Patent ID: 7523885

Claim:
A hands-free towel dispenser for dispensing a measured sheet from a roll of web material, comprising: a housing having an internal volume so as to retain at least one roll of towel material therein; an electronically powered dispensing mechanism contained within said housing for dispensing a measured sheet from the roll of web material in a dispense cycle upon actuation of said dispensing mechanism; a passive trigger sensor disposed so as to detect the presence of a user in a first detection zone; an active dispense sensor disposed so as to detect the presence of a user in a second detection zone; and wherein said passive trigger sensor and said active dispense sensor are configured with control circuitry so that, for each said dispense cycle, said passive trigger sensor senses the presence of a user in said first detection zone prior to said active dispense sensor being enabled to initiate a dispense sequence upon detection of the user in the second detection zone.