APPLIANCE AND A CONSUMABLE HOLDER WITH AN EMBEDDED VIRTUAL ROUTER

• US 20090046715A1
• Filed: 10/23/2008
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: MCCOY, RICHARD A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,042 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• 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: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• 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 embedded virtual router is provided for a system comprising a device having a first software component configured to obtain and convey information associated with a consumable and an appliance having a second software component configured to perform a physical cycle of operation on an article using the consumable. The embedded virtual router encapsulates the two software components so that collaboration between them is uniform and identical whether the collaboration is over a network or sharing a runtime environment.

Claims

1. An embedded virtual router in a system comprising a device having a first software component configured to obtain and convey information associated with a consumable and an appliance having a second software component configured to perform a physical cycle of operation on an article using the consumable, wherein the embedded virtual router encapsulates the two software components whereby the collaboration is uniform and identical whether the collaboration is over a network or sharing a runtime environment.

2. The embedded virtual router of claim 1 wherein the device is a consumable reader.

3. The embedded virtual router of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a consumable holder with an arbitrary software component, whereby the arbitrary software component can communicate over the network via the embedded virtual router.

4. The embedded virtual router of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a user interface with an arbitrary software component, whereby the arbitrary software component can communicate over the network via the embedded virtual router.

5. The embedded virtual router of claim 1 wherein the first software component is on a first network and the second software component is on a second network whereby the first and second software components can communicate over the networks via the embedded virtual router.