System and method of obtaining smoking topography data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10779568-B2
Application number	US-201916715321-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2019
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Sep 22, 2020
Grant date	Sep 22, 2020

Abstract

An exemplary smoking topography circuit of an electronic aerosol smoking article, includes at least one sensor configured to measure user interaction with the smoking article, a processor, and memory. The processor is configured to detect a smoking event based an output of the at least one sensor, collect data associated with the smoking event, and arrange the data in a pattern that associates the smoking event to shifts in battery voltage. The memory is configured to store the data pattern in a structured multi-byte format.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic vaping article, comprising:
an aerosol-forming substrate;
a heating element configured to heat the aerosol-forming substrate to form an aerosol;
a battery configured to supply power to the heating element to cause the heating element to generate heat;
an air flow sensor configured to generate an output based on measuring a magnitude of an air flowrate through at least a portion of the electronic vaping article;
a processor configured to
detect a start event and an end event of a user interaction with the electronic vaping article based on the output of the air flow sensor and a threshold magnitude value,
capture battery voltage data indicating a shift in a voltage of the battery associated with the user interaction based on
capturing a start value of the voltage of the battery in response to detection of the start event,
capturing an end value of the voltage of the battery in response to detection of the end event, and
determining the shift in the voltage of the battery associated with the user interaction as a difference between the start value and the end value, and

arrange the battery voltage data in a data pattern that defines the user interaction with the electronic vaping article by at least the shift in the voltage of the battery such that the start value and the end value are associated with a first interaction event number and an indication that the first interaction event number corresponds to a first data set type in the data pattern, the first data set type representing a user interaction with the electronic vaping article; and
a memory configured to store the data pattern in a structured multi-byte format.

2. The electronic vaping article of claim 1 , wherein the processor includes a timer configured to be initiated in response to detection of the start event and stopped in response to detection of the end event to obtain a vaping time interval, and the processor is configured to collect a value of the vaping time interval and record the value in the data pattern in association with the first interaction event number as a length of the user interaction with the electronic vaping article.

3. The electronic vaping article of claim 1 , wherein
the electronic vaping article includes a plurality of sensors including the air flow sensor, the plurality of sensors configured to measure the voltage of the battery in response to detection of the start event and detection of the end event.

4. The electronic vaping article of claim 1 , wherein
the first interaction event number is one of a plurality of interaction event numbers recorded in the data pattern and corresponding to the first data set type representing a respective user interaction with the electronic vaping article, for each respective interaction event number among the plurality of interaction event numbers the processor is configured to record in the data pattern in association with the respective interaction event number
an interaction status of the battery indicating whether an interaction voltage of the battery associated with the respective user interaction exceeds a threshold battery voltage,
the indication that the respective interaction event number corresponds to the first data set type,
the start value of the voltage of the battery,
the end value of the voltage of the battery,
a time interval of the respective user interaction with the electronic vaping article, and
a value of a system clock included in the electronic vaping article, and

wherein for each respective non-interaction event number among a plurality of non-interaction event numbers recorded in the data pattern and corresponding to a second data set type representing a respective user non-interaction with the electronic vaping article the processor is configured to record in the data pattern in association with the respective non-interaction event number
a non-interaction status of the battery indicating whether a non-interaction voltage of the battery associated with the respective user non-interaction exceeds the threshold battery voltage,
an indication that the respective non-interaction event number corresponds to the second data set type,
a null start value of the voltage of the battery,
a null end value of the voltage of the battery,
a non-vaping time interval between an end of a first user interaction with the electronic vaping article and a start of a second user interaction with the electronic vaping article, and
the value of the system clock.

5. The electronic vaping article of claim 4 , wherein the processor includes a first timer configured to measure a length of each user interaction with the electronic vaping article, and a second timer configured to measure a duration between the first and second user interactions with the electronic vaping article.

6. The electronic vaping article of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of sensors including the air flow sensor, the plurality of sensors configured to measure the voltage of the battery, the processor being configured to collect a value of the voltage of the battery from the plurality of sensors, and determine an interaction status of the battery.

7. The electronic vaping article of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to collect data indicating a start of the user interaction with the electronic vaping article and an end of the user interaction with the electronic vaping article from said air flow sensor and determine a vaping status.

8. The electronic vaping article of claim 7 , wherein for the data set generated upon occurrence of the start of the user interaction with the electronic vaping article, the processor is configured to determine that the vaping status is a vaping puff status, and include the indication that the first indication event number corresponds to the first data set type in a data set in the data pattern associated with the first interaction event number.

9. The electronic vaping article of claim 7 , wherein upon an occurrence of consecutive user interactions with the electronic vaping article, for the data set generated upon occurrence of the end of a first user interaction with the electronic vaping article, the processor is configured to determine that the vaping status is a puff release status, and include an indication that a first non-interaction event number corresponds to a second data set type in a data set in the data pattern associated with the first non-interaction event number, the second data set type representing a user non-interaction with the electronic vaping article.

10. The electronic vaping article of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to output a data set associated with the first interaction event number in the data pattern in a hexadecimal format.

11. The electronic vaping article of claim 1 , further comprising:
an interface for connecting the processor to an external device.

12. The electronic vaping article of claim 1 , wherein the processor includes a system clock, and a value of the system clock is recorded in association with the first interaction event number.

13. A vaping topography circuit of an electronic vaping article, the vaping topography circuit comprising:
an air flow sensor configured to detect user interaction with the electronic vaping article based on measuring a magnitude of an air flowrate through at least a portion of the electronic vaping article;
a heating element configured to heat an aerosol-forming substrate to form an aerosol;
a battery configured to supply power to the heating element to cause the heating element to generate heat;
a processor configured to
detect a start event and a

Assignees

• Altria Client Services Llc

Inventors

• Smith Barry S
• Burton Douglas A

Classifications

• A24F40/65

  Devices with integrated communication means, e.g. wireless communication means · CPC title

• A24F40/51 Primary

  Arrangement of sensors · CPC title

• A24F40/90

  Arrangements or methods specially adapted for charging batteries thereof · CPC title

• A24F47/00

  Smokers' requisites not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• A24F40/80

  Testing · CPC title