ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,521,217, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V. (Eindhoven, Netherlands).
"Oral care device with sensing functionality" was invented by Mark Thomas Johnson (Arendonk, Belgium), Lutz Christian Gerhardt (Eindhoven, Netherlands) and Bart Gottenbos (Budel, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An oral care system for sensing blood in an oral cavity and in gum tissue. The sensing is performed magnetically using a magnetic field source (16) and magnetic sensing arrangement (18) incorporated into a cleaning or treatment portion of an oral care device (e.g. a brush head of a toothbrush or mouthpiece part of a brushing m...