Patent ID: 8464584

Claim:
A beverage dispenser, comprising: an insulated, opaque dispenser body for holding a beverage, with a closable top for receiving beverage directly from a brewer and a faucet attached to the body for dispensing the beverage from within the body, said dispenser body being made of stainless steel with a cylindrical side wall, a bottom and an open top; a double-walled tubular sensor located within the body with two conductive paths, said sensor having an outer wall and an inner wall separated and maintained in spaced relationship by an electrical insulator, one of said walls having a surface with plurality of substantially identical, electrically insulating stripes alternating with a plurality of non-conductive strips defining one of the conductive paths, another one of the walls having a continuous conductive surface defining another one of the conductive paths, and both of said surfaces being exposable to direct contact with the beverage when within the dispenser body; a resistance measuring circuit with two inputs respectively connected to the two conductive paths for measuring an instantaneous resistance between the two inputs, said circuit producing an electrical, direct current, resistance output signal with a magnitude that varies with changes in the instantaneous resistance between the two inputs; an electronic controller connected to the output signal, said controller calculating a depth of any of the beverage within the dispenser body based on the magnitude of the resistance output signal, to produce a display control output signal representative of the depth of the beverage contained within the dispenser body; an electronic display connected to the controller and responsive to the display control output signal to indicate a depth of any of the beverage contained within the dispenser body; and an insulating, plastic cover mounted to the open top and having a cylindrical side wall, an annular cover top and an annular floor, said cover having an interior compartment for protectively mounting, a circuit card carrying the resistance measuring circuit and a battery source of power.