Remotely enabled and locally controlled use of liquid milk in the preparation of hot and cold beverages based on, or containing, liquid milk in automatic beverage preparation machines or in beverage vending machines

An electronic system to remotely enable and locally control use of liquid milk in preparation of beverages based on, or containing, liquid milk in an automatic beverage preparation machine or an automatic beverage vending machine;

• the automatic beverage preparation machine or the beverage vending machine comprises disposable liquid milk modules comprising one or more disposable components couplable to other disposable components either detachably, so as to be individually replaceable apart from other disposable components, or undetachably, so as to be replaceable together with the other disposable components;
• the disposable components comprise disposable liquid milk containers and disposable milk lines configured to fluidically connect the disposable liquid milk containers to liquid milk delivery nozzles;
• the electronic system comprising:
• tags to be associated with disposable spare components usable in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the automatic beverage vending machine to replace corresponding disposable components that need to be replaced, and storing unique identification data of the associated disposable components and, for disposable liquid milk containers, data indicative of either the expiry date or the use-by date of the liquid milk contained therein;
• a database configured to store data that allows to determine whether the disposable spare components meet requisite requirements for replacing corresponding disposable components that need to be replaced in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the beverage vending machine, the stored data comprising unique identification data of the disposable spare components, both those already used and those available for use, that are authorized to be used in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the automatic beverage vending machine;
• a validation server configured to determine, based on the data stored in the tags, whether the associated disposable spare components meet requisite requirements for replacing corresponding disposable components that need to be replaced in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the automatic beverage vending machine, and to output corresponding consent or denial notices for the use of the disposable spare components;
• and
• one or more operator terminals provided to operators authorized to supply the automatic beverage preparation machine or the automatic beverage vending machine, and configured to communicate and cooperate with the validation server and with the automatic beverage preparation machine or the automatic beverage vending machine to allow replacement of disposable components in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the automatic beverage vending machine with corresponding disposable spare components to be managed;
• the one or more operator terminals are configured to:
• read tags associated with the disposable spare components;
• communicate with the validation server to send the data read from the tags to the validation server and to receive from the validation server notices of consent or denial to use the associated disposable spare components in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the automatic beverage vending machine;
• determine, based on the consent or denial notices received from the validation server, whether the disposable spare components with which read tags are associated, are usable in the automatic beverage preparation machine or the automatic beverage vending machine to replace corresponding disposable components that need to be replaced;
• and
• if the disposable spare components are determined to be usable in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the automatic beverage vending machine for replacing corresponding disposable components that need to be replaced, send the automatic beverage preparation machine or the automatic beverage vending machine data indicative of durations of use of the disposable spare components in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the automatic beverage vending machine;
• the validation server is further configured to:
• receive data from the one or more operator terminals;
• validate the unique identification data of the disposable spare components and, for disposable liquid milk containers, either the expiry date or the use-by date of the liquid milk contained therein based on data contained in the database;
• generate notices of consent or denial to use disposable components in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the automatic beverage vending machine based on the outcome of the validations;
• and
• communicate with the one or more operator terminals to send the generated consent or denial notices to the one or more operator terminals;
• at least one of the validation server or the operator terminals is further configured to:
• compute the durations of use of the disposable spare components in the automatic beverage preparation machine or in the beverage vending machine based on at least one of the expiry dates, the use-by dates, the expiry hours, or the use-by hours of the liquid milk stored in the tags associated with the disposable liquid milk containers and at least one of a current date or hour kept by either the validation server or the operator terminals,
• when the durations of use are computed by the validation server, the validation server is further configured to communicate with the operator terminals to send data indicative of the computed durations of use to the operator terminals;
• the automatic beverage preparation machine or the automatic beverage vending machine is configured to:
• receive data indicative of the computed durations of use of the disposable spare components from the one or more operator terminals;
• and
• enable use of the disposable spare components for the corresponding received durations of use in the preparation and delivery of beverages based on, or containing, liquid milk.