Methods and apparatus for communicatively coupling internal components within appliances, and appliances with external components and accessories

• US 10,333,731 B2
• Filed: 02/29/2016
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Ebrom, Matthew P., Glotzbach, Mark E., McCoy, Richard A., Whipple, Andrew D., Maynard, Donald E., Nibbelink, Matthew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Jeong S
• Application Number:
  US15/056,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20160218884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,212 Days
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2101/00 User input for the control of domestic laundry washing machines, washer-dryers or laundry dryers
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/58 Indications or alarms to the control system or to the user
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/04 Signal transfer or data transmission arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/05 for wireless communication between components, e.g. for remote monitoring or control
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/28 Arrangements for program selection, e.g. control panels therefor; Arrangements for indicating program parameters, e.g. the selected program or its progress
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 7/00 Synchronisation radio-controlled time-pieces G04R
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities 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 H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2823 : Reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network device-related reporting H04L43/065; 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 H04Q9/00
• 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 12/2827 : Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2832 : Interconnection of the control functionalities between home networks single bridge functionality H04L12/4625
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 : Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/26 : Special purpose or proprietary protocols or architectures network applications for proprietary or special purpose networking environments H04L67/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 : for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 1/0252 : Domestic applications
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/668 : Microwave heating devices connected to a telecommunication network
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/688 : for thawing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 40/00 : Technologies aiming at improving the efficiency of home appliances, e.g. induction cooking or efficient technologies for refrigerators, freezers or dish washers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Example methods and apparatus for communicatively coupling internal components and accessories appliances, and appliances with external components and accessories are disclosed herein. A disclosed example method of operating a domestic appliance having at least one of an internal communications network and/or an external communications network among at least two components includes identifying the components, communicating the capabilities of each identified component, communicating the status of each identified component, providing a command interface for operating the components, facilitating communication between the components, and operating the appliance using the command interface and the facilitated communication.

Claims

1. An audio communication accessory, comprising:

a communication device configured to communicate with an appliance;

an audio user interface configured to transmit a first audio signal from a user to the appliance via the communication device, and to receive a second audio signal from the appliance via the communication device for audio transmission to the user;

a selection builder configured to receive a current state awareness of the appliance, and further configured to populate a set of valid command structures appropriate for control or operation of the appliance based on a taxonomy capabilities dataset of the appliance and based on taxonomy capabilities of the current state of the appliance; and

a command generator configured to construct a well-formed command related to the first audio signal when the first audio signal corresponds to at least one of the set of valid command structures based on the current state of the appliance, and configured to transmit the well-formed command to the appliance.

2. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein the accessory enables a user to control the appliance in response to a voice command received via the audio user interface and constructed into a well-formed command by the command generator.

3. The audio communication accessory of claim 2, wherein the appliance performs a cycle of operation on a physical article in response to the voice command.

4. The audio communication accessory of claim 2, wherein the appliance comprises at least one of a washing machine, a dryer, a dishwasher, a microwave, an oven, a stove, a cooktop, a refrigerator, a freezer, or a counter-top kitchen appliance.

5. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein the accessory comprises a phone.

6. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein the accessory is mounted to the appliance.

7. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein the accessory is communicatively coupled to an audio device separate from the accessory,

wherein the appliance can be controlled by the audio device via the communication device, and

wherein the audio user interface is further configured to enable a user to interact with the audio device via the communication device.

8. The audio communication accessory of claim 7, wherein the audio device comprises at least one of a stereo system, a clock, or a clock radio.

9. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein the audio user interface enables a user to interact with the appliance to determine an operation status of the appliance.

10. The audio communication accessory of claim 9, wherein the operation status represents at least one of a fireplace on/off status, a security system activation status, a carbon monoxide detector status, an appliance door open status, a washing cycle status, a water temperature, a temperature limit exceeded, a leak detector status, a filter replacement status, an end of operation, a start of operation, confirmation of an operation in progress, a cooktop burner on/off status, a heating element on/off status, a pre-heat status, an energy usage, or an energy usage exceeds limit.

11. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, further comprising at least one of an event calendar, a medication reminder, a weather forecast or a lost item location accessible via the audio user interface.

12. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein the audio user interface enables a user to interact with the appliance to configure or activate a sleep mode for the appliance.

13. The audio communication accessory of claim 12, wherein the sleep mode comprises at least one of turning off a light, turning down a temperature, or activating a security system.

14. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein a user can interact with the appliance via the audio user interface during a sales demonstration.

15. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein a user can interact with a use and care guide via the audio user interface.

16. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein the audio communication accessory is communicatively coupled to a tactile feedback device to provide tactile versions representing outputs of the audio communication accessory.

17. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein a coupling of the audio communication accessory and the appliance is authenticated.

18. The audio communication accessory of claim 1, wherein the first audio signal is an audio input received from the user by the audio user interface, the audio input corresponding to a command to be transmitted to the appliance via the communication device.

19. The audio communication accessory of claim 18, wherein the second audio signal includes audio information to be audibly transmitted to the user.

20. An appliance comprising:

a communication device configured to receive a voice input signal from an audio user interface and to transmit an audio output signal from the appliance to the audio user interface;

a selection builder configured to receive a current state awareness of the appliance, and further configured to populate a set of valid command structures appropriate for control or operation of the appliance based on a taxonomy capabilities dataset of the appliance and based on taxonomy capabilities of the current state of the appliance; and

a command generator configured to construct a well-formed command related to the voice input signal and based on the set of valid command structures of the current state of the appliance, for execution by the appliance.