- Well, in the hectic lifestyle that is American, you cannot be sure as to when you will be home exactly, let alone be in college and have papers due the following day which you should have done 2 weeks prior... coffee *on demand* is key. Besides, if it brews prematurely, not only will you risk coming home to a sub-standard pot of Joe, but it could turn out to be just plain wasting coffee... and that's bad.

The Brewing Station:

Integrated Parallax(tm) microprocessing unit

Propeller Chip (120 million operations/second, 8 cog, 40pin DIP)

32k EEPROM (8 DIP, Motorolla)

Computer linking

USB

802.11 wireless-G

RF

Sensor Array

Thermocouple on pot for brewed temperature

Volume of water in reservoir.... possibility for introducing more water if desired... gravity feed?

Verify pot is in place - Tactile sensor

Flavor Selection

Whole bean (of course) coffee flavors in hoppers located above/behind grinder

Mechanics:

Cold water introduction?

Hopper doors for bean selection... variable amounts...

---- Spinning water-wheel-like troughs?

---- Augers in bins?

Capping of grinder

Filter paper hopper

Emptying of grounds filled filter?

---- Side mounted plastic bag/can...

---- Tri servo design:

-------- One swings filter cup out from machine

-------- Another flips cleanable filter basket out, which has a full old paper filter in it

-------- Finally servo drops a new clean filter into the now empty basket

Display:

Mounted LCD screen to verify connection status and operation

Connected computer

---- FTP Connection

------- Update website with status

---- View live transfer of code

The Accessible Interface:

*GUI Interface*

Status Display:

Temperature of coffee already brewed

Time until brewing complete

Time coffee has been ready for

"Will start in X minutes..."

"Be ready at [time]"

Coffee flavor selected

Interaction:

Start Now

Select flavor

Select brew amount (cup amount to brew)

Set time to start on timer

Shutdown/power-off machine

Sanders: Secure Office

Tired of going over to the break room and the pot being empty? Presenting the coffee pot protection system. Initiate brewing from your workstation and either via a latched locking pot or similar, the only access to your precious pot will be by being in range of the pot with a verified RFID tag, which only you and your select group of consumers simply carry... and with RFID logging... you know WHO it was that drank from it last when the pot went empty...