FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to beverages, more particularly to a system, apparatus and method for automated dispensing of water-based, personalized beverages.

BACKGROUND

Beverages and beverage dispensing systems are an important consumer market. There exists several known systems and methods related to providing beverages, in particular water-based beverages, to consumers. Non-limiting examples of prior art beverage systems include:

Tap water Tap water is ubiquitous in all developed countries. Consumer can get access to water for free or cheap anywhere. However the quality of tap water varies greatly. In some countries the state guarantees that tap water is safe for consumption, while this is not universally the case. For the places where water is drinkable, the taste of the water varies depending on which processing the water has gone through. Other properties of the water such as temperature, nutritional content and color will vary as well.

Finally tap water does not provide the user with a choice of additives to enhance taste or nutritional content such as flavors or soda.

Water cooler

In many locations such as offices one will find a water cooler. This is generally a plastic barrel of clean water dispensed through a cooling mechanism. The user will use disposable cups made from paper or plastic and dispense the amount of water she wants. Distribution of the clean water is done through traditional package logistics. A service technician drives a route to check for and replace empty barrels in all the locations en route.

The water quality is maintained in the distillery where the barrels are re-filled.

The water will sit in the barrel for a long time before it is dispensed. This will degrade the perceived quality of the water due to plastic oils seeping into the water.

The logistics of barrel replacement and the waste created from disposable cups makes this kind of distribution expensive from an environmental perspective.

Finally the end user will not have any choice of additives to the water to enhance taste or nutritional content. Bottled soda

All bottled beverage such as soda or flavoured water have the same problems:

• Expensive for the environment due to the logistics overhead including plastic bottle production, bottle filling process, bottle transportation, long periods of highly energy inefficient cooled storage.

Expensive for the end consumer due to the logistics.

Long shelf-life reduces perceived quality and freshness of the product.

Produces plastic waste. Dispensed soda

Usually found in restaurants, this concept reduces the logistics of bottled soda pop somewhat. The most prevalent sodas delivered will require a large concentrate to water ratio, and so there is still considerable logistics involved for transporting concentrate syrups although they are moved in more efficient containers.

From a consumer convenience perspective this is quite limiting. The beverage is only available to the consumer at a particular bar/restaurant and she can only select from a limited selection of available drinks. The choices are generally restricted to beverages considered unhealthy. The consumer has to pay the price that restaurant/bar asks and drink it on their terms (in the container they provided and on their premises). From the perspective of the proprietor, such dispensing systems provide little to no capability to monitor the usage of the dispenser, and provides virtually no consumer usage data.

Sodastream

A soda stream as used herein means a home product that allows the consumer to produce their own soda pop using water, CO2 cartridges and flavor syrups. This may be a cheap alternative to shop-bought soda pops, but is less convenient. The consumer will have to invest in a sodastream machine, and further buy sodastream branded supplies that fit with their machine.

The machine is not conveniently portable. Consumer would not typically bring it with them during a normal day. It stays at home. There is therefore a need for an improved system and method for dispensing healthy, water- based beverages to consumers, that is energy efficient and spares our environment from unnecessary pollution, and that also provides for the collection of useful consumer data.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a beverage distribution system that allows consumers to enjoy freshly made, clean and healthy beverages with a clean conscience and at a low price. Due to the fact that the enormous distribution cost of the alternative is virtually eliminated, each drink costs the fraction of the price both in cash and in environmental strain. The drinks produced are of much higher quality than the comparable alternatives.

According to one aspect, the invention is comprised of 4 core parts: · smart-bottle 29

• dispenser 45

• app 44

• Internet or "cloud-based" server 43 According to the present invention, water quality, temperature and color is kept constant within strict limits, and a wide array of additives are available to enhance taste and nutritional content of the beverages provided.

Users of the system are provided with a so-called "smart-bottles", either sponsored from an employer, or as a paying customer buying it over the counter.

To use the smart-bottle the user will approach a dispenser 45 and insert her smart-bottle. The dispenser 45 will then identify the bottle using NFC technology and look up the smart- bottle in the cloud over an internet connection.

The cloud server 43 will reply with all details relevant for the dispenser 45, and a transaction will be authorized. A selection of drinks i presented on the screen of a Touch PC of the dispenser 45.

Once the user has selected her drink, the dispenser will immediately produce the drink and dispense it into the smart-bottle. Once the drink is complete, all information pertaining to the session is synchronized with the cloud server 43.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to attached drawings, where:

Figure 1 is a schematic view of the dispenser 45 showing how components are

interconnected.

Figure 2 is a front view of a free standing dispenser 45.

Figure 3 is a side view of a closed dispenser chassis 5.

Figure 4 is a side view of an opened dispenser chassis 5 exposing the automation board 21. Figure 5 is a side view of an opened dispenser chassis 5 exposing the hydraulics board 22. Figure 6 is a back and side view of the front cover 8.

Figure 7 is a cutaway view from the side of dispenser chassis with front cover 8.

Figure 8 is two front views of chassis 5 with front cover 8 and touch PC 28 removed exposing backplate 9.

Figure 9 is a front view of chassis 5 with backplate 9 removed, exposing sliding carriage 6. Figure 10 is a front view of CO2 canister 15 assembly. Figure 1 1 is front, top and cutaway views of spill bottle 19 with exploded view of spill sensor

42.

Figure 12 s front and side view of BiB 20 with quick connector 38.

Figure 13 s front, bottom, top and cutaway views of smart-bottle 29 with NFC tag 30.

Figure 14 s a front view of inset alone.

Figure 15 s a front view of inset with cooler, filter 13 and BiBs 20 in place,

Figure 16 s a front view of inset with CO2 and spill bottle assemblies in place,

Figure 17 s a front and a side view of closed cupboard.

Figure 18 s two front views of cupboard with door removed and one with inset in place.

Figure 19 s a close up cutaway view exposing the internals of the spout 16.

Figure 20 s a schematic overview of the tiers in the distributed software solution.

Figure 21 s a schematic view of the logical layers in the server side software solution.

Figure 22 s a sequence diagram showing the steps in dispenser aided registration process.

Figure 23 s a sequence diagram showing the steps in a fill-session with a registered smart- bottle.

LIST OF PARTS

The dispenser comprises the following main components

1. Upper shell

2. Lower compartment "cabinet"

3. Inset

4. Dispensing slot

5. Chassis

6. Sliding carriage

7. Slides

8. Front cover

9. Backplate

10. Aqua safe

1 1. PEX Hose

12. Bar stop

13. Water filter

14. Combined cooler & carbonator

15. C0 ₂ Canister

16. Spout 17. Tray

18. Spill reservoir

19. Spill bottle

20. BiB ("Bag-ln-Box") 21 . Automation board

22. Hydraulics board

23. Pumps

24. Valves

25. PLC

26. Power supply 24 VDC

27. Fuses

28. Touch PC

29. Smart-bottle

30. NFC tag

31 . NFC reader

32. Maintenance switch

33. Upper lock

34. Lower lock

35. C0 ₂ manifold 36. Pressure regulator

37. Manometers

38. BiB quick connector

39. Plastic hose

40. Wire

41 . VESA Mount

42. Spill sensor

43. Cloud server

44. App

45. Dispenser

46. Database

47. Back-end

48. Front-end DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the invention, a dispenser 45 is provided.

As shown in Fig. 2, the dispenser 45 comprises an upper shell 1 mounted above a cabinet 2. Cabinet 2 can be any cabinet as long as it meets the size requirements to fit an inset 3 inside it. The choice of cabinet may be functional as well as esthetic in nature. In certain installations it is desirable for the dispenser 45 to fit with an existing interior design while in others the dispenser 45 will be free standing.

Arranged in the front of the upper shell 1 is a screen 3, a dispensing slot 4 sized to receive a smart-bottle 29. At the bottom of dispensing slot 4 sits a tray 17 where the smart-bottle 29 rests. Arranged underneath tray 17 on the inside of the front cover 8 is an NFC reader 31. When the smart- bottle 29 is inserted into the dispensing slot 4, the NFC tag 30 situated in the bottom of the smart-bottle 29 will come into range of the NFC reader 31 and wireless communication will start between NFC tag 30 and NFC reader 31 .

Sliding carriage

As shown in Fig. 4 the upper shell 1 is comprised of a chassis 5, a sliding carriage 6 and a front cover 8. The sliding carriage 6 holds the hydraulics board 22 on the left hand side (fig. 5) and the automation board 21 on the right hand side (fig. 4). Both boards are constructed to be easily replaceable by simply unscrewing two hand screws in the top and then tilting them out until the hinge lock in their bottom releases to free the entire board from the sliding carriage 6. The sliding carriage 6 is mounted to the chassis 5 using sliding rails 7 so that the carriage can be slide out like a drawer from the inside of the chassis 5 to expose the hydraulic board 22 and the automation board 21 for easy maintenance.

Hydraulics board

The hydraulics board 22 is mounted on the left hand side of the sliding carriage 6 and holds all pumps 23 and valves 24 in place. As seen in Fig. 1 each flavor has their own supply chain that all starts with a BiB (Bag-in-Box) 20 in the BIB shelf of the inset 3 in the lower compartment 2.

A flavor concentrate in the BiB 20 will leave through a BiB quick connector 38 through a plastic hose 39 that extends upwards through a hole in the top of the lower compartment 2.

The hose will continue up inside the space in the middle of the sliding carriage 6 and will exit through a hole in the hydraulics board 22 to feed the input of a pump 23. The pump 23 will suck concentrate from the BiB 20 and onward through another plastic hose 39 that continues down to the input for the respective valve 24.

The valve 24 will stay closed until it is time to make a fill at which point it will release the concentrate and allow it to flow into a thinner plastic hose 39 that continues directly into the spout 16 (Fig. 19) where all the ingredients will mix together with water to form the drink.

Six of the valves 24 are used for concentrate while the remaining two valves 24 are used for water and soda. These valves 24 are fed directly via plastic hoses 39 from combined cooler and carbonator 14. The water and soda streams exit the cooler in separate hoses 39 into their respective valves 24 but merge before the spout 16 in a Y section. The plastic hose 39 that leads water to the spout 16 is fed into the spout 16 in the center position with six ingredient hoses surrounding it.

Valves On the hydraulics board 22 there are eight valves 24 mounted total, six for flavors and two for water and soda. As seen in Fig. 1 the valves 24 are normally closed and run by solenoids. The solenoids are driven by twenty four Volt DC that is applied over wires 40 from the PLC 25. Pumps

As seen in Fig. 5 the hydraulics board 22 holds six diaphragm pumps 23 mounted to suck concentrate from the BiBs 20 and through plastic hoses 39 to the spout 16. The pumps 23 will maintain 1 .5 bar pressure until valves 24 release. Pumps 23 rely on pressurized CO2 from the CO2 canister 15 to function. Bag-in-box

The flavors used to produce drinks in the dispenser 45 are delivered in BiBs (Bag in Box) 20 As seen in Fig. 12 a BiB 20 comprises a cardboard box with a plastic bag inside that can hold up to 3 000 ml of flavor concentrate. The BiBs 20 are connected directly to valves 24 using spill-free quick connectors 38 and plastic hoses 39.

CO? Cannister The pumps 23 are diaphragm pumps driven by CO2 under pressure. The combined cooler and carbonator 14 uses CO2 under pressure to produce soda from water. Both receive CO2 from the CO2 manifold 35. According to fig. 10 the CO2 manifold 35 is attached to the CO2 canister 15 and distributes CO2 through separate pressure regulators 36 and manometers 37 to the pumps 23 and carbonator 14 respectively. Pressure for carbonator 14 is 3.7 bar while pressure for pumps 23 is 1 .5 bar. The CO2 manifold 35 also has a main manometer 37 that indicates how much CO2 is left in the CO2 canister 15.

Automation board

The automation board 21 is mounted on the right hand side of the sliding carriage 6 and holds all the electronics components including PSU 26, PLC 25, Fuses 27 and Maintenance switch 32. As seen in Fig. 1 the 220 Volt AC mains is connected to two main fuses 27. Fuse #1 powers the PSU 26 that in turn powers the PLC 25 and Touch PC 28. Fuse #2 powers the combined cooler & carbonator 14. The PLC 25 has twenty four Volt DC control wires that connect to each of the eight valves 24. The PLC 25 is also connected to the spill sensor 42 and maintenance switch 32. The PLC 25 stays in communication with Touch PC 28 over a dedicated industrial ethernet connection.

Inset All the components in the lower compartment 2 are mounted to a metal frame called the inset 3. As seen in Fig. 12 the inset 3 comprises a shelf for BiBs 20 to the left, a shelf for combined cooler and carbonator 14 to the right, a holder for the water filter 13 in the middle. Under the shelf to the right there is a mount for the bar stop 12 that is attached to water mains through a PEX hose 1 1 that exits through a hole on the back of the dispenser 45. The PEX hose 1 1 is attached to the mains via an Aqua safe automatic shut off valve 10.

As shown in Fig. 14 there is also a seat for the spill bottle 19 and for the CO2 canister 15 at the base in front of the inset 3. In this way the dispenser 45 provides easy access to all parts that will need frequent maintenance in the lower compartment 2 such as spill bottle 19, BiBs 20, water filter 13 and CO2 canister 15.

Maintenance switch

As seen in Fig. 4, there is a 3-way electronic switch mounted on the automation board 21 called the maintenance switch 32. The maintenance switch 32 is connected to the PLC 25 and is monitored by the software in the Touch PC 28. The maintenance switch 32 can be set to one of the following states:

• OUT OF SERVICE

• RUN

· MAINTENANCE

When the state of the switch changes, the software will act accordingly, so that when set to OUT OF SERVICE the Touch PC 28 will display an "OUT OF SERVICE" notice on screen, while in MAINTENANCE mode the Touch PC 28 will display maintenance related settings on the screen, while in RUN it will accept customers as normal.

Power supply

According to fig. 1 the solenoids in the valves 24 require twenty four Volt DC to function and this is supplied by the 220 Volt DC to twenty four Volt DC power supply 26 mounted on the automation board 21. The power is first sent to the PLC 25 which will apply power to the valves 24 for the correct time intervals using internal relays.

Spout The spout 16 (Fig. 19) is where the drink is mixed. It comprises seven plastic hoses 39 arranged in a hexagon formation with one central hose. The peripheral hoses each carry respective flavor concentrates while the central hose carries water or soda. The hoses are pointed towards a stainless steel plate inside a small cylindrically shaped mixing chamber. The steel plate will disperse the stream. Dispersion has three purposes: 1. Ensure an even mix.

2. Cleaning the mixing chamber.

3. Avoiding soda overflow in smart-bottle 29.

The mixture will continue to flow downwards through a narrow passage that unifies the mixture into one coherent stream that exits at the perfect rate directly into the smart-bottle 29 resting on the tray 17 below.

Tray As seen in Fig. 1 , the tray 17 is a small cup-shaped rest with a flat grate covering it from the top. The tray 17 allows the smart-bottle 29 to rest stably while allowing any spill water to run through the grate and into the cup. From the cup, spill water will continue to flow down through a pair of tubes (see Fig. 7) and into the spill reservoir 18 (see Fig. 6). Spill reservoir

The spill reservoir 18 (see Fig. 6) holds more than a bottle full of spill water and feeds this through a plastic hose 39 either into a drain or to a designated spill bottle 19 in the lower compartment 2.

Spill bottle

The spill bottle 19 (see Fig. 1 1 ), when present, accepts spill water from the spill reservoir 18. It has two features to prevent overflowing. There is a ventilation hole in the cap that ensures free passage of air out of the spill bottle 19 when spill water runs into it.

Spill sensor

There is also a conductive water sensor 42 that is connected to the PLC 25 that will report when the spill bottle 19 is full. This triggers a warning via the software of the Touch PC 28 to the cloud server 43 so that the cloud server 43 may notify service personnel with instructions to empty the spill bottle 19. Automation

According to another aspect, the invention provides an automated system and method for providing beverages to consumers. The system and method employ the dispenser 45 described above and the consumer ^' s own, personal "smart-bottle" 29. Possible, non-limiting implementations of the systems and method are described below:

Fill Session

A preferred embodiment of an interaction with the dispenser 45 will be described below. See Fig. 23. The NFC reader 31 is connected to the Touch PC 28 via USB and the software in the PC will be notified as soon as there is any communication from NFC tags 30 situated on the tray to the NFC reader 31. The PC 28 will gather the unique code for the NFC tag 30 together with any other relevant data from the NFC tag 30 and transmit it to the cloud server 43 which will in turn respond with all relevant data pertaining to the smart-bottle 29, including its owner and her credit balance..The PC 28 will then determine if the owner is eligible to perform a fill and display a selection of drinks on the screen and wait for user to either perform a selection or remove the smart-bottle 29.

If the user removes her smart-bottle 29 at this point, the NFC communication stops and the PC 28 will go back to showing idle content.

If the user selected a drink on screen, the PC 28 will communicate with the PLC 25 over ethernet the correct timings for the valves 24 needed to produce the drink. Typical timings are 15 000 ms for 400 ml water or soda and 300 ms for 5 ml of each flavor ingredient.

The valves 24 will pulse open and let the pumps 23 suck the correct amount water and soda from the combined cooler and carbonator 14 and the correct amounts of ingredients flow from the BiBs 20 and into the spout 16 where the ingredients are mixed before they exit into the smart-bottle 29.

Once the fill is complete the PC 28 will display a message of success to the user indicating that she should now remove her smart-bottle 29 and enjoy her freshly made drink. Consumer interaction and subscriptions

According to one aspect, each smart-bottle 29 is tied to a particular subscription model. The subscription model will dictate how the smart-bottle 29 can be used. Due to the nature of the present invention, there are ample opportunities to provide targeted service to the individual consumer from the subscription model. Examples are:

• Consumer may only fill on certain dispensers 45 (segments).

• Consumer may only fill at given times of day and on certain days (working hours, parental control)

• Consumer may only fill a certain drink a certain number of times per unit of time

(dose restriction).

• Consumer may only fill certain drinks (age restriction)

• Consumer may only fill certain drinks after a third party complies via app 44 or similar (parental control).

The payment may be specified per bottle-dispenser combination as follows:

• Fills are free for certain consumers on certain dispensers 45 (sponsorship)

• Free fills are awarded to certain consumers on certain dispensers 45 for their actions (reward program)

• Fills for certain consumers on certain dispensers 45 are paid for with credits charged for in the app 44 using payment card or over phone bill (end-consumer)

• Fills for certain consumers on certain dispensers 45 are paid for by monthly invoice (employment good)

• Fills for certain consumers on certain dispensers 45 can be given by one consumer to another using the app 44 (sharing) The consumer will be able to recharge credits to their account through an app.

The app 44 has additional features such as:

• Management of user account

· Management of smart-bottles 29

• Viewing smart-bottle 29 statistics such as

o Sorted by group Single user

Organizational unit

• School class

• Sports team

• Company

• Company division

Location

• Country

• City

• State

• Community

o Sorted by dispenser 45 or group of dispensers 45

o Sorted by smart-bottle 29 or group of smart-bottles

o Sorted by smart-bottle 29 model

o Sorted by dispenser 45 model

o Sorted by drinks

■ Most popular

■ Least popular

■ Mean

■ Average

■ Combination of ingredients

■ Hour of day

■ Day of week

■ Week of year

■ Month of year

Sorted by timespan

■ Per day

■ Per week

■ Per month

■ Per year

Example statistics:

■ What was the second most used dispenser 45 for my football team last week?

■ What was the most filled ingredient combination in Canada throughout 2015?

■ How many fills with ingredient "Energy" have I filled on a green smart- bottle last month? ■ In which week did I fill the most drinks total last year?

■ How many plastic bottles have I saved this year?

• Get directions to the nearest dispensers 45 using navigation features on the phone.

• Viewing reward program benefits such as discounts and special offers.

· Perform donations to waterwells current cause.

Credit sharing

Consumers may share some of their credits with a friend by scanning their friend's smart- bottle 29 on their own device using the app 44. The app running on the device will be notified as soon as there is any communication from NFC tags 30 situated in proximity of the built-in NFC reader in the device. The app will gather the unique code for the NFC tag 30 together with any other relevant data such as the credit amount to be shared and transmit it to the cloud server 43. The cloud server 43 will then perform the transaction and report status back to the app 44.

Dispenser aided registration As a first time user of the smart-bottle 29, a consumer has three ways of registering into the "ecosystem" of the dispensing system.

• App-manually. For mobile devices without support for NFC the consumer may enter the ID code printed on the NFC tag 30 in the bottom of their smart-bottle 29.

· App-NFC. For mobile devices with support for NFC the consumer may simply scan their smart-bottle 29 by holding it up against their phone. The NFC tag 30 will register and the app 44 knows the ID code automatically.

• Dispenser-NFC. See Fig. 22. The consumer simply inserts their smart-bottle 29 into the dispenser 45 where the ID code is scanned over NFC. The dispenser 45 then learns from the cloud server 43 that this smart-bottle 29 has not previously been registered and asks the user to type her phone number using on-screen keyboard. She will then receive a link per SMS that she can click to complete the registration and start the download of the app 44 if she has not already. Off-line mode

If there are network errors or the cloud server 43 is unavailable the client will queue up communications and act in a smart way to let the consumer continue using dispensers 45 in the field as far as possible. This is done by storing information about the smart-bottle 29 redundantly in both the NFC tag 30 in the smart-bottle 29 and on local storage of the dispensers 45 themselves, and using an heuristic algorithm to determine which information is relevant and trustworthy enough to determine the eligibility of the smart-bottle 29 and its user. This heuristic algorithm generates a score for each known data based on its age.

DISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE

According to one aspect, the software that drives the system can be described as follows (see Fig. 20 and 21 ).

The core server side is implemented in J2EE (Java Enterprise Edition) using Spring MVC. The server side runs on Amazon's PaaS (Platform as a Service) offering, called Elastic Bean Stalk (EBS) that allows adaptive scaling to meet changing volume demands.

Data is stored in MySQL running from Amazon's RDS platform. Database is managed through the use of Hibernate as JPA ORM.

In addition to the core server side we have a dedicated CRM (wordpress) to serve all non- core content such as articles and news. This operates from a separate instance and using a separate database.

Content from the core server side and the CRM are combined using Varnish reverse web cache daemon for performance and flexibility.

The apps are implemented natively for Android and iOS. The client software on dispenser is implemented in C++/Qt5/QML on top of a custom embedded version of Linux based on Debian 7.x x64. All communication from apps and dispenser with the server API happens over HTTP, and the server APIs are all implemented to follow the RESTful architecture style. SERVICES FOR PROPRIETOR

According to one aspect, the system provides value-added services for the proprietor of a location at which a dispenser is installed.

Screenspace

The screenspace of the Touch PC 28 on the dispenser 45 can be used for information and advertizing when the dispenser 45 is not in use (idle mode), during fill (fill mode) and just after fill is complete (evict mode). The system will be able to control which content is distributed to each single dispenser 45, and playlists can be made to control exactly which content is shown for certain times of day. According to one aspect live content from content providers may be presented, such as local intranet (todays menu, meeting room availability etc), supported content types are images, videos with sound, web pages and text.

Customer usage data The system of the invention can be used to provide a proprietor with valuable information regarding customer usage of a dispenser. Date, time and frequency of filling together with all prior registration information such as gender, age, and home address would give an unmatched demographic for the customers for each location. This information can be valuable, for example when employed as part of a "customer loyalty" program, whereby a proprietor sponsors a customer ^' s fillings. The proprietor may thereby increase traffic to its locations, making other purchases more likely. In one aspect, the NFC capability of the smart bottle could be integrated into the proprietor ^' s cash register system, and be used to monitor a customer ^' s purchasing habits.

MAINTENANCE AND SERVICE

According to one aspect, the system of the invention provides various tools related to service and maintenance of the dispenser, as well as control of the customer interactions. Service optimization

The dispensers 45 will report service work such as the replacement of an empty CO2 canister 15 to the cloud. The cloud will then have ample opportunities to predict based on historical data when the next service is due. The cloud can also generate optimal schedules for service technicians so that they will spend the least time possible to service the dispensers 45 by calculating an optimal route between dispensers 45 in need of service with ready checklists of work to be done per service location.

Factory preparation

During the construction of dispensers 45, the touch screen will present technicians with all the software needed to complete their tasks. This includes a wizard style Ul that allow technicians to go through comprehensive Q/A checklists per construction phase with helpers to complete all automated calibration such as calibrating the screen of the Touch PC 28, setting up correct flow rates, tuning nipples, registering the software in the cloud etc.

Maintenance mode

A service technician on a mission to replace a part in a dispenser 45 will enable

maintenance mode with the maintenance switch 32 in the dispenser 45. This will display a service menu on the screen of the Touch PC 28. Each service task is represented as a button in the Ul. For example if service technician was to replace a flavour BIB 20, she would tap the Replace BIB button. Then she would select the BIB 20 among the presented BIBs 20. She would then be presented with clear visual instruction on how to proceed with changing the BIB 20. The visual instructions will include rich media such as images and video.

Once the job is done, the dispenser 45 will calibrate automatically to the new BIB and register the change as successful in the cloud. Available service tasks in maintenance mode are:

• Replace BiB 20

· Replace CO2 canister 15

• Replace water filter 13

• Empty spill bottle 19 Service app

A technician having a production, technical or support role in the ecosystem will have access to a special purpose app. This app 44 has a list of features that makes it trivial to help consumers in the field.

Production role can scan a list comprising a batch of smart-bottles 29 using NFC and register it as a new batch on the cloud server 43. During scanning each smart-bottle 29 is individually checked if it has been registered previously. Only batches of unique previously unregistered smart-bottles 29 are accepted as a new batch.

Technician role can scan any unused smart-bottle 29 and receive a full detail about it in a scrollable list with buttons to make changes to the smart-bottle 29. List includes:

Which batch does this smart-bottle 29 belong to?

What are the siblings of this smart-bottle 29 with respect to its batch?

Batch ID mode: The app 44 will identify subsequently scanned smart-bottles 29 as either belonging to or not belonging to the batch of the first smart-bottle 29 scanned.

Which consumer does it belong to if any?

Which customer does it belong to if any?

Timestamped event log for the history of this smart-bottle 29 from production till use.

Support role can scan any active smart-bottle 29 and receive a full detail about it in a scrollable list with buttons to make changes to the smart-bottle 29. Changes are:

Lock/unlock smart-bottle 29

Suspend/resume consumer

Add/remove smart-bottle 29 from "hack-watch-list"

Change smart-bottle 29 password

Replace smart-bottle 29 with another (support gives user replacement smart- 29 and transfers all data to the new one)

Mark smart-bottle 29 as

o stolen

o broken

o found

Change registered data on smart-bottle 29 such as o Name

o Address

o Mobile number (with pending verification) o Email

• Add credits

• Add free-fills

• Change reward level