retrieving them from the memory.

[0073] A zone count parameter Z is initially set to zero at step 802 and then incremented at step 803. The zone parameter has a maximum value corresponding to the number of treatment zones, in this example four, which is tested at step 804.

[0074] At step 805 the first and second drive motors 6, 8 are operated with the drive parameters for the treatment zones individually. Completion of the routine for a particular zone is tested at step 806. For example for zone I, when the motors 6, 8 have run for a time t.sub.1, they are paused at step 807 for a time t.sub.p1 to allow the user to move the treatment head 3 to zone II ready for the next skincare routine. The LED 17 may be illuminated for the duration of the pause t.sub.p1 at steps 808, 809 to signify to the user that the treatment head 3 needs to be moved to the next treatment zone.

[0075] The parameter Z is then incremented at step 803 and the routine is performed for the next treatment zone. The process repeats until the treatment routines for all of the zones I-IV have been completed after which the process ends at step 810.

[0076] However, in use, the skincare device 1 may also be used to perform a skincare procedure including one or more (individual) skincare routines suited to (a) respective zone(s) of the skin of a subject in dependence on the individual treatment head fitted to the drive shaft 5. For instance, the skincare device may be configured to perform the skincare procedure to n skin zones, wherein n is at least 1, even more especially at least 2, such as at least 3, like even more especially at least 4. Hence, the skincare device may be applied with n different treatment heads, with n especially being at least 2. The user may use 2 or more treatment heads, each associated with a specific skin zone. By using a first treatment head and thereafter a second treatment head, a sequence of skincare routines may be applied by the skincare device to the respective zone (when the user brings the skincare device into contact with these different treatment zones. However, alternatively less then n different treatment heads may be used, as the routines may differ for each body zone, but with the same treatment head. Combination of these embodiments may also be possible.

[0077] The user may wish to modify the drive parameters for a particular treatment head 3, so as to personalise them for their own use rather than use the default settings held on the RFID tag 15. This can conveniently be carried out using a computer program in the form of an app to be run by a cellular mobile telephone such as a Smartphone or other computing device such as a tablet computer. Referring to FIG. 3, a Smartphone 23 is loaded with an app 24 and can communicate wirelessly with the skincare device 1 through the NFC transceiver 14, although it will be appreciated that Wi-Fi or other alternative means of wireless communication could be used.

[0078] The app 24 may control the Smartphone 23 to communicate with the microcontroller 10 to perform a process illustrated in FIG. 9. At step 901, the treatment head 3 fitted to the drive shaft 5 is detected by use of the NFC transceiver 14 as previously described, so that the drive parameters for the particular head 3 can be downloaded as shown at step 902 and stored in memory 16 as shown at step 903. The app 24 can then be used to modify the values of drive parameters such as v, t, t.sub.p, s, f and fmod for the individual zones, and also additional zones could be defined.

[0079] Also, the Smartphone 23 may provide a remote connection for the app 24 for example through a mobile or other wireless network, to a remote data source 25 such as a server, that can provide updates for the routines or new routines for particular treatment heads 3. In particular the drive parameters may be modified to provide:

[0080] personal zone time parameters for longer or shorter programs,

[0081] lower or higher settings for more gentle or more vigorous massage,

[0082] personal modulation time. This parameter could be used to match and influence breathing frequency and can be optimized for personal breathing frequency, and/or

[0083] personalized rotation direction of the motor to suit the user's preference. i.e. rotate clockwise or anticlockwise depending on whether right-handed or left-handed.

[0084] The app 24 may also provide access to an URL linked to a dedicated website giving attachment-specific information such as a how-to-use video, and where to buy new attachments.

[0085] Whilst the described embodiments relate to skincare and particularly facial skincare devices, the invention can be used for other bodycare devices such as toothbrushes and shavers with interchangeable heads.

[0086] It will be appreciated that the term comprising does not exclude other units or steps and that the indefinite article a or an does not exclude a plurality. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to an advantage. Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope of the claims.

[0087] Although claims have been formulated in this application to particular combinations of features, it should be understood that the scope of the disclosure of the present invention also includes any novel features or any novel combinations of features disclosed herein either explicitly or implicitly or any generalisation thereof, whether or not it relates to the same invention as presently claimed in any claim and whether or not it mitigates any or all of the same technical problems as does the parent invention. The applicants hereby give notice that new claims may be formulated to such features and/or combinations of features during the prosecution of the present application or of any further application derived therefrom.