Beverage Formulation Control for Taste-Preserving Customization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Beverage vendors face challenges in offering personalized beverages while maintaining taste quality and reducing environmental impact, as consumers desire adjustments to ingredients like sweeteners, which can alter the taste profile and increase manufacturing and transportation costs.
Innovation Solution
A computer-readable medium and apparatus that allow users to select and modify beverage formulations by adjusting ingredient concentrations, with automatic adjustments to other ingredients to maintain taste quality, using a dispensing system connected to a communication network for recipe storage and user input processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If consumers adjust ingredient concentrations to create personalized beverages, then consumer preference and customization are improved, but taste profile quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes parameters (ingredient concentrations) within predefined acceptable ranges to create personalized beverages while maintaining taste quality. The processor receives user inputs for ingredient adjustments and automatically modifies concentrations of multiple ingredients simultaneously to preserve the overall taste profile.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback mechanisms where the processor evaluates user ingredient adjustments and automatically compensates by adjusting other ingredient concentrations. This feedback loop ensures that taste profile quality is maintained even when consumers request personalized modifications.
2Adaptability or versatility
If vendors offer multiple branded beverage variations to meet consumer needs, then consumer preference is improved, but manufacturing and transportation costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The dispensing system performs multiple functions using a single platform - it can create various personalized beverage variations by adjusting ingredient concentrations rather than requiring separate production lines for each branded variation. This universal system reduces manufacturing complexity and costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The beverage formulation is segmented into individual adjustable ingredients (sweeteners, acids, flavorings, etc.), allowing the system to create different beverage variations by mixing and matching ingredient concentrations rather than producing entirely separate beverage products.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If users adjust sweetener concentrations to reduce calories, then health benefits are improved, but taste profile quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the concentration parameters of multiple ingredients simultaneously - when users reduce sweetener concentrations for lower calories, the processor automatically adjusts other ingredient concentrations (acids, flavorings, water) to compensate and maintain acceptable taste profile quality.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods for dispensing beverages are provided. In accordance with various embodiments, beverage vendors may maintain the quality associated with a branded beverage while permitting consumers to enjoy the personalized beverages. In one embodiment, a user input may select a beverage formulation. The beverage formulation may be a commercially available branded beverage. A second user input may be received that is configured to modify a concentration of an ingredient of the selected beverage formulation. The ingredient may be a sweetener, such as a sugar. In response to the adjusting the ingredient, a concentration of at least one second ingredient may be automatically adjusted to form a recipe of a modified beverage formulation. In one embodiment, the user input adjusts a natural sugar and, in response, the carbon dioxide concentration is automatically adjusted. In another embodiment, carbon dioxide and another acid may be adjusted.