Portable device for controlling an alcoholic beverage through a container, a system and a method associated thereto

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a portable device and method for controlling an alcoholic beverage through an at least partially transparent container. The method includes acquiring a fluorescence spectrum of the beverage through a wall of the container, normalizing a profile of a measured spectrum according to the maximum intensity of a reference spectrum, calculating a resemblance factor between the measured spectrum and the reference spectrum, and determining if the beverage is genuine according to the obtained value of the resemblance factor.

Claims

1. A method for controlling an alcoholic beverage through an at least partially transparent container, the method comprising: emitting a monochromatic excitation light beam; reflecting, by a beam splitter, the monochromatic excitation light beam toward a focus lens; directing a reflected beam reflected by the beam splitter through the focus lens proximate a wall of the container such that the reflected beam is directed toward the wall of the container along a direction normal to an outer surface of the wall of the container and such that the emitted light is focused inside the container; acquiring a fluorescence spectrum of the beverage through the wall of the container; normalizing a profile of a measured spectrum according to the maximum intensity of a reference spectrum; calculating a resemblance factor between the measured spectrum and the reference spectrum; and determining if the beverage is genuine according to the obtained value of the resemblance factor, wherein the resemblance factor is calculated over a predetermined wavelength range between 550 nanometers and 650 nanometers.

2. The method according claim 1, wherein the fluorescence spectrum is acquired by a light source emitting a monochromatic beam of a wavelength between 350 and 650 nanometers.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the resemblance factor is calculated by a least squares method or by a Hausdorff algorithm.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the beverage is determined as non-genuine if the resemblance factor is greater than 20.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reference spectrum is obtained from a measurement of the fluorescence spectrum measured on a sample of a plurality of genuine bottles.

6. The method according to claim 1 further comprising a step of downloading the reference spectrum from a remote database.

Description

DRAWINGS

(1) In order that the disclosure may be well understood, there will now be described various forms thereof, given by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a side view of a device in use according to the present disclosure;

(3) FIG. 2 is a top view of the device of FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 is a front view of the device of FIG. 1;

(5) FIG. 4a is a block diagram of a device in accordance with the present disclosure;

(6) FIG. 4b is a detail of FIG. 4a;

(7) FIG. 5 shows a variant of a device in accordance with the present disclosure;

(8) FIG. 6 is a plot corresponding to a reference spectrum in accordance with the present disclosure;

(9) FIG. 7 is another plot corresponding to a measured spectrum in accordance with the present disclosure; and

(10) FIG. 8 is a diagram detailing the steps of a method in accordance with the present disclosure.

(11) The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(12) The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. It should be understood that throughout the drawings, corresponding reference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features.

(13) FIG. 1 shows a portable device 1 in accordance with the present disclosure, and a container whose content is to be authenticated, for example a bottle 2 containing an alcoholic beverage. The device includes a casing 10, for example in a parallelepiped shape. The device 1 includes a device for positioning the bottle 2, or a positioning wedge 12. The wedge 12 forms a projection from one of the faces of the casing.

(14) As seen in FIG. 2, which is a top view of the device 1 and of the bottle 2, the wedge 12 has a contact surface 14 of complementary shape to the container. For example, the contact surface 14 thus has a concave shape adapted to the convex shape of the bottle 2.

(15) As shown in FIG. 3, the wedge 12 has an opening 16 forming a passage allowing the light rays emitted by the device 1 to pass through the wedge 12. The wedge 12 is secured to the casing 10 via a support 18, this support 18 also having a through passage for the light rays emitted or received by the device 1.

(16) FIG. 4a is a block diagram of the components of an exemplary device in accordance with the present disclosure. In this figure, for the sake of clarity, a bottle 2 is shown, and the casing 10 of the device 1 is shown in dotted lines. The device 1 represented in FIG. 4a includes a single excitation light source 32 emitting a monochromatic beam of a wavelength λ.sub.0. For example, the light source 32 is a laser diode.

(17) The wavelength λ.sub.0 of the light source 32 is between 350 nanometers and 650 nanometers. This range allows obtaining that the emitted light beam generates a strong fluorescence emission of the molecules allowing to characterize the alcoholic beverage (that is to say the molecules other than those of water and ethanol). Moreover, in this range, the beam emitted by the light source 32 is only slightly attenuated by the glass of the bottle 2. Still in this range, the fluorescence emission of the content of the bottle 2 is only very weakly attenuated by the glass of the bottle 2.

(18) The light beam 34 coming from the light source 32 is directed toward a beam splitter 36. The beam splitter 36, for example a dichroic filter, is oriented according to a 45° angle with respect to the direction of the light beam 34 emitted by the source 32. Thus, the beam emitted by the source 32 is reflected by the beam splitter 36 and the reflected beam 38 is directed toward a focus lens 40, for example an achromatic doublet lens. The focus lens 40 is located at a distance A from the bottle 2.

(19) As seen in FIG. 4b, which represents a detail of FIG. 4a, the bottle 2, for example of a circular cross section, includes a wall delimited by an outer surface 22 and an inner surface 24. The bottle 2 contains a beverage 26 to be authenticated. The wedge 12 is in contact with the outer surface 22 of the bottle 2. As mentioned above, the wedge allows positioning the bottle 2 in such a way that the focus lens 40 is at a determined distance A from the outer surface 22 of the bottle. In addition, the wedge 12, by the shape of its contact surface 14, adapted to cooperate with the shape of the outer surface 22 of the bottle, allows positioning the bottle 2 in such a way that the light beam passing through the focus lens will be directed toward the outer surface 22 of the bottle 2 along a direction normal to this surface. For example, the contact surface 14 of the wedge 12 is of a concave shape and adapted to cooperate with the outer convex shape of the bottle 2. It should be noted in this respect that the wedge 12, and particularly the shape of the contact surface 14, will be adapted in the case where the container is not of a circular shape. Whatever the shape of the considered container, the shape of the contact surface 14 allows positioning the wedge 12 on the container so that the light beam passing through the focus lens 40 is directed toward the outer surface of the container along a direction normal to that surface. In order to easily adapt the positioning wedge 12 to each type of container, it will be of course possible to provide that the wedge 12 is removably attached to the casing 10. It may be further considered that the wedge 12 is connected to the casing via a flexible connection to facilitate the positioning of the wedge 12 on a container. In this case, the focus lens will be offset from the casing and secured to the positioning wedge 12. To this end, the flexible connection between the casing and the set formed by the positioning wedge 12 and by the focus lens will include an optical fiber to transmit the light beams from the casing to the focus lens and vice versa.

(20) The spacing provided by the wedge 12 between the focus lens 40 and the bottle 2 will be determined so that the reflected beam 38 is focused inside the bottle 2, within the beverage 26, but as close as possible to the inner surface 24. FIG. 4b thus shows the focal point 28 located within the beverage 26 at a distance B from the wall of the bottle 2 (more precisely: at a distance B from the inner surface 24 of the wall of the bottle 2). The shorter the distance B, the more the path of the emitted beam and that of the fluorescence radiation is reduced, and the more the attenuation of these two signals is limited. The distance B will be advantageously less than 1 millimeter, and its value may be in the order of a few hundred micrometers or less.

(21) The fluorescence signal 42 induced in the content of the bottle 2 by the light beam is collected by the focus lens 40, by retro-emission, and is directed toward the beam splitter 36. The beam splitter 36 allows the fluorescence signal, which is directed toward a spectrometer module 50, to pass.

(22) Advantageously, the device 1 includes one or more filtering device(s) allowing to filter the fluorescence signal 42 before the latter is transmitted to the spectrometer module. The purpose of this filtering is in particular to eliminate the component of the signal collected by the focus lens 40 linked to the light beam emitted by the source 32. For this purpose, there is provided for example a band-stop filter 44 or “notch” filter. The interval of frequencies not transmitted by the band-stop filter will be close to the wavelength of the monochromatic light beam emitted by the source 32. The non-transmitted band will have for example a width of about 10 nanometers, and will be centered over a wavelength greater, by a few nanometers or less (for example 1 nanometer), to the wavelength λ.sub.0 of the laser source.

(23) It can further be provided that an additional high-pass type filtering (with respect to the wavelengths), is performed by the beam splitter 36. In this case, the beam splitter 36 is a high-pass type dichroic filter with a high cutoff slope (in particular an “edge”-type filter) which reflects the beam 34 toward the focus lens, and transmits the radiation emitted by the beverage and its container to the spectrometer module by eliminating the wavelengths which are shorter than a threshold value corresponding to the wavelength of the monochromatic beam emitted by the source 32 increased by about 10 nm.

(24) In the example of FIG. 4a, the fluorescence signal 42, once filtered by the beam splitter 36 and by the stop-band filter 44, is directed toward a lens 46, for example an aspherical lens of a very short focal length. The beam transmitted by the lens 46 is directed toward one end of an optical fiber segment 48, the other end of this segment being linked to the spectrometer module 50. The optical fiber 48, due to its flexibility, allows enhancing placement of the components within the casing 10 and thus limiting the congestion therefrom. In addition, said optical fiber plays the role of a confocal hole and thus limits the amount of information transmitted and therefore analyzed. Thus, undesirable effects, particularly those related to the shape and thickness of the bottle or those related to outdoor lighting, can be reduced. Furthermore, the optical fiber also allows overcoming the astigmatism effect, which involves focus changes at the inlet of the spectrometer module according to the different wavelengths of the fluorescence radiation.

(25) In one variant, the lens 46 may be replaced by a magnification lens.

(26) The spectrometer module 50 includes a diffraction grating 52 allows directing the diffracted signal toward a sensor 54, for example a CCD-type sensor which has the advantage of not requiring cooling. For example, the diffraction grating 52 is a reflective diffraction grating. The signal entering the spectrometer module 50, via an input slot 56, is directed toward a first mirror 58, which is a convex mirror. The signal reflected by the diffraction grating 52 is directed toward a second planar-type mirror 60. The second mirror reflects the diffracted signal toward the sensor 54. In one variant, the set 52-58-60 can be replaced by a single concave diffraction grating allowing to improve the compactness of the device. In another variant, the set 52-58-60 can be replaced by a single diffraction grating operating in transmission.

(27) The sensor 54 provides a signal corresponding to a fluorescence spectrum. This signal is transmitted from the spectrometer module 50 to an analysis module 62. The analysis module 62 includes in particular a storage unit 64, allowing to store in memory a signal coming from the spectrometer module. The storage unit 64 has a capacity allowing to store a signal obtained over a certain acquisition time, for example in the order of 150 milliseconds. The analysis module 62 further includes a calculation unit 66, allowing to determine whether the recorded signal corresponds to that of a genuine beverage. To this end, the calculation unit 66 performs in particular a comparison between the recorded signal and a reference signal, according to the method in accordance with the present disclosure, which will be described in more detail below. The reference signal may be previously stored in the storage unit 64 and/or downloaded or updated from a remote database. To this end, the analysis module 62 includes a communication unit 68, in particular of the wireless type.

(28) The device finally includes a display device 70, allowing to display the result of the test. The display device 70 may include a display screen or any other means, such as a plurality of indicator lights (made for example with light-emitting diodes). For example, it is possible to provide that the result of the test is given according to one of two even three possibilities: “GOOD”, “BAD” and possibly “DUBIOUS”. In the case of a plurality of indicator lights, it will be thus possible to provide three different indicators (in particular of different colors), each corresponding indicator lighting up respectively according to one of the three possibilities mentioned above.

(29) Alternatively, part or all of the analysis module 62 and/or of the display device 70 may be disposed in a casing distinct from the rest of the device. FIG. 5 represents one of the possible configurations, in which the analysis module 62 and the display device 70 are grouped together in an outer device, for example in the form of a portable device 72 such as a tablet computer or a mobile phone. In such a case, a wired or wireless-type digital connection 74 is provided between the casing 10 and the portable device 72. This connection allows connecting the spectrometer module 50, disposed in the casing 10, to the analysis module 62, located in the portable device 72.

(30) FIGS. 6 and 7 show spectrum examples obtained by the device in accordance with the present disclosure, respectively before and after implementation of a normalization step in accordance with the method according to the present disclosure.

(31) FIG. 6 shows a curve C2 corresponding to a fluorescence spectrum obtained for a genuine cognac (contained in its original genuine bottle) and a curve C1 corresponding to a spectrum obtained for a non-genuine cognac (for example a counterfeit cognac). The two curves C1, C2 correspond to the output signal of the spectrometer module 50, and were obtained with a laser diode emitting a beam of a wavelength λ0 close to 530 nanometers. It should be noted that the two curves have a maximum, corresponding to a wavelength of λ0+73 nanometers for genuine cognac, and λ0+58 nanometers for non-genuine cognac. In addition, the intensity of the maximum spectrum of non-genuine cognac is greater than the intensity of the maximum spectrum of genuine cognac.

(32) FIG. 7 shows the two spectra of FIG. 6, after normalization with respect to the maximum intensity of the spectrum of the genuine cognac (taking as basis 100 the maximum intensity of the spectrum of the genuine cognac). This normalization leaves significant differences between the curve C′1 corresponding to the normalized profile of the spectrum of the non-genuine cognac and the curve C′2 corresponding to the normalized profile of the spectrum of the genuine cognac. As will be seen below, these differences are used by the device and the method in accordance with the present disclosure to allow the detection of non-genuine beverages through their container.

(33) The control method in accordance with the present disclosure allowing the authentication of an alcoholic beverage is described hereinafter, in the context of an example applied to a cognac. The main steps of the method in accordance with the present disclosure are shown in FIG. 8. These steps can be carried out using a device in accordance with the present disclosure, for example the device 1 described above.

(34) The method in accordance with the present disclosure includes a first step comprising acquiring a measured spectrum of the controlled beverage. This acquisition step 80 is carried out in particular by the spectrometer module 50 of the device 1.

(35) The method then includes a comparison step 82 of the measured spectrum with a reference spectrum. This reference spectrum can be stored in a memory of the device 1, for example a memory of the storage unit 64, or can be downloaded from a remote database. Optionally, the method may include a step 84 of selecting the reference spectrum. This selection can be made among several reference spectra stored in memory, or among several reference spectra available in the remote database. This selection can be done automatically or to the user's request.

(36) The comparison step 82 of the measured spectrum with the reference spectrum includes a sub-step comprising normalization of the measured spectrum, with respect to the maximum of the reference spectrum (or alternatively, with respect to the total intensity of the spectrum or with respect to the area under the spectrum). This normalization has several advantages. This allows in particular overcoming the effects of the temperature variations. The temperature is known to have a significant influence on the fluorescence phenomenon. But the inventors have discovered that a temperature change has a significant influence on the maximum intensity of the fluorescence spectrum, and a negligible influence in the form of the fluorescence spectrum profile. In other words, after normalization, spectra of the same beverage obtained at different temperatures are superimposable. Thus, the method in accordance with the present disclosure allows overcoming temperature variations during the collection of the fluorescence spectrum. Particularly, this allows taking into account the difference between the temperature at which the measured spectrum is collected and the temperature at which the reference spectrum has been created. In addition, the normalization of the measured spectrum allows overcoming the effects of the dispersions observed between each bottle of the same type. It is known that the same products on the same production line, two “identical” containers (such as glass bottles) will have dispersions, in particular dimensional dispersions (and therefore in the thickness). However, the greater the glass thickness, the more the beam emitted by the excitation source will be attenuated and also the more the emitted fluorescence radiation will be attenuated in the wall of the container. However, the inventors have discovered that this attenuation had a limited influence on the profile of the collected fluorescence spectrum, the attenuation having especially the effect of reducing the intensity of the spectrum. This influence on the profile of the spectrum is even more negligible if the length of the spectrum collected is less than 700 nanometers. It is therefore advantageous to limit the range of wavelengths used to implement the comparison step, for example between 550 and 650 nanometers. Thus, the method in accordance with the present disclosure allows overcoming thickness variations for the same container model.

(37) The comparison step 82 of the measured spectrum with the reference spectrum includes a sub-step of determining a resemblance factor R between the curves corresponding respectively to a measured spectrum for a given beverage and to the reference spectrum corresponding to this beverage, for example the curves C′2 and C′1. This sub-step thus allows quantifying the resemblance between the measured spectrum and the reference spectrum. This factor R can be calculated for example by using the least squares method, according to the formula:

(38) $R_{1-2}=\underset{i}{.Math.}\sqrt{{\left(y_1\left({\lambda }_i\right)-y_2\left({\lambda }_i\right)\right)}^2}$

(39) wherein:

(40) _y.sub.1(λ.sub.i) is the intensity of the measured spectrum (for example the curve C′1 of FIG. 7) for a wavelength equal to λ.sub.i;

(41) _y.sub.2(λ.sub.i) is the intensity of the reference spectrum (for example the curve C′2 of FIG. 7) for a wavelength equal to λ.sub.i.

(42) A zero value is thus obtained if the two spectra are completely identical. The higher the factor R, the more the compared spectra differ.

(43) Of course, the resemblance factor can be calculated by using any other adapted algorithm such as, for example, the Hausdorff algorithm, according to the following formula:

(44) $R_{1-2}=\max \left\{\underset{x_2\in y_2}{\sup }\underset{x_1\in y_1}{\inf }\delta \left(x_1,x_2\right),\underset{x_1\in y_1}{\sup }\underset{x_2\in y_2}{\inf }\delta \left(x_1,x_2\right)\right\}$

(45) According to this formula, we calculate for each point y.sub.1(λ.sub.i) of the spectrum y.sub.1(λ) its smallest distance to the points of the spectrum y.sub.2(λ). We then choose the greatest calculated distance noted δ.sub.max(y.sub.1, y.sub.2). We then perform the same calculation for each point of the spectrum y.sub.2(λ) compared to the spectrum y.sub.1(λ) by choosing the greatest calculated distance δ.sub.max(y.sub.2, y.sub.1). The resemblance factor or Hausdorff distance will then be the greatest value of these two maximum retained distances.

(46) Whatever the method used, we obtain a zero R value if the two spectra are completely identical. Likewise, whatever the method used, the higher the factor R, the more the compared spectra differ.

(47) The R value will be calculated on at least a hundred points, advantageously several hundred. For example, the number of points taken into account is in the order of 600.

(48) The R value is used during the evaluation step 86 of the authenticity of the beverage. This step allows determining, based on the calculated value of the resemblance factor R whether the controlled bottle contains a genuine beverage or not. For example, the tested content will be declared “bad” if the resemblance factor R is greater than a predetermined value, for example equal to 20.

(49) By implementing a comparison by calculation of a resemblance factor that involve limited calculation resources, the method in accordance with the present disclosure leads to a low calculation time. Advantageously, the measured spectrum will be collected and/or compared to the reference spectrum only over a limited range, for example between 550 and 650 nanometers. Restricting the field of analysis allows indeed excluding the possible residual luminescence of the glass and, as explained above, overcoming the thickness variations of the wall of the container. In addition, restricting the field of analysis allows further reducing the calculation time.

(50) The device and the method in accordance with the present disclosure provides a portable device that is simple and quick to use. By normalizing the spectra with respect to the intensity maxima, both the dispersions related to the temperature of the content and to the shape of the container are avoided, and the calculation capacity is reduced.

(51) In addition, the architecture and operation of the device allow limiting the maximum number of components. Thus, thanks to the choice of an excitation light source emitting at a determined wavelength, the use of filters is avoided in order to select a narrow band of wavelengths. By enhancing the intensity and the quality of the fluorescence signal, in particular by the choice of the wavelength of the laser source, it is possible to use a low power laser source, for example of a few milliwatts. This allows providing an autonomous device that can operate on batteries or cells, and avoiding the need for a cooling device. In this respect, it will be noted that the choice of a CCD-type sensor for the spectrometer module also avoids providing any cooling.

(52) The description of the disclosure is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the substance of the disclosure are intended to be within the scope of the disclosure. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.