Technical field

The present invention relates generally to an intelligent cup or cup holder. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cup or cup holder as defined in the introductory parts of claim 1 and 2.

Background art

It is important for human beings to drink, eat and sometime medicate regularly for the body to function as it should. It is always important to drink at regular intervals, e.g. Most people have no problem with this but if you are old and/or sick, a person is sometimes in a condition where he/she does may forget to drink which may have devastating consequences. An old and/or sick person that forgets to drink sufficiently will be unnecessary weakened and may become worse and even die in vain.

The same problem exists for nutrition drinks and medicine for bed lying people. If important medication that is to be taken regularly is forgotten, severe consequences may occur.

Different reminders exist on the market, but are seldom used as often as they should. There is thus a need for a simple reminder device that is simple enough to use for a sick person that may have impaired vision and that may be weakened to body and senses. Summary of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to improve the current state of the art, to solve the above problems, and to provide an improved device for

remembering to drink and/or take medicaments. These and other objects are achieved by a cup for liquid or medicaments comprising a receptacle for storing said liquid or medicament . The invention is characterized in that in that said cup further comprises: a time assessment device, a motion sensor, and communication means. The same object may be achieved by a cup holder for holding a cup characterized in that it comprises a time assessment device, a motion sensor, and communication means.

The inventive and intelligent cup or cup holder makes life easier for its owners and helps them to not forget to drink or take their medicine regularly. The intelligent cup or cup holder will use the communication means to communicate to the user when it has not been used for a certain time. The time assessment device will trigger the communication device to communicate this to the user when a certain time has passed since the motion sensor last indicated that the cup or cup holder was moved. In that way the user will not forget to drink or take medicine. This aids the user to stay on schedule with regard to drinking water or medicine or taking pills stored in the cup.

The receptacle is preferably a container that can hold a liquid, but in the case of the device being a cup holder, the receptacle may be any structure that can hold and orient a cup.

If the inventive device is an intelligent cup holder, the cup intended to be received in the cup holder may be any cup, but is preferably a disposable cup. Using a disposable cup, the invention is easy to use in e.g. a hospital environment where the cup might be replaced frequently.

The motion sensor may be any sensor that can indicate if the cup or cup holder moves. The motion sensor can be of any common type as e.g. a piezo- electrical motion sensor, but could also be an optical sensor with a light source and a detector. It is further preferred that the cup or cup holder comprises an electric circuit connected to the time assessment device, the motion sensor and the

communication means. The electric circuit will connect time assessment devices that are electrical and not mechanical with electrical motion sensors and electrical communication means.

It should however be noted that all of these components could be nonelectrical. The motion sensor and time assessment de could be a pipe in which a body moves easily to one end when the cup or cup holder is used and takes a long time to fall back when not used, eventually falling down on the communication means, which could be a bell.

The cup or cup holder further preferably comprises an energy source. The energy source may be any kind of battery or fuel cell. The battery preferably delivers a voltage suitable for the attached electrical components.

It is further preferred that the time assessment device is a clock. The clock can be implemented as a timer to trigger the communication device when the timer expires. It is also preferred that the communication means is a loudspeaker. When the time assessment device trigger the loudspeaker, the loudspeaker receives an electrical current, making the loudspeaker play sounds in accordance with the amplitude variations of the current.

The communication means could however also be a light source as a LED, emitting light when the time assessment device indicate that it is time to drink from the cup or cup holder or take a medicine from it. The communication means may also be a led based clock visualized on the cup as printed electronics.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention the electric circuit comprises a CPU and a memory, said CPU being adapted to execute algorithms stored on the memory. The algorithms are preferably computer programs that control the components that are connected to the electrical circuit. The computer programs may contain logic such as timer programs, scheduling and control programs for connected equipment. The memory may comprise sound information adapted to be communicated via said loudspeaker. The sound information could be stored in any common sound format playable by the CPU using the loudspeaker, e.g. wave, mp3, etc. According to a further embodiment, the communication means of the cup or cup holder is a radio transmitter or radio transceiver. It may e.g. be a phone module adapted to communicate via at least one mobile phone network standard, as e.g. the GSM, CDMA, or LTE standards. The phone module could e.g. call the owner of the cup or cup holder playing a recorded message reminding the owner about the time period since 1 1 was last used. The phone module could also send an SMS or an MMS to the user with a text reminding the owner to drink or take a medicament.

The radio transceiver could also be a Bluetooth module able to communicate with other equipment in the house. The device could e.g. tell the owners Bluetooth equipped mobile phone to show the owner a reminder message, when sensing that the specific phone is within range. It could also communicate with equipment in an intelligent house, as e.g. a house control computer or a home multimedia computer. The possibilities for reminding the owner is then up to the computer, but could include anything from playing sounds, controlling lamps, light effects, showing a message on the TV, sending an email, etc.

It is further preferred that the cup or cup holder according to the invention has an input/output port (l/O-port), as, e.g. a USB or firewire port. The l/O-port may e.g. be used to ad or change the sounds or tunes that the cup or cup holder uses to, via the loudspeaker, remind the user to drink or take a medicament. The port could also be used to charge the battery of the cup or cup holder if the cup or cup holder is of model that has a battery that is rechargeable.

The cup or cup holder further preferably comprise a compartment in the bottom part of the cup or cup holder for storing electronics. Placing the electronics in the bottom makes the cup or cup holder easier to manufacture while at the same time establishing a better point of gravity. The bottom part may be attached to the walls of the cup by threads, i.e. it is screwed from underneath into threads in circular walls of the cup. To function as a cup, it is important that the threads are sealed to be water tight.

The electric circuit and its corresponding electric components may however also be printed electronics integrated into or onto the wall material of the cup or cup holder. If the device is a cup holder it further preferably comprise protrusions arranged to abut a cup received in said cup holder. The protrusions are intended to apply pressure to a cup received in the receptacle and thus function as gripping means for holding a received cup steadily. The protrusions may be of the same material as the side walls or may be made of rubber or any other material having a suitable friction coefficient.

The operation of the cup or cup holder according to the invention will now shortly be described. The time assessment device, or timer, is started and time is measured until the motion sensor detects motion or a first pre-determined time has elapsed according to the assessment of the time assessment device. If the motion sensor has detected motion, and the cup or cup holder thus can be assumed to have been used, the time assessment device, or timer, is reset. If, on the other hand, the first pre-determined time has elapsed, the cup or cup holder will activate the communication means to communicate to the user that the cup or cup holder has not been used for a long time. The means of communication can be any of the previously described types, e.g. a tune that is played by a loudspeaker.

It is further preferred that the loop described above is repeated for a second pre-determined time until the user notice and make use of the cup or cup holder. That is, the timer is reset, and if the motion sensor does not detect any motion for some time, the second pre-determined time period, the cup or cup holder will again activate the communication means and e.g. play a tune.

The first and second pre-determined time periods are e.g. 6 hours and 5 minutes respectively. They can be fixed in manufacturing or made possible to adjust for the user.

Further time tables for reminders may also be applied to adjust the delay for a longer night sleep period, e.g. Controls may be available on the cup or cup holder to set a number of delays during 24 hours to custom make a schedule for drinking or taking medicine.

Brief description of the drawings

The above objects, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention, will be more fully appreciated by reference to the following illustrative and non-limiting detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: Fig. la is a cross sectional view of a cup according to the invention.

Fig. lb is a cross sectional view of the cup or cup holder according to the invention with a indication of a received cup. Fig. 2 is a diagram of electronics contained in a preferred embodiment of the cup or cup holder according to the invention.

Fig. 3 is a diagram showing a method according to the present invention. Detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention

The cup or cup holder is shown in Fig. la and Fig. lb. Fig. la shows a cross section of a cup according to the invention along a vertical plane through the center axis of a rotational symmetrical cup. A receptacle volume 4 for receiving either a cup or a liquid is the largest part of the cup or cup holder. The volume is defined by side walls as in any normal cup. The bottom of the cup or cup holder is a compartment holding electronics 2. In the preferred embodiment in Fig. la the electronics compartment is screwed into threads 3 in the bottom part of the side walls. The walls are preferably made of plastic or metal, but may also be plastic coated cardboard. It is important that the threaded connection between the walls of the cup and the bottom part is sealed to be liquid tight so that the container/receptacle 4 does not leak when used.

Fig. lb shows a cross section of a cup or cup holder according to the invention along a vertical plane through the center axis of the rotational symmetrical cup. In addition to what is present in Fig. la the cup or cup holder in Fig. lb has a received cup 6 indicated by the dashed lines, the received cup 6 being received in the receptacle 4 of the cup or cup holder. Protrusions 5 serving as grips 5 are arranged on the inside of the walls of the receptacle 4 to apply pressure and thus friction onto received cup 6. Even though the cup or cup holder in Fig. lb has grips 5, it may still be used as a cup in itself. The walls are then preferably made of plastic or metal, but may also be plastic coated cardboard. On the other hand, the invention could be a cup holder, where the receptacle is not a container able to hold fluid, but only intended for holding a cup.

Fig. 2 shows a preferred embodiment of the electronics 2 of the cup or cup holder. The electronics board contains a timer clock 24, being the time assessment device, a motion sensor 25, a CPU 21, a battery 22 and a speaker 23, the speaker being the communication device. The preferred embodiment also has some optional components, not necessarily included I all models of the product according to the invention, namely an input/output (I/O) port 27 and a radio communication component 28.

Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of the function of an embodiment according to the present invention. When tuning the device on, the first thing that happens is that the timer is reset and starts to measure time, having a pre-determined set off time, e.g. 6 h. During that time the timer can be reset at any point if the cup or cup holder is moved so that the motion sensor is activated. Unless the motion sensor detects movement in the pre-determined time, e.g. 6 h, the timer will set of and the CPU will execute a tune to be played to remind the cup or cup holder user to drink and/or take medicament. When the tune is played, the timer is once again reset, but to a second predetermined time, e.g. 5 minutes. If the owner of the cup or cup holder hasn't set of the motion sensor, by moving the cup or cup holder, within the second predetermined time, the tune will be played again and the timer will be reset to the second predetermined time once again. If on the other hand, the motion sensor is set off, indicating that the cup or cup holder has been used, the function of the cup or cup holder will start over by resetting the timer to the first predetermined time of, e.g. 6 h. If the cup or cup holder has the optional l/O-port 27, the cup or cup holder may be recharged via the port. It is preferably a standard connection like a mini-USB connection for example. Tunes stored in the memory could also be accessed and replaced through the I/O port, 27 e.g. by connecting the cup or cup holder to a computer.

If the cup or cup holder has the optional radio component 28, the steps in Fig. 3 where the tune is played are complemented by sending a radio signal from the radio component. The radio component 28 could be a Bluetooth device

communicating to another device, e.g. a computer, to send a reminder to the user in any form. The radio component 28 could also be a mobile phone component, able to either call the user and play a recorded message that is stored on the memory, or send a text or image message to the user's mobile phone. The voice, text and/or image message to the user and the telephone number or numbers that are to be called are stored on the memory 28 and are edited either via the I/O port, if existing, or via text message over the telephone network or by accessing the cup or cup holder via Bluetooth from a Bluetooth enabled device.

It should be noted that obvious variations of the invention described above are understood and are contemplated in the scope of the invention. It is e.g. obvious that the shape of the cup is unimportant for the scope of the invention.