Patent ID: 7640755

Claim:
Apparatus for controlling the processing of a product, said apparatus comprising a plurality of containers containing various ingredients, wherein at least one of the containers contains an ingredient distinct from another ingredient in at least one of the other containers; a tag associated with each container, each tag including indicia that includes an identification of the ingredient in the associated container; a formulator; delivery means configured to selectively deliver the ingredients in the plurality of containers to the formulator; a selection device for selecting from among a plurality of products that can be manufactured from the ingredients in said plurality of containers, wherein the selection device includes an input mechanism that can be activated by a user to select from the ingredients and to produce a selection signal corresponding to the selected ingredients; a controller including memory storing a process control program that includes instructions that cause the controller, in response to the selection signal and in response to the indicia in the tags of the one or more selected ingredient container, to control the delivery means to deliver from selected ones of the plurality of containers to the formulator the ingredients necessary to produce the selected product and to control the formulator in accordance with the process control program and the tag indicia on at least one of the selected ingredient containers to cause the formulator to produce the selected product.