Method for Operating a Beverage Dispenser, Method for Dispensing a Beverage, and Beverage Dispenser

Abstract

A method for operating a beverage dispenser includes: receiving a request to dispense a beverage; receiving information enabling dispensing the beverage from the beverage dispenser for a pre-determined validity period; and checking whether the current time is within the pre-determined validity period, and if so, dispensing the beverage. A method for dispensing a beverage from a beverage dispenser, the method includes the steps of: by a requesting entity: sending a request for issuing first information enabling dispensing beverage from the beverage dispenser for a pre-determined validity period; by an issuing entity: receiving the request for issuing and issuing the first information; by the beverage dispenser: receiving a request for dispensing a beverage and receiving second information regarding the dispensing request; and checking whether the second information matches the first information and whether the current time is within pre-determined validity period, and if so, enabling dispensing the beverage.

Claims

1. A method for operating a beverage dispenser, the method comprising the steps of: providing the beverage dispenser as a self-serve beverage dispenser using single-use beverage cartridges; receiving a request to dispense a beverage; receiving information enabling dispensing the beverage from the beverage dispenser for a pre-determined validity period being a period starting from a time at which the request to dispense the beverage is received or a time at which the information enabling dispensing of the beverage is received; checking whether the current time is within the pre-determined validity period, and if so, dispensing the beverage.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the received information includes an ID of a single-use beverage cartridge, and wherein the checking step comprises connecting to an issuing entity via a data network and comparing the ID of the single-use beverage cartridge with an ID of a single-use beverage cartridge issued and stored by the issuing entity, and if the information coincides, dispensing the beverage.

3. A method for dispensing a beverage from a beverage dispenser, the method comprising the steps of: providing a beverage dispenser configured to dispense a beverage using a single-use beverage container configured to be inserted into the beverage dispenser prior to dispensing; by a requesting entity: sending a request for issuing first information enabling dispensing beverage from the beverage dispenser for a pre-determined validity period being a period starting from requesting or issuing the first information, wherein the request for issuing the first information includes an ID of the single-use beverage container; by an issuing entity: receiving the request for issuing and issuing the first information, wherein the issuing of the first information includes generating the first information and storing the first information only for the pre-determined validity period, and wherein the ID of the single-use beverage container is stored only for the pre-determined validity period; by the beverage dispenser: receiving a request for dispensing a beverage and receiving second information regarding the dispensing request, wherein receiving the second information includes acquiring an ID of a single-use beverage container; and checking whether the second information matches the first information and whether the current time is within pre-determined validity period, and if so, enabling dispensing the beverage, wherein the checking includes matching the ID that is acquired by the beverage dispenser with the ID stored in the issuing entity.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein issuing the first information comprises generating the first information and providing the first information to the requesting entity.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the requesting entity prints the first information or stores the first information on a transponder card.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first information is in form of a symbol code, an optical machine-readable code, or a combination thereof.

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein issuing the first information comprises generating the first information and providing the first information to a pre-defined mobile device.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the first information is in form of a symbol code, an optical machine-readable code, a wireless code, or a combination thereof.

9-11. (canceled)

12. The method according to claim 3, wherein issuing the first information comprises issuing first information that is based on the ID.

13-14. (canceled)

15. The method according to claim 3, wherein the request to dispense a beverage comprises the pre-determined validity period.

16. A beverage dispenser, comprising: a dispensing unit configured to dispense a beverage using a single-use beverage container configured to be inserted into the dispensing unit prior to dispensing; and at least one information receiving unit for acquiring information; wherein the beverage dispenser is adapted to: acquire, via the at least one information receiving unit, information enabling dispensing the beverage from the beverage dispenser for a pre-determined validity period being a period starting from a time at which a request to dispense the beverage is received or a time at which the information enabling dispensing of the beverage is received, wherein the information enabling dispensing includes an ID of a single-use beverage container; and dispense the beverage upon successfully checking that the current time is within the pre-determined validity period and that the ID acquired by the beverage dispenser matches an ID stored in an issuing entity.

17. The beverage dispenser according to claim 15, further comprising a communication module for communication via a data network, wherein the beverage dispenser is further adapted to check whether the current time is within the pre-determined validity period by comparing the information acquired via the least one information receiving unit with information stored by an issuing entity, the issuing entity being connected to the beverage dispenser via the data network.

18. (canceled)

Description

[0071] The above described features and advantages of the invention as well as their kind of implementation will now be schematically described in more detail by at least one embodiment in the context of one or more figures.

[0072] FIG. 1 shows a beverage dispensing system according to one possible embodiment;

[0073] FIG. 2 shows process steps of a method for operating the beverage dispenser; and

[0074] FIG. 3 shows process steps of a method for dispensing a beverage from the beverage dispenser.

[0075] FIG. 1 shows a beverage dispensing system 1 according to a first embodiment comprising a web-enabled requesting entity 2, a web-enabled beverage dispenser 3 and a web-enabled issuing entity 4. The requesting entity 2 is connectable to the issuing entity 4 via a data network DN and the beverage dispenser 3 is connectable to the issuing entity 4 via the data network DN.

[0076] The requesting entity 2 may be a terminal operated by operating staff OS, e.g. an electronic register, an ordering device, etc. The requesting entity 2 may be specifically authorized to communicate with the issuing entity 4.

[0077] The beverage dispenser 3 comprises a dispensing unit 5 for dispensing a beverage. To this effect, the dispensing unit 5 is adapted to receive a beverage container BC from a user/consumer C. The beverage dispenser 3 further comprises at least one information receiving unit 6, e.g. a keypad, an optical code scanner and/or a wireless code reader for acquiring second information IN2. The beverage dispenser 3 is adapted to acquire, via the at least one information receiving unit 6, the second information IN2, to check whether this second information IN2 is information enabling dispensing a beverage from the beverage dispenser 3 for a pre-determined validity period, and to check whether the current time is within the pre-determined validity period, and if so, to enable dispensing the beverage. The beverage dispenser 3 further comprises at least one communication module 7 for communication via the data network DN. The communication module 7 may be a wire bound communication module 7, e.g., an Ethernet module, and/or a wireless communication module 7, e.g., a WLAN module, an LTE module, or a Bluetooth module.

[0078] The issuing entity 4 may be a server or a cloud-based web application. The issuing entity 4 may comprise one or more modules, in particular, software modules representing respective functions, of which one module 8 is adapted to issue first information IN1, as will be explained in greater detail below. The issuing entity 4 may comprise further modules or functions, as indicated by the dashed rectangles, e.g., relating to content management, to firmware update for the beverage dispenser 3, to machine diagnostics of the beverage dispenser 3, to stock check & orders for the beverage dispenser 3, to statistical analysis regarding use of the beverage dispenser 3, to remote diagnostics of the beverage dispenser 3 with audio/video streaming and/or to maintaining a consumer preference database.

[0079] Particularly, the beverage dispenser 3 may be adapted to check whether the current time is within the pre-determined validity period by comparing the second information IN2 acquired via the least one information receiving unit 6 with the first information IN1 stored by the issuing entity 4.

[0080] The issuing entity 4 may issue the first information IN1, e.g., by storing it, by generating and storing it, by generating and sending it to the requesting entity 2, and/or by generating and sending it to a mobile terminal MT of the consumer C, e.g. via SMS or another messaging service. If the first information IN1 is sent to the requesting entity 2, the requesting entity 2 may transfer the first information IN1 to the mobile terminal MT of the consumer C, may print it on a slip of paper P, or hand out a transponder card T (e.g. an RFID card) comprising the first information IN1.

[0081] FIG. 2 shows process steps of one possible method for operating the beverage dispenser 3, comprising: [0082] a step S100 of receiving, by the beverage dispenser 3, a request to dispense a beverage; [0083] a step S200 of receiving, by the beverage dispenser 3, (second) information IN2 potentially enabling dispensing the beverage from the beverage dispenser 3 for a pre-determined validity period; and [0084] a step S300 of checking whether the current time is within pre-determined validity period, and if so, dispensing the beverage. Step S300 may be preceded by or comprise a step of checking whether the received information IN2 is of a form and/or content that it potentially enables dispensing the beverage from the beverage dispenser 3 for the pre-determined validity period.

[0085] FIG. 3 shows process steps of one possible method for dispensing a beverage from the beverage dispenser 3, comprising: [0086] a step S400 of sending, by the requesting entity 2: a request for issuing the first information IN1 to the issuing entity 4; [0087] a step S500 of receiving, by an issuing entity 4: receiving the request for issuing the first information IN1 and then issuing the first information IN1; [0088] a step S600 of receiving, by the beverage dispenser 3, a request for dispensing a beverage and receiving second information IN2 related to the dispensing request; and [0089] a step S700 of checking whether the second information IN2 matches the first information IN1 and checking whether the current time is within pre-determined validity period associated with the first information IN1, and if so, dispensing the beverage or enabling dispensing the beverage.

[0090] Step S600 may be identical to step S200. Step S300 may comprise step S700, or vice versa.

[0091] Under one aspect, issuing the first information IN1 according to step S500 comprises generating the first information IN1 and providing the first information to the requesting entity 2. In one variant, the requesting entity prints the first information IN1 onto, e.g., the slip of paper P. In particular, the first information IN1 may be printed in encoded form, e.g. in form of a symbol code or an optical machine-readable code like a barcode or a QR code.

[0092] In another variant, the requesting entity 2 stores the first information IN1 on a portable storage medium, e.g., a transponder card T, especially a room card. The portable storage medium may be wirelessly readable by the information receiving unit 6, e.g. via RFID. The portable storage medium may thus comprise an NFC or RFID transponder.

[0093] In yet another variant, the requesting entity 2 stores the first information IN1 on/transfers the first information IN1 to the consumer's mobile terminal MT. consumer's mobile terminal MT may provide the first information IN1 optically (e.g. by displaying the first information IN1 on its display) or by radio transmission (e.g. by transferring the first information IN1 via NFC).

[0094] In even another variant, the first information IN1 is provided directly from the issuing entity 4 to the user's mobile terminal MT via the data network DN.

[0095] With the first information IN1 at hand, the consumer C may now walk to a beverage dispenser 3 (i.e., a self-serve beverage dispenser), insert the beverage container BC and input the first information IN1 into the information receiving unit 6. The first information IN1 thus corresponds to the second information IN2 received by the beverage dispenser 3.

[0096] In one variant, the first information IN1 comprises the pre-determined validity period. Then, the beverage dispenser 3 may be adapted to perform step S300 itself, i.e., without interaction with issuing entity 4.

[0097] In another variant, issuing the first information IN1 comprises generating the first information IN1 and storing the first information IN1 by the issuing entity 4. Upon receiving the second information IN2, it is checked in step S700 whether the second information IN2 matches the first information IN1. If so, it is checked whether the current time is within pre-determined validity period associated with the first information IN1, and if so, dispensing the beverage or enabling dispensing the beverage. If the second information IN2 does not match stored first information IN1, dispensing the beverage is denied. The checking in step S700 may be performed as a push operation (in which, e.g., the second information IN2 is transmitted to the issuing entity 4 which checks for matching first information IN1 and which checks whether the current time is within pre-determined validity period associated with the first information IN1 and which then sends back the results to the beverage dispenser 3) or as a pull operation (in which, e.g., the beverage dispenser 3 looks up a list of first information IN1 stored by the issuing entity 4 and checks whether the current time is within pre-determined validity period associated with the first information IN1). Thus, the pre-determined validity period may be stored together with the corresponding first information IN1.

[0098] In yet another variant, issuing the first information IN1 comprises generating the first information IN1 and storing the first information IN1 by the issuing entity 4 only for the pre-determined validity period. In this variant, checking whether the second information IN2 matches the first information IN1 and checking whether the current time is within pre-determined validity period associated with the first information IN1 is the same operation: if the checking step S700 finds a match of the second information IN2 and a first information IN1 stored by the issuing entity 4, the current time is de facto within pre-determined validity period. Likewise, if the checking step S700 finds no match between the second information IN2 and first information IN1 stored by the issuing entity 4, the current time is outside the pre-determined validity period.

[0099] In even another variant, the first information IN1 is or corresponds to an ID associated with the beverage container. In this case, step S400 may simply comprise sending the ID to the issuing entity 4 to be stored for the pre-determined validity period. In step S500, issuing the first information IN1 may only comprise storing the ID for the pre-determined validity period. The requesting entity 2 does not need to explicitly hand out any first information IN1 to a customer C but only the beverage container BC comprising the ID. In step S600, the receiving the second information IN2 may comprises reading a beverage container's ID. The checking step S700 may then only comprise checking the ID received by the beverage dispenser 3 against ID(s) stored by the issuing entity 4, e.g., in analogy to the step described above.

[0100] It will be readily understood that the invention is not restricted to the described embodiments.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0101] 1 beverage dispensing system [0102] 2 requesting entity [0103] 3 beverage dispenser [0104] 4 issuing entity [0105] 5 dispensing unit [0106] 6 information receiving unit [0107] 7 communication module [0108] 8 issuing software module [0109] BC beverage container [0110] C consumer [0111] DN data network [0112] IN1 first information [0113] IN2 second information [0114] MT Mobile terminal [0115] OS operating staff [0116] P paper [0117] S100-S700 method steps [0118] T transponder card