Electronic pourer

Abstract

An electronic pourer to dispense a liquid is described. In one embodiment, the electronic pourer includes an orientation determining subsystem configured to determine an orientation (angular rotation) of the electronic pourer, a wireless communication subsystem, and a processing system. The processing system can be configured to receive an angular rotation of the electronic pourer, determine whether liquid has been dispensed from a dispensing chamber of the electronic pourer, and transmit electronic pourer data to an external computing device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An electronic pourer to dispense a liquid, comprising:
 an orientation determining subsystem configured to determine an orientation of the electronic pourer;   a wireless communication subsystem;   a processing subsystem having at least one processing core, wherein the processing subsystem is coupled to the orientation determining subsystem and the wireless communication subsystem, and wherein the processing subsystem is configured to:   receive angular rotation about an axis of the electronic pourer from the orientation determining subsystem,   based on the angular rotation, determine whether liquid has been dispensed from a dispensing chamber of the electronic pourer, and   upon the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, transmit, via the wireless communication subsystem, electronic pourer data to an external computing device.   
     
     
         2 . The electronic pourer of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a tamper-proof subsystem, configured to determine whether the electronic pourer has been at least one of coupled or decoupled from the bottle.   
     
     
         3 . The electronic pourer of  claim 2 , wherein the processing subsystem is further configured to transmit at least one of a timestamp or binary flag representing at least one of an activation or deactivation of the tamper-proof switch to the external computing device upon coupling or decoupling from the bottle. 
     
     
         4 . The electronic pourer of  claim 2 , wherein the tamper-proof subsystem is configured to transmit data representing the activation of the tamper-proof subsystem upon coupling with the bottle. 
     
     
         5 . The electronic pourer of  claim 2 , wherein the tamper-proof subsystem includes a switch residing on the electronic pourer that turns on upon coupling with the bottle. 
     
     
         6 . The electronic pourer of  claim 1 , wherein the electronic pourer data further includes at least one of a binary flag indicating the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, a timestamp value of the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, or a duration of time for which the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber occurred. 
     
     
         7 . The electronic pourer of  claim 1 , wherein the processing subsystem determines that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber when the angular rotation, about an axis is determined to be between 20 and 180 degrees. 
     
     
         8 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which when executed by a processing subsystem, comprising at least one processing core, of an electronic pourer executes a method, comprising:
 receiving angular rotation about an axis of the electronic pourer from an orientation determining subsystem of the electronic pourer;   based on the angular rotation, determining whether liquid has been dispensed from a dispensing chamber of the electronic pourer; and   upon the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, transmitting, via a wireless communication subsystem of the electronic pourer, electronic pourer data to an external computing device;   wherein the method is performed by the processing subsystem.   
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 determining, via a tamper-proof subsystem of the electronic pourer, whether the electronic pourer has been at least one of coupled or decoupled from the bottle.   
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 transmitting at least one of a timestamp or binary flag representing at least one of an activation or deactivation of the tamper-proof switch to the external computing device upon coupling or decoupling from the bottle.   
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the tamper-proof subsystem is configured to transmit data representing the activation of the tamper-proof subsystem upon coupling with the bottle. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the tamper-proof subsystem includes a switch residing on the electronic pourer that turns on upon coupling with the bottle. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the electronic pourer data further includes at least one of a binary flag indicating the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, a timestamp value of the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, or a duration of time for which the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber occurred. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the processing subsystem determines that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber when the angular rotation about an axis is determined to be between 20 and 180 degrees. 
     
     
         15 . A method performed by a processing subsystem of an electronic pourer, the processing subsystem including at least one processing core, the method comprising:
 receiving, by the processing subsystem, angular rotation about an axis of the electronic pourer from an orientation determining subsystem of the electronic pourer;   based on the angular rotation, determining, by the processing subsystem, whether liquid has been dispensed from a dispensing chamber of the electronic pourer; and   upon the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, transmitting, by the processing subsystem, via a wireless communication subsystem of the electronic pourer, electronic pourer data to an external computing device.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 determining, via a tamper-proof subsystem of the electronic pourer, whether the electronic pourer has been at least one of coupled or decoupled from the bottle.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 transmitting at least one of a timestamp or binary flag representing at least one of an activation or deactivation of the tamper-proof switch to the external computing device upon coupling or decoupling from the bottle.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the tamper-proof subsystem is configured to transmit data representing the activation of the tamper-proof subsystem upon coupling with the bottle. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the tamper-proof subsystem includes a switch residing on the electronic pourer that turns on upon coupling with the bottle. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the electronic pourer data further includes at least one of a binary flag indicating the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, a timestamp value of the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber, or a duration of time for which the determination that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber occurred, and wherein the processing subsystem determines that liquid has been dispensed from the dispensing chamber when the angular rotation, about an axis is determined to be between 20 and 180 degrees.