Beverage dispenser
AssigneeFlo-Smart Beverage Solutions IP Pty Ltd
InventorsConal Hartnett, Matthew James Dale
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A beverage dispenser for dispensing a beverage into a vessel, the beverage dispenser including a vessel-receiving region in which the vessel is locatable for receiving beverage; and a sensor arrangement for providing signals based on which a distance between one or more wall portions of the vessel, when located in the vessel-receiving region, and the sensor arrangement can be determined, wherein a volume of beverage to be dispensed into the vessel can be determined based on the determined distance between one or more wall portions of the vessel and the sensor arrangement.
Claims20
A beverage dispenser for dispensing a beverage into a vessel, the beverage dispenser including:
- a housing having a vessel-receiving region that is configured to locate a first vessel in position to receive beverage from a first nozzle;
- a beverage conveying tube within the housing for conveying beverage from a beverage container to the first nozzle;
- a sensor arrangement proximate the vessel-receiving region for detecting a presence of a first vessel within the vessel-receiving region, including a sensor inside the housing that is configured to measure a distance between the first vessel and the sensor arrangement through an outer surface of the housing;
- and
- a controller that is configured to identify the first vessel as a known size of vessel based on the distance measured by the sensor arrangement;
- wherein a volume of beverage to be dispensed into the first vessel is determined by the controller based on a pre-set volume associated with the known size of vessel.
A beverage dispenser for dispensing a beverage into a vessel, the beverage dispenser including:
- a housing having first and second spaced apart portions for locating a vessel within a vessel-receiving region of the housing;
- a sensor arrangement proximate the vessel-receiving region which includes a sensor inside the housing configured to measure a distance between the first vessel and the sensor arrangement through an outer surface of the housing;
- and
- a controller that is configured to identify the first vessel as a known size of vessel based on the distance measured by the sensor arrangement;
- wherein a volume of beverage to be dispensed into the first vessel is determined by the controller based on a pre-set volume associated with the known size of vessel.
A method of automatically dispensing beverage into a vessel with a beverage dispenser, comprising the steps of:
- detecting a presence of a vessel within a receiving region of a housing of the beverage dispenser with a sensor arrangement provided inside the housing;
- measuring a distance between the vessel and the sensor arrangement through an outer surface of the housing with a sensor of the sensor arrangement;
- identifying the vessel as known size of vessel saved within a memory of a controller of the dispenser based on the measured distance;
- conveying a volume of beverage from a beverage container to a nozzle via a beverage conveying tube within the housing, wherein the volume is a pre-set volume determined by the controller that is associated with the known vessel;
- and
- dispensing the volume of beverage into the vessel via the nozzle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.