Refilling device

Abstract

A refilling device for an article of an aerosol provision system includes refilling control circuitry. The refilling control circuitry is configured to facilitate the transfer of aerosol-generating material from a reservoir coupled to the refilling device to the article and cause a value of a counter to be updated in response to the transfer of the aerosol-generating material. The value of the counter is indicative of a number of times the article has been refilled. The refilling control circuitry determines if the article is expired based on a comparison between the updated value of the counter and a refill limit and writes data to computer-readable memory indicating that the article is expired in response to determining that the article is expired.

1 . A refilling device for an article of an aerosol provision system comprising:
 refilling control circuitry configured to:
 facilitate a transfer of aerosol-generating material from a reservoir coupled to the refilling device to the article, 
 cause a value of a counter to be updated in response to the transfer of the aerosol-generating material, the value of the counter indicative of a number of times the article has been refilled, 
 determine if the article is expired based on a comparison between the updated value of the counter and a refill limit; and 
 write data to computer-readable memory indicating that the article is expired in response to determining that the article is expired. 
   
     
     
         2 . The refilling device of  claim 1 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to:
 determine, in response to the article being received by the refilling device, whether the article is expired; and   prevent the transfer of the aerosol-generating material from the reservoir to the article in response to the determining that the article is expired.   
     
     
         3 . The refilling device of  claim 1 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to:
 determine, in response to the article being received by the refilling device, whether the article is authentic; and   prevent the transfer of the aerosol-generating material from the reservoir to the article in response to the determining that the article is not authentic.   
     
     
         4 . The refilling device of  claim 1 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to send the value of the counter to a remote data store. 
     
     
         5 . The refilling device of  claim 1 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to read, from the article, data indicative of an amount of the aerosol-generating material stored in the article. 
     
     
         6 . The refilling device of  claim 5 , wherein the transfer of the aerosol-generating material is based on the data indicative of the amount of the aerosol-generating material stored in the article. 
     
     
         7 . The refilling device of  claim 5 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to send the data indicative of the amount of the aerosol-generating material stored in the article to a remote data store. 
     
     
         8 . The refilling device of  claim 1 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to provide a notification to a user of the refilling device based on the data indicative of the amount of the aerosol-generating material stored in the article. 
     
     
         9 . The refilling device of  claim 1 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to read, from the reservoir, data indicative of an amount of the aerosol-generating material stored in the reservoir. 
     
     
         10 . The refilling device of  claim 9 , wherein the transfer of the aerosol-generating material is based on the data indicative of the amount of the aerosol-generating material stored in the reservoir. 
     
     
         11 . The refilling device of  claim 9 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to send the data indicative of the amount of the aerosol-generating material stored in the reservoir to a remote data store. 
     
     
         12 . The refilling device of  claim 9 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to provide a notification to a user of the refilling device based on the data indicative of the amount of the aerosol-generating material stored in the reservoir. 
     
     
         13 . The refilling device of  claim 1 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to provide a notification to a user of the refilling device based on the value of the counter. 
     
     
         14 . The refilling device of  claim 13 , wherein the notification provides an indication of a number of times the aerosol-generating material can be transferred to the article before the article expires. 
     
     
         15 . The refilling device of  claim 1 , wherein the refilling control circuitry is further configured to provide a notification to a user of the refilling device in response to determining that the article is expired. 
     
     
         16 . The refilling device of  claim 15 , wherein the notification is provided on the refilling device. 
     
     
         17 . The refilling device of  claim 15 , wherein the notification is provided on an application on a remote device. 
     
     
         18 . A method of refilling an article of an aerosol provision system comprising:
 facilitating a transfer of aerosol-generating material from a reservoir to the article;   causing a value of a counter to be updated in response to the transfer of the aerosol-generating material, the value of the counter indicative of a number of times the article has been refilled;   determining if the article is expired based on a comparison between the updated value of the counter and a refill limit; and   writing data to computer-readable memory indicating that the article is expired in response to determining that the article is expired.   
     
     
         19 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of refilling an article of an aerosol provision system comprising:
 facilitating a transfer of aerosol-generating material from a reservoir to the article;   causing a value of a counter to be updated in response to the transfer of the aerosol-generating material, the value of the counter indicative of a number of times the article has been refilled;   determining if the article is expired based on a comparison between the updated value of the counter and a refill limit; and   writing data to computer-readable memory indicating that the article is expired in response to determining that the article is expired.   
     
     
         20 . An article for an aerosol provision system comprising:
 an aerosol-generating material storage area configured to store aerosol-generating material; and   article control circuitry configured to:
 store a value of a counter indicative of a number of times the article has been refilled; 
 store data received from a refilling device indicating that the article is expired.