AUTOMATED APPLIANCE DIAGNOSTICS AND REPORTING

• US 20090083000A1
• Filed: 09/25/2008
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Modu Limited (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Katz, Hagay, Sherman, Itay, Ron, Uri, Bychkov, Eyal, Margalit, Ran, Perry, Hagit
• Application Number:
  US12/237,396
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083000A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/184
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A system for maintaining an appliance, including a storage housed within an electrical appliance for storing identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase, and a communication card including an interface connector for connecting the communication card to the electrical appliance, and a wireless cellular modem for transmitting data, wherein when the communication card is connected to the electrical appliance via the interface connector, the communication card causes program code to perform at least one diagnostic test on the electrical appliance and to generate test results, to collect the identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase, and to transmit at least a portion of the collected information and the test results to at least one remote recipient using the cellular modem. A method is also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A system for maintaining an appliance, comprising:

a storage housed within an electrical appliance for storing identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase; and

a communication card comprising;

an interface connector for connecting the communication card to the electrical appliance; and

a wireless cellular modem for transmitting data, wherein when said communication card is connected to the electrical appliance via said interface connector, said communication card causes program code to perform at least one diagnostic test on the electrical appliance and to generate test results, to collect the identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase, and to transmit at least a portion of the collected information and the test results to at least one remote recipient using said cellular modem.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the program code is stored within said electrical appliance storage.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said communication card further comprises a card memory for storing the program code.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a controller housed within the electrical appliance for performing the at least one diagnostic test, upon instruction from the program code.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said communication card further comprises a controller for performing the at least one diagnostic test, upon instruction from the program code.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein an owner of the electrical appliance invokes the program code to perform the at least one diagnostic test and to transmit the test results.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the remote recipient invokes the program code to perform the at least one diagnostic test and to transmit the test results, via said communication card.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the program code is scheduled to perform the at least one diagnostic test and to transmit the test results at regular periodic intervals of time.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase comprises a serial number, a model number, an identifier for a point of purchase from which the appliance was purchased, a date on which the appliance was purchased, and a warranty for the appliance.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase comprises contact information for the at least one remote recipient.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the contact information for the at least one remote recipient is at least one call number for the at least one remote recipient.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein information about the at least one remote recipient is obtained from manually entered data.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one remote recipient is at least one of a seller of the electrical appliance, a manufacturer of the electrical appliance, and a service provider for the electrical appliance.

14. A method for maintaining an appliance, comprising:

connecting a communication card to an electrical appliance, wherein identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase is stored within a memory in the electrical appliance;

causing at least one diagnostic test to be performed on the electrical appliance;

automatically collecting the identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase from the memory in the electrical appliance;

opening a connection with at least one remote recipient, by the communication card; and

transmitting at least a portion of the collected information and the results of the at least one diagnostic test to the at least one recipient, by the communication card.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the at least one diagnostic test is performed by the communication card.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the at least one diagnostic test is performed by the electrical appliance.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein said causing and said transmitting are initiated by an owner of the electrical appliance.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein said causing and said transmitting are initiated by the remote recipient via the communication card.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein said causing and said transmitting are scheduled to occur at regular periodic intervals of time.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein the identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase comprises a serial number, a model number, an identifier for a store from which the appliance was purchased, a date on which the appliance was purchased, and a warranty for the appliance.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein the identifying information about the electrical appliance and its purchase comprises contact information for the at least one remote recipient.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the contact information for the at least one remote recipient is at least one call number for the at least one remote recipient.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein information about the at least one remote recipient is obtained from manually entered data.

24. The method of claim 14 wherein the at least one remote recipient is at least one of a seller of the electrical appliance, a manufacturer of the electrical appliance, and a service provider for the electrical appliance.

25. A system for maintaining an appliance, comprising:

a storage housed within an electrical appliance for storing identifying information about the electrical appliance; and

a communication card comprising;

an interface connector for connecting the communication card to the electrical appliance; and

a wireless cellular modem for transmitting data, wherein when said communication card is connected to the electrical appliance via said interface connector, said communication card causes program code to perform at least one diagnostic test on the electrical appliance and to generate test results, to collect the identifying information about the electrical appliance, and to open a TCP connection to a server computer to transmit at least a portion of the collected information and the test results to the server computer using said cellular modem.

26. A method for maintaining an appliance, comprising:

connecting a communication card to an electrical appliance, wherein identifying information about the electrical appliance is stored within a memory in the electrical appliance;

causing at least one diagnostic test to be performed on the electrical appliance;

automatically collecting the identifying information about the electrical appliance from the memory in the electrical appliance;

opening a TCP connection with a server computer, by the communication card; and

transmitting at least a portion of the collected information and the results of the at least one diagnostic test to the server computer, by the communication card.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said transmitting at least a portion of the collected information and the results of the at least one diagnostic test comprises sending the collected information within an HTTP request.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the server computer includes a database of remote recipients corresponding to respective electrical appliance identifying information, the method further comprising automatically transmitting, by the server computer, the at least a portion of the collected information and the results of the at least one diagnostic test to at least one remote recipient corresponding to the identifying information collected by said automatically collecting.

29. The method of claim 26 further comprising enabling at least one remote recipient to access the at least a portion of the collected information and the results of the at least one diagnostic test on a web site in communication with the server computer.

30. A wireless communicator, comprising:

an interface configured to enable the wireless communicator to connect to a plurality of different electronic devices, wherein each of the plurality of electronic devices has device information;

a memory storing a device diagnostic program, wherein the device diagnostic program includes instructions to perform at least one diagnostic test on the electronic device and to generate test results;

a wireless modem configured to transmit and receive data from time to time when the wireless communicator is connected to one of the plurality of different electronic devices and from time to time when the wireless communicator is not connected to any of the plurality of different electronic devices; and

a controller coupled to said interface, said memory and said wireless modem, the controller configured to receive the device information from an electronic device connected to the wireless communicator, to execute the device diagnostic program, and to cause said wireless modem to transmit at least a portion of the device information and the test results to a recipient.

31. The wireless communicator of claim 30, wherein said memory stores personal information about a user of the wireless communicator and wherein said controller is also configured to cause said wireless modem to transmit at least a portion of the personal information to the recipient.

32. The wireless communicator of claim 30, wherein said memory stores contact information for a plurality of recipients, wherein each of the plurality of recipients is a manufacturer of electronic devices.

33. An electronic device, comprising:

an interface configured to enable the electronic device to connect to one of a plurality of wireless communicators and to enable data to be transferred between the electronic device and a wireless communicator connected to the electronic device;

a memory storing device information and storing a device diagnostic program, wherein the device diagnostic program includes instructions to perform at least one diagnostic test on the electronic device and to generate test results; and

a controller coupled to said interface and said memory, the controller configured to execute the device diagnostic program when a first one of the plurality of wireless communicators is connected to said interface, and to transfer at least a portion of the device information and the test results to a wireless communicator connected to the electronic device, for transmission to a recipient.