EP3307116A1

EP3307116A1 - Illuminated drinking glass arrangement

Info

Publication number: EP3307116A1
Application number: EP16806943.3A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Kim ASTRÖM
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2015-06-12
Filing date: 2016-06-10
Publication date: 2018-04-18
Also published as: FI20150174A; WO2016198733A1

Abstract

An object of the invention is an illuminated drinking glass arrangement comprising a drinking glass (100) fillable with a liquid and light-emitting diodes (101) for illuminating the glass (100). The illuminated drinking glass arrangement comprises micro electro-mechanical means (102b) for forming orientation information on the glass (100) and at least one of resistive, capacitive, pressure and weight measurement means (102) for forming at least two kind of different information, and said means (102b, 102) for obtaining information on the liquid level in the glass (100) on the basis of combination of said at least two kind of different information, orientation information and some other information, a microprocessor (104) for processing said obtained information on the glass conditions to determine increase or decrease of liquid level in the glass (100) and for controlling the light-emitting diodes (101) to change the illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid level, and said means (102), the microprocessor (104) and the light emitting diodes (101) being integrated in connection with the drinking glass (100).

Description

Illuminated drinking glass arrangement

The field of the invention

Drinking of beverages in a social context has throughout history been an essential part of many cultures and has many associated rites and traditions. In particular, intake of alcoholic beverages such as vodka in a dinner setting are associated with many traditions and protocols such as singing of schnapps songs. Many songs and rites are associated to the act of emptying or filling the glass containing the said alcoholic beverage.

State of the art

Occasions of dining and drinking together create a bond between participants and thus have an important role in social relations, business and politics. Drinking in good company is a positive experience which typically involves many senses and sensations ranging from taste and smell of good food and spirit to acoustic senses of conversations, songs and music. The visual sense related to the rite of drinking is mainly associated with the glass in which the beverage is served. Anyway prior art glasses do not have sophisticated technological features integrated to them. Prior art glasses are passive entities just made for drinking, and they are unable to e.g. send information to people and to indicate e.g. liquid level in the glass without a need to come near to the glass and to even look inside the glass to have information on how much the glass contains liquid.

Brief description of the invention

The object of the invention is to arrange a drinking glass which can inform people how it contains liquid and having also other interactive possibilities e.g. between a drinker and restaurant staff. This is achieved by an illuminated drinking glass arrangement comprising a drinking glass tillable with a liquid and light-emitting diodes for illuminating the glass. The illuminated drinking glass arrangement comprises means for obtaining information on the liquid level in the glass, a microprocessor for processing said obtained information on the glass conditions to determine liquid level in the glass and for controlling the light- emitting diodes to change the illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid level, and said means, the microprocessor and the light emitting diodes being integrated in connection with the drinking glass.

The invention is based on obtaining information on the liquid level in the glass, and for processing said obtained information on the glass conditions to determine liquid level in the glass. Light-emitting diodes are controlled to change the Illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid level. The light emitting diodes and other means needed to perform the invention can be integrated in connection with the drinking glass.

A benefit of the invention is that the drinking glass informs people state of the liquid level, which is a useful information e.g. to the restaurant staff to serve the clients more fluently.

Brief description of the drawings

Figure 1 presents an embodiment according to the present invention.

Figure 2 presents one exemplary embodiment according to the present invention.

Figures 3 presents maximum fill level of a glass as a function of tilt angle.

Figure 4 presents relationships between maximum fill rating and tilt angle.

Detailed description of the invention

Drinking and dining is many times carried out in rather weak light, whereby illumination of the drinking glass can significantly enhance the visual experience. This is particular the case if the glass interacts with the drinking event and the user by altering its appearance based on e.g. the amount of liquid in the glass. Such behavior of the glass can bring the intensity and joy of the social context to a higher level. By signaling the liquid level in a clear way the glass can help the host or waiter/waitress to assure that guests are properly served. Ability of the glass to keep track of number of portions served and consumed can further assist serving and provide an additional element to the context. The drinking glass may also be equipped with digital communication means to allow the user to track and share their positive drinking experience.

Illumination of a glass can advantageously be achieved by high-efficiency light emitting diodes from below the glass. In order to distribute the light the glass shall preferably have light scattering properties. Such properties can be achieved through several means such as by providing the glass with a rough (e.g. sandblasted) surface, by reducing the transparency of the bulk glass or by using glass with bubbles. The glass can be made of e.g. polycarbonate or other non-brittle transparent or semi-transparent material for improved mechanical robustness compared to glass.

Figure 1 present an embodiment according to the present invention. Illuminated drinking glass arrangement comprises a drinking glass 100 tillable with a liquid, light-emitting diodes 101 for illuminating the glass 100 and means 102 for obtaining information on the liquid level in the glass 100. In one preferable embodiment presented in figure 2 are used the means 102a for forming pressure information on the glass 100 to obtain information on the liquid level in the glass 100. Also orientation information on the glass 100 can be formed by the means 102b (Fig. 2) in order to obtain information on the liquid level in the glass 100. Also in one further embodiment (Fig. 2) the arrangement can comprise the means 102a,b for forming both pressure and orientation information on the glass 100 to obtain information on the liquid level in the glass 100. E.g. a MEMS accelerometer 102 can be used as the means 102 for obtaining orientation information.

Hie illuminated drinking glass arrangement can comprise a microprocessor 104 for processing said obtained information on the glass conditions to determine liquid level in the glass 100 and for controlling the light-emitting diodes 101 to change the illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid level. In one embodiment the microprocessor 104 can control the light-emitting diodes 101 to change intensity of illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid level. In a preferred embodiment the light-emitting diodes 101 illuminate tiie glass with at least two different colors and the microprocessor 104 controls the light-emitting diodes 101 to change color of illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid level. Also in another embodiment the light-emitting diodes 101 can illuminate the glass with at least three different colors and the microprocessor 104 can control the light-emitting diodes 101 to change color of Illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid tevel by illuminating the glass at least with red, yellow and green color to indicate the liquid level in the glass. The microprocessor 104 can also be accomplished to control operation mode of the illuminated drinking glass 100 arrangement e.g. on the basis of the orientation information.

The means 102 for obtaining information on the liquid level, the microprocessor 104 and the light emitting diodes 101 are integrated, i.e. attached, in connection with the drinking glass 100. They can be located e.g. in a ring 112 underneath the glass 100 or in a cavity 114 in the bottom of the glass 100 or in both of said locations. Also wireless

communication means can be integrated in connection with the glass 100.

The Illuminated drinking glass arrangement can also comprise an energy source such as a rechargeable or non-rechargeable battery to provide power to the illumination means and measurement & control circuitry. Good energy conserving and hence long battery life is of key essence for the usability and positive user experience of the glass as the user may not have possibility or time to charge or replace batteries when a suitable occasion for the use of the glass comes up. With e.g. lithium batteries and high-end LED:s a reasonable level of illumination can be maintained for several hundred hours with battery and LED:s still fitting into a few cm3 of volume. For personal use this may be suffice for >10 years, whereby no battery replacement may be needed during the service life of the glass provided that the measurement & control circuitry are also very energy effective.

However, to achieve a long service life with a single battery or charge, a practical requirement is that the glass must be able to automatically turn itself off as the user may not always have the attention to manually turn off the illumination once the use case has ended. The power consumption in off mode must also be very low to allow for long storage times between uses without battery drainage. Furthermore, if the glass is able to reduce level of illumination and thus power consumption when it is put down on the table whereby a higher level of illumination can be applied when the glass is in the hand. In some use cases such as restaurant use it is however advantageous if battery charging or replacement is possible. The glass could preferably be equipped with wireless charging capability whereby no feedthroughs to the electronics are needed.

In order to be able to react on liquid level a level measurement means 102 are integrated to the glass. There are many known methods for measuring liquid level in tanks or vessels. However, most of said methods are not so well applicable to drinking glasses, or not suitable as such for being integrated a glass in terms of dimensional requirements, power consumption or aesthetic properties. The liquid level measurement must be functional both when the glass is placed on a surface and when held in the hand.

Preferably, the measurement shall be functional also while the act of drinking from the glass takes place, i.e. when the glass is in a tilted position. This is not good for measurements based on weight of the glass. Size and visual appearance restrictions typically rule out several methods such as ultrasound, level switches and commercial capacitive level sensors. A hydrostatic pressure measurement can meet the

aforementioned criteria, though not very good with accuracy issues as the pressure difference between empty and full glass can be as small as 3 mbar (3cm liquid level) and changes in reference pressure caused by e.g. ambient pressure or temperature variations as well as droplets in an impulse line can errors of the same range or higher. Moreover, a pressure based liquid level measurement is only valid when the glass is not tilted. A resistive measurement based on conductivity of the liquid between electrodes placed at different heights in the glass is an applicable method, and the electrodes can be accomplished as conductive transparent layer on the glass, i.e. being not visible. With a similar approach a measurement based on capacitance between two adjacent strips of the glass could be feasible. The two aforementioned methods can be disturbed by tilting of the glass and may be difficult to manufacture. Whatever method is used is must be assured that there is no toxicity issue related to any materials that come in contact with the liquid.

In order to allow for long service life and robustness of the illuminated drinking glass arrangement, components sensitive to impact, moisture or aggressive chemical environment (dishwasher) should be avoided. Preferably all required parts are integrated to a hermetically sealed package which is either attached as a base extension to the glass or fits within a dedicated cavity in the base of the glass. Buttons or switches for turning the glass on and off can advantageously be replaced with an orientation and/or acceleration sensor whereby the glass is turned off e.g. by turning it upside down and turned on by turning it back upright. This implies that orientation measurement must be carried out also when the glass is in turned off mode without causing excessive battery drainage. With modern MEMS (Micro Electro Mecanical Sensors) technology, combined with a state of the art low-power microcontroller this is achievable. The microcontroller may be configured to sleep with periodic wake-ups achieving a base energy consumption <lpW. Upon wake-up the microcontroller can turn on the orientation sensor and liquid level sensor, and go back to sleep mode with wakeup caused by a measurement ready signal from the sensor. Once the sensor reading is read, the MEMS can be turned off and the microprocessor goes back to sleep. During a complete cycle, the wakeup time of the processor can be brought down to a few tens of microseconds, whereas a MEMS or liquid level measurement may require e.g 1-10 milliseconds. In total, with a cycle duration of 1-5 seconds an average power consumption in the range of 10 uW can be achieved, whereby a battery life exceeding 100 000 hours (not accounting for battery self-discharge) can be achieved. The glass 100 can be configured to wake up based on orientation or based on a detected change (fill) of liquid level or a combination of both.

In a preferable embodiment according to the present invention, a pressure sensor 102 is used as first means to obtain liquid level information and an orientation sensor as second means to compensate for the shortcomings of using a pressure sensor alone. The pressure sensor is preferably situated underneath the liquid and is in fluid communication with the pressure level at the bottom of the glass by means of an impulse pipe. A membrane can be placed in the bottom of the glass to separate the liquid and impulse line thereby preventing liquid residuals in the impulse line. The pressure sensor is preferably a miniaturized PCS pressure sensor which can be placed on a common PCB with the other electronics underneath the glass or in a cavity in the glass. The pressure sensor can be absolute, gauge or differential type as in all cases the orientation information obtained from the orientation sensor can be used to provide an offset correction as will be described later, A reference impulse line may be directed from the sealed electronics containment to the ambient to minimize temperature induced drift.

An orientation sensor 102 and microprocessor 104 integrated with the glass provides several advantages. Using proper filtering and noise cancelling techniques the acceleration readings can be used to detect when the glass is standing on the table and when it is lifted up or used. This allows for dimming down the illumination intensity and possibly also decrease level measurement frequency when the user is inactive. Features such as shake or tap detection may be used for control of operating modes etc. Moreover, the

orientation sensor can advantageously be used as a second level measurement means when the glass is tilted allowing for online offset and drift compensation of the primary level measurement means. When the glass is tilted the tilting angle may be used to determine the maximum liquid amount that can be left in the glass. This information can be used at least to correct a too high reading of the primary measurement means downward. The maximum fill level of a glass as function of tilt angle may be tabulated for a particular glass shape (Fig 3 and Fig 4) When the glass inclination is returned to upright position the change in the primary level indication reading as result of the removed tilt can be used as a second compensation means. The pressure in the bottom of the glass is

where

P₀ is the pressure reading without liquid (subject to drift),

p is the density of the liquid

h is the height of the liquid

g is gravity

When the glass is tilted to an angle a with respect to upright position, the hydrostatic height changes to depending on the shape of the glass. The exact correlation as function of angle and tilt may be tabulated for a particular glass shape. Assuming the aforementioned approximative correlation, the following applies; When the glass is tilted back upright the change in pressure reading is

whereby

and a correction can be applied to P_o

The correction achieves reasonable accuracy at large ø.

Thus an offset correction can be applied to the primary level measurement each time the user drinks from the glass. This allows for use of a differential pressure sensor with an impulse line connected to the bottom of the glass and a sealed reference line. Although a change of temperature of 11 in the reference chamber will cause a differential pressure drift in the range of 4 mbar (i.e. full height of the glass) the above mentioned correction methodology can be used to compensate for this drift. Furthermore, when the glass is upright any slow drift in the averaged pressure reading may be accounted for as drift and thus compensated. A chip temperature measurement can further be used for

compensation for even improved accuracy.

Movement detection of the glass can also be employed to track the motion relating to drinking, thereby being able to determine the point in time at which drinking from the glass takes place and determine fill rate based on the tilt angle. By reading accelerations the act of drinking may be detected as a reduction of acceleration and angular derivative at a tilted state.

In one further embodiment according to the present invention the arrangement can comprise the means 102 for forming at least two kind of information and for obtaining information on the liquid level in the glass 100 on the basis of combination of said at least two kind of information. For example pressure, weight, resistance, capacitance and/or orientation information can present such formed information. The at least two kind of information can also be formed e.g. of two differently formed orientation information. For example, the compensation means and thus improved accuracy achieved through combination of the pressure and orientation information allows for using a low-cost uncompensated, unamplified pressure sensor. A correction to zero-offset of such a sensor is achieved through measures described above. A device-specific pressure sensor 102 gain correction term can be obtained by including a specific calibration routine in the software or by deducing the gain based on above described methods for correlating liquid level, orientation information and pressure reading. As an alternative to using a pressure sensor, a weight measurement of the glass can be employed. This method has the advantage of being completely isolated from the liquid itself, whereas the disadvantage is that the glass can only detect a liquid level change in upright position when it resides on a surface.

However, drinking by tilting the glass is still detected by orientation information, and a refilling with glass being held in the hand is detected once the glass is placed on the table.

The glass 100 can be equipped with digital wireless reception and transmission means such as e.g. an infrared LED 101 and receiver or a bluetooth transceiver. This allows for remotely controlling the glasses such as remotely turning them on/off or changing mode when the occasion starts/ends, blinking according to the beat of music or setting a particular color. Glasses can also communicate with each other, e.g. filling up one glass could cause nearby glasses to react. The glasses may transmit usage data for logging or billing purposes. Using said communication means it is also possible to facilitate a software/firmware update of the microcontroller. The software may incorporate a bootloader portion, capable of receiving a new software over the wireless data channel and reprogramming the device (apart from the bootJoading code section). Replacing the bootloader code section with code for broadcasting software, a glass can itself be used as a programming device, capable of replicating its software to one or several glasses within reach.

The ability to customize the software of the glass makes it very versatile for being used in various special contexts such as drinking games. The glass may include several operating modes which the user can change with using certain movement patterns such as e.g. shaking the glass. The glass can be configured to calculate the number of portions served and/or consume and change color based on this information.

In a preferable embodiment including a low-power microcontroller 104 and a MEMS orientation and/or a motion detection sensor 102, LEDS 101 and a miniaturized

compensated pressure sensors 102, largest current drain is caused by the LEDs (e.g.

10mA each for a small glass) and pressure sensor (2-3mA) when respective devices are operated. The minimum voltage for the pressure or other sensor may be higher than that for other devices. As suitable batteries may have relatively high internal resistance, for maximum battery service life during on mode, LEDs are preferably operated with pulse- width modulation with an intermittent idle-period long enough to carry out voltage sensitive tasks such as pressure measurements. Thereby voltage drop caused by LEDs 101 do not occur simultaneously as voltage drop caused by pressure measurements, whereby operabiiity is retained until battery voltage becomes too low for measurements alone and measurement noise is reduced. For a typical pressure sensing time of 3ms and a LED PWM frequency of 8QHz, this allows for a maximum LED duty of ~80%, which is well sufficient. Furthermore it is advantageous to arrange the LED PWM scheme such that different LEDs are turned on sequentially rather than simultaneously whereby the maximum

instantaneous battery drain is limited to that of one LED. Preferably, the microcontroller can perform householding tasks such as pre-ca!culation of LED PWM timing parameters during LED off period in parallel with carrying out measurements. If e.g. the pressure sensor requires higher voltages than is directly obtainable from a battery, a charge pump or DCDC converter can be used. It is advantageous to keep sensors powered on only intermittently for the duration of a measurement to minimize current drain.

It is apparent for one skilled in the art that "microprocessor" 104 refers to any digital signal processing means such as microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or similar. Also, it is obvious that a custom digital or analog circuitry can be used.

Claims

1. Illuminated drinking glass arrangement comprising a drinking glass (100) finable with a liquid and light-emitting diodes (101) for illuminating the glass (100), characterized by that the illuminated drinking glass arrangement comprises micro electro-mechanicaf means (102b) for forming orientation information on the glass (100) and at least one of resistive, capacitive, pressure and weight measurement means (102) for forming at least two kind of different information, and said means (102b, 102) for obtaining information on the liquid level in the glass (100) on the basis of combination of said at least two kind of different information, orientation information and some other information, a microprocessor (104) for processing said obtained information on the glass conditions to determine increase or decrease of liquid level in the glass (100) and for controlling the light- emitting diodes (101) to change the illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid level, and said means (102), the microprocessor (104) and the light emitting diodes (101) being integrated in connection with the drinking glass (100).

2. Illuminated drinking glass arrangement according to claim 1, characterized by that the arrangement comprises the means (102a) for forming hydrostatic pressure information of the glass (100) to obtain information on the liquid level in the glass (100).

3. Illuminated drinking glass arrangement according to claim 1, characterized by that the arrangement comprises the microprocessor (104) for controlling the light- emitting diodes (101) to change intensity of Illumination to the glass on the basis of at least one of liquid level information and orientation information.

4. Illuminated drinking glass arrangement according to claim 1, characterized by that the arrangement comprises the light-emitting diodes (101) for illuminating the glass with at least two different colors and the microprocessor (104) for controlling the light-emitting diodes (101) to change color of illumination to the glass on the basis of said determined liquid level.

5. Illuminated drinking glass arrangement according to claim 1, characterized by that the arrangement comprises the microprocessor (104) for controlling operation mode of the illuminated drinking glass arrangement on the basis of the orientation information.

6. illuminated drinking glass arrangement according to claim 1, characterized by that the arrangement comprises wireless communication means.

7. Illuminated drinking glass arrangement according to claim 1, characterized by that said means (102), the microprocessor (104) and the light emitting diodes (101) being integrated in connection with the drinking glass (100) are located in at least one of a ring (112) underneath the glass (100) and cavity (114) in the bottom of the glass