Abstract: Each open liquor bottle in a tavern has a plastic spout with a magnetically operable valve to control the flow of liquor from the bottle. The spouts were fabricated with three integral rings extending around the spout with each ring being either plastic or metal to form a pattern that encodes information identifying a characteristic of the bottle. An annular actuator reads the pattern of rings and responds by producing a magnetic field that opens the spout valve to dispense the liquor. Three rings allow up to eight different classes of characteristics to be encoded. To increase that number of classes a supplemental metal ring is attached around some of the spout adjacent to one end of the actuator when the spout is inserted therein. The actuator is modified to sense presence of the supplemental metal ring on a spout. Adding another ring to certain spouts permits the number of classes of characteristics to be doubled without requiring replacement of existing spouts in a tavern.

Abstract: A separate spout is attached to each open bottle in a tavern with each spout having a magnetically operable valve to control the flow of liquor from the bottle. A transponder is provided in each spout transmits an unique identification code. To pour liquor from a bottle, an actuator is placed over the spout. An interrogator coupled to an interrogator coil in the actuator for sending an activation signal to the transponder and thereafter reads the identification code. A memory provides a group of storage locations for each of the plurality of spouts. The group of storage locations for a given spout contains the identification code for that spout and data regarding a total volume dispensed from a particular bottle to which the given spout is attached, a quantity present in the particular bottle when full, and a price per volume unit. A controller energizes a valve operating coil in the actuator to open a valve in response to the interrogator reading the identification code from a spout.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for stock dividing gear-shaped workpieces mounted on the work spindle of a gear-finishing tool. A work spindle encoder provides instantaneous angular position information when the surface of leading and trailing flanks of the workpiece teeth are sensed by a probe. This instantaneous position information is used to generate two sets of measured error values which relate, respectively, to the leading and trailing flanks and which are indicative of the differences between the sensed surrfaces and the desired surfaces of a correctly-sized gear. These sets of error values are analyzed using fourier transform techniques to generate (a) a first harmonic for each set and (b) a set of modified error values for each leading and trailing flank corresponding to each respective first harmonic.