Patent ID: 7757982

Claim:
A shredder comprising: a housing; a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling articles to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable to drive the cutter elements so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein; the housing having an opening enabling articles to be fed therethrough into the cutter elements of the shredder mechanism for shredding; an activation sensor operable to detect an inherent electrical characteristic of an operator of the shredder; a controller, coupled to the activation sensor and the shredder mechanism, the controller being operable to enable operation of the shredder mechanism responsive to the detected inherent electrical characteristic being above a predetermined level, the predetermined level being selected to differentiate between a relatively larger human operator and a relatively smaller human operator and prevent operation by the relatively smaller human operator.