US 2026/0262872 A1 · BEVERAGE PREPARATION MACHINE WITH CAPSULE RECOGNITION

Abstract

A machine for preparing and dispensing a beverage, such machine comprising: an extraction unit for extracting a beverage ingredient capsule to form said beverage; a control unit for controlling the extraction unit to extract such capsule; an outlet for dispensing said beverage formed by extracting such capsule to a user-receptacle; a capsule recognition module for recognizing a type of a capsule inserted in said machine, the capsule recognition module comprising a sensor for sensing a property of at least part of such capsule and determining a sample value representative of said property of such capsule; wherein the capsule recognition module is configured to compare the sample value to a plurality of reference values, wherein each reference value corresponds to a type of capsule, by, for each reference value of the plurality of reference values, computing a score representative of a probability of a match between the sample value and the reference value; and wherein the capsule recognition module is configured to: if a determination of the capsule type can be made with sufficient certainty, for example if a single reference value results in a score indicating a probability of match higher than a predefined threshold, determine that such capsule is of the type corresponding to the respective reference value; if no determination of the capsule type can be made with sufficient certainty, for example because no reference value results in a score indicating a probability of match higher than said threshold, because more than one reference value results in a score indicating such a probability of match and/or because the reference value that resulted in the score indicating the highest probability of match corresponds to a capsule type that is known to be distinguishable only with difficulty from one or more other types of capsules, select at least two reference values, for example three, four or more reference values.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A method of preparing and dispensing a beverage from a beverage ingredient capsule in a machine, the method comprising:
inserting a beverage ingredient capsule in the machine;
sensing a property of at least part of the beverage ingredient capsule and determining a sample value representative of the property of the beverage ingredient capsule;
comparing the sample value to a plurality of reference values, wherein each reference value corresponds to a type of the beverage ingredient capsule, by, for each reference value of the plurality of reference values, computing a score representative of a probability of a match between the sample value and one of the plurality of the reference values;
if a determination of a type of the beverage ingredient capsule can be made with sufficient certainty, then determining that the beverage ingredient capsule is of a type corresponding to the one of a plurality of respective reference values;
and
if no determination of the beverage ingredient capsule type can be made with sufficient certainty, then selecting a subset of at least two reference values from the plurality of reference values corresponding to a corresponding number of most probable types of beverage ingredient capsule to resolve any uncertainty.

4 more elements

Beverage preparation machine with capsule recognition

Life of this patent

Beverage preparation machine with capsule recognition

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims13