Patent ID: 8648292

Claim:
A safety photoelectric switch comprising: a distance measuring unit configured to optically measure a distance of an object; a position recognizer configured to recognize a position of the object based upon the distance of the object; a memory configured to store a protection area, at least partial of the protection area being designated as a muting area; a signal receiver configured to receive a respective external signal from each of at least two external mute sensors, a muting determination unit configured to determine a muting period based upon the respective external signal, a muting start criteria and a muting completion criteria; a safety output controller configured to determine whether a safety output signal is ON or OFF based upon the position of the object and the protection area; and wherein during the muting period determined by the muting determination unit, the safety output controller determines whether a safety output signal is ON or OFF based upon the position of the object and the protection area excluding the muting area.