| 摘要 |
A device 502 for detecting an electrical appliance is plugged into an electrical socket. The device includes an electrical socket for receiving an electrical plug 106 of the electrical appliance, one or more one sensors 516, such as optical beam break sensors, configured to detect when an object is placed in or near the electrical socket, and a processor (202 Fig 2) configured to determine whether an electrical appliance is plugged into the electrical socket based on an output of the at least one sensor. Preferably the one or more sensors are configured to detect when one or more of the shutters 512 of the electrical socket are moved to an open position. The device may also detect a fault by monitoring the current drawn by an appliance. A method of using the device is also described in which the device 502, in response to determining that an appliance is plugged in to the device, will then notify a user (406 Fig 4). |
