Home appliance diagnosis system and diagnosis method for same

• US 10,325,269 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2011
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kwon, Eui Hyeok, Kim, Hyun Sang
• Primary Examiner(s): Gray, David M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Evans, Geoffrey T
• Application Number:
  US13/808,414
• Publication Number:
  US 20130262322A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,904 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/60 Audible signals
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 33/30 Control of washing machines characterised by the purpose or target of the control controlling processes of washer-dryers D06F33/50
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/04 Signal transfer or data transmission arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/32 characterised by graphical features, e.g. touchscreens
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/066 Telephone sets adapted for data transmision

Abstract

The present invention relates to a home appliance diagnosis system and to a diagnosis method for same, and more particularly, to a home appliance diagnosis system and to a diagnosis method for same, which involve receiving product information on the home appliance, which is outputted in a predetermined signal form from the home appliance, and analyzing the received product information to check the condition of the home appliance and to diagnose faults in the home appliance. According to the present invention, a diagnosis server easily extracts product information from a signal, and improves the accuracy of the product information through a multi-stage verification process when the diagnosis server outputs product information from the signal received thereat to diagnose the home appliance, to thereby achieve improved accuracy and reliability of the result of the diagnosis based on the product information.

Claims

1. A diagnosing server, comprising:

a displaying unit that displays information including a diagnosis progressing state or diagnosis result;

a data storing unit that stores diagnosis data for diagnosis and the diagnosis result;

a sound receiving unit that receives a signal, through a predetermined communication network, including product information including at least one of an identification information of a home appliance, setting information, operation information, or mal-function information, which is output from the home appliance;

a sound recording unit that records the signal received through the sound receiving unit;

a signal processing unit that inversely extracts the product information from the signal recorded by the sound recording unit; and

a diagnosing unit that analyzes the product information, diagnoses a state or failure of the home appliance, and produces a diagnosis result, wherein the signal processing unit detects a start point of a preamble representing a start of the product information and a frequency of the signal, detects the preamble through pattern matching, performs demodulation and decoding on any one of a plurality of frames constituting the product information with respect to the preamble, and detects an error of the preamble, wherein the signal processing unit compensates for an error occurring during a transmission process by setting a predetermined section before and after a position of the preamble as a preamble start area, and wherein the diagnosing server transmits the diagnosis result to a user terminal and/or a repair person terminal.

2. The diagnosing server of claim 1, wherein the signal processing unit includes:

a filter that detects a carrier frequency by filtering the signal;

an edge detector that senses a position where the filtered signal value is changed and detects a position of the preamble; and

a pattern detector that detects the preamble through preamble pattern matching based on the position of the preamble.

3. The diagnosing server of claim 2, wherein the signal processing unit detects the preamble according to the position of the preamble detected by the edge detector, and then, in a case where the detected preamble has an error, newly filters the sound signal to re-detect a position of the preamble, and then re-detects the preamble.

4. The diagnosing server of claim 3, wherein the signal processing unit performs an error check on the product information extracted based on the preamble, and then, in a case where when an error occurs in the product information, the preamble has an error, re-detects the preamble.

5. The diagnosing server of claim 2, wherein the edge detector detects a position where a frequency of the signal is changed by a predetermined value or more within a short time with respect to signals before and after the position of the carrier frequency.

6. The diagnosing server of claim 1, further comprising:

an input unit that allows the sound recording unit to input a command according to start and stop of recording of the signal sound received through the sound receiving unit and a diagnosis execution command; and

a communication unit that transmits the diagnosis result.

7. The diagnosing server of claim 1, wherein the signal processing unit performs an error check on the one frame, and upon detection of an error, determines there is an error in the preamble, re-detects a preamble from the sound signal, and then re-extracts the product information, and in a case where an error check result shows that the preamble is normal, performs demodulation and decoding on the plurality of frames to thereby extract the product information.

8. The diagnosing server of claim 7, wherein the signal processing unit includes:

an FFT that detects a symbol frequency based on the preamble;

a de-interleaver that performs de-interleaving based on the symbol frequency; and

a decoder that decodes the de-interleaved signal.

9. The diagnosing server of claim 1, wherein the signal processing unit repeatedly performs demodulation while shifting the preamble start point by a predetermined time interval in the preamble start area with respect to one frame.

10. The diagnosing server of claim 9, wherein the signal processing unit performs demodulation on the plurality of frames by designating as normal data a demodulation result that causes no error among a plurality of demodulation results for the preamble start area.

11. The diagnosing server of claim 10, wherein in a case where errors occur in all of the plurality of demodulation results for the preamble start area, the signal processing unit determines that the preamble has an error, re-detects the preamble, and performs the demodulation.

12. The diagnosing server of claim 1, wherein the signal processing unit tests validity for the product information by using version information and a product ID with respect to the extracted product information.

13. A diagnosis system, comprising:

a home appliance that outputs as a signal sound, product information including at least one of identification information, setting information, operation information, or mal-function information;

a diagnosing server that extracts the product information from a received signal of the home appliance to diagnose the home appliance and produces a diagnosis result on a state or failure of the home appliance; and

a user terminal that transmits the signal sound to the diagnosing server through a telephone network or a mobile communication network, wherein the diagnosing server detects a start point of a preamble representing a start of the product information and a frequency of the signal, detects the preamble through pattern matching, performs demodulation and decoding on any one of a plurality of frames constituting the product information with respect to the preamble, and detects an error of the preamble, wherein the diagnosing server comprises a signal processor that inversely extracts the product information from the signal recorded by a sound recorder, and wherein the signal processor compensates for an error occurring during a transmission process by setting a predetermined section before and after a position of the preamble as a preamble start area, and wherein the diagnosing server transmits the diagnosis result to the user terminal and/or a repair person terminal.