Abstract:
A system, method and apparatus for controllably adjusting characteristics of a beverage produced by a beverage system. The characteristics of the beverage may include the strength, flavor, concentration of various flavor components as well as other characteristics. A control is provided for access by a user to adjust the characteristics to a desired level. The user may increment or decrement the level of the characteristics in response to personal preferences. The control provides an interface to control the beverage system.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This patent application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/743,393, filed Mar. 2, 2006. The disclosure set forth in the referenced provisional application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, including all information as originally submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND  
       [0002]     A variety of brewing systems or beverage making apparatus have been developed which utilize methods of distributing water over a brewing substance or combining water or other ingredients with beverage producing ingredients. In some systems, water is controllably turned on and off to controllably dispense water during the production of a beverage. Disclosed is a system for controlling the strength, flavor, or other characteristics of the product produced by the beverage making apparatus.  
         [0003]     By way of background, U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,508 to Knepler, assigned to the Assignee of the present application, includes a beverage making apparatus in the form of a brewer which controllably operates the dispensing of brew water or beverage producing water over ground coffee. As the Knepler &#39;508 patent is not limited to coffee but the term “coffee” is referred to herein for convenience. The device in the Knepler &#39;508 patent discloses a brewer which includes a heated water reservoir which dispenses water to a brewing substance container such as a brew funnel for producing a brewed beverage. A controller is provided which controllably operates the dispensing of water to the brewing substance container. In this manner, water is pulsed from the reservoir to the container. This form of beverage brewing and associated equipment is generically referred to in the brewing industry as pulse brew.  
         [0004]     Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,501 to Hazan shows a beverage brewer in which water is divided into quantities which are used during the brewing process. As noted in the Hazan &#39;501 patent, water is dispensed to pre-wet the grounds and then, subsequently, dispensed in steps or pulses which are spaced in time. The Hazan &#39;501 patent also provides a pulse brew system.  
         [0005]     While pulse brew systems or equipment have been developed, they generally are not configured to easily control the pulse brew system for controlling the strength of the coffee. In this regard, prior pulse brew systems have mechanically divided dispensing of water over a predetermined brewing cycle, allowed the user to manually set a variety of controls, provided for automatic setting of controls, and other configurations of the systems. However, it is currently unknown how to easily allow a user to vary the strength or other characteristics of the brewed beverage by an easy control system to control the pulse brew system. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]     The organization and manner of the structure and function of the disclosure, together with the further objects and advantages thereof, may be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and in which:  
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a general diagrammatic illustration of a simplified brewing system which employs a control assembly as disclosed;  
         [0008]      FIG. 2  is another embodiment of a general diagrammatic illustration of a brewer which utilizes an air pump-type system to facilitate movement of water in a brewing system;  
         [0009]      FIG. 3  is an additional embodiment of a general diagrammatic illustration of a brewing system which utilizes a pump to drive water from a reservoir;  
         [0010]      FIG. 4  is a diagrammatic illustration of a control mechanism employed in the present disclosure;  
         [0011]      FIG. 5  is another embodiment of a control mechanism using a touch control panel;  
         [0012]      FIG. 6  is a further diagrammatic illustration of a control mechanism using a technology device and a reader; and  
         [0013]      FIG. 7  is a flow chart illustrating one embodiment of steps involved in controlling the control assembly. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0014]     While the present disclosure may be susceptible to embodiment in different forms, there is shown in the drawings, and will be described herein in detail, one or more embodiments with the understanding that the present description is to be considered an exemplification of the principles of the disclosure and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the details of construction and the arrangements of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings.  
         [0015]     Terms including beverage, beverage making, brewed, brewing, brewing substance, brewed liquid, and brewed beverage as may be used herein are intended to be broadly defined as including, but not limited to, the brewing or making of coffee, tea, herbs, other substances and any other form of beverages or food substances. This broad interpretation is also intended to include, but is not limited to any process of dispensing, infusing, steeping, reconstituting, diluting, dissolving, saturating or passing a liquid through or otherwise mixing or combining a beverage substance with a liquid such as water without limitation to the temperature of such liquid unless specified, and will benefit from or find application for the present disclosure. This broad interpretation is also intended to include, but is not limited to beverage substances such as ground coffee, tea, herbs, botonicals, liquid beverage concentrate, powdered beverage concentrate, flaked, granular, freeze dried or other forms of materials including liquid, gel, crystal or other forms of beverage or food materials to obtain a desired beverage or other food product.  
         [0016]     While an embodiment of a beverage retaining container such as a brewing funnel for retaining a quantity of brewing substance is described herein, it is contemplated that any form of beverage brewing substance container or configuration such as a pod or cartridge beverage component for containing a brewing substance, may be used. It is further contemplated that the present system could utilize other concentrates such as freeze dried concentrates, gel, liquid, powder or any other form of concentrate which will operate with the disclosed system as well as equivalents thereof and any modifications which might be required to modify the system to be used with such other substances, if necessary.  
         [0017]     Further details regarding pulse brewing and brewers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,508 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.  
         [0018]     As shown in  FIG. 1 , a beverage system  20  is shown in the form of a beverage brewing apparatus. While a beverage brewing apparatus is referred to herein, the disclosure is not to be limited to a brewing apparatus. As noted in this disclosure, the definition of the beverage system is to be expansively interpreted to include brewing apparatus and all other forms of apparatus for producing beverages whether through concentrated or unconcentrated substances. While a drip coffee brewer is disclosed in the embodiment of  FIG. 1 , it is envisioned that this system may be used with a single cup or pod-type brewer, a prepackaged cartridge such as a “K-cup” or dose brewer, an espresso brewer, as well as any number of other beverage dispensing machines which might combine ingredients loose or contained, prepackaged or user prepared, concentrated or unconcentrated, and water or other beverage making substance to produce a desired beverage  46 . The present disclosure should not be limited to the specific type of beverage producing system  20  illustrated, nor should it be limited to the type of beverage  46  produced.  
         [0019]     By way of illustration but not limitation, the beverage system  20  may include a heated water reservoir  22  of generally known construction. As shown in the present embodiment, the heated water reservoir  22  includes an inlet line  24  which is connected to a pressurized inlet water line and a heating device  26 . The use of the pressurized water line  24  and heating device  26  is not to be limited and is to be expansively interpreted. Any form of heating device may be applicable to the present disclosure as well as alternatives to the inlet water line  24 . For example, the inlet water line may be in the form of a pour-over type of water supply in which water is manually added to the reservoir  22  or a pressurized system in which water is driven from the reservoir under pressure as disclosed in U.S. Provisional Application No. No. 60/725,824 filed Oct. 11, 2005 and assigned to the assignee of the present application and any subsequently filed applications claiming priority from this application and all of such applications being incorporated herein in its entirety. In general the brewing system includes a water delivery system  28  which facilitates controlled movement of water from the heated water reservoir  22  to a beverage substance container  30 . In the embodiment as shown in  FIG. 1 , the water delivery system includes a controllable valve  34  coupled to a dispensing line  36  and the reservoir  22 . On the downstream side of the valve  34 , a dispensing line  38  is coupled to a water distribution head or spray head  42 . The spray head delivers water to the beverage retaining container  30 .  
         [0020]     The beverage system  20  includes a control assembly  50  which includes a controller  54  and a control mechanism  56 . The controller  54  is coupled to the various components of the brewing system including, but not limited to, the control valve  34 , the heating device  26 , as well as the control mechanism  56 . The controller  54  may be embodied by means of a computer as well as specialized circuitry or chips to perform desired functions. For purposes of illustration, the controller  54  is coupled to the control mechanism  56  to facilitate control of the brewing system  20  by the user. As will be described in greater detail herein, the control mechanism  56  includes, but is not limited to, a control interface  60 . The control interface  60  allows the user to control the strength of the beverage  46  produced by the brewing system. By way of illustration, but not limitation, if the brewing system  20  is a coffee brewer, the user can control, by means of the control interface, the strength of the coffee produced by the beverage system. For example, if the user desires to increase the strength of the coffee, they can use the control interface  60  to increase the strength. Similarly, they can decrease the strength of the coffee using the control interface  60 . The use of the control interface  60  is to be expansively interpreted to control any type of beverage, for example, the strength or concentration of a carbonated beverage, juice, sport drink, tea or any combination could be controlled by the interface  60 .  
         [0021]     The term strength is referred to but is intended to be broadly interpreted. The term strength is intended to the flavor or extraction characteristics of the beverage produced by the system. As such the strength controller is intended to allow a user to control the characteristics of the flavor of the beverage produced. For example, the strength controller allows the user to control the amount of water dispensed, the water pulsing patterns and timing and the type of pulsing to be used in a particular brewing routine. The system allows a user to select the desired result by operating a convenient controller without having to manipulate a variety of settings to control programmed characteristics of the operation of the brewer to produce a beverage with the beverage maker have selected characteristics as defined by the operation of the machine.  
         [0022]     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 4 , the control interface may include a display such as an LED, LCD, intensity changing light, audio, or other display  64  and manually controllable switches  68 . While an incrementing switch  72  and a decrementing switch  74  are shown, it is envisioned that a single switch could operate which would provide a scrolling or rolling, increasing or decreasing strength or characteristics of the beverage. The use of the control interface  60  is intended to be broadly interpreted to include any form of interface which will facilitate ease of use by the user. The control interface  60  may include a touch panel screen  80  (see  FIG. 5 ) by which a user may touch the screen with their finger  43  and raise or lower indicia  49  on the screen  64  to increase or decrease the strength, change the extraction characteristics of the beverage.  
         [0023]     A technical device  84  may be used in conjunction with a reader  88  coupled to the controller  54  to embody the control interface  60  as shown in  FIG. 6 . In this regard, the user could pass a technology device  84  next to a reader  88  to increase or decrease the strength, alter the operation of and the resulting characteristics of the coffee produced by the machine. The technology device and reader might be magnetic, conductive, inductive, light based, acoustic or any other form of device to provide control. Initially, it is fully within the scope of the present application to provide motion detection, voice or sound detection, as well as any other interface which allows the user to easily and directly control the strength of the coffee.  
         [0024]     With reference to  FIG. 2 , an embodiment of the brewing system  20   a  is shown. In this embodiment, various components are similar or identical to those as shown in  FIG. 1 . In  FIG. 2 , an air pump system  100  is used to move water from the reservoir  22   a  to the water spray head  42 . Generally, the remainder of the brewing system is similar or identical to that as shown in  FIG. 1 . Additionally, modifications may be required to the water reservoir  22   a  to accommodate increased pressures which may be associated with this type of brewer embodiment. An air pump operated brewer is disclosed in U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/725,824 filed Oct. 11, 2005 and assigned to the assignee of the present application and any subsequently filed applications claiming priority from this application and all of such applications being incorporated herein in its entirety.  
         [0025]     With reference to  FIG. 3 , the brewer shown in  FIG. 3  is similar to that as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . In  FIG. 3 , the driving device  104  which moves water from the reservoir  22   b  to the spray head  42  is a pump mechanism. Control of the pulse brew routine controls the speed, timing, flow rate and other characteristics of pumping by the pump mechanism. The pump mechanism may be any of those which are currently available or hereinafter developed to move water from the heated reservoir  22   b  to the spray head  42 . The driving device  104  may be embodied as a gear pump, piston pump, bellows pump, wave pump, peristaltic pump, or any other driving device which is capable of moving water from the reservoir  22   b  to the spray head  42 . An example of such a moving device is shown and described in PCT Application No. PCT/US2004/037106 filed Nov. 5, 2004 and assigned to the assignee of the present disclosure and the associated United States patent application and any subsequently filed applications claiming priority from these applications and all of such applications being incorporated herein in its entirety.  
         [0026]     In use, the controller  54  is generally preprogrammed with various settings corresponding to the characteristics of the pulse brew system. The settings may include, but are not limited to, the volume of water which is dispensed during each brew cycle, the length of time during which water is not dispensed between neighboring pulse brew periods, the length of time for an initial on-time, often referred to as a pre-wet time, and the total period of time for dispensing a given volume of water. The settings may also include selected off-time and on-time patters, the volume of water flowing during a pulse routine, and the flow rate during a dispensing cycle.  
         [0027]     It should be noted that the control mechanism  56  may also include other settings which are independently controlled or controlled in conjunction with the control interface  60 . These settings are generally of known construction such as a “half (½) pot,” “full pot,” “single cup.” For example, if a user wishes to use the brewing system  20  to produce a half batch or half pot of coffee, the half pot could be selected. These types of settings are used in prior art machines so as to facilitate ease of use of the brewer. In a brewing system  20 , the brewer may include a substance container  30  such as a brewing funnel for retaining brewed beverages in a drip coffee maker. Additionally, the system may be configured to accommodate the above-noted funnel, a single cup or “pod” retaining device as well as, an espresso head. The use of these different brewing configurations and the ability to select these configurations from the control mechanism  56  is included in this disclosure.  
         [0028]     Once the user has selected the type of brew, if necessary, the user can then operate the control interface  60  to increase or decrease the strength of the coffee produced. It should be noted that generally once the type of brew, half pot, full pot, single cup, etc., is selected the volume of water to be dispensed over the brewing substance during the brewing cycle generally will be fixed. For example, a full pot may use 64 ounces of water, whereas a half pot would use 32 ounces of water. (Some variations on these volumes may occur depending on the type of coffee being brewed and the accommodations for water absorption during the brewing process.) Once the volume is selected or “fixed” the controller  54  can be used to modify the pulse brew routine to provide a desired result. As noted above, one of the objectives in this disclosure is to provide ease of use for the user. As such, many of the pulse brew steps will be automatically handled by the controller  54 .  
         [0029]     In one embodiment, by no way intended to be the only embodiment or in any way limiting this disclosure, a user can adjust the control interface  60  to increase the strength of the coffee. In this embodiment, increasing the strength of the coffee causes the controller to place intervals of time during which no water is dispensed over the brewing substance throughout the brew cycle. The brew cycle is defined as a period during which the full volume of water is dispensed over the brewing substance. By placing these intervals during which no water is dispensed, often referred to as “off-times”, the brewing substance is allowed to steep and saturate with water. This may tend to increase the amount of flavorings, oils, soluble and other particulate matter which may be flushed from the brewing substance to create the brewed beverage. As of such, the resulting flavor of the coffee may be “stronger.” 
         [0030]     Any number of configurations of the pulse brewing routine can be preprogrammed into the controller based on any number of considerations including regional preferences, types and quantities of coffee to be used with the system as well as other criteria.  
         [0031]     Additionally, the control interface  60  coupled to the controller  54  may be configured to provide a generally continuous range of pulse brew routine controls or may be programmed to provide more discreet or finite control limits. In this regard, instead of making minor incremental adjustments throughout the entire range of control interface selections, a limited number, perhaps 4-10 discreet settings, may be provided. Reference to discreet settings is, by no means, intended to limit the range of settings. Instead, a full range of settings including all combinations of finite settings and generally continuous settings is intended and incorporated in this disclosure. The controller  54  and mechanism  56  may be configured to selectively override the interface  60  to provide increased or decreased control of the pulse brew routine. The system may include by pass control to control the amount of water added to the finished brew but not dispensed over the brewing substance.  
         [0032]     With regard to the discreet settings, the user can position the control interface to very discreet settings or on a somewhat continuous setting interface (for example as shown in  FIG. 5 ) the settings can be adjusted based on the position selected by the user. In this regard, the setting chosen at the interface can be rounded up or rounded down by the programming or controller depending on the stopping point of the user control.  
         [0033]     With reference to  FIG. 7 , a series of steps is provided to help describe the control of the control assembly in relation to the beverage system  20 . In its most basic form, the user approaches the machine after it has been set up for purposes of brewing or otherwise producing a beverage  46 . The user observes the current status of the brew strength on the display  64 . The user then makes a decision to alter the strength of the beverage, either increasing or decreasing the strength from the current setting. The user can control this setting by use of the control interface which includes, but is not limited to, those interfaces as described in this disclosure and shown in  FIGS. 4-6 . The system will utilize the user&#39;s control of the control interface  60  of the control mechanism  56  to alter the control of water transferred from the heated water reservoir  22  to the spray head  42 .  
         [0034]     While embodiments have been illustrated and described in the drawings and foregoing description, such illustrations and descriptions are considered to be exemplary and not restrictive in character, it being understood that only illustrative embodiments have been shown and described and that all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention are desired to be protected. The applicants have provided description and figures which are intended as illustrations of embodiments of the disclosure, and are not intended to be construed as containing or implying limitation of the disclosure to those embodiments. There are a plurality of advantages of the present disclosure arising from various features set forth in the description. It will be noted that alternative embodiments of the disclosure may not include all of the features described yet still benefit from at least some of the advantages of such features. Those of ordinary skill in the art may readily devise their own implementations of the disclosure and associated methods, without undue experimentation, that incorporate one or more of the features of the disclosure and fall within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.