Wireless drink container for monitoring hydration

• US 10,188,230 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2017
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HidrateSpark LLC
• Original Assignee: Hidrate, Inc.
• Inventors: Hambrock, Alexander, Iverson, Coleman, Nguyen, Ngoc Thi Van, Feeken, Alexandra, Heaver, Travis, Engeriser, Matt, Schmokel, Paul, Lewis, Matthew, Cuva, Marc, Padilla, Nick
• Primary Examiner(s): Rogers, David A
• Application Number:
  US15/488,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20170340147A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A45F 3/16 Water-bottles; Mess-tins; Cups
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 19/2227 with means for amusing or giving information to the user A47G23/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 2019/2238 with illumination means
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 23/16 combined with drinking vessels or with lids therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/075 with magnetic or electromagnetic coupling to the indicating device
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/00 Indicating or measuring liquid level or level of fluent solid material, e.g. indicating in terms of volume or indicating by means of an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/263 by measuring variations in capacitance of capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/265 for discrete levels
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/2845 for discrete levels G01F23/288, G01F23/292 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/2921 for discrete levels
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/296 Acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/74 for sensing changes in level only at discrete points
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/804 containing circuits handling parameters other than liquid level
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 25/20 of apparatus for measuring liquid level
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets

Abstract

A wireless drink container can monitor a person'"'"'s hydration and prompt him or her to drink more if appropriate. The drink containers as described herein can monitor liquid levels and communicate with external devices about the liquid levels and rate of consumption. One or more sensors in the drink container monitor the liquid level within the container. A processor coupled to the sensor(s) estimates how much liquid has been removed from the container from changes in the liquid level and transmits a signal representing the change in liquid level to a smartphone or other external device. It also triggers an audio or visual indicator, such as an LED, that prompts the user to drink more based on the user'"'"'s estimated liquid consumption and on the user'"'"'s liquid consumption goals, which may be based on the user'"'"'s physiology, activity level, and location.

Claims

1. A container assembly comprising:

a container defining a cavity to hold a liquid;

a liquid level sensor, disposed in the cavity, to measure a level of the liquid in the cavity;

a processor, operably coupled to the liquid level sensor, to poll the liquid level sensor for a measurement of the level of the liquid in the cavity and to estimate a change in the level of the liquid in the cavity based on the measurement of the level of the liquid in the cavity;

a visual indicator, operably coupled to the processor and disposed within the cavity, to provide a visual indication prompting a user to drink from the container; and

an antenna, operably coupled to the processor, to transmit an indication of the change in the level of the liquid in the cavity to a wireless device.

2. The container assembly of claim 1, further comprising:

an accelerometer, mechanically coupled to the container and operably coupled to the processor, to intermittently measure an acceleration of the container.

3. The container assembly of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to poll the accelerometer intermittently and to poll the liquid level sensor if data from the accelerometer indicates that the container is vertically oriented.

4. The container assembly of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to estimate the change in the level of the liquid in the cavity based on data from the accelerometer.

5. The container assembly of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to cause the visual indicator to provide the visual indication in response to a command received from the wireless device via the antenna.

6. The container assembly of claim 5, wherein the command received from the wireless device via the antenna is based in part on a time since a last visual indication provided by the visual indicator.

7. The container assembly of claim 1, wherein:

the antenna is configured to receive an indication of a target change in the level of the liquid in the cavity from the wireless device, and

the processor is configured to compare the change in the level of the liquid in the cavity to the target change in the level of the liquid in the cavity and to cause the visual indicator to provide the visual indication if the change in the level of the liquid in the cavity is less than the target change in the level of the liquid in the cavity.

8. The container assembly of claim 7, wherein the target change in the level of the liquid in the cavity is based on at least one of an age of a user, a height of the user, a weight of the user, an activity level of the user, a location of the user, an ambient temperature, and an ambient humidity.

9. The container assembly of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator comprises at least one light-emitting diode (LED) disposed along a substrate extending into the cavity.

10. The container assembly of claim 9, wherein the at least one LED is configured to provide the visual indication by emitting light on a periodic basis.

11. The container assembly of claim 1, further comprising:

a cap to keep the liquid within the cavity; and

a cap sensor, operably coupled to the processor, to sense if the cap is coupled to the container,

wherein the processor is configured to poll the liquid level sensor if the cap sensor indicates that the cap is coupled to the container.

12. The container assembly of claim 1, wherein the antenna is further configured to transmit an indication of when the visual indicator last provided the visual indication and to receive a command based on at least one of when the visual indicator last provided the visual indication, a target change in the level of the liquid in the cavity, or a predetermined period, the command causing the visual indicator to provide another visual indication prompting the user to drink from the container.

13. The container assembly of claim 1, wherein the liquid level sensor is configured to measure the level of the liquid in the cavity at intervals based on at least one of a time of day, a schedule of a user, or a power level of a power supply for the liquid level sensor.

14. The container assembly of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to estimate a target liquid consumption rate for the user based on the measurement of the level of the liquid in the cavity and the visual indicator is configured to provide a visual indication based on the target consumption rate for the user.

15. The container assembly of claim 1, wherein the antenna is configured to receive a signal indicating a geographic position of the container assembly and the processor is configured to estimate a target consumption rate based on the geographic position of the container assembly.

16. A method of tracking consumption, by a user, of a liquid disposed within a container, the method comprising:

(A) measuring, with an accelerometer mechanically coupled to the container, an acceleration of the container;

(B) estimating, with a processor operably coupled to the accelerometer, an orientation of the container based on the acceleration;

(C) determining if the orientation is within a predefined range of orientations;

(D) in response to determining that the orientation is within the predefined range of orientations, measuring, with a liquid level sensor operably coupled to the processor, a level of the liquid in the container;

(E) estimating a change in the level of the liquid in the cavity based on the level of the liquid in the cavity;

(F) transmitting, via an antenna operably coupled to the processor, an indication of the change in the level of the liquid in the container to a wireless device; and

(G) emitting light from a light source operably coupled to the processor and disposed in the container, the light prompting the user to drink at least some of the liquid in the container.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein:

(C) comprises determining if the container is vertically oriented, and

(D) comprises measuring the level of the liquid if the container is vertically oriented.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein estimating the change in the level of the liquid in (E) comprises estimating the change in the level of the liquid based the orientation of the container estimated in (B).

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

performing steps (A) through (E) at periodic intervals.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

sensing, with a cap sensor operably coupled to the processor, if a cap is coupled to the container, and

wherein (D) comprises measuring the level of the liquid if the cap sensor indicates that the cap is coupled to the container.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, via the antenna, a command based on at least one of when the light source last emitted light; and

in response to the command, emitting additional light from to the light source disposed in the container, the additional light prompting the user to drink at least some of the liquid in the container.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein (G) comprises emitting the light at periodic intervals.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving a command, via the antenna, to emit light from the light source,

wherein the command is based on a comparison of the change estimated in (E) to a target change in the level of the liquid.

24. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, via the antenna, an indication of a target change in the level of the liquid, and

comparing, with the processor, the change in the level of the liquid in the cavity to the target change in the level of the liquid.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

emitting the light from the light source in response to determining that the change in the level of the liquid is less than the target change in the level of the liquid.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the target change in the level of the liquid in the cavity is based on at least one of an age of a user, a height of the user, a weight of the user, an activity level of the user, a location of the user, an ambient temperature, and an ambient humidity.

27. A container assembly comprising:

a translucent container to hold a liquid;

a substrate extending at least partway into the liquid;

a liquid level sensor, disposed on the substrate, to measure a level of the liquid;

an accelerometer, mechanically coupled to the translucent container, to measure an acceleration of the translucent container;

a processor, operably coupled to the accelerometer and the liquid level sensor, to (i) periodically determine an orientation of the translucent container based on acceleration measured by the accelerometer and (ii) periodically determine a change in the level of the liquid in the cavity based on the level of the liquid measured by the liquid level sensor and the orientation of the translucent container;

an antenna, operably coupled to the processor, to transmit the change in the level of the liquid to a wireless device; and

a light source, disposed on the substrate and operably coupled to the processor, to emit light (i) at periodic intervals and (ii) in response to a command received from the wireless device via the antenna,

wherein the command is based on (i) a comparison of the change in the level of the liquid and a desired change in the level of the liquid and (ii) a time since a last emission of light from the light source.

28. A fluid consumption monitoring system comprising:

a housing configured to couple with a beverage container;

a sensor coupled with said housing or that extends into said beverage container;

a wireless communication interface coupled with the housing;

a memory coupled with the housing; and

a processor coupled with the memory and the wireless communication interface and situated in the housing and configured to;

receive sensor data from the sensor;

calculate at least one of an amount of fluid inside of, dispensed from, and/or added to the beverage container from the sensor data;

store a representation of the amount of fluid in said memory; and

transmit the representation to an external device via the wireless communication interface when a wireless communication channel is available to the external device, the external device displaying the representation of the amount of fluid and a recommended amount of fluid for consumption by a user, the recommended amount based on an age, weight, and height of the user.