Patent ID: 7180254

Claim:
A method of controlling an oscillating electric motor of a small electric appliance, the method comprising: supplying an electric current to a coil to produce a magnetic field emanating from a first motor component and setting a second motor component in an oscillatory motion relative to the first motor component; determining a measure of current flowing through the coil for an instant of time at which current is supplied to the coil by detecting at least one measured value for a first current transmitted through the coil prior to the instant of time, and detecting at least one measured value for a second current transmitted through the coil subsequent to the instant of time, and then calculating a mean value of the detected measured values of the first and second currents; based on the determined measure of current flowing through the coil, determining a motion quantity of the first motor component relative to the second motor component; and then supplying further current to the coil as a function of the determined measure of current flowing through the coil.