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US 10,588,470 B2Granted
Optical product use determination system
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorsBabak R. Ghazi, Frederick J. Williams, Jr., Stephen Becker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods, systems and apparatus for optically determining the amount of product used and/or remaining in a product dispenser.
Claims13
A dispenser comprising:
- a body to hold consumable products, the body having an upper portion and a lower portion, the lower portion having a dispensing opening through which the consumable products are dispensed to a user, and wherein:
- the consumable products have a top portion and the top portion has an identification mark, and
- as the consumable products are dispensed the top portion and identification mark move away from the upper portion of the body;
- an optical device proximate the upper portion and configured to capture at least a partial image of the identification mark;
- and
- a processing device in data communication with the optical device and configured to determine:
- a characteristic of the image,
- at least one of a match status of the image to an image signature and an amount of the consumable products remaining;
- and
- wherein the processing device is configured to generate an alert in response to determining that the match status is false indicating that the image does not match the image signature.
7 more elements
A dispenser comprising:
- a body to hold consumable products, the body having an upper portion and a lower portion, the lower portion having a dispensing opening through which the consumable products are dispensed to a user, and wherein:
- the consumable products have a top portion and the top portion has an identification mark, and
- as the consumable products are dispensed the top portion and identification mark move away from the upper portion of the body;
- an optical device proximate the upper portion and configured to capture at least a partial image of the identification mark;
- and
- a processing device in data communication with the optical device and configured to determine:
- a characteristic of the image,
- at least one of a match status of the image to an image signature and an amount of the consumable products remaining;
- and
- wherein the processing device is configured to prevent dispensing in response to determining that the match status is false indicating that the image does not match the image signature.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.