LIQUID CONSUMPTION TRACKER

• US 20160025545A1
• Filed: 07/21/2015
• Published: 01/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trago, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Trago, Inc.
• Inventors: Saltzgiver, Davis Michael, Saltzgiver, Jac Tyson III
• Granted Patent: US 10,161,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 23/16 combined with drinking vessels or with lids therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 1/0246 Closure retaining means, e.g. beads, screw-threads
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 51/245 provided with decoration, information or contents indicating devices, labels B65D81/366 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/26 by measuring variations of capacity or inductance of capacitors or inductors arising from the presence of liquid or fluent solid material in the electric or electromagnetic fields
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/263 by measuring variations in capacitance of capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/296 Acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/2962 Measuring transit time of reflected waves
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 using a wireless architecture
• 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

Abstract

Provided is a sensor operative to track changes in a liquid level of a hand-held liquid container, the sensor comprising: an ultrasonic liquid-level sensor configured to indicate a liquid level of a liquid in a hand-held liquid container, wherein the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor is capable of indicating the liquid level when the surface of the liquid is less than 20 centimeters away from the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor; a radio transmitter; and a processor configured to draw power from a portable power source, receive liquid-level indications from the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor, and cause the radio transmitter to transmit data indicative of changes in the liquid level.

Claims

1. A sensor operative to track changes in a liquid level of a hand-held liquid container, the sensor comprising:

an liquid-level sensor configured to indicate a liquid level of a liquid in a hand-held liquid container;

a radio transmitter; and

a processor configured to draw power from a portable power source, receive liquid-level indications from the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor, and cause the radio transmitter to transmit data indicative of changes in the liquid level.

2. The sensor of claim 1, comprising:

a water bottle having a mouth with a threaded opening between 55 and 67 millimeters in diameter measured from an outer surface of a rim defining the opening and measured in a recess of the threading;

a water bottle cap shaped to be threaded to the opening to close the mouth of the water bottle, the water bottle cap including the portable power supply, the liquid-level sensor, the radio transmitter, the processor, an accelerometer coupled to the processor, and an aperture positioned to dispense liquid from the water bottle when the water bottle is inverted, wherein;

the water bottle defines a cavity of less than 2 liters in volume to store the liquid;

the portable power supply comprises a battery coupled to the processor;

the liquid level sensor is an ultrasonic liquid-level sensor;

the processor is operative to;

receive signals indicative of acceleration from the accelerometer;

determine that the water bottle is oriented within a threshold angle relative to a vertical orientation;

in response to determining that the water bottle is oriented within the threshold angle relative to the vertical orientation and signals indicative of acceleration, cause the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor to sense the level of the liquid in the water bottle;

the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor comprises;

a transmitter having a piezoelectric transmitter operative to transmit sound waves at between 35 kHz and 45 kHz and oriented to direct the sound waves into the cavity;

a receiver, separated from the transmitter in the water bottle cap by material configured to dampen vibrations passing through the cap from the transmitter to the receiver, and operative to generate an electrical signal indicative of the amplitude of sound waves impinging upon the receiver, including transmissions of the transmitter echoing off the surface of the liquid;

wherein the sensor comprises;

a band-pass filter operative to select electrical signals from the receiver within a range of frequencies;

an echo selector operative to receive a plurality of echoes from the band pass filter and select an echo having a highest amplitude among the plurality of echoes as corresponding to an echo from the surface of the liquid;

a clock operative to indicate a duration of time that elapses between a transmission of the transmitter and a receipt of a corresponding echo by the receiver; and

a distance calculator operative to generate an indication of the liquid level based on the duration of time indicated by the clock;

wherein the processor is configured to cause the radio to periodically broadcast a beacon indicative of functionality of the water bottle cap and establish two-way wireless communication with a computing device that wirelessly requests data indicative of the liquid level, wherein the data indicative of the liquid level comprises a plurality of time-stamped indications of the liquid level at different times.

3. The sensor of claim 1, wherein the liquid-level sensor comprises a capacitive liquid level sensor.

4. The sensor of claim 1, wherein the liquid-level sensor comprises an ultrasonic liquid level sensor, wherein the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor is capable of indicating the liquid level when the surface of the liquid is less than 20 centimeters away from the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor.

5. The sensor of claim 4, wherein the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor comprises:

a ultrasonic transmitter; and

a ultrasonic receiver that is spaced away from the transmitter.

6. The sensor of claim 4, wherein the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor comprises:

a piezoelectric transmitter having a resonance frequency of physical vibration between 20 kHz and 120 kHz.

7. The sensor of claim 6, comprising:

a multi-axis accelerometer coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to determine that a user has dispensed the liquid based on signals from the multi-axis accelerometer indicative of acceleration of the sensor and, in response to determining that the user has dispensed the liquid, cause the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor to measure the liquid level.

8. The sensor of claim 7, wherein determining that the user has dispensed the liquid comprises:

determining that the sensor has accelerated upward relative to a direction of gravity, then rotated about an axis in the horizontal plane in a first direction, then rotated about an axis in the horizontal plane in a second direction, then accelerated downward, and then oriented within a threshold angle relative to the direction of gravity.

9. The sensor of claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to execute a gesture classifier operative to receive a sequence of signals from the multi-axis accelerometer and classify a subset of the sequence of signals as indicating that liquid was dispensed.

10. The sensor of claim 4, comprising:

a gyroscope coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to determine that a user has opened the container based on signals from the gyroscope indicative of the sensor twisting in a first direction and, in response to determining that the user has opened the container, cause the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor to measure the liquid level.

11. The sensor of claim 10, wherein determining that a user has opened the container comprises determining that the user has closed the container based on signals from the gyroscope indicative of the sensor twisting in a second direction different from the first direction.

12. The sensor of claim 1, comprising:

a three or more axis accelerometer coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to;

receive a sequence of signals from the accelerometer indicative of accelerations of the sensor over time;

determine that the sequence of signals indicate accelerations occurring within a threshold range of frequencies; and

determine that the sequence of signals is not indicative of a user dispensing the liquid based on the determination the sequence of signals indicate accelerations occurring within a threshold range of frequencies.

13. The sensor of claim 1, comprising:

an accelerometer coupled to the processor,

wherein the processor is configured to periodically determine whether the accelerometer indicates the hand-held liquid container is oriented vertically and in response to determining that the hand-held liquid container is oriented vertically, measure the level of the liquid in the container.

14. The sensor of claim 4, comprising:

a temperature sensor coupled to the processor, wherein the temperature sensor is operative to measure a temperature of air in the container between the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor and a surface of the surface of the liquid,

wherein the processor is configured to calculate a distance between the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor and the surface of the liquid based on both the temperature of the air measured by the temperature sensor and a duration of time an ultrasonic sound wave takes to travel from the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor to the surface of the liquid and back to the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor, wherein the processor is operative to calculate longer distances in response to higher temperatures for a given duration of time.

15. The sensor of claim 4, comprising:

a filter configured to receive signals indicative of ultrasonic vibrations and selectively pass a subset of the signals indicative of an ultrasonic echo from the surface of the liquid.

16. The sensor of claim 15, wherein the filter comprises an analog band pass filter.

17. The sensor of claim 15, wherein the processor includes a digital signal processor configured to selectively pass the subset of the signals.

18. The sensor of claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to:

cause the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor to emit an ultrasonic sound;

receive a sequence of signals from the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor indicative of a plurality of echoes from the emitted ultrasonic sound; and

select an echo corresponding to the surface of the liquid from among the plurality of echoes.

19. The sensor of claim 18, wherein selecting the echo corresponding to the surface of the liquid from among the plurality of echoes comprises:

determining an amplitude of each of the plurality of echoes; and

selecting an echo having the highest amplitude among the plurality of echoes as the echo corresponding to the surface of the liquid.

21. The sensor of claim 4, wherein the processor is operative to cause the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor to indicate a distance from a transmitter of the ultrasonic liquid-level sensor to the surface of the liquid, wherein indicating the distance comprises:

causing the transmitter to vibrate for a plurality of milliseconds; and

after causing the transmitter to vibrate for a plurality of milliseconds, delaying for a resting period and, then, causing the transmitter to emit plurality of ultrasonic pulses separated from one another by temporal guard bands.

22. The sensor of claim 1, comprising:

a buffer memory,

wherein the processor is configured to

obtain a plurality of time-stamped indications of levels of the liquid;

store the plurality of time-stamped indications of levels of the liquid in the buffer memory;

establish a wireless connection with computing device via the radio transmitter;

retrieve the time-stamped indications of levels of the liquid from the buffer memory; and

convey the time-stamped indications of levels of the liquid to the computing device via the wireless connection.

23. The sensor of claim 1, comprising:

a bottle sized to be hand held by a user, wherein the bottle is attachable to the portable power source, the liquid-level sensor, the radio transmitter, and the processor; and

a mobile computing device having another processor, another radio, an operating system, a cellular connection to a remote server, and a hydration tracking application stored in memory of the mobile computing device, wherein the hydration tracking application, when executed by the mobile computing device, is operative to receive, via a wireless connection between the radio and the other radio, data describing additions of, and removal of, liquid in the bottle over time and integrate the additions and removals over time to estimate an amount of liquid consumed by a user, wherein the hydration tracking application, when executed, is further operative to cause the amount of liquid consumed to be conveyed via the cellular connection and the Internet to the remote server for storage.