Societe Des Produits Nestle S.a.

Laurent Sache

Marco Restelli

Sergio Chioda

Christian Oggenfuss

A machine for preparing and dispensing a beverage, such as tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cold chocolate, milk, soup or baby food, comprising a capsule recognition module for recognizing a capsule inserted in said machine at a capsule recognition position, the capsule recognition module comprising a camera for capturing an image of at least part of said capsule in said capsule recognition position; wherein the capsule recognition module comprises a camera for capturing an image of at least part of a capsule in the capsule recognition position, at least one source of light, for example at least one LED, to light up the capsule at said capsule recognition position, wherein the capsule recognition module comprises a diffuser for diffusing the light of the at least one source of light towards the capsule recognition position.

Beverage preparation machine with capsule recognition

The invention relates to a beverage machine () having an external housing () and a plurality of movable beverage preparation modules () that are configured to process a beverage and/or a beverage ingredient to be dispensed via at least one beverage dispensing outlet () to a user-cup or user-mug (). The housing () has a front opening (') and forms a cavity (&#x2033;) for housing the modules (). The or each movable module () is insertable as a unit into an operative position into the cavity (&#x2033;) and removable out of the cavity (&#x2033;) via the front opening (&#x2032;), such as movable along a substantially horizontal direction into and out of its operative position. The or each movable module () is insertable as a unit into the cavity (&#x2033;) into its operative position and removable out of the cavity (&#x2033;) via the front opening (&#x2032;) independently of the presence inside the cavity (&#x2033;) of any other movable beverage preparation module () in its operative position.

Beverage machines with modularity

The invention relates to a beverage machine () having an external housing () and a movable beverage preparation module () that is configured to process a beverage and/or a beverage ingredient to be dispensed. The housing () has a front opening (') and forms a cavity () for housing the module (). The module () is insertable as a unit into an operative position into the cavity () and removable as a unit out of the cavity () via the front opening (). The housing () has a cavity connector () in the cavity () and the module () has a module connector that is connected to the cavity connector () when the module () is located there against while reaching its operative position and that is disconnected from the cavity connector () when the module () is removed from the cavity (). At least one () of the connectors has a connection interface device () that is resiliently mounted to a connection base device () to enable a positioning adjustment of the interface device () when the module connector and the cavity connector () are connected together.

Growing community of inventors

Allinges, France

Laurent Sache