The present invention relates generally to drinking containers, and more particularly to a smart drinking container and a smart lid configured to measure the volume of liquid consumed by a user via fluidic oscillation techniques.
Drinking containers, including travel mugs, water bottles, and tumblers, are well known in the art. While such drinking containers according to the prior art provide a number of advantageous features, they do not reliably measure the amount of liquid consumed by a user. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
To understand the present invention, it will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
While the invention described herein is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail preferred embodiments of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the broad aspects of the invention to the embodiments illustrated.
The present application provides a smart drinking container that can reliably measure the liquid consumption of a user. According to the present invention, a fluidic oscillation technique is used to measure the volume of liquid withdrawn from the smart drinking container during one or more drink events. For example, a fluid pathway structure disposed in a container body and/or a lid of the smart drinking container is fluidly coupled to a drinking interface of the lid. The fluid pathway defines a flow path which all liquid exiting the container (and consumed by a user) must pass through, which enables accurate measurement of the amount of liquid consumed by a user. Further, the fluid pathway includes a “fluidic oscillator,” which is a structure comprising one or more flow diverters influencing oscillations of the fluid flowing through the fluid pathway.
Fluid flowing through the fluidic oscillator has an oscillation frequency proportional to the fluid flow rate. Measurement of this oscillation rate can then be used to calculate the volume of fluid passing through the fluidic oscillator. Frequency of oscillation is dependent upon the size of the device, but for suitably small fluidic oscillators across the anticipated range of flow rates, the frequencies are generally predicted to be in the range of 0-50 Hz.
The volume of liquid flowing through the fluidic oscillator, Q, can be determined using the following relationship:
Q=fdA/St where, f is the oscillation frequency, d is the characteristic dimension of the oscillator (e.g., the oscillator having a fluid pathway therethrough, the fluid pathway having a diameter d), A is the outlet cross-sectional area and St is the Strouhal number (a dimensionless number which is determined by the design of the fluidic oscillator and provides a measurement of oscillation linearity with flow rate).
The oscillations can be detected acoustically by using a microphone outside of the fluid pathway, but adjacent to the position of the fluidic oscillator, if the wall of the fluid pathway is sufficiently thin to transmit the acoustic signature.
The smart drinking container can begin to measure the liquid withdrawn through a drinking interface (and subsequently through the fluidic oscillator of the fluid pathway) from a defined starting point. The starting point can occur at regular intervals (hour, day, etc.) or at a point selected by a user. The smart drinking container may then measure liquid withdrawn from the container during “drink events”, i.e., throughout the duration in which a user consumes, sips, and/or drinks liquid from the container.
To perform the necessary measurements and calculations, the smart drinking container typically includes various components, which are communicatively coupled to one another and powered by a battery or other power source. For example, such components, generally referred to herein as “smart components,” include a processor, an actuator, a sensor such as, for example, a microphone, and optionally an antenna.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the smart drinking container may measure the volume of liquid withdrawn through a drinking interface by recording and analyzing the acoustic signature of the liquid as it flows out of the container. In one aspect, the volume of liquid flowing out of the drinking container is recorded during a drink event (e.g., while a user sips from a tumbler using a straw in fluid communication with the liquid contents of the tumbler, or while a user sips from a drinking aperture provided in a lid of a travel beverage container, or while a user sips from a spout of a water bottle), whereby the recording is initiated through activation of an actuator at the beginning of a drink event.
In another embodiment, the smart drinking container may record and analyze the acoustic signature of the air that flows into the container during a drink event to determine the amount of liquid that is withdrawn through a drinking interface during one or more drink events. For example, the fluidic oscillator may be displaced in a fluid pathway fluidly coupled to a vent aperture (not shown) of the drinking container.
The smart components of the drinking container according to the invention can be installed on or within a container body, on or within a lid for use in combination with a container body, and/or on or within any suitable combination of the container body and the lid. In an exemplary embodiment, each of the smart components may be installed within the lid. In such an embodiment, the lid, referred to herein as a “smart lid”, provides several advantages. For example, the smart lid according to the invention may be compatible with various container bodies (of different size and/or shape), thus allowing a user to couple the smart lid to any suitable liquid container.
In another exemplary embodiment, the smart components may be installed within the container body. Such an embodiment may be easier to manufacture due to the increased room for positioning the smart components compared to the smart lid. In other embodiments, the smart components can be distributed on or within both the lid and the container body.
Numerous drinking containers including but not limited to travel mugs (for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,546,933, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein), water bottles (for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,602,238, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein), and tumblers, can be configured to be smart drinking containers according to the invention. In addition, drinking containers typically used for “serving” such as pitchers and thermoses can also be configured to be smart drinking containers according to the invention.
Referring now to the Figures,
As explained in detail herein, the lid assembly 14 generally contains a drinking interface 16, disposed on or in a top surface of the lid 14, which allows a user to consume liquid contained within the container body 12. Exemplary drinking interfaces 16 include a spout extending from a top surface of the lid assembly 14, a drink aperture extending through a top surface of the lid assembly 14, or a straw, with each being in fluid communication with an interior of and any fluid contents contained within the container body 12. In the illustrated embodiment, the drinking interface 16 is a spout. The illustration of
As mentioned above, the drinking interface 16 is fluidly coupled to a fluid pathway 225 that extends into the container body 12. In the embodiment illustrated in
Referring back to
In other embodiments, as best illustrated in
In another embodiment, the actuator may be cx disposed within the fluid path. For example, the actuator may comprise conductive pins within the fluid path. The conductive pins may act as an electronic sensor that is activated when at least two pins are in contact with liquid. In this embodiment, the conductive pins may detect when liquid is moving through the fluid path, which would indicate a drink event. In an exemplary embodiment, the conductive pins may be located in the fluid pathway adjacent to the fluidic oscillator. In other embodiments, the conductive pins may be located in any suitable location along the fluid pathway.
In other embodiments, the actuator may be a micro switch, a vibration switch, a touch sensor, for example, a conductivity-based touch sensor, or any other suitable sensor configured to detect a drink event. In further embodiments, there may be one or more actuators, communicatively coupled to each other and the other smart components, which can each include different functionality for receiving an indication of a drink event. For example, the actuator of the smart bottle 10 may include one or more of a button 20 as described above and a tilt switch.
Typically, the type of actuator employed in a smart drinking container according to the invention depends on the specific form of the smart drinking container 10. For example, a smart drinking container 10 that takes the form of a tumbler including a straw may not be compatible with a tilt switch, because a user will typically hold the smart tumbler 10 in a vertical position while drinking from the straw.
Further, the actuator may be implemented as any combination of mechanical, electronic and/or chemical components. For example, the actuator may initiate recordation of a drink event by employing any combination of sensors and button mechanisms working in unison to determine when a drink event occurs. For example, the actuator may include a button and a tilt sensor. In this example, the drink event may not commence until the both the button is depressed and the bottle is tilted a number of degrees from vertical. The drink event may then end once either the button is released and/or the bottle is returned to a sufficiently vertical position.
Still further, the smart water bottle 10 may include an LED display 22. The LED display may be provided on an exterior surface of the smart bottle 10. In preferred embodiments, the LED display may be disposed on an external sidewall of either the container body 12 or the lid assembly 14. The LED display 22 may be communicatively coupled to the smart components of the smart drinking container 10, as discussed in greater detail below. The LED display may display the amount of liquid consumed by a user on one or more regularly occurring bases, for example, the LED display may display the amount of liquid consumed by the user on a daily basis, a weekly basis, and/or a monthly basis. Further, the LED display may be selectively reset by the user to start measuring the amount of liquid consumed at any time, i.e., the LED display may selectively display the amount of liquid consumed by the user over any selected time period. Thus, in various embodiments, the LED display 22 may illustrate data related to the smart drinking container 10 and more particularly to liquid consumption by the user over one or more pre-defined and/or selected periods of time. Further, the LED display 22 may also include digital representations illustrating the current time, the current temperature, the current barometric pressure, the current battery life, and/or a digital map. For example, in one exemplary embodiment, the LED display 22 may indicate a remaining battery power of a battery of the smart drinking container 10, a total volume of liquid displaced/consumed over one or more drink events and other information related to the smart water bottle 10. In some embodiments, the LED display 22 may be a display of a corresponding device (i.e. a smart phone, a tablet, a smart watch, or a PC) communicatively coupled to the smart bottle 10 via Bluetooth, fire wire, Wi-Fi, USB, etc., as discussed in greater detail below with respect to the antenna.
As explained above, the smart drinking container 10 may be a bottle including various smart components for measuring the volume of a liquid withdrawn from the drink bottle 10 during one or more drinking events. The smart drinking container 10 may comprise a smart lid, i.e., a lid assembly 14 that contains all of the smart components. In another embodiment, the smart drinking container 10 may have all the smart components disposed on or within the container body 12. In still another embodiment, the smart components are disposed on or within both the lid 14 and the container body 12 of the smart drinking container 10.
Referring again to
The illustration of the smart lid 14a includes a drinking interface 39 which differs from the drinking interface 16 of
As mentioned above, the smart lid 14a includes all of the “smart components” according to the invention, and these components are communicatively coupled to one another and powered by a battery 32 or other power source such as a solar cell. The smart components work together to determine that a drink event has commenced and, thus, that the volume of liquid being withdrawn from the container should be recorded throughout the drink event. The smart components include a sensor comprising a microphone 30, an actuator 34, a processor 36, and may further include an antenna 38. The processor 36 may include a memory to store a total volume of fluid withdrawn (i.e., consumed), and/or any other information related to the smart drinking container 100. Although the actuator 34 of
Upon completion of the drink event, the recorded acoustic signature is then transmitted via wired connections to the processor 36 (Block 406). The processor 36 may then analyze the recorded acoustic signature to determine the volume of liquid withdrawn during the drink event (Block 408). In one embodiment, the processor 36 may analyze the frequency of the recorded acoustic signature by implementing a frequency counter. However, other known suitable techniques can be used to analyze the recorded acoustic signature of the liquid flowing through the fluidic oscillator 202.
In another embodiment, the recorded acoustic signature may be transmitted to a server for analysis. The server may perform any of the calculations described with regard to the processor 36 above. In still other embodiments, a combination of a server and processor 36 may be enabled to calculate and store measurements of displaced liquid per drink event and/or a total volume of liquid displaced during multiple drink events.
Once the processor 36 analyzes the recorded acoustic signature, the analysis may be transmitted through wired connections to an LED display (such as the LED display 22 of
Several alternative embodiments and examples have been described and illustrated herein. A person of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate the features of the individual embodiments, and the possible combinations and variations of the components. A person of ordinary skill in the art would further appreciate that any of the embodiments could be provided in any combination with the other embodiments disclosed herein. Additionally, the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” and “fourth” as used herein are intended for illustrative purposes only and do not limit the embodiments in any way. Further, the term “plurality” as used herein indicates any number greater than one, either disjunctively or conjunctively, as necessary, up to an infinite number. Additionally, the term “having” as used herein in both the disclosure and claims, is utilized in an open-ended manner.
It will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or central characteristics thereof. The present disclosure and the illustrated embodiments, therefore, are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein. Accordingly, while specific embodiments have been illustrated and described, numerous modifications are readily apparent to one having ordinary skill in the art and the scope of protection should only be limited by the scope of the accompanying claims.
This claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/275,696 (filed Jan. 6, 2016), the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62275696 | Jan 2016 | US |