System and methods for soiled garment detection and notification

• US 10,242,550 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2018
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Glasgow, Dane, Sherman Stewart, Corinne, Ramadge, David, Carlson, Timothy, Gonzales, Jr., Sergio Pinzon
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Jack K
• Application Number:
  US15/869,853
• Publication Number:
  US 20180137738A1
• Time in Patent Office: 438 Days
• Field of Search: 3405731
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 25/14 Clothing hangers, e.g. suit hangers A47G25/60 takes precedence; wardrobes with extensible garment holders A47B61/02
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 25/1407 with identification means identification in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0001 by organoleptic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure involve an apparatus, systems, and methods for soiled garment detection and notification. The method may include determining a laundering status of a garment based on a comparison of sensor data and a baseline odor level of the garment. The sensor data, which comprises a measure of odor being released by the garment, may be obtained from an olfactory sensor. The method further includes causing display of a user interface to present the laundering status of the garment.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

determining a laundering status of a garment based on a comparison of sensor data and a baseline odor level of the garment, the sensor data being obtained from an olfactory sensor and comprising a measure of odor being released by the garment; and

causing display of a user interface to present the laundering status of the garment.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a soiled garment detection apparatus, the soiled garment detection apparatus including:

the olfactory sensor, the olfactory sensor being configured to produce the sensor data comprising the measure of odor released from the garment;

a transmitter coupled to the olfactory sensor, the transmitter configured to transmit the sensor data to the controller; and

an alert component configured to produce a human-detectable alert.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a receiver configured to receive, from the soiled garment detection apparatus, the sensor data comprising the measure of odor being released by the garment; and

an additional transmitter to transmit control data to the soiled garment detection apparatus, the control data to cause the alert component to produce the human-detectable alert in response to determining the measure of odor exceeds an acceptable threshold level of odor.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the soiled garment detection apparatus further comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader configured to obtain an identifier of the garment from an RFID tag affixed to the garment.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the user interface presents the identifier of the garment in conjunction with the laundering status of the garment.

6. The system of claim 1;

further comprising a data repository to store the laundering status of the garment.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the data repository further stores laundering information related to a collection of garments, the garment being included in the collection of garments.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the user interface further presents at least a portion of the laundering information stored in the data repository.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the operations further comprise determining the measure of odor exceeds an acceptable threshold level of odor; and

the user interface presents a notification related to the measure of odor being released by the garment in response to determining the measure of odor exceeds the acceptable threshold level of odor.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein determining the measure of odor exceeds the acceptable threshold level of odor comprises:

establishing an olfactory profile for the garment, the olfactory profile including information regarding a concentration of particles normally released by the garment; and

comparing the sensor data to information in the olfactory profile.

11. A method comprising:

determining, by one or more processors, a laundering status of a garment based on a comparison of sensor data and a baseline odor level of the garment, the sensor data being obtained from an olfactory sensor and comprising a measure of odor being released by the garment; and

causing display, on a display device, of a user interface to present the laundering status of the garment.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining the measure of odor exceeds an acceptable threshold level of odor; and

transmitting control data to an alert component in response to determining the measure of odor exceeds the acceptable threshold level of odor, the control data causing the alert component to provide a human-detectable alert.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising establishing an olfactory profile specific to the garment, the olfactory profile including information regarding a concentration of particles released by the garment.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining the measure of odor exceeds the acceptable threshold level of odor is based on a comparison of the sensor data with information in the olfactory profile.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining that the measure of odor exceeds the acceptable threshold level of odor comprises:

storing initial sensor data to establish a baseline odor level for the garment, the initial sensor data being received when the garment is freshly laundered;

comparing the sensor data with the baseline odor level; and

determining that the sensor data exceeds the baseline odor level by at least a predetermined percentage.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating an item recommendation based on the measure of odor released by the garment, the item recommendation including an item likely to improve the measure of odor normally released by the garment, the user interface further to present the item recommendation.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

storing the laundering status of the garment in a local data repository, the local data repository comprising laundering information related to a plurality of garments, the garment being included in the collection of garments; and

causing presentation, with the user interface, of a portion of laundering information stored in the local data repository.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving, from a soiled garment detection apparatus, an identifier of the garment;

wherein the user interface further presents the identifier of the garment in conjunction with the laundering status of the garment.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the user interface further presents a suggested course of action to improve the measure of odor being released by the garment.

20. A hardware storage device embodying instructions that, when executed by at least on processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

determining a laundering status of a garment based on a comparison of sensor data and a baseline odor level of the garment, the sensor data being obtained from an olfactory sensor and comprising a measure of odor being released by the garment; and

causing display, on a display device, of a user interface to present the laundering status of the garment.