Beverage preparation machine with capsule recognition
AssigneeSociete des Produits Nestle S.A.
InventorsBertrand Guyon, Peter Jans, Michael Fournier
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A machine (1) for preparing and dispensing a beverage (2) has: a capsule extraction unit (10) having a first part (11) and a second part (12) that are relatively movable between a distant position for inserting a capsule (3) and a close position for extracting such capsule (3); a control unit (40) for controlling the extraction unit (10) to extract such capsule (3); an outlet (20) for dispensing said beverage (2) formed by extracting such capsule (3) to a user-receptacle (4) located in a receptacle placing area; and a capsule recognition arrangement (30) connected to the control unit (40) for recognizing the colour of at least part of a capsule inserted in the machine (1).
Claims16
A machine for preparing and dispensing a beverage comprising:
- an extraction unit for extracting a beverage ingredient capsule to form the beverage;
- a control unit for controlling the extraction unit to extract such capsule;
- an outlet for dispensing the beverage formed by extracting such capsule to a user-receptacle to collect the beverage,
- a color recognition module for recognizing a color of a capsule inserted in the machine, the color recognition module comprising a color sensor for sensing a sample color of at least part of the surface of such capsule;
- the color recognition module is configured to compare the sample color to at least one reference color by:
- computing a HSL sample color vector of the sample color;
- computing a hue distance between a hue component of the HSL sample color vector and a hue component of a HSL reference color vector of the at least one reference color,
- computing a saturation distance between a saturation component of the HSL sample color vector and a saturation component of the HSL reference color vector,
- computing a lightness distance between a lightness component of the HSL sample color vector and a lightness component of the HSL reference color vector, and
- computing a HSL score with the hue distance, the saturation distance and the lightness distance to determine a match between the color sample and the at least one reference color.
A combination of a machine for preparing and dispensing a beverage comprising an extraction unit for extracting a beverage ingredient capsule to form the beverage, a control unit for controlling the extraction unit to extract such capsule, an outlet for dispensing the beverage formed by extracting such capsule to a user-receptacle to collect the beverage, a color recognition module for recognizing a color of a capsule inserted in the machine, the color recognition module comprising a color sensor for sensing a sample color of at least part of the surface of such capsule, the color recognition module is configured to compare the sample color to at least one reference color by, computing a HSL sample color vector of the sample color, computing a hue distance between a hue component of the HSL sample color vector and a hue component of a HSL reference color vector of the at least one reference color, computing a saturation distance between a saturation component of the HSL sample color vector and a saturation component of the HSL reference color vector, computing a lightness distance between a lightness component of the HSL sample color vector and a lightness component of the HSL reference color vector, and computing a HSL score with the hue distance, the saturation distance and the lightness distance to determine a match between the color sample and the at least one reference color and a capsule.
A method of preparing and dispensing a beverage from a capsule in a machine comprising:
- inserting a capsule in the machine;
- sensing a sample color of at least part of the surface of the capsule, comparing the sample color to at least one reference color by:
- computing a HSL sample color vector of the sample color;
- computing a hue distance between a hue component of the HSL sample color vector and a hue component of a HSL reference color vector of the at least one reference color,
- computing a saturation distance between a saturation component of the HSL sample color vector and a saturation component of the HSL reference color vector,
- computing a lightness distance between a lightness component of the HSL sample color vector and a lightness component of the HSL reference color vector,
- computing a HSL score with the hue distance, the saturation distance and the lightness distance to determine a match between the color sample and the at least one reference color;
- recognising a type of the capsule based on the result of the comparison;
- relatively moving the first and second parts into their distant position;
- supplying the capsule to an extracting unit;
- relatively moving the first and second parts into their close position to position the capsule in the extraction chamber;
- extracting the capsule in the extraction chamber applying extraction parameters determined on the basis of the recognised type of the capsule to prepare a beverage;
- and dispensing the prepared beverage via an outlet.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.