Patent ID: 8854788
Filing Date: 2014-10-07
Classification: A61L,F24F,G01N

Abstract:
1. An ion generating apparatus, comprising: plural ion generators that respectively generate either positive or negative ions; a driving circuit that drives the plural ion generators to cyclically control ON and OFF operation of the plural ion generators; a collecting unit that collects the ions generated by the plural ion generators; a measuring unit that measures an electrical value of the collecting unit; a humidity detector that detects humidity; and a determining unit that performs a determination whether ions are present or not, wherein the plural ion generators alternately become ON or OFF, a timing used in making one of the plural ion generators become ON by the driving circuit is different from a timing used in making another of the plural ion generators become ON by the driving circuit, when the driving circuit controls ON with periodically different timing of one of the plural ion generators and another of the plural ion generators that generates ions having different positive and negative properties from ions generated by the one of the plural ion generators, the determining unit determines that ions are present, when difference of measurements obtained by the measuring unit at a time immediately before the one of the plural ion generators is controlled ON and at a time immediately after the one of the plural ion generators is controlled ON is larger than a predetermined threshold, the determining unit does not perform the determination, when the humidity detected by the humidity detector is larger than a predetermined humidity, and the ion generating apparatus further comprising a threshold changing unit that changes the predetermined threshold based on the humidity detected by the humidity detector.