Abstract: A water meter that requires neither a smoothing capacitor of large capacitance nor a high frequency reference clock is offered. A rotation detection unit is formed to include a first coil, a first capacitor, a charging transistor, a power supply line, an activation transistor, an output buffer circuit, a DA converter, a comparator and a counter. A first LC resonant circuit is provided with the activation transistor connected in series with the first coil, the first capacitor connected in parallel with the first coil and the charging transistor for charging the first capacitor. The first LC resonant circuit is activated by turning on the activation transistor after the first capacitor is charged by turning on the charging transistor.
Abstract: A step-counter device detects and counts user steps. The device includes a transducer configured to generate an electrical transduction signal in response to user stepping. An energy-scavenging system is coupled to the transducer to generate a power supply voltage in response to the electrical transduction signal. A processing unit is powered by the power supply voltage. The processing unit is further configured to sense the electrical transduction signal and determine whether a user step has occurred and in response to that determination increment a step counter.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 24, 2013
Date of Patent:
March 7, 2017
Assignee:
STMicroelectronics S.r.l.
Inventors:
Alessandro Gasparini, Stefano Ramorini, Alberto Cattani