Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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ERGONOMIC INTERFACE SCREEN FOR A BEVERAGE MACHINE
Field of the Invention
The field of the invention pertains to liquid food
or beverage preparation machines having a user-friendly
and ergonomic user interface screen, in particular a
large size screen.
Background Art
Certain beverage or food preparation machines use
capsules containing ingredients to be extracted or to be
dissolved; for other machines, the ingredients are stored
and dosed automatically in the machine or else are added
at the time of preparation of the drink.
Most coffee machines possess filling means that
include a pump for liquid, usually water, which pumps the
liquid from a source of water that is cold or indeed
heated through heating means, such as a heating resistor,
a thermoblock or the like.
For allowing the user to interact with such
machines, for providing operation instructions to the
machine or obtaining feed-back therefrom, various systems
have been disclosed in the art, for instance as mentioned
in the following references: AT 410 377, CH 682 798, DE
44 29 353, DE 202 00 419, DE 20 2006 019 039, DE 2007 008
590, EP 1 448 084, EP 1 676 509, EP 08155851.2, FR 2 624
844, GB 2 397 510, US 4,377,049, US 4,458,735, US
4,554,419, US 4,767,632, US 4,954,697, US 5,312,020, US
5,335,705, US 5,372,061, US 5,375,508, US 5,731,981, US
5, 645, 230, US 5, 836, 236, US 5, 959, 869, US 6, 182, 555, US
6,354,341, US 6,759,072, US 2007/0157820, WO 97/25634,
W099/50172, WO 2004/030435, WO 2004/030438, WO
2006/063645, WO 2006/090183, WO 2007/003062, WO
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2007/003990, WO 2008/104751, WO 2008/138710 and WO
2008/138820.
More specifically, US 5,959,869 discloses a vending
machine with a multi-tasking controller, and mentions the
possibility of implementing into the machine a sound
reproduction circuit and a VGA-quality display for multi-
media presentation, in particular for marketing purposes.
DE 202 00 419 discloses a beverage preparation
machine that has a user-interface that is separable from
the machine for remote operation.
DE 20 2006 019 039, AT 410 377, US 4,377,049, US
4,554,419, US 4,954,697, US 5,685,435, US 6,759,072, US
6,182,555, WO 2004/030438, WO 2006/090183, WO 2007/003990
and WO 2008/138710 disclose beverage dispensing machines
with a generally upright front face having a lower open
cavity for receiving a receptacle to be filled via a
beverage outlet in the cavity and, on an upper part of
the front face, above the opening of this cavity, a
generally vertical upper screen, touch screen and/or
touch pad arranged as a user-interface. FR 2 624 844
discloses a beverage dispenser having a front face with
an open cavity for filling a receptacle and a micro-
computer with a keyboard and a monitor housed in the
machine's front face next to the cavity opening.
Summary of the Invention
It is therefore a preferred object of the present
invention to increase the ergonomics, human machine
interactivity, intuitiveness, user-friendliness,
versatility and ambiance of an environment of a liquid
food or beverage preparation machine, in particular of a
coffee or tea preparation machine.
This object is generally achieved by a liquid food
or beverage preparation machine with a predominant user-
interface screen that can be set up for versatile
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communication between a user and the machine, that
dominates the visual interaction between the user and the
machine to attract naturally the user's focus when using
the machine and increase the user-comfort during use
and/or that moves the visual user-interaction with the
remaining features of the machine, such as the actual
physical filling process of a cup or mug, into the
background of the user's attention.
The invention thus relates to a machine for filling
a receptacle with a liquid food or beverage, comprising:
a housing; an arrangement for dispensing a liquid food or
a beverage to a receptacle upon a user-request; and a
user-interface screen on the housing. The housing has a
user-orientation for a user to request dispensing of the
liquid food or beverage. The user-interface screen is
arranged in this user-orientation to face the user within
a user-visible housing portion that is delimited by user-
visible outermost boundaries of the housing. In other
words, in this normal user-orientation, the user is
expected to look at the user-interface in the most user-
convenient of comfortable manner, the eyes of the user
facing the user-interface screen. Hence, the normal
direction of vision of the user is generally orthogonal
to the user-interface screen, typically a flat screen or
possibly a slightly arched cathodic screen (CRT), in the
user-orientation and intercepts the centre or a central
part of the user-interface screen, whereby the user-
interface screen is arranged to face the user within the
user-visible housing portion in this orientation.
For instance, the machine is a coffee, tea or soup
machine, in particular a machine for supplying a beverage
or liquid food by passing hot or cold water or another
liquid through a capsule containing an ingredient of the
beverage or liquid food to be supplied, such as ground
coffee.
In accordance with the invention, in this user-
orientation, the user-interface screen forms:
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substantially the entire user-visible housing portion or
a surface-predominant section thereof; or a surface-
predominant section of a plurality of distinctively user-
visible sections that form together the user-visible
housing portion.
Hence, to achieve the above objects, the liquid food
or beverage preparation machine of the invention has a
user interface-screen that predominates the visual field
of the user who is in the process of using the machine
and that naturally attracts the user's attention and
naturally incites the user to keep the user's attention
focused on the user-interface screen. More specifically,
this purpose is achieved either by extending the user-
interface screen over substantially the entire user-
visible part of the machine or over a user-visible
section thereof that forms a surface-predominant section
of the visible part of the machine. In other words, the
user-visible housing portion may be made of a plurality
of discrete user-visible parts, one of which has a
predominant surface area and is made of the user-
interface screen.
This machine configuration contrasts with prior art
liquid food or beverage preparation machines that have an
interface screen of small size relative to the machine's
size or user-visible parts thereof, that is somewhere
located at the surface of the machine without being
predominant for the user's attention. Such prior art
screens merely give the user the possibility to input or
read data but are not arranged to naturally dominate the
user's visual field when dealing with the machine so as
to do naturally dominate his attention. In contrast, the
arrangement of the screen on the present machine leads to
increasing the ergonomic and interactive capabilities of
the machine, the intuitiveness, user-friendliness,
versatility and ambiance generating potential of the
machine, by providing a relatively large user-interface
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screens as the predominant user-visible part of the
machine.
The user-interface screen can be a touch-sensitive
screen and/or comprise touch-sensitive input parts. The
machine may have a user-input device, such as a touch
pad, one or more buttons and/or switches or similar
devices known in the art. The user-interface screen can
be stylus sensitive.
A stylus may for instance be used to select
predefined options displayed on the interface-screen or
to write notes and messages on the user-interface screen
that may be stored by the machine and re-accessible
later. Hence, the screen may be used as a substitution
for a post-it
In an embodiment, the liquid food or beverage
machine has an interface for connection to a remote
network, such as a network for accessing remote data
displayable on the user-interface screen and/or for
transferring local data acquired via the user interface
screen, in particular a network for: supplying visual
and/or audio information in relation with a liquid food
or beverage that can be requested by the user; and/or for
ordering, in particular from a remote supplier, goods
such as liquid food or beverage ingredients or a service
related to this machine by using the user-interface
screen.
Hence, the user may be given the technical
possibility to order directly through the beverage
preparation machine liquid food or beverage ingredients
that are missing or at a low level, or request directly
through this machine the most up to date information on a
particular item, in particular a liquid food or beverage
he has requested or intends to request the machine to
prepare or order from the supplier.
Moreover, the user-interface screen can be arranged
to perform at least one function selected from:
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displaying information to the user regarding a parameter
of the machine that requires a user intervention,
displaying locally stored and/or remotely emitted graphic
or text matter, a notepad function, and a visual ambiance
generator, for instance by displaying appropriate
pictures or moving colour shapes, for instance of the
screen-saver type.
In order to noticeably affect the ambiance
surrounding the machine by visual effects, the user-
screen has to dominate the user-visible part of the
machine. An interface screen of small size and/or lost
somewhere on the user-visible part of the machine will
not provide an optimal ambiance effect.
Furthermore, the liquid food or beverage preparation
machine may include a sound input and/or output device.
The sound device can be arranged to cooperate with the
user-interface screen, in particular a sound device
arranged to cooperate to cooperate functionally with the
screen, such as a sound device for providing melodic
acoustic feed back in reaction to a user-input on the
user-interface screen and/or cooperating with the screen
so that harmonious visual feed-back is generated on the
user-interface screen in reaction to an audio signal. The
sound device may include a voice recognition arrangement
so as to be able to receive vocal user-commands and/or to
link a particular user profile from a voice analysis.
For example, the user-interface screen may be
arranged to display a movie, news, weather forecast,
stock exchange information or anything alike while the
machine is preparing a liquid food or beverage, so that
the user does not have to wait until the liquid food or
beverage is prepared to move on to such activities but
can do them right from the beginning, with a comfortable
interface screen whose functionalities go significantly
beyond mere input and/or output of data.
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In an embodiment, the machine has a generally panel-
shaped main body containing the dispensing arrangement or
a part thereof such as a pump, heating and/or cooling
element, an ingredient infusion chamber... The user-
interface screen may extend substantially over an entire
main side of said main body, or over one entire surface-
predominant distinctively user-visible section of a main
side of said main body.
The machine can be substantially formed by this main
body. The machine may have a foot for supporting this
main body, such as a foot having a base extending
horizontally and a generally upright extending stand
supporting the main body, in particular a generally L-
shaped or inverted T-shaped foot. The foot may include at
least one of: a drip tray having a support member for a
receptacle to be filled with a liquid food or beverage, a
capsule collector, and a liquid supply reservoir such as
a water reservoir.
Moreover, the machine may have a liquid food or
beverage outlet located above an area for receiving a
receptacle to be filled, the outlet being hidden by the
user-interface screen. For instance, the outlet is
located perpendicularly behind the user-interface screen.
In fact, the entire area or a substantial part thereof
can be located perpendicularly behind the user-interface
screen.
Thus, in addition of providing a user-interface
screen configuration on the machine that naturally and
durably captures the user's attention, the machine's
outlet, and optionally the receptacle located thereunder,
may be hidden from the user's visual field so as avoid
distraction of the user's attention by parts and/or
operations of the machine other than those relating to
the user-interface screen.
When the machine is a table-top machine, e.g. a
machine dedicated for use on a table, such as a kitchen
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table, dinning room table, office desk or the like, the
user-interface screen may extend horizontally or at a
slope adjusted to substantially face a user visual field,
e.g. be adapted for a user down coming look onto the
machine. The user-interface screen may be at an angle to
the horizontal in the range of 0 to 60 deg, such as 15 to
45 deg, this angle being optionally user-adjustable.
When the machine is a shelf-top machine, e.g. on a
book-shelf, such as a machine for use at a higher level
above the ground than a table-top machine for instance,
the user-interface screen may extend vertically or at a
slope adjusted to substantially face a substantially
horizontal user visual field, the user-interface screen
being in particular at an angle to the vertical in the
range of 0 to 30 deg, such as 0 to 15 deg, this angle
being optionally user-adjustable.
Another aspect of the invention relates to a table-
top machine for filling a receptacle with a liquid food
or beverage This machine comprises: a housing; an
arrangement for dispensing a liquid food or a beverage to
a receptacle upon a user-request; and a user-interface
screen on the housing. In accordance with the invention,
the user-interface screen is horizontal or at a slope, in
particular at an angle to the horizontal in the range of
0 to 60 deg and/or at an angle that is user-adjustable.
A further aspect of the invention relates to a
machine for filling a receptacle with a liquid food or
beverage. The machine comprises: a housing; an
arrangement with an outlet for dispensing a liquid food
or a beverage to a receptacle upon a user-request; and a
user-interface screen on the housing. In accordance with
the invention, the liquid food or a beverage outlet is
located perpendicularly behind the user-interface screen.
The outlet may be located above an area for receiving
this receptacle, the entire area or a substantial part
thereof being located behind the user-interface screen.
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Such liquid food or beverage machines are
particularly handy for preparing a liquid food or
beverage during an on-going broadcasted radio or TV
program. The user may thus get himself a liquid food or
beverage while he is following such a program on an
ordinary TV or radio and still continue to follow the
program on the beverage preparation machine. Hence, the
user will not be attempted to wait the end of the program
or an advertising break. The beverage preparation machine
may include a receiver that is capable of reacting to a
remote control device, such as an IR or radio remote
control device, in particular a remote control device
compatible with a radio or television, so that the user
may start-up the food or beverage machine from a
distance, in particular while he is sitting in front of
his TV or nearby the radio. The liquid food or beverage
machines may of course be connected to a DVD or other
media source so that the user can follow his favourite
programs while he is preparing a liquid food or beverage.
Brief Description of the Drawings
The invention will now be described with reference
to the schematic drawings, wherein:
- Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a beverage
machine according to the invention, Figures la, lb and lc
being right side, left side and rear side views of this
machine; and
- Figure 2 shows a perspective view of another
beverage machine according to the invention, Figure 2b
being right side view of this machine.
Detailed description
Figures 1, la, lb and lc show a beverage preparation
machine 1, e.g. a coffee machine using capsules of an
ingredient of the beverage to be prepared, typically
ground coffee capsules.
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Machine 1 has a housing 3 with a generally upright
panel- or plate-like shape that contains an arrangement
with an outlet 4 for dispensing upon a user request a
beverage to a receptacle 2, such as a cup, glass or mug.
Housing 3 has a user-interface screen 10 and a user
touch key panel 11 that form, in a user-orientation, two
distinctively user-visible sections 10,11 or discrete
sections 10,11 on housing 3.
User-interface screen 10 and housing 3 with touch
key panel 11 have an orientation relative to a user (the
user-orientation), schematically indicated in Fig. 1 by
an eye 5, for inputting the request for the dispensing of
the liquid food or beverage. User-interface screen 10 is
arranged in the user-orientation to face the user 5
within a user-visible housing portion, as indicated by
visual field ABCD, that is delimited by user-visible
outermost boundaries of housing 3. In other words, in
this user-orientation the user has a normal direction of
vision (indicated by dashed line V in Fig. 1) that is
generally orthogonal to user-interface screen 10 and
intercepts a central part screen 10. This orientation of
housing 3 corresponds to the normal orientation of
machine 1 relative to the user when operated by a user to
dispense a beverage.
As shown in Fig. 1, in this orientation relative to
the user, the user-visible interface screen 10 is located
within the user's visual field, as indicated by user
visual focus AB'CD, and forms substantially the entire
user-visible housing portion, as indicated by visual
field ABCD. As illustrated in this embodiment, the visual
field AB'CD corresponding to screen 10 makes over 90 or
95% of the visual filed ABCD of the entire user-visible
housing portion. The remaining user-visible part of
housing 3 is formed by touch key panel 11. Hence, screen
10 has a user-visible section delimited by field AB'CD
with a surface area that is predominant relative to the
entire user-visible part delimited by visual field ABCD
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of the housing 3, in this orientation of housing 3
relative to the user. Moreover, screen 10 forms a the
surface-predominant user-visible section delimited by
field AB'CD of a pair of distinctively visible sections
delimited by fields AB'CD and ABB'. These two
distinctively user-visible sections, i.e. formed by
screen 10 and panel 11, form together the user-visible
housing portion delimited by its outermost boundaries and
the corresponding visual field ABCD in the user-
orientation.
As mentioned above, machine 1 has a touch key panel
11 as a user-input interface. Screen 10 may merely serve
to display visual information or may also be arranged as
an input device, e.g. a touch screen with a touch-
sensitive surface extending over the entire screen 10 or
only part thereof. Screen 10 may be arranged to display
various information and/or visual effects, as for example
mentioned above, including network information when the
machine is connectable to a user-network. Moreover,
machine 1 may include a sound generating arrangement with
loudspeakers and/or microphone and be a true multimedia
interactive device, as discussed above.
As shown in Figures 1, la and 1b, machine 1 has a
substantially vertical orientation of the user-interface
screen 10. Such a machine is suitably placed in a
location in which screen 10 will be at the normal level
of the eyes 5 of a user, for instance on a shelf, such as
a book-shelf, for example in a living room or library.
Machine 1 may be used to contribute to the ambiance
in such places. In addition to screen 10, housing 3 may
in particular have a series of holes 31 on its lateral,
rear and/or upper sides, in particular below panel 11,
for the emission of light, of various colours, to create
such an ambiance.
To deemphasize the liquid food or beverage visual
aspect of machine 1, receptacle 2 and outlet 4 and are
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located in a dispensing cavity 2' that is located behind
screen 10, in the user-orientation, and hidden thereby.
In order to provide an adjusted filling of the cup, an
automatic filling system with a control of the level of
fill may be implemented into the machine, for instance of
the type disclosed in US 4,458,735, W097/25634 and
W099/50172.
Furthermore, machine 1 has a capsule inlet
arrangement 32 on the left lateral side for the supply of
capsules containing an ingredient of the liquid food or
beverage to be prepared, such as coffee. Additionally,
machine 1 has a top face 36, behind panel 11, for holding
spare cups 2. Top face 36 may include a heating
arrangement to preheat such spare cups 2. The cup heater
may be of the resistive type, in particular a vapour
circulation cup heater as known in the art, or any other
suitable heating system. Also shown in Fig. lc, a spare
capsule receptacle 38 is located on top face 36 of
machine 1 for storing unused capsules.
Moreover, machine 1 has a reservoir 33 for liquid
such as water, a drip tray arrangement 34 under outlet 4
with a used capsule collector 37 in a central part of
machine 1, for instance of the type disclosed in EP
1731065. For positioning cup 2 under outlet 4, drip tray
may include a positioning arrangement at its surface
and/or vertical walls 35 delimiting dispensing cavity 2'
may be positioned relative to outlet 4 to serve as
references for a cup positioning, i.e. so that a cup 2
may simply be pushed against walls 35 to be properly
positioned under outlet 4.
Unlike prior art beverage machines, drip tray 34
with capsule receptacle 37 is removable from the side of
machine 1, in a movement behind screen and that goes away
from screen 10 and/or generally parallel to the front
side and screen 10 of machine 1. The same applies to
reservoir 33. It follows that during use and after use,
when the machine is serviced, e.g. drip tray 34 emptied,
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screen 10 is not exposed to parts of machine 1 that might
project liquid, such as liquid food or beverage, against
screen 10.
Figures 2 and 2a, in which the same references
designate generally the same elements, show another
machine 1 according to the invention.
Machine 1 has a housing 3 with a generally L-shaped
foot 3' and a main body 3" having the shape of a
generally inclined panel or plate appearing like an open
book. Housing 3 contains an arrangement with an outlet 4
for dispensing upon a user request a beverage to a
receptacle 2 placed on the horizontally extending part of
L-shaped foot 3'. The generally upright stand of foot 3'
is slightly inclined to the vertical by an angle of a few
degrees, such as about 5 to 10 deg.
Main body 3' ' has on the right-hand side a user-
interface touch screen 10 and on the left hand side a
capsule inlet arrangement comprising a covering handle 32
that is pivotally mounted on an upper edge of body 3' '
and extending over an upper wall 16 of body 3' ' which
wall is inert. In a variation, wall 16 may include an
interface device and/or be formed at least partly by an
extension of touch screen 10 or a second screen.
Machine 1 is a table-top machine and its main body
3" with user-interface screen 10 is oriented at an angle
of about 45 deg to the horizontal. This orientation of
screen 10 relative to the user's eye 5 when he operates
machine 1 to dispense a beverage is optimal to naturally
invite and incite the user to focus his or her attention
onto screen 10.
As shown in Fig. 2a, in this orientation relative to
the user, the user-visible interface screen 10 is located
within the user's visual field, as indicated by user
visual focus AB, and forms a surface-predominant section
as indicated by visual field A'B' of a plurality of
distinctively user-visible sections that form together
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the user-visible portion of housing 3. Indeed, screen 10
forms the largest section of the distinctly visible
sections in this normal orientation of use. The other
distinctively visible sections, having all a surface area
that is smaller than the one of the screen section,
include inert wall 16, handle 32 and user-visible part of
foot 3'.
Screen 10 is a touch sensitive screen an may be
operated by finger contact and/or with a stylus 15.
Furthermore, screen 10 is associated with a pair of
buttons 12, for example for quick operation of machine 1
without having to access screen 10. Moreover, screen 10
includes a touch sensitive button 13 for navigating
through pages and menus displayable on screen 10. Button
13 is in a shape suggesting a turned down corner of a
book page to increase the intuitiveness of operation of
screen 10. A main switch 14 is disposed next to button 13
at the corner of screen 10.
Screen 10 may be arranged to display various
information and/or visual effects, as for example
mentioned above, including network information when the
machine is connectable to a user-network. Moreover,
machine 1 may include a sound generating arrangement with
loudspeakers and/or microphone and be a true multimedia
interactive device, as discussed above.
Foot 3' includes a drip tray 34 having a support
plate for a cup and a single drain hole 34' through the
plate for the evacuation of liquid. Foot 3' also includes
a water reservoir 33 and a collector 37 for used
capsules.
Machine's outlet 4 is located perpendicularly behind
screen 10 and hidden therebehind when the machine is in
its normal orientation of use relative to a user.
