Systems and methods of multi-touch concurrent dispensing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9886185-B2
Application number	US-201514696592-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 27, 2015
Priority date	Jun 9, 2014
Publication date	Feb 6, 2018
Grant date	Feb 6, 2018

Abstract

Systems and method for beverage dispense from a plurality of users include a beverage dispenser with a touch-sensitive graphical display. A computer of the beverage dispenser receives touch event data points and identifies one or more GUI sections of a plurality of GUI sections associated with the received touch event data points. The computer further operates to interpret a touch event input and provide a command responsive to the input to an associated dispensing unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A beverage dispenser comprising:
a touch-sensitive graphical display operable to simultaneously receive a plurality of touch inputs the touch-sensitive graphical display comprising a digitizer that produces a list of touch event data points representing received touch events sensed by the touch-sensitive graphical display from at least a first user and a second user, the first and second users being different, the touch-sensitive graphical display operable to present a graphical user interface (GUI);
a computer communicatively connected to the touch-sensitive graphical display, the computer executes computer readable code stored on a computer readable medium, such that the computer receives the list of touch event data points from the touch-sensitive graphical display, identifies at least a first icon and a second icon associated with the touch event data points in the list of touch event data points, identifies a first GUI section associated with the first icon and a second GUI section associated with the second icon, interprets at least a first gesture input from the first user from touch event data points associated with the first GUI section and a second gesture input from the second user from the touch event data points associaed to the second GUI section, and produces a first control signal in response to the first gesture input and a second control signal in response to the second gesture input;
a first dispensing system comprising a plurality of valves configured to control a flow of at least one diluent and at least one flavoring; and
a second dispensing system comprising a plurality of valves configured to control a flow of at least one diluent and at least one flavoring;
wherein the computer directs the first control signal to the first dispensing system and directs the second control signal to the second dispensing system.

2. The beverage dispenser of claim 1 , wherein the first and second control signals comprise at least one flavoring in a dispensed beverage, and comprise at least one pour command and upon receipt of the control signal by either of the first dispensing system or the second dispensing system, the receiving dispensing system operates to dispense a beverage comprising the at least one flavoring.

3. The beverage dispenser of claim 2 , wherein the first or second gesture input comprises a touch portion of the gesture input and a hold portion of the gesture input wherein upon interpreting the touch portion, a corresponding control signal indicates a length of time for dispense and upon interpreting a release of the hold portion of the gesture input, a corresponding control signal indicates termination of the dispense.

4. The beverage dispenser of claim 1 , wherein the first GUI section is a first beverage selection section associated with the first dispensing system and the second GUI section is a second beverage selection section associated with the second dispensing system and the computer interprets a first gesture input in the first beverage selection section and a concurrent second gesture input in the second beverage selection section from the touch event data points, wherein the first beverage selection section and the second beverage selection section are non-overlapping within the GUI.

5. The beverage dispenser of claim 1 , wherein the first GUI section and the second GUI section are non-overlapping GUI sections forming a GUI layer of a hierarchy of GUI layers.

6. The beverage dispenser of claim 5 , wherein the computer operates to identify a GUI layer of the hierarchy of GUI layers common to each of the touch event data points.

7. The beverage dispenser of claim 6 , wherein the first GUI section is a first beverage selection section in a first GUI layer and associated with the first dispensing system, and second GUI section is a second beverage selection section in the first GUI layer and associated with the second dispensing system.

8. The beverage dispenser of claim 7 , wherein the first beverage selection section and the second beverage selection section share a common user section in a second GUI layer.

9. The beverage dispenser of claim 7 , further comprising:
a first configuration and a second configuration of both of the first beverage selection section and the second beverage selection section;
wherein the first configuration presents a plurality of available beverages for selection by a user and the second configuration presents a plurality of flavor supplements and a dispense command for selection by a user.

10. The beverage dispenser of claim 1 wherein the first dispensing system dispenses a first beverage upon receipt of the first control signal and the second dispensing system dispenses a second beverage upon receipt of the second control signal.

11. A beverage dispenser for concurrent dispense of a first beverage requested by a first user and a second beverage requested by a second user, the beverage dispenser comprising:
a touch-sensitive graphical display comprising a digitizer and operable to simultaneously receive a plurality of touch inputs and the digitizer produces lists of touch event data points representing concurrently received touch events sensed by the touch-sensitive graphical display from at least a first user and a second user, the first and second users being different, the touch-sensitive graphical display operable to present a graphical user interface (GUI) having a plurality of GUI layers, each layer comprising non-overlapping GUI sections;
a computer communicatively connected to the touch-sensitive graphical display, the computer executes computer readable code stored on a computer readable medium, such that the computer receives the lists of touch event data points from the touch-sensitive graphical display, identifies a GUI layer of the plurality of GUI layers common to the touch event data points in each received list, identifies at least a first icon and a second icon associated with touch event data points in a received list, identifies a first GUI section of the GUI layer associated with the first icon and a second GUI section of the GUI layer associated with the second icon, interprets at least a first gesture input from the first user from the touch event data points associated to the first GUI section and a second gesture input from the second user from the touch event data points associated to the second GUI section, and produces a first control signal in response to the first gesture input and a second control signal in response to the second gesture input;
a first dispensing system comprising a plurality of valves configured to control a flow of at least one diluent and at least one flavoring wherein the first dispensing system receives the first control signal and operates to dispense the first beverage requested by the first control signal; and
a second dispensing system comprising a plurality of valves configured to control a flow of at least one diluent and at least one flavoring wherein the second dispensing system receives the second control signal and operates to dispense the second beverage requested by the second control signal.

12. The beverage dispenser of claim 11 , further comprising:
a diluent source connected to at least one flow valve of the first dispensing system and at least one flow valve of the second dispensing system; and
a plurality of flavoring sources connected to a plurality of flow valves of the first dispensing system and a plurality of flow valves of the second dispensing system;
wherein the first control signal is indicative of a first combination of flavorings from the plurality of flavoring sources and the second control signal is indicative o

Assignees

• Cornelius Inc

Inventors

• Abrach Hector
• Joray Jeffrey
• Difatta Vincenzo
• SANCHEZ Fernando
• Sevcik E Scott

Classifications

• B67D1/0036

  based on the timed opening of valves · CPC title

• G06F3/04883 Primary

  for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text · CPC title

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• A47J31/4403

  Constructional details · CPC title

• G06F3/04842

  Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) · CPC title