| 摘要 |
A liquid-quantity monitoring apparatus includes: a piezoelectric device (106) having a vibrating part (176) capable of being exposed at least partly to a liquid-containing space, the piezoelectric device (106) being capable of vibrating the vibrating part by a given drive signal and of generating a signal representing back electromotive force generated by vibration of the vibrating part; and a liquid-quantity determining unit for determining a quantity of liquid remaining in the liquid-containing space, to which the vibrating part is exposed, based on a resonance frequency of a residual vibration signal output from the piezoelectric device (106) due to a residual vibration of the vibrating part after the vibrating part has been vibrated by the drive signal. The liquid-quantity determining unit counts a number of pulses included in the residual vibration signal, measures a time period necessary for counting a predetermined number of pulses after starting counting the pulses, and determines the quantity of the liquid based on the time period measured. The liquid-quantity determining unit repeats a pulse-counting operation for counting the predetermined number of pulses with different starting time points, and decides that a measurement is incorrect when differences between the time periods are greater than a predetermined allowable limit. <IMAGE> |
