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US-12618784-B2 - Systems and methods for non-invasive microwave testing of bottles of liquids, including alcoholic beverages and edible oils like olive oil

US12618784B2US 12618784 B2US12618784 B2US 12618784B2US-12618784-B2

Abstract

A system for non-invasive microwave testing a bottle of liquid may include an emission probe for emitting a microwave signal through a wall of the bottle into the liquid and a detection probe for receiving at least a portion of the microwave signal from the liquid via the wall. The system includes a classifier configured to distinguish olive oil from some other common vegetable oils, to distinguish real from some imitation maple syrups, and to distinguish between several alcoholic beverages.

Inventors

  • Paul M. Meaney
  • Timothy Raynolds

Assignees

  • THE TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20240405

Claims (14)

  1. 1 . A system for non-invasive microwave testing a bottle of liquid, comprising: an emission probe for emitting a microwave signal through a wall of the bottle into the liquid; and a detection probe for receiving at least a portion of the microwave signal from the liquid via the wall; each of the emission probe and the detection probe being a coaxial probe that includes: a curved end face configured to fit adjacent a common bottle shape; and a tapered coaxial transmission line leading to the curved end face, diameter of the tapered coaxial transmission line increasing in direction toward the curved end face.
  2. 2 . The system of claim 1 , the emission probe and the detection probe being integrated in a common dual-coaxial probe assembly including: a conductive block having a cylindrical surface and forming two conical channels between the cylindrical surface and a back surface opposite the cylindrical surface, diameter of each of the conical channels increasing from the back surface to the cylindrical surface; in a first one of the conical channels, a first center conductor and a first insulator separating the first center conductor from the conductive block, the first center conductor and the first insulator cooperating with the conductive block to form the emission probe; and in a second one of the conical channels, a second center conductor and a second insulator separating the second center conductor from the conductive block, the second center conductor and the second insulator cooperating with the conductive block to form the detection probe.
  3. 3 . The system of claim 2 , diameter of each of the first and second center conductors increasing from the back surface to the cylindrical surface, distance between the conductive block and each of the first and second center conductors increasing from the back surface to the cylindrical surface.
  4. 4 . The system of claim 3 , further comprising a classifier trained to distinguish olive oil from an adulterant to the olive oil, the adulterant including one or more of soybean, safflower, and canola oil.
  5. 5 . The system of claim 3 , further comprising a classifier trained to distinguish between a plurality of alcoholic beverages.
  6. 6 . The system of claim 3 , further comprising a classifier trained to distinguish maple syrup from imitation maple syrup.
  7. 7 . A method for non-invasive microwave testing a bottle of liquid, comprising: emitting, from an emission probe coupled to a wall of the bottle, a microwave signal through the wall and into the liquid; and receiving, from the liquid via the wall, at least a portion of the microwave signal into a detection probe coupled to the wall; scanning frequency of the microwave signal emitted in the step of emitting; and recording at least one spectrum of at least one of magnitude and phase of the at least a portion of the microwave signal received in the step of receiving.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 7 , the step of recording at least one spectrum comprising recording a spectrum of both the magnitude and the phase.
  9. 9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising coupling the emission and detection probes to the wall such that output area of the emission probe faces input area of the detection probe.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 9 , each of the emission and detection probes being a coaxial probe having an end face facing the wall; the coaxial probes being tapered such that a diameter thereof increases in direction toward the end face.
  11. 11 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising: using a trained classifier on the recorded spectra to deduce a composition of the liquid.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 11 , the classifier being adapted to distinguish olive oil from an adulterant to the olive oil, the adulterant including one or more of soybean oil, safflower oil, and canola oil.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the classifier being adapted to distinguish maple syrup from imitation maple syrup.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 11 , the classifier is adapted to distinguish between a plurality of alcoholic beverages.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/264,961 filed Jul. 30, 2019 and expected to issue as U.S. Pat. No. 11,953,485 on Apr. 9, 2024, which is a 371 U.S. National Stage Entry of International Application No. PCT/US2019/044120 filed Jul. 30, 2019, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/711,689 filed Jul. 30, 2018. The entire contents of the aforesaid patent applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND Wine testing is used at wine production facilities, and also at higher-end restaurants and by individual wine enthusiasts. However, conventional wine testing methods generally require direct access to the wine and cannot be performed on wine inside closed bottles. Thus, for wine that has already been bottled, such conventional wine testing is necessarily invasive, and opening such bottled wine to detect counterfeit or defective wine drastically reduces its value. In addition to wine, other liquids have significant value and are subject to counterfeiting or degradation. Among these are alcoholic beverages other than wine, such as but not limited to whiskeys, rums, vodkas, wine coolers, and others. Also frequently counterfeited or subject to degradation after bottling are high-end cooking oils such as but not limited to flaxseed oil and olive oil. Among adulterants used to extend or counterfeit olive oil are, but not limited to, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and soybean oil. Another sometimes-counterfeited liquid is pure maple syrup, for which many imitations are made with corn syrup. One prior art method for non-invasive testing of wine in bottles utilizes nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to at least partly characterize the chemical composition of the wine. The NMR instrument is very expensive and large. Therefore, the NMR approach is not well-suited for small-scale wine testing at decentralized locations by restaurants, wine shops, or consumers. Another prior art method uses a radio-frequency coil to measure dielectric properties of wine in bottles. The coil encircles the bottle and cooperates with electronics equipment to detect changes in the inherent resonance frequency of the wine at frequencies below 30 megahertz (MHz). This method requires significant electronics equipment. The interface with the bottle, e.g., the radio-frequency coil, must be large in order to encircle the bottle. In addition, wine bottle labels commonly have metallic print that interferes with the measurements and is likely to cause the measurement to fail. SUMMARY In an embodiment, a system for non-invasive microwave testing a bottle of liquid may include an emission probe for emitting a microwave signal through a wall of the bottle into the liquid and a detection probe for receiving at least a portion of the microwave signal from the liquid via the wall. The system includes a classifier configured to distinguish olive oil from some other common vegetable oils, to distinguish real from some imitation maple syrups, and to distinguish between several alcoholic beverages. In an embodiment, a system for non-invasive microwave testing a bottle of wine includes (a) an emission probe for emitting a microwave signal through a wall of the bottle into the wine and (b) a detection probe for receiving at least a portion of the microwave signal from the wine via the wall. In an embodiment, a method for non-invasive microwave testing a bottle of wine may include (a) emitting, from an emission probe coupled to a wall of the bottle, a microwave signal through the wall and into the wine and (b) receiving, from the wine via the wall, at least a portion of the microwave signal into a detection probe coupled to the wall. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a system a for non-invasive microwave testing of bottles of wine, according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 illustrates a transmission-based configuration of the system of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 illustrates a side-by-side configuration of the system of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment. FIG. 4 illustrates a method for non-invasive microwave testing of a bottle of liquid, according to an embodiment. FIGS. 5A-C illustrate a tapered coaxial probe, according to an embodiment. FIGS. 6A-C illustrate a dual-coaxial probe assembly having two side-by-side tapered coaxial probes, according to an embodiment. FIGS. 7A and 7B show a dual-coaxial probe assembly having two side-by-side tapered coaxial probes, according to an embodiment. FIG. 8 is a plot of magnitude spectra obtained using the probe assembly of FIGS. 7A and 7B. FIG. 9 is a plot of phase spectra obtained using the probe assembly of FIGS. 7A and 7B. FIG. 10 illustrates a coaxial probe based on a flexible substrate, according to an embodiment. FIG. 11 illustrates a transmission-based configuration of an embodiment of the system of FIG. 1 that implements two instances