CONSTRAINED APPLIANCE DEVELOPMENT TOOLKIT

• US 20090327998A1
• 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: MCCOY, RICHARD A.
• Application Number:
  US12/556,628
• Publication Number:
  US 20090327998A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/113
• 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 is provided to enable creation of content to affect operation of a component in an appliance or to affect user interaction with an appliance. The toolkit includes an editor to create effective data related to the functioning of one or more components of an appliance. The editor is informed by no more than a portion of information related to the component or components. The toolkit also has an interactive user interface on which the editor is displayed for use by a developer, and a converter to generate content using the effective data. The portion of information is less than all information related to the component or components, and no more than the portion is available to the editor, so that the developer'"'"'s capacity to create content using the toolkit is constrained by the available portion of information.

Claims

1. An appliance development toolkit for creation of content for an appliance configured to perform a cycle of operation on a physical article wherein the content affects the functionality of at least one component of the appliance, the toolkit comprising;

an appliance user domain data model,

a model instance editor to create instances of data elements related to functionality of an appliance and derived from the appliance user domain data model,

an interactive user interface on which the model instance editor is displayed for use by a developer, and

a model converter to generate content using the instance data from the model instance editor,

wherein the appliance user domain data model is constrained by reference to less than all of the functionality of an appliance so that the developer'"'"'s capacity to generate content is limited by the constraints of the appliance user domain data model.

2. The appliance development toolkit of clam 1 wherein the reference to less than all of the functionality is hard corded into the model instance editor.

3. The appliance development toolkit of clam 1 wherein the reference to less than all of the functionality is in the appliance user domain data model.

4. The appliance development toolkit of clam 1 wherein the reference to less than all of the functionality is in an instance of the appliance domain user model.

5. The appliance development toolkit of clam 1 wherein the reference to less than all of the functionality is in the interactive user interface.

6. An appliance development toolkit for creation of content for an appliance configured to perform a cycle of operation on a physical article wherein the content affects the functioning of at least one component of the appliance, the toolkit comprising;

an editor to create effective data related to the functioning of the at least one component of the appliance, wherein the editor is informed by no more than a portion of information related to at least one component,

an interactive user interface on which the editor is displayed for use by a developer, and

a converter to generate content using the effective data,

wherein the portion of information is less than all information related to the at least one component and no more than the portion is available to the editor, so that the developer'"'"'s capacity to create content using the toolkit is constrained by the portion of information available to the editor.

17. The appliance development toolkit of claim 6 further comprising a communication driver to establish a link with at least one control board controlling the component in the appliance or simulation thereof, and software configured to command operation of the at least one control board, wherein a user can create or modify the content using the editor in response to communication over the link.

27. The appliance development toolkit of claim 6 wherein any one of the editor, the user interface and the converter is accessible over the internet.

28. An appliance comprising the appliance development toolkit of claim 6.

7. The appliance development toolkit of clam 6 wherein the portion of information is hard corded into the editor.

18. The appliance development toolkit of claim 7 further comprising a smart coupler in the link.

19. The appliance development toolkit of claim 7 wherein the viewer has a command window where a user can define and initiate a command for operation of the at least one control board.

20. The appliance development toolkit of claim 7 further comprising a sequence model useable by the editor to create the content including instances of cycle data for the appliance.

21. The appliance development toolkit of claim 19 further comprising a sequence model useable by the editor to create the content including instances of cycle definitions for the appliance wherein a user can use the command window to establish a portion of the cycle data by observing one of the data in the viewer and the appliance contemporaneously with initiating the command and use the editor to include the portion in the content.

22. The appliance development toolkit of claim 21 wherein the content includes at least one of a cycle definition, a cycle structure, information about a cycle structure, a paired element, source identification information, a message data payload structure, and information about a consumable.

23. The appliance development toolkit of claim 22 further comprising access to a datastore and credentials for writing information into the datastore wherein the content can be stored in the datastore for later retrieval for use with the appliance.

24. The appliance development toolkit of claim 23 wherein the datastore is a consumable information holder.

25. The appliance development toolkit of claim 19 wherein the viewer includes a data analyzer configured to display the useable data from the communication link with non-usable data describing the useable data wherein a user can understand the meaning of the useable data.

26. The appliance development toolkit of claim 25 wherein the data analyzer is configured to accept other content including a portion of the useable data and a portion of the non-useable data associated with the portion of the useable data wherein the association enables the display without specific coding of the data analyzer with respect to the useable data.

8. The appliance development toolkit of clam 6 wherein the portion of information is in the interactive user interface.

9. The appliance development toolkit of clam 6 wherein the portion of information is an instance of a model.

10. The appliance development toolkit of claim 9 wherein the model is an appliance domain user model

11. The appliance development toolkit of claim 9 wherein the model comprises a message data payload model.

12. The appliance development toolkit of claim 9 wherein the model comprises a sequencing model for creating fault tree instances wherein the instances include at least one question and at least two valid answers associated with the at least one question.

13. The appliance development toolkit of claim 9 wherein the model comprises an appliance memory variable model.

14. The appliance development toolkit of claim 13 wherein the appliance memory variable model comprises at least one identifier representing a memory variable and wherein the at least one identifier comprises at least one identifier of a value which is the memory variable.

15. The appliance development toolkit of claim 9 wherein the model is a model comprising a sequencing model for creating a fault tree instances wherein the instances include at least one identifier of a test routine which can be executed in association with the appliance.

16. The appliance development toolkit of claim 9 wherein the model is a model comprising a sequencing model for creating cycle structure instances wherein the instances include at least one identifier of an appliance software function which can be executed in association with the appliance.

29. An appliance development toolkit for creation of content for at least one appliance configured to perform a cycle of operation on a physical article wherein the content affects the functioning of at least one component of the at least one appliance, the toolkit comprising;

an editor to create associations of at least two different data sets, of which at least one data set is related to the functioning of the at least one appliance,

an interactive user interface on which the editor is displayed for use by a developer, and

a converter to generate content using the associations and the at least one data set,

wherein communications between the at least one appliance and another appliance are constrained by the associations.