Sensor device configuration

• US 10,078,003 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2015
• Issued: 09/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nectar Limited
• Original Assignee: Nectar Limited
• Inventors: Gurumohan, Prabhanjan C., Phumbhra, Aayush
• Primary Examiner(s): Dalbo, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/725,979
• Publication Number:
  US 20150355012A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,208 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 19/00 Table service
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/2961 for discrete levels G01F23/2962 - G01F23/2968 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/2962 Measuring transit time of reflected waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/2968 Transducers specially adapted for acoustic level indicators
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/114 Indoor or close-range type systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/43 using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A sensor device includes a communication transmitter configured to transmit a sensor device identifier. The sensor device includes a communication receiver configured to receive a sensor configuration associated with the sensor device identifier. The sensor device includes an interrogation signal transmitter configured to transmit an interrogation signal based at least in part on the received sensor configuration to determine an identifier associated with an amount of content included in a container engaged by the sensor device.

Claims

1. A sensor device, comprising:

a communication transmitter configured to transmit a sensor device identifier;

a communication receiver configured to receive a sensor configuration associated with the sensor device identifier, wherein the sensor configuration is based at least in part on a size and/or a shape of a container engaged by the sensor device; and

an interrogation signal transmitter configured to transmit an interrogation signal based at least in part on the received sensor configuration to determine an identifier associated with an amount of content included in the container engaged by the sensor device, wherein a shape and/or a waveform of the interrogation signal is based at least in part on the size and/or the shape of the container engaged by the sensor device, and wherein the interrogation signal transmitter is configured to transmit the interrogation signal that travels through air included in the container to reflect off the content in the container.

2. The sensor device as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensor device is a bottle cap of the container.

3. The sensor device as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensor device includes a spout.

4. The sensor device as recited in claim 1, wherein the amount of content is an amount of liquid.

5. The sensor device as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensor configuration is specific to an identified container type of the container.

6. The sensor device as recited in claim 1, wherein the communication transmitter is further configured to transmit the identifier associated with the amount of content.

7. The sensor device as recited in claim 6, wherein the communication transmitter transmits the identifier associated with the amount of content using a BLUETOOTH®

Low Energy advertisement packet.

8. The sensor device as recited in claim 1, further comprising an interrogation signal receiver that receives the interrogation signal that has been reflected off the content included in the container.

9. The sensor device as recited in claim 8, wherein the received interrogation signal is filtered based at least in part on the received sensor configuration.

10. The sensor device as recited in claim 1, wherein the received sensor configuration specifies the waveform of the interrogation signal.

11. A system, comprising:

a communication receiver configured to receive a sensor device identifier from a sensor device; and

a processor coupled with the communication receiver and configured to;

receive an identification associated with a container type;

associate the sensor device identifier with the container type;

retrieve a sensor configuration for the container type, wherein the sensor configuration is based at least in part on a size and/or a shape of a container engaged by the sensor device; and

provide the sensor configuration to the sensor device, wherein the sensor configuration is utilized by the sensor device to determine a fill identifier associated with an amount of content included in the container engaged by the sensor device, wherein the sensor device is configured to transmit an interrogation signal, wherein a shape and/or a waveform of the interrogation signal is based at least in part on the size and/or the shape of the container engaged by the sensor device, and wherein an interrogation signal transmitter of the sensor device is configured to transmit the interrogation signal that travels through air included in the container to reflect off the content in the container.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein receiving the identification associated with the container type includes receiving an image of a barcode of the container.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein associating the sensor device identifier with the container type includes identifying that the container type corresponds to the barcode.

14. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to receive the fill identifier and determine a fill value corresponding to the fill identifier for the container type.

15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to provide a notification in the event the fill value is below a threshold.

16. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to automatically place an order for the content in the event the fill value is below a threshold.

17. The system as recited in claim 11, further comprising a storage configured to track an inventory for the content included in the container.

18. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to analyze a historical depletion pattern of the content and determine a quantity of the content to reorder.

19. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to analyze a depletion pattern of the content across a plurality of sensor devices of a plurality of user entities.

20. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to provide a suggestion of a new recipe that utilizes the content included in the container.