Density-based coffee roast level characterization and/or dynamic coffee grinder control
AssigneeMidea Group Co., Ltd.
InventorsSimon Fowler, Leopold Ibel, Hieu M. Vu, Dylan Rowe, Mingjun Huang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A roast level of coffee grounds used in a coffee brewing operation may be characterized based at least in part on one or more weights of the coffee grounds determined during a grinding operation, and in some instances, may be used to determine one or more brewing parameters used in the coffee brewing operation. In addition, in some instances the roast level of the coffee grounds may be determined during a grinding operation and used to control the amount of coffee grounds generated during the grinding operation.
Claims20
An apparatus, comprising:
- a coffee grinding mechanism configured to grind coffee beans to generate ground coffee;
- a weight sensor configured to sense a weight of coffee grounds generated by the coffee grinding mechanism during a grinding operation;
- and
- a controller configured to characterize a roast level of the coffee grounds generated by the coffee grinding mechanism based at least in part on the weight of the coffee grounds sensed by the weight sensor.
A coffee maker, comprising:
- a brew basket configured to house coffee grounds during brewing;
- a water supply disposed upstream of the brew basket and configured to supply heated water to the brew basket to bring the heated water into contact with the coffee grounds to perform a coffee brewing operation;
- and
- a controller coupled to the water supply and configured to control one or more brewing parameters during the coffee brewing operation based at least in part upon a density of the coffee grounds in the brew basket.
An apparatus, comprising:
- one or more memories;
- and
- one or more controllers configured to execute instructions stored in the one or more memories to control a coffee grinding mechanism to grind coffee beans and generate ground coffee therefrom by:
- initiating a grinding operation by the coffee grinding mechanism to grind coffee grounds;
- during the grinding operation, characterizing a coffee roast level of the coffee grounds generated by the coffee grinding mechanism;
- prior to completing the grinding operation, determining an amount of coffee grounds to be ground by the coffee grinding mechanism during the grinding operation based at least in part on the characterized coffee roast level of the coffee grounds generated by the coffee grinding mechanism;
- and
- terminating the grinding operation once the determined amount of coffee grounds have been ground by the coffee grinding mechanism.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.