APPLIANCE AND ACCESSORY FOR CONTROLLING A CYCLE OF OPERATION

• US 20080125911A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Glotzbach, Mark E., Ebrom, Matthew P., McCoy, Richard A., Jenkins, Anthony E., Elston, Wallace J., Maynard, Donald E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,831,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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 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: 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

Abstract

An appliance configured to perform an operation cycle to effect a physical operation on an article, the appliance includes at least one component configured to effect the physical operation, and a cycle engine on the component. The cycle engine can build a cycle structure for the operation cycle to enable the component to perform the physical operation.

Claims

1. An appliance configured to perform an operation cycle to effect a physical operation on an article, the appliance comprising:

at least one component configured to effect the physical operation, and

a cycle engine on the at least one component whereby the cycle engine builds a cycle structure for the operation cycle to enable the component to perform the physical operation.

2. The appliance of claim 1 wherein the cycle engine comprises a data portion and a compiled portion that reads the data portion to build the cycle structure.

3. The appliance of claim 2 wherein the component is configured for communication and the data portion resides on any of a plurality of memory devices, including read only memory, flash memory, electrically erasable programmable read only memory, an operational cycle component, and an external memory source, in communication with the component, whereby the cycle engine can retrieve a data portion from any of the memory devices.

4. The appliance of claim 1 wherein the cycle engine is configured for communication to receive and send messages.

5. The appliance of claim 4 further comprising an operation cycle component accessory that communicates with the cycle engine.

6. The appliance of claim 5 wherein the operation cycle component accessory is removably coupled to the component.

7. The appliance of claim 1 further comprising a software architecture having a plurality of software elements and configured to generate a plurality of messages, with at least one of the software elements residing in the at least one component and configured to enable discovery of the at least one component by communication of one of the plurality of messages from the component.

8. The appliance of claim 7 wherein the cycle structure comprises elements, each of which has an identifier whereby the elements can be addressed to receive messages.

9. The appliance of claim 7 wherein the cycle engine has an identifier whereby the cycle engine can be addressed to receive messages.

10. The appliance of claim 7 wherein the one of the plurality of messages carries a password that defines the scope of valid communications with the component.

11. A network comprising:

an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle to effect a physical operation on an article, the appliance having at least one component configured to effect the physical operation, and

an operational cycle component accessory having at least a portion of an operation cycle and in communication with the appliance wherein the operation cycle can enable the component to perform the physical operation.

12. The network of claim 11 wherein the operational cycle component accessory is removably coupled to the appliance.

13. The network of claim 11 wherein the operational cycle component is configured for communication with a source of operation cycles.

14. The network of claim 13 wherein the source of operation cycles is one of a personal computer, a retail store, and the internet.

15. The network of claim 11 further comprising a cycle engine on the component whereby the cycle engine builds a cycle structure for the operation cycle to enable the component to perform the physical operation.

16. The network of claim 15 wherein the operational cycle component accessory is configured for connection to a personal computer.

17. The network of claim 16 wherein the personal computer has software to enable creating or editing operation cycles whereby a user can develop custom additional operation cycles on the personal computer and upload the custom additional operation cycles to the operation cycle component accessory.

18. The network of claim 15 wherein the cycle engine has a data portion and a compiled portion that reads the data portion to build the cycle structure and the operational cycle component accessory contains the data portion.

19. An operational cycle component accessory for an appliance having a driver configured to allow an arbitrary software component in the operational cycle component accessory to communicate with software architecture having a plurality of software elements and configured to generate a plurality of messages, whereby the operational cycle component accessory can communicate with an appliance by way of the software architecture to enable the appliance to perform a physical operation on an article.

20. The operational cycle component accessory of claim 19 further comprising data for use by a cycle engine in the appliance.

21. The operational cycle component accessory of claim 19 in communication with a cycle engine having elements, wherein the arbitrary software component configures the cycle engine and its elements.

22. A network comprising:

an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle to effect a physical operation on an article, the appliance having at least one node with software architecture and memory, configured to effect the physical operation; and

an operational cycle component accessory having an arbitrary software component in communication with the at least one node wherein the arbitrary software component can configure the software architecture into one of at least two modes to effect a change in the memory, whereby to change the physical operation of the appliance.