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US 11,845,643 B2Granted
Beverage dispensing
AssigneeHydration Labs, Inc.
InventorsMichael Wing, Yvan De Boeck, Sean Grundy, Elizabeth Becton, Frank Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Among other things, beverages are dispensed from one or more beverage dispensers based on selections made by users. Information about the dispensing of the beverages is sent to a central server where it is used to manage a variety of functions including replacement of depleted supplies of components. Various features of the beverage dispensers enable the beverages that are dispensed to be uniform and appealing to users.
Claims20
A beverage dispensing method comprising:
- simultaneously displaying on a user interface a first manually operated switch that is actuable by a user to set only a carbonation level for a beverage to be dispensed and a plurality of second manually operated switches each corresponding to a different flavored beverage and actuable by the user to cause the corresponding flavored beverage to be dispensed;
- receiving a first signal from the first manually operated switch indicating only a carbonation level set by the user for the beverage to be dispensed, the first signal not being representative of other characteristics of the beverage to be dispensed including a flavor of the beverage;
- receiving a second signal from one of the second manually operated switches indicating the corresponding flavored beverage is to be dispensed, the second signal being received after the first signal;
- in response to the first and second signals, controlling a pressure regulator associated with a supply of CO2 or controlling a ratio of still water and carbonated water flowing to a dispensing orifice, or both, to dispense the flavored beverage corresponding to the second signal at the indicated carbonation level corresponding to the first signal;
- and
- adjusting a flow rate of a concentrate for the flavored beverage based on a second flow rate of a water source and the indicated carbonation level, wherein the second flow rate of the water source varies based on the indicated carbonation level;
- determining an average dispense time for the beverage;
- and
- generating an alert that a filter needs to be changed based on the average dispense time increases beyond a predefined threshold.
6 more elements
A beverage dispensing system, comprising:
- a control board;
- and
- a computing device in communication with the control board, the computing device being configured to:
- simultaneously displaying on a user interface a first manually operated switch that is actuable by a user to set only a carbonation level for a beverage to be dispensed and a plurality of second manually operated switches each corresponding to a different flavored beverage and actuable by the user to cause the corresponding flavored beverage to be dispensed;
- receive a first signal from the first manually operated switch indicating only a carbonation level set by the user for the beverage to be dispensed, the first signal not being representative of other characteristics of the beverage to be dispensed including a flavor of the beverage;
- receive a second signal from one of the second manually operated switches indicating the corresponding flavored beverage is to be dispensed, the second signal being received after the first signal;
- in response to the first and second signals, transmit, via the control board, a control signal to a digital pressure regulator associated with a supply of CO2 to cause the digital pressure regulator to adjust the supply of CO2 to dispense the flavored beverage corresponding to the second signal at the indicated carbonation level corresponding to the first signal;
- and
- adjust a flow rate of a concentrate for the flavored beverage based on a second flow rate of a water source and the indicated carbonation level, wherein the second flow rate of the water source varies based on the indicated carbonation level;
- determine an average dispense time for the beverage;
- and
- generate an alert that a filter needs to be changed based on the average dispense time increases beyond a predefined threshold.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.