Patent Application
20240423395
The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present disclosure. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art nor material to the presently described or claimed inventions, nor that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
The present invention relates generally to the field of beverage containers of existing art and more specifically relates to a beverage container with interchangeable functional modules.
Beverage bottles are ubiquitous items in modern society. They are primarily used to store and transport a variety of beverages, including water, soft drinks, juices, and alcoholic beverages; and are provided in many different shapes and sizes, from small plastic water bottles to large glass wine bottles. One of the main benefits of beverage bottles is their convenience, as they allow individuals to easily carry drinks with them wherever they go. Further, beverage bottles are generally also environmentally friendly, as they can be reused multiple times and are often recyclable.
However, there are problems with current beverage bottles in the art. Notably, current beverage bottles are either designed for general use with a variety of beverages and as such, fail to meet specific needs of different types of drinks and situations; or they are specifically designed for a particular type of beverage and as such are unsuitable for other types of beverages. For example, bottles with heating elements may be helpful when transporting heated drinks but are not suitable for cold beverages. Similarly, if a bottle is designed specifically for cold drinks, it may not be effective for keeping hot drinks at the desired temperature. This lack of flexibility in design can lead to frustration and inconvenience for consumers. As such, a suitable solution is desired.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known beverage container art, the present disclosure provides novel modular drinkware. The general purpose of the present disclosure, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a beverage container system with a plurality of modules that can be used simultaneously together with the beverage container or any other combination to apply different functions to the beverage container (and to a beverage contained inside).
A modular drinkware system is disclosed herein. According to some embodiments, the modular drinkware system may include a beverage container and a plurality of modules. The modular drinkware system may preferably be configured to operate with two or more modules from the plurality of modules. The beverage container may include an interior for holding a beverage, and a top end opposite a bottom end. The top end may include a first container connector and the bottom end may include a second container connector.
The plurality of modules may each include first module connector at a top thereof and/or a second module connector at a bottom thereof enabling any of the plurality of modules to independently connect to the top end and/or the bottom end of the beverage container mechanically via the first container connector and the second container connector, respectively. Also, the first module connector/second module connector may enable the plurality of modules to be removably connected to each other mechanically. Each module may be configured to perform at least one respective electrical function, and at least one of the at least two modules may include a power source to provide power for the electrical function.
According to another embodiment, a modular drinkware system may include a beverage container, at least one functional module and at least one core module. Similar to above, the beverage container may include an interior for holding a beverage, and a top end opposite a bottom end; the top end including a first container connector and the bottom end including a second container connector.
The at least one functional module and at least one core module may each include an electronic connector configured to electrically connect the modules together, a first module connector at a top thereof and/or a second module connector at a bottom thereof enabling any of the at least one functional module and the at least one core module to independently connect to one of the top end and the bottom end of the beverage container mechanically via the first container connector and the second container connector respectively, and enabling the at least one functional module and the at least one core module to be removably connected to each other mechanically. The at least one functional module may be configured to perform at least one electrical function chosen from the group consisting of sensing at least one condition of the beverage, manipulating the at least one condition of the beverage, indicating the at least one condition of the beverage, and combinations thereof; and the at least one core module may include a power source to provide power for the electrical function.
According to another embodiment, a modular drinkware system may include a beverage container, a plurality of modules and a software application. Again, as above, the modular drinkware system may function with two or more of the plurality of modules. The beverage container may include an interior for holding a beverage, and a top end opposite a bottom end; the top end may include a first container connector and the bottom end may include a second container connector.
The plurality of modules may each include a first module connector at a top thereof and/or a second module connector at a bottom thereof enabling any of the plurality of modules to independently connect to the top end and/or the bottom end of the beverage container mechanically via the first container connector and the second container connector, respectively. Also, the first module connector/second module connector may enable the plurality of modules to be removably connected to each other mechanically. Each module may be configured to perform at least one respective electrical function, and at least one of the at least two modules may include a power source to provide power for the electrical function.
Further, at least one of the modules may include a wireless receiver and/or a wireless transmitter configured to wirelessly connect with an external computing device. The software application may be downloadable to (or otherwise usable on) the external computing device and configured to communicate with the one of the modules. Particularly, the software application may enable parameters to be set relating to the at least one condition of the beverage in the beverage container, and when a parameter is met, an alert may be indicated (displayed) on (at least) the external computing device.
For the purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. The features of the invention which are believed to be novel are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings and detailed description.
The figures which accompany the written portion of this specification illustrate embodiments for the present disclosure, a modular drinkware system, constructed and operative according to the teachings of the present disclosure.
The various embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements.
As discussed above, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to beverage containers and more particularly to modular drinkware. Generally, the modular drinkware may include a plurality of modules, with each module designed to be reusable and able to be combined and connected to each other and to a beverage container using mechanical connectors (for example, using a screw mechanism). The plurality of modules may also be connected electrically so that sensor data (or other data) may be shared between the modules using electronic connectors such as (but not limited to) pogo pin connectors, rail connectors and/or USB-C connectors. Alternatively, the modules may be used on their own with the beverage container.
One or more of the modules may also communicate with an external computing device or software application on the external computing device to relay information from the modules to the external computing device and/or command the modules to perform specific tasks, such as (but not limited to) sensing temperature, fill time of a beverage into the beverage container and fill level of the beverage; heating the beverage; and displaying information regarding the beverage (such as temperature, fill time, fill level, etc.)
Referring now more specifically to the drawings by numerals of reference, there is shown in
As above, each of the modules 120 may perform different electrical function(s) than the other; and as such, a particular module 120 may be chosen for attachment to the beverage container 110 based on a user's desire for that particular function (for example, a module having heating function may be chosen when the user wants to heat their beverage). The plurality of modules 120 may be placed in a particular order, or may be placed in random order, again according to user preference.
Referring specifically to
In some embodiments, the first container connector 113 and the second container connector 115 may include threads, and the first module connector 122 and the second module connector 123 may include corresponding threads. For example, a first module may be attached directly to the beverage container 110 by screwing the second module connector 123 on the first module into the first container connector 113; and a second module may be attached to the first module by screwing the second module connector 123 on the second module into the first module connector 122 on the first module.
The plurality of modules 120 may be configured to communicate with each other to send data between the modules 120. For example, a display module may be configured to receive data from a sensor module in order to display features (e.g., temperature, time it takes to fill, fill level) sensed from the sensor module. As such, as shown in
As shown in
In the pogo pin connector 125 embodiment shown in
For the rail connector 126, as long as a radius of the plurality of concentric circles 136 is the same as the distances from the center to the circular connectors 129, the circular connectors 129 will remain connected to the plurality of concentric circles 136 and as such the cuboid block 135 is not needed on the top surface of the top side 112 as there is no potential for the modules 120 to be rotated too far for the circular connectors 129 to be touching.
In embodiments including the USB-C connector 127, to allow the modules 120 to twist (when screwing each module 120 into another module 120 or the beverage bottle 110) the module 120 may include an outer shell 221 and an inner mechanism 222 to which the USB-C connector 127 is connected, as shown in
As above, each of the modules 120 may perform one or more different functions than the other. Particularly, the plurality of modules 120 may each be operative to perform at least one respective function chosen from the group consisting of: sensing at least one condition of the beverage, manipulating the at least one condition of the beverage, indicating the at least one condition of the beverage, providing power to one or more of the modules, providing wireless connectivity to one or more of the modules, and/or combinations thereof. The at least one condition may be related to (but is not limited to) temperature, weight, filling time, fill level, etc.
In some embodiments, the plurality of modules 120 may include functional modules and core modules. For example, functional modules may include (but are not limited to) at least one module for sensing at least one condition of the beverage, at least one module for manipulating the at least one condition of the beverage, at least one module for indicating the at least one condition of the beverage, and/or a combination thereof. Core modules may include at least one module for providing wireless connectivity, at least one module for providing power, and/or combinations thereof.
It is contemplated that the modular drinkware system 100 may function with at least two of the modules 120, where one of the modules 120 is a core module including at least one power source 171. For example, as shown in
In some embodiments, the power source 171 may be rechargeable and as such, fourth module 170 may include a charging port configured to receive a charging cable (not illustrated). In other embodiments, the fourth module 170 may include removable batteries such as (but not limited to) AA or AAA batteries. Further, in some embodiments, the plurality of modules 120 may include more than one battery module 170, allowing a user to interchange battery modules 170 when runs out of charge.
In addition, in some embodiments, at least one of the plurality of modules 120 may include a wireless communication unit 134 such as a wireless receiver, a wireless transmitter, and/or a wireless transceiver. For example, the wireless communication unit 134 may include (but is not limited to) a BLUETOOTH transceiver configured to wirelessly connect with an external computing device 5 (e.g., a smartphone). In some embodiments, as shown in
Referring more specifically now to
Further, in some embodiments, as shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
As above, in some embodiments, the plurality of modules 120 may be placed in random order. In other embodiments, some of the modules may be placed in a particular location on the beverage container 110. For example, the second module 140 including the display screen 141 may always be placed at the top of the beverage container 110. The module(s) containing the heating element 133 or 151, temperature sensor 131 and weight sensor 132 may always be placed directly onto the beverage container 110 (rather than indirectly attached via another module) to place the heating element 133 or 151, temperature sensor 131 and weight sensor 132 in direct contact with the beverage.
It should be appreciated that the plurality of modules 120 are not limited to the modules discussed and the modules discussed here are not limited to the particular components.
As above, at least one of the plurality of modules 120 may include a wireless communication means such as a BLUETOOTH transceiver, transmitter and/or receiver 134 (
The software application 160 may enable parameters to be set relating to the at least one condition of the beverage, such as (but not limited to) the temperature of the beverage, the filling time of the beverage into the beverage container 110 and/or the fill level of the beverage. When a parameter is met, an alert may be indicated (i.e., displayed or shown) on the display screen 141, the external computing device 5 and/or the LED strip 142. For example, a particular temperature and/or a fill limit may be set via the software application 160 (by a user) and once the temperature or fill limit is met, the alert may be displayed on the display screen 141, the LED strip 142 and/or the external computing device 5.
The temperature sensor 131 may measure the temperature of the beverage periodically and send data to the software application 160, allowing the user to view information regarding the beverage (such as fill level, temperature, etc.) easily via the software application 160, and quickly by looking at the second module 140 (i.e., display screen 141 and/or LED strip 142). Further, the user may, via the software application 160, set a temperature limit. This may be useful for embodiments including the heating element 133 or 151, as once the beverage reaches below the temperature limit, the heating element 133 may begin to heat the beverage back to the set temperature limit. Further, in some embodiments, the display screen 141 or LED strip 142 on the second module 140 may be customized via the software application 160. In addition to this, the software application 160 may include templates (not illustrated) for standard daily beverages.
In use, the user may select one module or a combination of modules from the plurality of modules 120. The selected modules may be chosen based on their particular function, chosen from the group consisting of: sensing at least one condition of the beverage, manipulating the at least one condition of the beverage, indicating the at least one condition of the beverage, and/or a combination thereof. The user may then attach the one module or combination of modules directly to the beverage container 110 or to another module which is then directly attached to the beverage container 110.
It should be noted that, under appropriate circumstances, considering such issues as design preference, user preferences, marketing preferences, cost, structural requirements, available materials, technological advances, etc., other methods are taught herein.
It should be understood by one of skill in the art that the disclosed invention is described here in a few exemplary embodiments of many. No particular terminology or description should be considered limiting on the disclosure or the scope of any claims issuing therefrom.
It should also be noted that, in this specification and the drawings, some elements that have substantially the same function and structure are denoted with the same reference signs, and repeated explanation omitted. It should also be appreciated that common but well understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted throughout in order to facilitate a clearer view of the various embodiments of the present invention.
The embodiments of the invention described herein are exemplary and numerous modifications, variations and rearrangements can be readily envisioned to achieve substantially equivalent results, all of which are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention. Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the relevant patent offices and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application.
