Patent ID: 7728873

Claim:
A method of evaluating a quality of a liquid by a consumer of that liquid, the method comprising: a) shining a continuous spectrum of light through said liquid located within a sealed container such that said continuous spectrum of light: (i) enters into said container; (ii) traverses said liquid within said container; and (iii) exits said container; and b) using an optical sensor array in close proximity to said container, receiving said container-exiting continuous spectrum of light of step (a), the optical sensor array not forming part of a human being; c) generating, from said received continuous spectrum of light, a closely focused image of said liquid; d) obtaining other subjective sensory evaluation of a quality of level of the liquid from other sensory perception of the liquid; e) correlating distinct optical characteristics obtained from the closely focused image with the quality level from the other subjective sensory evaluation and storing the correlation in a database; f) repeating steps (a) through (c) at a later time to form a new closely focused image of the liquid; g) obtaining distinct optical characteristics of the new closely formed image of the liquid; and h) predicting the quality of the liquid from the distinct optical characteristics of the new closely focused image of the liquid by using the database.