Interactive touch screen device for wine

• US 10,157,316 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Seeley, Michael S., Goodwin, Kirk W.
• Primary Examiner(s): BADER, ROBERT N.
• Application Number:
  US13/832,428
• Publication Number:
  US 20140126829A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,104 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/68 Food, e.g. fruit or vegetables

Abstract

Interactive display and rendering device, system and method for wine bottles. are disclosed. An interactive wine management and display device and method using a scanning instrument capable of scanning information regarding a bottle of wine; an imaging instrument capable of collecting an image of at least a portion of a bottle of wine; a connection to a wine database containing information regarding wines; a connection to a database having images of wine bottles. The device is able to render the images as well as information on the wine to a display for user interaction.

Claims

1. An interactive system for use with a wine cabinet or rack to hold bottles of wine, comprising:

a scanning device configured to identify a bottle of wine meeting a search criterion and located in the cabinet or rack;

a wine database, wherein the wine database contains information about a plurality of wines;

an image database, wherein the image database contains a plurality of images including an image associated with the bottle of wine;

a display device configured to display information from both the wine database and the image database to facilitate identification of the bottle of wine and to allow for a user to view the bottle of wine in a simulated three-dimensional setting; and

a communications device configured to send information associated with the bottle of wine to the cabinet or rack to form a first indicator on a transparent touchscreen door of the cabinet or rack showing a physical location of the bottle of wine in the cabinet or rack, wherein the image is a less than full image of the bottle of wine, and when the image is to be displayed by the display device, a rendering of a full image of the bottle of wine is shown by the display device by filling in the less than full image of the bottle of wine, wherein the image database is configured to create a filled-in portion, either at storage of the image or at a retrieval request by the display device, thus filling in the less than full image of the bottle of wine to create the full image of the bottle of wine wherein, when the full image of the bottle of wine is rendered on the display device, the full image is virtually rotatable so as to simulate a three-dimensional bottle, wherein the scanning device is further configured to take an image of the wine cabinet or rack, and the system is configured to compare the image of the wine cabinet or rack with stored information to identify unexpected bottle(s) which are present but not cataloged and/or expected bottle(s) which are cataloged but missing, and cause the communication device to send information for the identified unexpected and/or missing bottle(s) to form indicators on the transparent touchscreen door of the cabinet or rack notifying the user of the identified unexpected and/or missing bottle(s), and request that the user provide missing information for the unexpected bottle(s) and/or confirm that the missing bottle(s) have been consumed or moved using the transparent touchscreen door of the cabinet or rack.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the scanning device identifies the bottle of wine by taking an additional image of the bottle of wine and identifying one or more characters and/or figures within the additional image.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the scanning device and the display device are part of one device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the wine database and the image database are located on a storage device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the storage device is part of the scanning device or the display device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein information about the bottle of wine from the wine database is related to the first image for the bottle of wine.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the image database and the wine database are in a single database.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the display device is a handheld device, and the handheld device comprises a smartphone or tablet.