ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,411,061, issued on Sept. 9, was assigned to MESO SCALE TECHNOLOGIES LLC (Rockville, Md.).

"Device and method for determining liquid contact and liquid volume in a liquid dispenser based on sound" was invented by Pei-ming Wu (Gaithersburg, Md.) and Sandor Kovacs (Middletown, Del.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Devices and methods for determining whether a contact of a liquid dispenser with a liquid based on sound and/or for determining a liquid volume in the liquid dispenser are provided. According to an embodiment, the liquid dispenser includes a sound generator and an acoustic sensor, and at least one of the sound generator or the acou...