ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,251,047, issued on March 18, was assigned to DE' LONGHI APPLIANCES S.r.l. (Treviso, Italy).
"Loose product dispenser" was invented by Paolo Evangelisti (Treviso, Italy), Alberto Acciari (Treviso, Italy) and Nicola Piovan (Treviso, Italy).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The loose product dispenser has a container and a sensor with optical barrier for detecting the presence of loose product in the container, the sensor having a transmitter of a light beam, configured to generate the optical barrier between an entry point and an exit point of the light beam from the container, and a receiver of the light beam, the sensor further has an elect...