| 摘要 |
<p>A re-usable tamper-evident closure that can be applied to cover an opening of a container is disclosed. The closure comprises control means, detection means that can detect removal of the closure from a container and supply a signal to the control means, indicating means, under control of the control means, that can indicate to a user the status of the closure; and resetting means connected to apply an input signal to the control means. Upon application of the closure to a container, a user can operate the resetting means. The signal thus generated triggers the control means to cause the indicating means to indicate that the device is in a safe state. Upon detection of removal of the closure from the container, the control means causes the indicating means to indicate that the device is in an unsafe state. The resetting means is secured against operation by those not authorised to so do. Consider a person with a drink who wishes to leave it unattended. The closure is applied to its container and reset by its owner. If, upon return, the owner of the drink sees that the device is in a safe state, then this indicates that the closure has not been removed so the drink is still safe. However, if the device is in an unsafe state, its owner can conclude that the closure has been removed from the bottle and replaced. The resetting means is secured against unauthorised operation, so nobody other than the drink owner can reset the indicating means to the safe state after removal of the closure from the bottle. Indicating means may be a light emitting diode, the resetting means may be actuated by a standard or electronic key, or by biometric, such as finger print recognition attributes. The detection means may be optical and indicated by the effect upon a beam of light passing between an optical emitter and an optical receiver or by position sensor components that make physical contact with the container.</p> |
