Beverage dispense monitoring with camera
AssigneePepsiCo, Inc.
InventorsSamuel KAROL, Anthony ROMANO, Thore Mainart BÜCKING, Timothy Charles KING, Joseph Albert DOLPHIN, Roger Bradley MILLINGTON
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A beverage dispenser includes a nozzle to dispense a beverage. The beverage dispenser further includes a camera to capture an image of the beverage as the beverage is dispensed from the nozzle. The camera has a field of view that includes the beverage. The beverage dispenser further includes a light source that illuminates the field of view of the camera. The beverage dispenser further includes a computer. The computer analyzes the image of the beverage and determines a characteristic of the beverage.
Claims17
A beverage dispenser comprising:
- a nozzle configured to dispense a beverage;
- a first camera configured to capture a color image of the beverage as the beverage is dispensed from the nozzle, the camera being disposed inside a dispense bay of the beverage dispenser and having a first field of view that includes the beverage;
- a second camera configured to capture a color image of the beverage as the beverage is dispensed, the having a second field of view that includes the beverage and that differs from the first field of view;
- and
- a light source that is configured to illuminate at least one of the first field of view and the second field of view.
A method of monitoring a beverage dispensed from a beverage dispenser comprising:
- dispensing the beverage from a nozzle of the beverage dispenser;
- illuminating the beverage as it is dispensed using a light source using a light source;
- capturing, while dispensing the beverage, an image of the beverage as the beverage is dispensed from the nozzle using a first camera of the beverage dispenser;
- performing a linear unmixing analysis to compare a first characteristic of the beverage to a predetermined characteristic of the beverage by comparing a contrast of a portion of the image to a predetermined contrast based on the predetermined characteristic;
- performing a morphological analysis to determine a second characteristic of the beverage, where the second characteristic is a low contrast additive, and where the morphological analysis determines an entropy of the beverage based on the image and compares the entropy to a predetermined entropy;
- triggering an alert if either or both the linear unmixing analysis and the morphological analysis determine that the first characteristic or the second characteristic do not match the predetermined characteristic or the second entropy, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.