INTERACTIVE TOUCH SCREEN DEVICE FOR WINE
Interactive display and rendering device, system and method for wine bottles are disclosed. An interactive wine management and display device and method using a scanning instrument capable of scanning information regarding a bottle of wine; an imaging instrument capable of collecting an image of at least a portion of a bottle of wine; a connection to a wine database containing information regarding wines; a connection to a database having images of wine bottles. The device is able to render the images as well as information on the wine to a display for user interaction.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/832,428 entitled “INTERACTIVE TOUCH SCREEN DEVICE FOR WINE”, which was filed on Mar. 15, 2013, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/668,548, which was filed on Nov. 5, 2012, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,144,328 on Sep. 29, 2015, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSUREThis disclosure relates generally to wine cabinets, and, more particularly, to interactive display and rendering device for wine bottles.
BACKGROUNDWine cabinets, which are also known as wine coolers, wine refrigerators, or refrigerated wine cellars, are purpose-built appliances designed to keep multiple bottles of wine at a substantially optimum temperature and humidity. Wine cabinets include racks that hold bottles of wine at fixed locations. Wines have unique characteristics. Additionally wine bottles have unique labels that assist in the identification of the wine in the bottle. It would be advantageous to have a device, system and/or method that would assist in the identification, display and/or rendering of a wine bottle.
SUMMARYAn aspect of the present invention is an interactive wine management and display device and method using a scanning instrument capable of scanning information regarding a bottle of wine; an imaging instrument capable of collecting an image of at least a portion of a bottle of wine; a connection to a wine database containing information regarding wines; a connection to a database having images of wine bottles. The device is able to render the images as well as information on the wine to a display for user interaction. Additionally an aspect of the present invention is an interactive system for use with a wine cabinet or rack to hold bottles of wine including a scanning device which can assist in identify a bottle of wine, a wine database contains information about wines, an image database, containing images of wine bottles, and a display device capable of displaying information from wine database regarding a wine bottle and rendering an associated image of the wine bottle.
As shown in
To enable a user to view information and interact with the interactive transparent touch screen door 105, the interactive transparent touch screen door 105 includes an embedded transparent touch display 215 such as a transparent touch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. That is, the touch display 215 is an integral part of the touch screen door 105. Because, the touch display 215 is transparent, contents of the wine cabinet 105 can be viewed even while information is displayed on the door 105 by the touch display 215. Preferably, the touch display 215 is sized to at least correspond to an extent of the refrigerated compartment 205 corresponding to the wine rack 210. Thus, the touch display 215 is able to display location information for any bottle of wine stored in the wine cabinet 105. Of course, the touch display 215 may be sized to be larger or smaller than the wine rack 210.
To control the touch display 215, the wine cabinet 100 includes a controller 220. The controller 220 may be implemented by one or more Intel®, AMD®, and/or ARM® microprocessors. Of course, other processors from other processor families and/or manufacturers are also appropriate. The controller 220 executes coded instructions present in a main memory of the controller 220.
To store information representing wine stored in the wine cabinet 100, the wine cabinet 100 may include a wine database 225. Information may be stored in the wine database 225 using any number and/or type(s) of table(s) and/or data structure(s). As discussed below in connection with
To communicatively couple the wine cabinet 100 to other devices, the wine cabinet 100 may include any number and/or type(s) of communication interface(s) 230 such as a Bluetooth interface, a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface, etc. A handheld computing device (e.g., the handheld computing device 800) communicatively coupled to the wine cabinet 100 via the communication interface 230 can direct the controller 220 to present information associated with wine stored in the wine cabinet 100 and/or wine location information on the touch display 215.
While an example wine cabinet 100 is illustrated in
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If the user selects a particular bottle of wine 525, as shown in
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To indicate a storage location in the wine cabinet 105 for the new bottle of wine, the user 106 selects the “position” item in the menu 605 of
In some examples, the controller 220, the communication interface 230 and the wine database 225 are embedded in the door 105 to enable the door to be configurable for use with different wine cabinets. In such examples, the menu 305 of
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Conversely, one or more of the databases or portion thereof) may be resident from one or more of the listed devices in
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In one embodiment, the system, as shown in
In step 1230, the user is requested to take an image, the system then receives the take image in step 1240. Option 1245a may be taken and step 1250 can then be performed. Alternative, option 1245b may be taken and step 1290 can then be performed. Additionally, it may be preferable to perform both steps 1250 and 1290. It should be appreciated that this would allow a plurality of such imaging devices 1000 (or multiple users of the system) to build a more comprehensive listing of bottle images than any one wine connoisseur could possibly record, regardless of the amount of wine they acquired when such users and/or devices share such information.
In step 1260, an alternative image database (e.g. one on the LAN network or accessible via the internet). If in step 1270 an image is not found then step 1230 is performed as discussed above. If an image is found in step 1270 then the image is received from the other image database (step 1280 and as discussed above step 1250 and/or 1290 are performed. In the case of step 1290, the image is stored in the local database.
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Turning back to the imaging of the wine, the image of the wine is preferably taken 360 degrees about the bottle. Another potential option in this invention is to take and/or provide an image of both the side of the bottle as well as the cork from the top, or even adding an image of the bottom of the bottle if desired. These images could be linked, or otherwise combined, in image database 1025. These images could be then displayed as a complete bottle rendering.
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This will allow display device 1100 to display to the user a simulated 3D image of a portion of the bottle, or even the whole bottle, to be created and displayed to a user of the system. Alternatively, the display device 1100 could recognize the “gap” or missing portion and then “fill-in” the missing portion of the bottle when viewed by the image display device. The user than could manipulate the image of the bottle on display device 1100 so it could “rotate”. The ability to “rotate” allows a user to virtually touch and inspect a bottle without disturbing the actual bottle. It should be understood that in place of an image a text or audible description could be share if no image is available or if that is preferred by the user over viewing an image (e.g. in the case of a hearing challenged user of when quiet is preferred by the user). As shown in
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Another aspect of the invention is that when consuming a bottle the user could be able to input notes, ratings and other similar information of the wine consumed (not shown). This may include the date, time and parties that consumed it. The user may also be able to record their personal feedback on various wines. Additionally another example is that if one of the user's companions or friends had an opinion of a bottle than can be recorded and then later recalled by the user when the same companion is present at a later date.
Another aspect of the system is that it may be used to order/replace consumed or missing bottles with similar bottles. Various rating and recommendation databases can be accessed to allow for a user to select from available bottles. These databases could be coupled with a separate image database discuss above or combined with the database to allow the user to virtually “hold” a bottle they may desire to order. The system than can facilitate the transaction so that user may acquire additional wine. These orders may be recorded and images of the bottle attached to ease the later recording of the new bottle into the system. The system may even recommend a location for the bottle to be stored based on storage temperature or grouping similar wines together (either based on type of wine, age of wine, cost of wine, other factors or combination thereof).
Furthermore, this system could facilitate an overall organization of a wine cellar based on any of the above factors and help a user “rearrange” their cellar or cabinet. The user could first virtually move the bottles to their new desired location within the representations on the system, and the system could then notify the user which bottles to move to which location. The system could additionally calculate moves to limit, or reduce the number of touches to either certain bottles (e.g. move valuable or delicate wines), or total number of moves required. Alternatively, the user could select from various arrangement of wine recommend by experts or desired by the user, and the system could calculate movement of bottles with in a cellar or cabinet(s) based on such arrangements.
Finally, it should be understand and appreciated that while aspects of this present invention are directed to identifying and interacting with wine bottles, but this invention could equally be applied to other bottles, including without limitation beer, whiskey, bourbon, scotch whiskey, and other alcoholic beverages.
To the extent not already described, the different features and structures of the various embodiments may be used in combination with each other as desired. That one feature may not be illustrated in all of the embodiments is not meant to be construed that it cannot be, but is done for brevity of description. Thus, the various features of the different embodiments may be mixed and matched as desired to form new embodiments, whether or not the new embodiments are expressly described.
Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the claims of this patent.
Claims
1. A method of recommending to a user a bottle of wine from a wine cabinet having a user interface with a controller and a display device, the method comprising:
- identifying a storage location for at least some bottles of wine in the wine cabinet;
- obtaining information regarding at least some of the bottles of wine by the wine cabinet with the controller;
- storing the information regarding the at least some of the bottles of wine and the corresponding identified storage location in a memory of the controller;
- receiving, by the controller, a selection criteria; and
- recommending at least one bottle of wine from the at least some of the bottles of wine based on the selection criteria to define at least one recommended bottle of wine by indicating on the display device the storage location of the at least one recommended bottle of wine.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the storage location includes indicating on the display device the storage location corresponding to a physical location for the at least one recommended bottles of wine.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining information regarding at least some of the bottles of wine further includes scanning a label, barcode, or UPC.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein obtaining information regarding at least some of the bottles of wine further includes retrieving information from a database.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining information further includes receiving user-inputted information.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the selection criteria further includes receiving a user input at the display device.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the selection criteria further comprises receiving the selection criteria at the controller.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein recommending the bottle of wine comprises providing an indicator on the display device at a location corresponding to the storage location of the at least one recommended bottle of wine.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein recommending the bottle of wine includes highlighting a portion of the display device to indicate the storage location of the wine cabinet for the at least one recommended bottle of wine.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one recommended bottle of wine includes multiple bottles of wine.
11. The method of claim 1 further comprising recommending at least one different bottle of wine from the at least some of the bottles of wine based upon the selection criteria and related to the at least one recommended bottle of wine.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein recommending at least one different bottle of wine includes indicating on the display device the storage location of the at least one different bottle of wine in addition to the at least one recommended bottle of wine.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein recommending the at least one different bottle includes connecting the at least one recommended bottle of wine to the at least one different bottle of wine with a line indicated on the display device.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the selection criteria is one or more of locations of origin, vineyard, type, food pairing, price, image of label, or peak.
15. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying, on the display device, information regarding the recommended bottle of wine.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein displaying further includes displaying an image of a label of the recommended bottle of wine on the display device.
17. The method of claim 1 further comprising requesting, at the display device, additional information regarding the bottle of wine.
18. The method of claim 1 wherein the display device is a transparent touchscreen display device;
- wherein identifying the storage location for at least some of the bottles of wine in the wine cabinet includes indicating on the transparent touchscreen display device the storage location of the at least some bottles of wine;
- wherein obtaining information regarding at least some of the bottles of wine includes scanning, with a scanner, a label, barcode, or UPC of the at least some bottles of wine,
- wherein receiving, by the controller, the selection criteria includes inputting the selection criteria at the transparent touchscreen display device; and
- wherein recommending at least one bottle of wine includes highlighting a portion of the transparent touchscreen display device corresponding to a physical location in the wine cabinet as the storage location of the at least one recommended bottle of wine.
19. A method of recommending to a user a bottle of wine from a wine cabinet having a wine rack with multiple bottle storage locations, a user interface with a controller, and a transparent touchscreen display device forming a door of the wine cabinet and in communication with the controller, the method comprising:
- identifying, at the transparent touchscreen display, a storage location for at least some bottles of wine in the wine cabinet;
- obtaining information regarding the at least some bottles of wine by the wine cabinet with the controller;
- storing the information regarding the at least some bottles of wine and the corresponding identified storage location in a memory of the controller;
- receiving by the controller a selection criteria; and
- recommending at least one bottle of wine from the at least some of the bottles of wine based on the selection criteria to define at least one recommended bottle of wine by indicating on the transparent touchscreen display the storage location of the at least one recommended bottle of wine.
20. The method of claim 19 further comprising receiving, at the transparent, touchscreen display, at least one selection criteria.
21. A method of recommending a food pairing for a bottle of wine from a wine cabinet having a door including a transparent touchscreen display device in communication with a controller, the method comprising:
- receiving an input at the controller indicative of a touch location on the transparent touchscreen display device corresponding to a physical location of a selected bottle of wine in the wine cabinet;
- displaying information regarding the selected bottle of wine on the transparent touchscreen display device; and
- recommending the food pairing for the selected bottle of wine by displaying the food pairing in the displayed information regarding the selected bottle of wine.
22. The method of claim 21 further comprising inputting, at the transparent touchscreen display device, a selection criteria.
23. The method of claim 22 further comprising recommending at least one recommended bottle of wine related to the selection criteria wherein the recommended food pairing relates to the at least one recommended bottle of wine.
24. The method of claim 21 wherein selecting the selected bottle of wine further comprising highlighting a portion of the transparent touchscreen display device corresponding to the physical location of the selected bottle of wine.
25. The method of claim 21 further comprising recommending at least one different bottle of wine related to the selected bottle of wine.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 21, 2017
Publication Date: Apr 5, 2018
Inventors: MICHAEL S. SEELEY (SOUTH HAVEN, MI), KIRK W. GOODWIN (ST. JOSEPH, MI)
Application Number: 15/819,561