Method and apparatus for boil state detection based on acoustic signal features
First Claim
1. A method of determining at least one boil phase of a liquid as measured by an acoustic sensor employed to measure an acoustic signal generated by the liquid during heating, said method comprising the steps of:
- smoothing the acoustic signal to eliminate excess variation and high frequency noise in the acoustic signal;
calculating at least one derivative of the smoothed acoustic signal; and
determining said at least one boil phase of the liquid using a feature recognition algorithm to evaluate the smoothed acoustic signal and said at least one derivative of the smoothed acoustic signal.
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method of determining the boil states of a liquid as measured by an acoustic sensor which measures the acoustic signal generated by the liquid as it is heated. The acoustic signal is smoothed and a first derivative of the acoustic signal is calculated. Also the frequency of the acoustic signal is measured. Derivative inflection points, zero slope points, and acoustic signal frequencies are utilized to determine the pre-simmer, simmer, pre-boil, boil, boil dry, and boil over states of the liquid.
46 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method of determining at least one boil phase of a liquid as measured by an acoustic sensor employed to measure an acoustic signal generated by the liquid during heating, said method comprising the steps of:
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smoothing the acoustic signal to eliminate excess variation and high frequency noise in the acoustic signal; calculating at least one derivative of the smoothed acoustic signal; and determining said at least one boil phase of the liquid using a feature recognition algorithm to evaluate the smoothed acoustic signal and said at least one derivative of the smoothed acoustic signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of determining at least one boil phase of a liquid as measured by an acoustic sensor utilized to measure an acoustic signal generated by a liquid during heating, said method comprising the steps of:
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filtering the acoustic signal to remove excess variation and high frequency noise from the acoustic signal; selecting at least one acoustic signal frequency range corresponding to said at least one boil phase of the liquid; and identifying said at least one boil phase of the liquid by analyzing the filtered acoustic signal in the selected at least one frequency range. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An apparatus for determining at least one boil phase of a liquid as measured by an acoustic sensor utilized to measure an acoustic signal generated by a liquid during heating, said apparatus comprising:
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at least one filter connected to the acoustic sensor for receiving and filtering the acoustic signal to eliminate excess variation and high frequency noise from the acoustic signal; a signal processor connected to said at least one filter for calculating at least one derivative of the filtered acoustic signal; and a microprocessor connected to said signal processor and employing a feature recognition algorithm to evaluate the filtered acoustic signal and said at least one derivative of the filtered acoustic signal to determine said at least one boil phase of the liquid. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An apparatus for determining at least one boil phase of a liquid as measured by an acoustic sensor utilized to measure an acoustic signal generated by a liquid during heating, said apparatus comprising:
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at least one filter connected to the acoustic sensor for receiving and filtering the acoustic signal to eliminate excess variation and high frequency noise from the acoustic signal; a frequency filter connected to said at least one filter, said frequency filter filtering the acoustic signal into at least one frequency range corresponding to said at least one boil phase of the liquid; and a microprocessor connected to said frequency filter and identifying said at least one boil phase of said liquid by analyzing said acoustic signal in said at least one frequency range.
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Specification