MONITORING BEVERAGE DISPENSING USING POUR EVENT DATA AND RING UP DATA

• US 20080147211A1
• Filed: 10/10/2007
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beverage Metrics Holding Limited
• Original Assignee: Beverage Metrics Holding Limited
• Inventors: Teller, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,768,396 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/90
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring beverage dispensing from a container. Independently obtained data from a pour event and ring up are matched using a recipe database. The method involves receiving ring up data for a transaction of the beverage dispensing, determining one or more beverage brands from a selected drink recipe using the ring up data and matching the ring up data with at least one of a plurality of pour event data entries using the determined one or more beverage brands, wherein each of the plurality of pour event data entries is obtained independently of the ring up data.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring beverage dispensing from a container comprising:

receiving ring up data for a transaction of the beverage dispensing;

determining one or more beverage brands from a selected drink recipe using the ring up data; and

matching the ring up data with at least one of a plurality of pour event data entries using the determined one or more beverage brands, wherein each of the plurality of pour event data entries is obtained independently of the ring up data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a time window based on the ring up data and including in the time window a selected group of the plurality of pour event data entries.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the ring up data is matched to the at least one of the plurality of pour event data entries in the selected group.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the selected drink recipe using a drink alias of the ring up data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an associated volume for each of the one or more beverage brands from the selected drink recipe using the ring up data; and

matching the ring up data with at least one of a plurality of pour event data entries using the associated volume.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one of a plurality of pour event data entries has a volume that closely approximates the associated volume of the drink recipe.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining each of the plurality of pour event data entries using a sensor attached to the container from which the beverage is dispensed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving each of the plurality of pour event data entries after the beverage is dispensed.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising matching the ring up data to a number of the plurality of pour event data entries, wherein the number corresponds to the one or more beverage brands from the selected drink recipe.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the ring up data is matched to a composite pour, the composite pour comprising two or more pour event data entries, wherein one of the two or more pour event data entries has a volume that is less than a short pour size.

11. A method for monitoring beverage dispensing from a container comprising:

identifying two or more pour event data entries each having a same beverage brand that occur within a time window and one of the two or more pour event data entries has a volume that is less than a short pour size, wherein the time window is based on a first ring up data entry;

creating a composite pour from the two or more identified pour event data entries; and

matching the composite pour with a second ring up data entry.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first ring up data entry and the second ring up data entry are associated with different beverage brands.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the matching of the composite pour further comprises:

determining one or more beverage brands and associated volume for each of the one or more beverage brands from a selected drink recipe using the second ring up data; and

matching the second ring up data with the composite pour using the determined one or more beverage brands and the associated volume.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the composite pour has a volume that closely approximates the associated volume of the selected drink recipe.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the two or more pour event data entries is obtained independently of the first ring up data entry and the second ring up data entry.

16. A method of monitoring beverage dispensing from a container comprising:

determining that the number of two or more ring up data entries for a same beverage brand exceeds the number of pour event data entries for the same beverage brand in a time window based on at least one of the two or more ring up data entries;

combining volumes of all of the pour event data entries in the time window having the same beverage brand;

creating two or more pours from the combined volume, each of the two or more split pours have a same volume; and

matching each of the two or more split pours to each of the two or more ring up data entries.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining one or more beverage brands and associated volume amount for each of the one or more beverage brands from a selected drink recipe using one of the two or more ring up data entries.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the volume of all of the pour event data entries are combined when one of the pour event data entries has a volume that exceeds the associated volume.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein each of the pour event data entries is obtained independently of the two or more ring up data entries.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the number of the two or more split pours equals the number of the two or more ring up data entries.