Beverage or food container consumption monitoring method

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for monitoring consumption of beverage or food containers, the method comprising: obtaining container consumption information at a beverage or food preparation machine; updating inventory status information using the consumption information, wherein the inventory status information includes details of the quantity of containers at the machine location, obtaining updated inventory status information at an electronic device external to the machine; and / or receiving inventory order information on the electronic device from a remote source over a network, the stock order information including details of the quantity of containers purchased by the user; and updating the stock status information using the stock order information; and displaying the stock quantity derived from the updated stock status information at the electronic device .

Description

technical field [0001] The embodiments relate generally to various beverage or food preparation systems for preparing beverages or food from containers such as coffee capsules, electronics networked to the machines, and more particularly to techniques for monitoring consumption of the containers over a network. Background technique [0002] Increasingly, machines for preparing beverages or food products are configured to operate with containers comprising single serving beverage or food materials such as coffee, tea, ice cream, yogurt. The machine may be configured for preparation by processing the material in the container, eg by adding a fluid such as milk or water and then applying mixing thereto, such a machine is disclosed in PCT / EP13 / 072692. Alternatively, the machine may be configured to prepare by at least partially extracting material components from the container, eg by dissolving or brewing, and expelling them into a receptacle for consumption by the end user. Ex...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

One disadvantage of this type of system is that the beverage machine requires a network connection, such as a LAN, whose electronic components are very expensive

Also, for reasons of network security or computing resources, it may not be desirable to operate a machine as a node of a LAN network

Also, end users may not wish to communicate directly with the server about their capsule consumption for data privacy reasons

Another disadvantage is that there is a great lack of flexibility and convenience for the end user of such systems, for example, when accounting for: broken capsules; lost orders; usage of capsules on different machines; Usage of supplied capsules; order capsules for non-system use

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