Communication between personal vaporizing inhaler assemblies

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9861773-B2
Application number	US-201414278087-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 15, 2014
Priority date	May 15, 2010
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

A personal vapor inhaling unit is disclosed. An electronic flameless vapor inhaler unit that may simulate a cigarette has a cavity that receives a cartridge in the distal end of the inhaler unit. The cartridge brings a substance to be vaporized in contact with a wick. When the unit is activated, and the user provides suction, the substance to be vaporized is drawn out of the cartridge, through the wick, and is atomized by the wick into a cavity containing a heating element. The heating element vaporizes the atomized substance. The vapors then continue to be pulled by the user through a mouthpiece and mouthpiece cover where they may be inhaled.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A personal vaporizing unit, comprising:
a shell;
a mouthpiece assembly configured to be placed in a human mouth, the mouthpiece assembly removable from the shell;
an atomizer, coupled with the mouthpiece assembly, configured to receive one or more substances to be vaporized into one or more vaporized substances in the air;
a porous wick that absorbs the one or more substances and provides the one or more substances to the atomizer for vaporization, wherein the shell is configured to interface with the mouthpiece assembly and pass the vaporized substances to the human mouth through the mouthpiece assembly; and
circuitry disposed in the shell that communicates data with a contact disposed on the mouthpiece assembly, wherein data communicated to the contact disposed on the mouthpiece assembly includes an indicator of an empty cartridge condition.

2. The personal vaporizing unit of claim 1 , wherein said circuitry includes a memory and data stored in said memory is communicated to the contact disposed on the mouthpiece assembly.

3. The personal vaporizing unit of claim 1 , wherein data communicated to the contact disposed on the mouthpiece assembly includes a number of times said empty cartridge condition has occurred.

4. A personal vaporizing unit, comprising:
a shell;
a mouthpiece assembly configured to be placed in a human mouth, the mouthpiece assembly removable from the shell;
an atomizer, coupled with the mouthpiece assembly, configured to receive one or more substances to be vaporized into one or more vaporized substances in the air;
a porous wick that absorbs the one or more substances and provides the one or more substances to the atomizer for vaporization, wherein the shell is configured to interface with the mouthpiece assembly and pass the vaporized substances to the human mouth through the mouthpiece assembly; and
circuitry disposed in the shell that communicates data with a contact disposed on the mouthpiece assembly, wherein data communicated to the contact disposed on the mouthpiece assembly includes a number of cycles the device has been triggered.

5. The personal vaporizing unit of claim 4 , wherein data communicated to the contact disposed on the mouthpiece assembly includes a duration of the cycles.

6. The personal vaporizing unit of claim 4 , wherein said circuitry includes a memory and data stored in said memory is communicated to the contact disposed on the mouthpiece assembly.

7. A personal vaporizer unit comprising:
a removable cartridge comprising:
a mouthpiece configured for contact with a mouth of a person that provides suction to draw air into the personal vaporizer unit from outside of the personal vaporizer unit, wherein the mouthpiece includes a contact for communicating data about operation of the personal vaporizer unit, wherein the data comprises a duration of usage or a number of times the removable cartridge is detected to be empty;
an atomizer with a heater for vaporization in which one or more substances are vaporized into one or more vaporized substances in the air; and
a porous wick that provides the one or more substances to the heater for vaporization; and

a battery portion coupled with the removable cartridge and configured to provide power to the removable cartridge for the vaporization.

8. The personal vaporizer unit of claim 7 further comprising:
circuitry disposed in the personal vaporizer unit that communicates the data about operation of the personal vaporizer unit with the contact.

9. The personal vaporizer unit of claim 8 wherein the contact comprises a connector between the mouthpiece and the circuitry.

10. The personal vaporizer unit of claim 7 wherein the circuitry is coupled with the battery portion for receiving power.

11. The personal vaporizer unit of claim 7 wherein the circuitry is disposed in the removable cartridge.

12. The personal vaporizer unit of claim 7 wherein the circuitry comprises a microprocessor and memory.

Assignees

• Reynolds Tobacco Co R
• Rai Strategic Holdings Inc

Inventors

• Terry Nathan Andrew
• Minskoff Noah Mark

Classifications

• A61M2209/086

  Docking stations · CPC title

• A61M2205/8237

  Charging means · CPC title

• A61M2205/52

  with memories providing a history of measured variating parameters of apparatus or patient · CPC title

• B01F3/04021

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• A24F47/008

  Human Necessities · mapped topic