Patent ID: 8096229

Claim:
A coffee maker comprising: at least one coffee bean container; a grinder unit adapted to grind coffee beans; a brewing unit having a brewing chamber for extracting the ground coffee beans hot, pressurized brewing water, said grinder unit disposed between said container and said brewing unit; a housing containing said grinder unit; at least one sensor, mounted on said housing, for generating a signal indicative of the level and/or the spectrum of an oscillation of said housing generated by said grinder unit during a grinding operation of the grinder unit; and an electronic unit that makes a determination when said signal is indicative of a lack of coffee beans being ground by said grinder unit and stops said grinder unit in response to said determination, wherein the electronic unit further determines an amount of the coffee beans ground prior to stopping said grinder unit based on at least one of a span of time from a start to a stop of the grinding operation of the grinder unit and a number of revolutions of the grinder unit between the start and the stop of the grinding operation.