Method of Providing Product Demonstrations

• US 20080109311A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Elston, Wallace, Jenkins, Anthony, McCoy, Richard, Ebrom, Matthew, Molloy, Phillip, Glotzbach, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 7,742,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/58 Indications or alarms to the control system or to the user
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/05 for wireless communication between components, e.g. for remote monitoring or control
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/32 characterised by graphical features, e.g. touchscreens
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A method of enabling adaptable demonstrations of a household appliance comprising providing consumer-specific updates to a demonstration software at a location remote from an appliance and downloading the consumer-specific updates to the appliance over an information network in response to a determined characteristic of the consumer or enabling a video conference over multimedia interface during the demonstration.

Claims

1. A method of enabling adaptable demonstrations of a household appliance comprising:

providing a household appliance with multiple components connected to a controller over an internal communications network to control the actuation of the multiple components to implement a useful cycle of operation, with the controller having a user interface with a multimedia display;

providing a demonstration software executable on the controller to effect demonstration of the household appliance by controlling the actuation of the multiple components while displaying related multimedia information on the multimedia display;

providing consumer-specific updates to the demonstration software at a location remote from the household appliance; and

downloading the consumer-specific updates to the household appliance over an information network in response to a determined characteristic of a consumer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined characteristic is at least one of:

biometric, gender, age, height, mass, voice, facial expression, native language, eye color and hair color.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the consumer-specific update is at least one of sales incentive, appliance recommendation, related-appliance recommendation, appliance accessory, appliance options and appliance build options.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising updating a consumer profile database of consumer characteristics and corresponding consumer-specific updates at a remote location from the household appliance.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising matching the determined characteristic to a consumer characteristic in the consumer profile database to select a consumer-specific update for downloading.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the matching and selection is done in real time.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the matching and selection is done in response to a user interaction with the demonstration through the user interface.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a video conference over the user interface between the consumer and a sales representative during the demonstration.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising adding an additional person to the video conference over the user interface.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the additional person is a service technician.

11. A method of enabling adaptable demonstrations of a household appliance comprising:

providing a household appliance with multiple components connected to a controller over an internal communications network to control the actuation of the multiple components to implement a useful cycle of operation, with the controller having a user interface with a multimedia display;

providing a demonstration software executable on the controller to effect demonstration of the household appliance by controlling the actuation of the multiple components while displaying related multimedia information on the multimedia display;

providing consumer-specific updates to the demonstration software at a location remote from the household appliance; and

establishing a video conference over the user interface between a consumer and a sales representative during the demonstration.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising adding an additional person to the video conference over the user interface.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the additional person is a service technician.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising downloading the consumer-specific updates to the household appliance over an information network in response to a determined characteristic of the consumer.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising updating a consumer profile database of consumer characteristics and corresponding consumer-specific updates at a remote location from the household appliance.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising matching the determined characteristic to a consumer characteristic in the consumer profile database to select a consumer-specific update for downloading.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the matching and selection is done in real time.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the matching and selection is done in response to a user interaction with demonstration through the user interface.