Beverage dispense monitoring with camera
AssigneePepsiCo, Inc.
InventorsSamuel Karol, Anthony Romano, Thore Mainart Bücking, Timothy Charles King, Joseph Albert Dolphin, Roger Bradley Millington
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A beverage dispenser includes a nozzle to dispense a beverage. The beverage dispenser further includes a camera to capture an image of the beverage as the beverage is dispensed from the nozzle. The camera has a field of view that includes the beverage. The beverage dispenser further includes a light source that illuminates the field of view of the camera. The beverage dispenser further includes a computer. The computer analyzes the image of the beverage and determines a characteristic of the beverage.
Claims12
A method of monitoring a beverage dispensed from a beverage dispenser comprising:
- dispensing the beverage from a nozzle of the beverage dispenser;
- capturing, while dispensing the beverage, an image of the beverage as the beverage is dispensed from the nozzle using a camera of the beverage dispenser;
- and
- analyzing the image by performing a linear unmixing analysis to determine a characteristic of an additive ingredient relative to other ingredients in the beverage.
A beverage dispenser comprising:
- a nozzle configured to dispense a beverage;
- a visual-light camera configured to capture a color image of the beverage as the beverage is dispensed from the nozzle, the camera disposed inside a dispense bay of the beverage dispenser and arranged to have a field of view that is perpendicular to a dispensing direction of the beverage;
- a computer;
- and
- a non-transitory computer readable medium operatively connected to the computer, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by the computer cause the computer to analyze the image of the beverage and determine a characteristic of the beverage,
- wherein the characteristic is an additive ingredient characteristic comprising a concentration or ratio of an additive ingredient of the beverage relative to one or more other ingredients of the beverage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.