HOME APPLIANCE AND HOME APPLIANCE SYSTEM

• US 20090323914A1
• Filed: 04/29/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: KIM, Young Soo, CHO, In Haeng, JEONG, Hoi Jin, JEON, Si Moon, HAN, Jong Hye, LEE, Phal Jin
• Granted Patent: US 8,565,393 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/106.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/066 Telephone sets adapted for data transmision

Abstract

A home appliance and a home appliance system are disclosed. Product information and status information of the home appliance are converted into at least one transmission acoustic signal, and a sound corresponding to the at least one transmission acoustic signal is output to the outside. The product information and status information are formed as a digital signal and stored in a storage device. The digital signal is encoded through a conversion device, and converted into at least one transmission acoustic signal. The at least one transmission acoustic signal is formed as an analog signal. Meanwhile, the at least one transmission acoustic signal can be dividedly formed.

Claims

1. A home appliance for a home appliance system that transmits product information to a management device via a communication network for fault diagnosis of the home appliance, and diagnoses a fault of the home appliance using the product information, the home appliance comprising:

a selection device that receives input of an external command signal for executing a fault diagnosis;

a conversion device that converts product information into at least one acoustic signal and outputs the al least one acoustic signal;

a sound output device that outputs to outside of the home appliance a sound corresponding to the at least one acoustic signal output by the conversion device;

a storage device that stores the product information of the home appliance; and

a controller that obtains the product information from the storage device and provides the product information to the conversion device, wherein the conversion device outputs the at least one acoustic signal in segments, when the selection device receives the input of the external command signal.

2. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the at least one acoustic signal comprises a plurality of acoustic signals, and wherein the plurality of acoustic signals comprises:

a first acoustic signal containing contents of the product information of the home appliance; and

a second acoustic signal output upon completion of the first acoustic signal and corresponding to the product information of the home appliance.

3. The home appliance of claim 2, wherein the plurality of acoustic signals further comprises:

a third acoustic signal output upon completion of the second acoustic signal and indicating completion of the outputting of the product information.

4. The home appliance of claim 3, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output separation signals to separate the first acoustic signal, the second acoustic signal, and the third acoustic signal.

5. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the product information includes at least one of operation information or fault information.

6. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the at least one acoustic signal comprises a plurality of acoustic signals, and wherein the plurality of acoustic signals comprises:

an operation information acoustic signal containing operation information for the home appliance; and

a fault information acoustic signal containing fault information for the home appliance.

7. The home appliance of claim 6, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output a separation signal to separate the plurality of acoustic signals during a dummy time period between the operation information acoustic signal and the fault information acoustic signal.

8. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output the at least one acoustic signal by separating the segments.

9. The home appliance of claim 8, wherein the at least one acoustic signal is output by separating the segments based on an output time.

10. The home appliance of claim 8, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to control a separation signal to separate the segments during a dummy time between the segments.

11. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the conversion device repeatedly outputs the at least one acoustic signal.

12. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output a start acoustic signal to inform the user that the at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the product information is about to be output before the at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the product information is output.

13. The home appliance of claim 12, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output an end acoustic signal to inform the user of the completion of the output of the at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the product information.

14. The home appliance of claim 13, wherein a sound corresponding to the start acoustic signal and a sound corresponding to the end acoustic signal comprise at least one of a voice recognizable by the user, a melody, or a buzzer sound.

15. The home appliance of claim 13, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output a separation signal during a dummy time between the start acoustic signal, the at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the product information, and the end acoustic signal, to separate the signals from each other.

16. A home appliance system

comprising the home appliance of claim 1, and further comprising a management device that receives the sound and inversely converts the sound into the product information.

17. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the at least one acoustic signal comprises a plurality of acoustic signals, and wherein the plurality of acoustic signals comprises:

a first acoustic signal containing contents of product information of the home appliance; and

a second acoustic signal output upon completion of the first acoustic signal and corresponding to the product information of the home appliance.

18. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of acoustic signals further comprises:

a third acoustic signal output upon completion of the second acoustic signal and indicating the completion of the outputting of the product information.

19. The home appliance of claim 17, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output separation signals to separate the first acoustic signal, the second acoustic signal, and the third acoustic signal.

20. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the product information includes at least one of operation information or fault information.

21. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the at least one acoustic signal includes a plurality of acoustic signals, and wherein the plurality of acoustic signals comprises:

an operation information acoustic signal containing operation information of the home appliance; and

a fault information acoustic signal containing fault information of the home appliance.

22. The home appliance system of claim 21, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output a separation signal to separate the plurality of acoustic signals during a dummy time between the operation information acoustic signal and the fault information acoustic signal.

23. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output the at least one acoustic signal by separating the segments.

24. The home appliance system of claim 23, wherein the at least one transmission acoustic signal is output by separating the segments based on an output time.

25. The home appliance system of claim 23, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to control a separation signal to separate the segments during a dummy time between the segments.

26. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the conversion device repeatedly outputs the at least one acoustic signal.

27. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output a start acoustic signal to inform the user that the at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the product information is to be output before the at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the product information is output.

28. The home appliance system of claim 27, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output an end acoustic signal to inform the user of completion of the output of at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the product information.

29. The home appliance system of claim 28, wherein a sound corresponding to the start acoustic signal and a sound corresponding to the end acoustic signal comprise at least one of a voice recognizable by the user, a melody, or a buzzer sound.

30. The home appliance system of claim 28, wherein the controller controls the conversion device to output a separation signal during a dummy time between the start acoustic signal, the at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the product information, and the end acoustic signal, to separate the signals from each other.

31. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the management device comprises:

a transmission/reception device that transmits and receives a sound corresponding to the at least one acoustic signal;

a signal conversion device that inversely converts the sound into the product information and outputs the same based on the at least one acoustic signal corresponding to the sound transmitted from the transmission/reception device; and

a management device controller that reads the inversely converted product information.

32. The home appliance system of claim 31, further comprising:

a management device storage device that stores the product information of the home appliance read by the management device controller.

33. The home appliance system of claim 31, wherein the product information of the home appliance read by the management device controller is transmitted to a repairman.

34. The home appliance system of claim 16, further comprising:

an acoustic input device configured to receive a sound corresponding to an acoustic signal output by the management device; and

an inverse conversion device that inversely converts the sound input into the acoustic input device into a re-transmit command, wherein if the sound is input into the acoustic input device from the management device, the inverse conversion device inversely converts the re-transmit command and dividedly transmits the at least one acoustic signal output from the conversion device based on the re-transmit command.

49. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the product information includes status information for the home appliance.

50. The home appliance system of claim 16, wherein the product information includes status information for the home appliance.

35. A fault diagnosis method of a home appliance, comprising:

generating a packet including product information of the home appliance, and dividing the packet into predetermined frame units to generate a transmission frame;

encoding the transmission frame to generate an encoding frame; and

converting each bit information of the encoding frame into one audible symbol to generate at least one acoustic signal.

36. The fault diagnosis method of claim 35, wherein the transmission frame comprises a first header and a first payload.

37. The fault diagnosis method of claim 36, wherein the first header comprises at least one of a frame type, a reserve, a length of the first payload, or a FCS.

38. The fault diagnosis method of claim 36, wherein the at least one acoustic signal comprises at least one of a preamble, a second header, a TS_H, a second payload, stuff, a TS_P, or an IFS.

39. The fault diagnosis method of claim 36, wherein the first header is converted into two audible symbols in every one bit.

40. The fault diagnosis method of claim 36, wherein the first payload is converted into three audible symbols in every two bits.

41. The fault diagnosis method of claim 35, wherein the packet comprises at least one of a program version, a product number, or product information.

42. The fault diagnosis method of claim 41, wherein the program version comprises at least one of a version or a protocol name.

43. The fault diagnosis method of claim 35, wherein the product information comprises user information, fault information and operation information.

44. The fault diagnosis method of claim 43, wherein the user information comprises a number of times of using the home appliance, a course set by the user, and option setting information of the home appliance.

45. The fault diagnosis method of claim 43, wherein the fault information comprises an error code, information of the controller, a value sensed by a sensing device, and a sensed value of a driving device.

46. The fault diagnosis method of claim 35, wherein the product information is stored in the storage device.

47. The fault diagnosis method of claim 46, wherein the storage device comprises a first storage device that stores the product information even when power is not applied to the home appliance.

48. The fault diagnosis method of claim 47, wherein the first storage device comprises at least one of a PROM, an EPROM, or an EEPROM.

51. The fault diagnosis method of claim 35, wherein the product information includes status information for the home appliance.