APPLIANCE DEVELOPMENT TOOLKIT FOR CREATING A DYNAMIC USER INTERFACE FOR AN APPLIANCE

• US 20090327932A1
• Filed: 09/10/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: EBROM, MATTHEW P., RADFORD, BRIAN N., MCCOY, RICHARD A., GLOTZBACH, MARK E., MORRELL, MICHAEL A.
• Application Number:
  US12/556,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20090327932A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/263 Generation of test inputs, e.g. test vectors, patterns or sequences ; with adaptation of the tested hardware for testability with external testers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/965 for process control and configuration

Abstract

An appliance development toolkit includes access to a user interface domain data model, access to an appliance user domain data model, a model instance editor configured to create one or more instances of user interface domain data derived from the user interface domain data model, to create one or more instances of appliance user domain data derived from the appliance user domain data model, and to associate one or more user interface elements with one or more appliance user elements. The toolkit also has a model instance converter for creating content including portions of the instances of user interface domain data, instances of appliance user domain data, and a map of the association. The content is in a builder file. An appliance can use the builder file at runtime to dynamically render its graphical user interface.

Claims

1. An appliance development toolkit to enable creation of a dynamic user interface for an appliance, the toolkit comprising:

access to a user interface domain data model,

access to an appliance user domain data model,

a model instance editor configured to create at least one instance of user interface domain data derived from the user interface domain data model, to create at least one instance of appliance user domain data derived from the appliance user domain data model, and to associate at least one user interface element from the at least one instance of the user interface domain data with at least one appliance user element of the at least one instance of the appliance user domain data in a first association, and

a model instance converter for creating content including a portion of the at least one instance of user interface domain data, a portion of the at least one instance of appliance user domain data, and a map of the first association,

wherein the content is in a builder file that an appliance, having a graphical user interface with which a user can control and observe operation of the appliance, can use at runtime to dynamically render the graphical user interface.

2. The appliance development toolkit of claim 1 wherein the content also includes other information related to the appliance user domain data from which the graphical user interface will be rendered.

3. The appliance development toolkit of claim 1 wherein the at least one user interface element is directly associated with the at least one appliance user element.

4. The appliance development toolkit of claim 3 wherein the association is bi-directional wherein each of the at least one user interface and at least one appliance user elements includes a reference to the other.

5. The appliance development toolkit of claim 3 wherein the association is unidirectional wherein only one of the at least one user interface and at least one appliance user elements includes a reference to the other.

6. The appliance development toolkit of claim 1 wherein the at least one user interface element is indirectly associated with the at least one appliance user element through at least one intermediate binding object.

7. The appliance development toolkit of claim 3 further comprising access to control system domain data wherein the editor is configured to associate at least one element of data from the control system domain data with the at least one appliance user element in a second association, and wherein the content further includes a map of the second association.

8. The appliance development toolkit of claim 7 wherein the map of the second association is used to select one of a control algorithm or parameter thereof and a cycle of operation or parameter thereof based on the selection of information associated with the at least one element of the at least one instance of the appliance user domain data on the graphical user interface.

9. An appliance development toolkit to enable creation of a dynamic user interface for an appliance, the toolkit comprising:

access to a user interface domain data model,

and access to source identification domain data,

a model instance editor configured to create at least one instance of user interface domain data derived from the user interface domain data model, and to associate at least one element from the at least one instance of the user interface domain with at least a portion of the source identification domain data in an association, and

a model instance converter for creating content including a portion of the at least one instance of user interface domain data, a portion of the source identification domain data, and a map of the association,

wherein the content is in a builder file that an appliance, having a graphical user interface with which a user can control and observe operation of the appliance, can use at runtime to render information on the graphical user interface associated with the portion.

10. An appliance development toolkit to enable creation of content for a user interface for an appliance, the toolkit comprising:

access to at least one of appliance user domain data and source identification domain data

an editor configured to create at least one instance of a domain object associated with one of the appliance user domain data and the source identification domain data, and to arrange other data, not from the appliance user domain data or the source identification domain data, with the at least one instance into a collection,

a first converter to observe the collection and create renderable content having a first portion associated with the at least one of appliance user domain data and the source identification domain data, and a second portion associated with the other data.

11. The appliance development toolkit of claim 10 further comprising a viewer for rendering the content.

12. The appliance development toolkit of claim 10 further comprising a second converter to observe the collection and create the content in a form compatible with the appliance.

13. The appliance development toolkit of claim 12 wherein the form is at least one of a relational database, html, and xml.

14. The appliance development toolkit of claim 10 wherein the other data includes user entered text.

15. The appliance development toolkit of claim 10 wherein the other data includes user entered data from the ascii code.

16. The appliance development toolkit of claim 12 wherein the other data includes markup language and tags wherein at least one of the first and second converters is configured to interpret at least a portion of the markup language and tags.

17. The appliance development toolkit of claim 16 wherein the markup language and tags include at least one element for one of bolding, italicizing, setting a font, setting a font size, setting color, indenting, creating a table, referencing a resource outside the editor, paragraphing, and pagination.

18. The appliance development toolkit of claim 12 wherein the other data includes markup language and tags and wherein at least one of the first and second converters is configured to include at least a portion of the markup language and tags into the content.

19. The appliance development toolkit of claim 10 wherein the other data includes markup language and tags, and wherein the first converter is configured to create content for at least one content target and to omit at least a portion of the markup language and tags from the content wherein the portion is incompatible with the at least one content target.

20. The appliance development toolkit of claim 19 wherein the at least one content target is an appliance configured to perform a physical operation on an article having a graphical user interface and software for rendering content on the graphical user interface wherein the software cannot render the markup language and tags.

21. The appliance development toolkit of claim 10 further comprising a viewer wherein the other data includes markup language and tags and wherein the viewer displays the renderable content in response, in part, to the elements in the markup language and tags.

22. An appliance development toolkit to enable creation of a dynamic user interface for an appliance, the toolkit comprising:

a user interface domain data model having animation resource identifiers and user interface control identifiers,

an editor configured to create at least one instance of user interface control data derived from the user interface domain data model, and to create a map for associating the at least one instance with at least one animation resource identifier, and

a converter for creating content based on the at least one instance of user interface control data and the map for associating the at least one instance with the at least one animation resource identifier,

wherein the content is in a builder file that an appliance, having a graphical user interface with which a user can control and observe operation of the appliance, can use at runtime to dynamically render the graphical user interface with animations based on an animation resource associated with the at least one animation resource identifier.

23. The appliance development toolkit of claim 22 further comprising a viewer for rendering the content.

24. The appliance development toolkit of claim 22 further comprising a second converter to create the content in a form compatible with the appliance.

25. The appliance development toolkit of claim 24 wherein the form is at least one of a relational database, html, and xml.

26. The appliance development toolkit of claim 22 wherein the at least one user interface control has at least two properties and wherein the animation resource identifier includes a sub identifier for an output and a sub identifier for an input wherein the toolkit enables the association of one of the at least two properties with one of the sub identifier for an output an a sub identifier for an input and the other of the at least tow properties with the other of the sub identifier for an output an a sub identifier for an input.