Water activity tracking for loss detection
AssigneeMETER Group, Inc. USA
InventorScott H. Campbell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods include testing the weight and water activity of a product at different times and using those measurements to track changes in the water content/water weight and non-water content/non-water weight in the product. These can be useful to detect anomalous activities or batches of processed product, such as when portions of a product are being stolen or improperly altered or wasted. Plant operators can track properties of a product as the product undergoes processing to detect stages and areas in which problems occur and can thereby improve plant and operator efficiency.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- measuring a first weight value of a product in a first span of time;
- measuring a first water activity value of the product in the first span of time;
- measuring a second weight value of the product in a second span of time, the second span of time being after the first span of time;
- measuring a second water activity value of the product in the second span of time;
- determining a change in water weight of the product between the first span of time and the second span of time based on the first and second water activity values;
- determining a change in non-water weight of the product between the first span of time and the second span of time based on the first and second weight values of the product and based on the change in water weight of the product.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform one or more acts comprising:
- receiving a first weight value of a product for a first span of time;
- receiving a first water activity value of the product for the first span of time;
- receiving a second weight value of the product for a second span of time, the second span of time being after the first span of time;
- receiving a second water activity value of the product for the second span of time;
- determining a change in water weight of the product between the first span of time and the second span of time based on the first and second water activity values;
- determining a change in non-water weight of the product between the first span of time and the second span of time based on the first and second weight values of the product and based on the change in water weight of the product.
A computing device, comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory device comprising computer-executable instructions that, if executed by the processor, cause the computing device to perform one or more acts comprising:
- receiving a first weight value of a product for a first span of time;
- receiving a first water activity value of the product for the first span of time;
- receiving a second weight value of the product for a second span of time, the second span of time being after the first span of time;
- receiving a second water activity value of the product for the second span of time;
- determining a change in water weight of the product between the first span of time and the second span of time based on the first and second water activity values;
- determining a change in non-water weight of the product between the first span of time and the second span of time based on the first and second weight values of the product and based on the change in water weight of the product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.