Patent ID: 7756662

Claim:
A non-contact capacitive sensor for detecting a position of an object to be detected, comprising: a gain adjuster for sequentially changing a gain which takes any of a predetermined number of discrete values included in a predetermined range of value; an offset adjustment section for adjusting an offset value for each of the gains changed so as to obtain predetermined output values in a first case where the object to be detected is placed in a predetermined first position and in a second case where the object to be detected is placed in a predetermined second position; an offset value storage for storing the offset value for each of the gains; a straight-line approximator for using the gain and the offset value stored for the first and second cases to derive a first approximate straight line and a second approximate straight line, respectively; and an intersection point calculator for calculating an intersection point at which the first and second approximate straight lines intersect each other, the gain and the offset value at the calculated intersection point being defined as adjustment values.