HOME APPLIANCE AND HOME APPLIANCE SYSTEM

• US 20100023938A1
• Filed: 04/29/2009
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2008
• 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 9,054,953 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/007 with remote control systems remote control in general G08C

Abstract

A home appliance and a home appliance system are provided. The home appliance receives input of a sound including update information, and updates a product operating program. The home appliance system receives a sound including product information from the home appliance, judges whether to update the product operating program of the home appliance, and transmits update information.

Claims

1. In a home appliance diagnosis system that transmits product information to a service center via a wire/wireless communication network for fault diagnosis, and diagnoses fault of a product,

a home appliance, comprising:

a sound input device that receives input of a sound being transferred via air vibration and including update information;

an inverse conversion device that inversely converts the sound input through the sound input device to generate the update information;

an input device that receives input of an external signal for executing the fault diagnosis from a user;

a controller that includes a storage device that stores the product information of the home appliance for the fault diagnosis and a product operating program of the home appliance, updates the product operating program using the update information generated by the inverse conversion device, and loads the product information stored in the storage device and outputs a control signal when the fault diagnosis is selected through the input device;

a sound output device that outputs a sound corresponding to the control signal of the controller; and

a conversion device that is provided between the controller and the sound output device to generate an acoustic signal to drive the sound output device according to the control signal.

2. The home appliance of claim 1, further comprising:

a manipulation device that receives input of an update command of the product operating program from the user,

wherein, when the update command has been input to the manipulation device, the controller updates the product operating program.

3. The home appliance of claim 2, wherein the controller outputs a control signal to control the output device to output an update request message, before updating the product operating program.

4. The home appliance of claim 3, wherein, after the sound output device outputs the update request message, when the update command is input through the manipulation device, the controller updates the product operating program using the update information.

5. The home appliance of claim 2, wherein, when the controller cannot read the update information generated by the inverse conversion device, the controller outputs a control signal to control the sound output device to output a retransmission request sound.

6. A home appliance system, comprising:

a home appliance that receives a sound including update information from the outside and updates a product operating program, and outputs a sound including product information when receiving input of a signal conversion command;

an external terminal that sends the sound including the product information via a communication network; and

a management device that inversely converts the sound being transmitted via the communication network and including the product information to analyze the product information, and sends update information for the product operating program of the home appliance.

7. The home appliance system of claim 6, wherein the home appliance comprises:

a sound input device that receives input of the sound being transferred via air vibration and including the update information;

an inverse conversion device that inversely converts the sound input through the sound input device to generate the update information;

an input device that receives input of an external signal for executing fault diagnosis from a user;

a controller that includes a storage device that stores the product information of the home appliance for the fault diagnosis and the product operating program of the home appliance, updates the product operating program using the update information generated by the inverse conversion device, and loads the product information stored in the storage device and outputs a control signal when the fault diagnosis is selected through the input device;

a sound output device that outputs a sound corresponding to the control signal of the controller; and

a conversion device that is provided between the controller and the sound output device to generate an acoustic signal to drive the sound output device according to the control signal.

8. The home appliance system of claim 7, wherein the management device comprises:

a transmission/reception device connected to the external terminal via the communication network;

a management device inverse conversion device that inversely converts the sound being input to the transmission/reception device and including the product information into the product information; and

a management device controller that reads the product information.

9. The home appliance system of claim 8, wherein the product information includes information on the product operating program of the home appliance.

10. The home appliance system of claim 9, wherein the management device comprises:

a management device storage device that stores update information for the product operating program of the home appliance; and

a management device conversion device that converts the update information into an acoustic signal.

11. The home appliance system of claim 10, wherein the management device controller analyzes the information on the product operating program received through the transmission/reception device, and when the update information for the product operating program has been stored in the management device storage device, the management device controller controls the management device conversion device to convert the update information into an acoustic signal, and controls the transmission/reception device to transmit the acoustic signal.

12. The home appliance system of claim 11, wherein the management device controller controls the transmission/reception device to transmit the acoustic signal plural times.

13. The home appliance system of claim 12, wherein, after the transmission/reception device transmits the acoustic signal, the management device controller controls the management device conversion device to convert the update information into an acoustic signal with a different frequency band from that of the acoustic signal, and controls the transmission/reception device to transmit the acoustic signal with the different frequency band.

14. The home appliance system of claim 13, wherein, when the transmission/reception device receives a retransmission request signal after transmitting the acoustic signal, the management device controller controls the transmission/reception device to retransmit the acoustic signal.

15. The home appliance system of claim 12, wherein, when the transmission/reception device receives a retransmission request signal after transmitting the acoustic signal, the management device controller controls the management device conversion device to convert the update information into an acoustic signal with a different frequency band from that of the acoustic signal, and controls the transmission/reception device to transmit the acoustic signal with the different frequency band.