Mobile application for controlling outdoor grill

• US 10,218,833 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2016
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Traeger Pellet Grills, LLC
• Original Assignee: Traeger Pellet Grills, LLC
• Inventors: Colston, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Khai M
• Application Number:
  US15/510,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20170289336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,064 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A47J 36/321 the electronic control being performed over a network, e.g. by means of a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/30 User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/42 Transmitting or receiving remote control signals via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/93 Remote control using other portable devices, e.g. mobile phone, PDA, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to controlling an electronically-controlled appliance using a software application and providing a user interface for controlling an electronically-controlled appliance. In one scenario, a computer system receives an indication from a remote computing system indicating that an electronically-controlled appliance is communicably connected to the remote computing system. The computer system provides a notification in the software application indicating that the electronically-controlled appliance is available to receive instructions, and receives a user input at the software application indicating that certain functions are to be performed by the electronically-controlled appliance. The computer system further generates instructions configured to control the electronically-controlled appliance based on the functions specified in the received user input, and sends the generated instructions to the electronically-controlled appliance to perform the specified functions. These functions are then interpreted and carried out on the electronically-controlled appliance via the hardware controller.

Claims

1. A method for controlling an electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill using a software application on a mobile device, the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill having at least one hardware controller, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from one or more remote computing systems indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is communicably connected to the one or more remote computing systems, wherein the one or more remote computing systems comprise a cloud service;

providing a notification in the software application indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is available to receive instructions;

receiving a user input at the software application indicating that a particular temperature is to be maintained by the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill;

generating one or more instructions configured to cause a hopper to feed wood pellets into the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill at a particular rate in order to maintain the particular temperature; and

sending the generated instructions to the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill to activate the hopper, the generated instructions being interpreted and carried out on the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill via the hardware controller.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an initiation input that indicates that the software application is to be instantiated on the mobile device; and

instantiating the software application on the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving an indication at the software application indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is attempting to communicate with the one or more remote computing systems; and

receiving the user input at the software application indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is permitted to communicate with the one or more remote computing systems.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the user input is received from a computing device located outside a specified distance from the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill; and

in response to the determination, disabling the one or more instructions.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the software application displaying a user interface that prompts a user to provide demographic information; and

sending the received demographic information associated with the user to a cloud platform associated with the cloud service, the cloud platform configured to register the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill to an account associated with the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application is configured to receive instructions from a user indicating one or more changes that are to be applied to the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application receives one or more portions of information from the one or more remote computing systems, the received information including data regarding the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application provides a user interface that allows one or more functions of the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill to be monitored by a user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application provides a user interface that allows one or more functions of the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill to be controlled by a user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application provides a user interface that allows one or more recipes to be downloaded and provided to the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media that store computer-executable instructions that, when executed, implement a method for controlling an electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill using a software application on a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving an indication at the software application indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is attempting to communicate with one or more remote computing systems, wherein the one or more remote computing systems comprise a cloud service;

receiving a first user input at the software application indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is permitted to communicate with the one or more remote computing systems;

receiving an indication from at least one of the one or more remote computing systems indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is communicably connected to the one or more remote computing systems;

providing a notification in the software application indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is available to receive instructions;

receiving a second user input at the software application indicating that a particular temperature is to be maintained by the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill;

generating one or more instructions configured to cause a hopper to feed wood pellets into the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill at a particular rate in order to maintain the particular temperature; and

sending one or more instructions to the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill to activate the hopper, the one or more instructions being interpreted and carried out by a hardware controller on the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the software application provides alerts for timers, probes or temperature.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the software application provides a user interface that allows users to program one or more custom smoking cycles.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising sending at least one customized smoking cycle to the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill, such that the customized smoking cycle is carried out by the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the software application provides a user interface feature that allows the user to save the customized smoking cycle to a data store on one or more of the remote computing systems, to the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill or to the mobile device.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the software application provides a user interface feature that allows a user to initiate a recipe on the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill, the recipe including one or more specified smoking settings for the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the software application facilitates communication between the one or more remote computing systems and the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill, the software application being configured to transmit data packets to and receive data packets from the one or more remote computing systems and further transmit data packets to and receive data packets from the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

18. A computer program product comprising one or more non-transitory computer storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to instantiate a user interface comprising the following:

a first input field configured to receive input indicating whether an electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is permitted to communicate with one or more remote computing systems, wherein the one or more remote computing systems comprise a cloud service;

a notification field configured to indicate whether the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is communicably connected to the one or more remote computing systems, and to further provide notifications indicating that the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill is available to receive instructions;

a second input field configured to receive input indicating that a particular temperature is to be maintained by the wood-pellet grill;

an instruction generating indicator configured to indicate that one or more instructions configured to cause a hopper to feed wood pellets into the wood-pellet grill at a particular rate in order to maintain the particular temperature are being generated based on the received user input; and

a transmission indicator configured to indicate that the one or more instructions are being sent to the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill to activate the hopper, the one or more instructions being interpreted and carried out by a hardware controller on the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

19. The computer program product of claim of claim 18, wherein the user interface further provides real-time additions or changes to custom cook cycles on the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising receiving one or more temperature updates from a wireless cooking instrument implemented in conjunction with the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the one or more temperature updates comprise data received from the cloud service regarding food temperature measured at the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

22. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the user interface allows users to program one or more custom smoking cycles.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the user interface displays a user-selectable element that, when selected by a user, sends at least one customized smoking cycle to the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill through the cloud service, such that the customized smoking cycle is carried out by the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.

24. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the user interface feature displays a user-selectable element that enables the user, upon selection of the user-selectable element to save the customized smoking cycle to:

(i) a data store in the cloud service, (ii) the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill, or (iii) the mobile device.

25. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the user interface displays a feature that, upon selection by the user, causes the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill to download and initiate a recipe from the cloud service on the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill, the recipe including one or more specified smoking settings for the electronically-controlled wood-pellet grill.