Laundry alert system and method

• US 20060164255A1
• Filed: 07/30/2004
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Chad Allen Ellis, Chris Humbert, David Allen Atkinson, David Martin Odle, Michael J. Nickelson
• Original Assignee: Chad Allen Ellis, Chris Humbert, David Allen Atkinson, David Martin Odle, Michael J. Nickelson
• Inventors: Nickelson, Michael J., Odle, David Martin, Atkinson, David Allen, Humbert, Chris, Ellis, Chad Allen
• Application Number:
  US10/903,372
• Publication Number:
  US 20060164255A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/679
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/048 Monitoring; Safety
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24058 Remote testing, monitoring independent from normal control by pc
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24084 Remote and local monitoring, local result to remote, remote takes action
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2633 Washing, laundry

Abstract

A method and apparatus for alerting a user of the status of an appliance includes a controller that is coupled to a telephone network and a keypad to permit the entry of a numeric sequence and to communicate the numeric sequence to the controller. The keypad is coupled to the control circuit of the appliance to determine whether the appliance has commenced a requested task, to determine if the requested task has been completed, and to provide the numeric sequence to the controller in response to determination that the requested task has been completed. The controller initiates a call over the telephone network based upon the numeric sequence to provide notification of the completion of the requested tasks by the appliance.

Claims

1. A method of alerting a user over a network of a status of an appliance, the appliance being available to a plurality of users for use, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a controller operably coupled to the network and a user association device operably coupled to the controller, the user association device being associated with the appliance and operably coupled to the appliance;

detecting a commencement of a requested task associated with the appliance with the user association device;

prompting the user with the user association device for user contact information in response to the detection of the commencement of the requested task associated with the appliance;

receiving user contact information through an input of the user association device;

detecting a completion of the requested task by the appliance with the user association device; and

communicating to the user over the network the completion of the requested task, the user being contacted through the controller based in part on the user contact information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is a telephone network and the step of communicating to the user over the network the completion of the requested task comprises the steps of:

placing a telephone number corresponding to the user contact information in a queue;

establishing a telephone connection by dialing the telephone number; and

playing a prerecorded message.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an acknowledgement from the user over the telephone connection; and

removing the telephone number from the queue.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from the user to requeue the message;

placing the telephone number back in the queue for subsequent dialing;

establishing a telephone connection by dialing the telephone number; and

replaying the prerecorded message.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

waiting a predetermined period of time; and

in the absence of receiving an acknowledgement from the user over the telephone network replaying the prerecorded message.

6. An apparatus for use with an appliance, the appliance being available for use by a plurality of users, the apparatus configured to alert a current user of the appliance over a telephone network of a status of the appliance, the appliance including a control circuit which indicates the status of the appliance, the apparatus comprising:

a controller adapted to be operably coupled to the telephone network;

a keypad unit operably coupled to the controller, the keypad unit including a keypad configured to permit the entry of a numeric sequence and a memory designed to store the numeric sequence, the keypad unit configured to communicate the numeric sequence to the controller;

wherein the keypad unit is further operably coupled to the control circuit in the appliance and is configured to determine whether the appliance has commenced a requested task and to determine if the requested task has been completed, the keypad unit being further configured to prompt the user for entry of the numeric sequence in response to appliance commencing the requested task and to provide the numeric sequence to the controller in response to a determination that the requested task has been completed by the appliance; and

wherein the controller, in response to receipt of the numeric sequence from the keypad unit, is configured to initiate a call over the telephone network based on the numeric sequence and to provide the current user a notification of the completion of the requested task by the appliance during the call.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the controller is further configured to receive an acknowledgment from the user that the notification was received, the acknowledgement corresponding to a first specific key tone received from the user.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the provided notification includes the playing of a prerecorded message.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein in the absence of the acknowledgement the controller is configured to replay the prerecorded message again.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein in the absence of the acknowledgement the controller is configured to disconnect the call and to initiate a second call over the telephone network based on the numeric sequence at a later time and to replay the prerecorded message during the second call.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to receive a request to requeue the call, the request to requeue corresponding to a second specific key tone received from the user, the controller further configured to requeue the call for a later time in response to the received second specific key tone.

12. An apparatus for use with an appliance, the appliance being available for use by a plurality of users, the apparatus configured to alert a current user over a network of a status of the appliance, the apparatus comprising:

a controller adapted to be operably coupled to a network;

a user association device, the user association device being associated with and operably coupled to the appliance and being operably coupled to the controller, and

wherein the user association device is configured to prompt the current user of the appliance for a user contact input including user contact information upon detection of a commencement of a requested task by the appliance, to make the received user contact information available to the controller, and to provide an indication of the completion of the requested task by the appliance to the controller, the controller being configured to send a communication to the current user over the network based on the user contact information in response to the received indication of the completion of the requested task, the communication being configured to alert the user of the completion of the requested task by the appliance, and to resend the communication to the user in the absence of an acknowledgement of the communication from the user.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the communication includes a prerecorded telephone message.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the user contact information is representative of a telephone number.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the user contact information is representative of a request to not receive notification over the network.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the user association device is generally proximate to the appliance, and includes a keypad having at least a plurality of numeric keys and a cancel key.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the user contact information corresponds to a telephone number entered by the user through the keypad with at least the numeric keys.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the user contact information corresponds to a request to not receive notification over the network entered by the user through the keypad with at least the cancel key.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the user contact information is representative of a telephone number and the controller is further configured to distinguish a request to requeue the communication received over the network from the user and to requeue the communication for sending at a later time.

20. An apparatus for use with an appliance, the appliance for use by a plurality of users, the apparatus configured to alert a current user over a network of a status of the appliance, the apparatus comprising:

a controller adapted to be operably coupled to the network; and

a user association device operably coupled to the controller, the user association device being configured to prompt the user of the appliance for an input, the input being indicative of a network identifier for the user, the user association device being further configured to provide an indication of a completion of a requested task to the controller;

wherein the controller is configured based on the input and the received indication of the completion of the requested task to initiate a first communication to the user over the network to alert the user of the status of the appliance and is further configured to send a second communication to the user over the network in response to the reception of a request from the user to send the second communication.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the first communication includes a prerecorded telephone message.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the network identifier is representative of a telephone number.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein each of the user association devices includes a keypad.