Patent ID: 7823816

Claim:
A shredder comprising: a shredder housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded therethrough; a shredder mechanism received in the housing, the shredder mechanism including a motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable to drive the cutter elements in a shredding direction so that the cutter elements shred the at least one article fed therein into shredded particles; at least one light-emitting diode being operable as a sensor, the at least one light-emitting diode sensor configured to be used as an emitter when operated in a forward-biased direction and configured to be used as a detector when operated in a reverse-biased direction; a controller coupled to the sensor and the shredder mechanism, the controller being configured to alternate an input to the light-emitting diode between the forward-biased and reverse-biased directions, and the controller being operable to control an operation of the shredder mechanism based upon the radiation detected by the sensor.