AUTOMATED TOILET PAPER DISPENSER

1 . A toilet paper dispenser comprising

(a) a housing for containing a toilet paper roll;

(b) a drive roller engagable with the roll;

(c) a motor; and

(c) a one-way coupling that couples the motor to the drive roller in a first direction to automatically dispense paper from the dispenser and decouples same in an opposite second direction, thereby enabling toilet paper to be manually dispensed in the first direction.

2 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a manual dispensing means rotationally coupled to the toilet paper roll and operable by a user to rotate the roll in the first direction to manually dispense paper from the dispenser.

3 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 2 wherein the dispenser further comprises a roll support rotatably coupled to the housing and for receiving a core of the roll, and wherein the manual dispensing means is a knob coupled to the roll support and operable to rotate the roll support thereby rotating the roll.

4 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a sensor mounted on the housing and a controller communicative with the sensor and the motor, the controller programmed to operate the motor when the sensor is activated.

5 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 4 further comprising a power supply electrically coupled to the motor.

6 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed claim 5 wherein the power supply is a battery.

7 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 4 wherein the drive roller is positioned in the housing to engage a leading edge of the roll.

8 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 4 wherein the drive roller is positioned in the housing to engage the surface of the roll.

9 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 8 wherein the drive roller is movably connected to the housing thereby being movable to maintain contact with rolls of different diameters or a roll with varying diameter.

10 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 9 wherein the drive roller is movably connected to the housing by a track in the housing in which the roller is slidable therealong.

11 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 10 further comprising biasing means that bias the roller against the roll.

12 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 11 wherein the motor is suspended from the roller thereby serving as the biasing means.

13 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 4 wherein the drive roller is a roll support that receives a core of the roll.

14 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 13 further comprising a sensor for measuring a length of paper dispensed from the roll, the sensor being communicative with the controller.

15 . A toilet paper dispenser as claimed in claim 4 wherein the controller is programmed to delay activating the motor until after a selected period of time has elapsed since the last time the motor was activated.