Conditioner with Sensors for Nutritional Substances

• US 20140364971A1
• Filed: 08/22/2014
• Published: 12/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Iceberg International SARL
• Original Assignee: Iceberg International SARL
• Inventors: Minvielle, Eugenio
• Granted Patent: US 9,460,633 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/90
• CPC Class Codes: A23P 10/00 Shaping or working of foodstuffs characterised by the products
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/4146 for controlling caloric intake, e.g. diet control
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 23/3707 using a microprocessor
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0001 by organoleptic means
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/02 Food
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/021 in which a variable is automatically adjusted to optimise the performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0092 Nutrition

Abstract

Nutritional substance systems and methods are disclosed enabling the tracking and communication of changes in nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of nutritional substances, and further enabling the adaptive storage and adaptive conditioning of nutritional substances.

Claims

1. A dynamic conditioning system for nutritional substances comprising:

a reader configured to detect a dynamic information identifier provided with a nutritional substance;

a database with information referenced to the dynamic information identifier and including various conditioning protocols for the nutritional substance;

a sensor configured to detect an attribute of the nutritional substance and output sensor data related to the attribute;

a controller configured to adapt operation of the conditioning system responsive to at least one of the conditioning protocols for the nutritional substance and further configured to modify the at least one conditioning protocol based on the sensor data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the database additionally contains Δ

N information associated with the various conditioning protocols.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the controller additionally adapts operation of the conditioning system responsive to Δ

N information associated the at least one conditioning protocol.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller periodically modifies the conditioning protocol based on sensor data detected periodically throughout conditioning of the nutritional substance.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is indicative of a temperature.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is indicative of a weight of the nutritional substance.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is indicative of ambient humidity.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is a spectrometer.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is indicative of a color of the nutritional substance.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller additionally adapts operation of the conditioning system responsive to a geographic location of the conditioner.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller additionally adapts operation of the conditioning system responsive to an elevation of the conditioner.

12. The system of claim 4, wherein the controller adapts modifies operation of the conditioning system based on sensor data detected at least every minute during conditioning.

13. A dynamic conditioning system for nutritional substances according to claim 1, wherein the nutritional values output by the display comprise a plurality of Δ

N values relating to different options for conditioning the substance determined by the controller.

14. A dynamic conditioning system for nutritional substances according to claim 1, wherein the controller adapts operation of the conditioning system responsive to input by a consumer into an input panel.

15. A dynamic conditioning system for conditioning nutritional substances comprising:

an input panel configured to receive information regarding a nutritional substance;

a sensor for sensing an attribute of the nutritional substance;

a library comprising datasets referenced to known nutritional substances;

a controller for comparing the sensed attribute with the datasets to determine at least one matching dataset and implementing a conditioning sequence for conditioning the nutritional substance based on the matching dataset.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the datasets contain Δ

N information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the controller modifies the conditioning sequence based on the Δ

N information.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller periodically modifies the conditioning sequence responsive to sensor data detected during conditioning of the nutritional substance.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the sensed attribute is a temperature.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the sensed attribute is a weight of the nutritional substance.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the sensed attribute is ambient humidity.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller modifies the conditioning sequence based on a geographic location of the conditioner.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller modifies the conditioning sequence based on an elevation of the conditioner.

24. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller modifies the conditioning sequence based on sensor data detected at least every minute during conditioning.

25. The system of claim 15, wherein a display communicates a plurality of nutritional values based on the at least one matching dataset and different conditioning options for the nutritional substance.

26. The system of claim 15, wherein the input is an input panel for receiving input from a consumer.

27. A dynamic conditioning system for nutritional substances according to claim 26, wherein the controller modifies the conditioning sequence based on a conditioning option entered into the input panel by the consumer.

28. A method for conditioning a nutritional substance, the method comprising:

sensing an attribute of a nutritional substance;

accessing data relating to conditioning protocols from a database referenced to known nutritional substances; and

adapting a conditioning sequence for the nutritional substance based on at least a subset of the accessed data relating to conditioning protocols for the nutritional substance and the sensed attribute of the nutritional substance.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the conditioning protocols are referenced to Δ

N information in the database.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the conditioning protocols is additionally adapted based on the Δ

N information.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein an attribute of the nutritional substance is periodically sensed.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein the sensed attribute is a humidity of the conditioner around the nutritional substance.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein the sensed attribute is weight.

34. The method of claim 28, wherein the conditioning sequence is additionally adapted based on a geographic location of the conditioner.

35. The method of claim 28, wherein the accessing step further comprises receiving input from a consumer regarding the nutritional substance.

36. The method of claim 28, wherein the accessing step further comprises receiving input from a consumer regarding the nutritional substance.