SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DIAGNOSING HOME APPLIANCE

• US 20100318324A1
• Filed: 04/09/2010
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kwon, Eui Hyeok, Kim, Yong Tae, Lee, Koon Seok, Kang, Hae Yong, KIM, Hyun Sang
• Granted Patent: US 8,346,508 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/183
• 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: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/002 with telemetering systems telemetering in general G08C

Abstract

A system and method for diagnosing a home appliance are disclosed. The home appliance outputs product information as a predetermined sound signal, and transmits the sound signal to a service center of a remote site over a communication network, such that a service technician of the service center can easily check a current status of the home appliance. When a diagnostic server of the service center analyzes the sound signal of the home appliance, it selects a plurality of preamble candidates and can effectively and correctly detect data using weights, so that it can quickly diagnose a faulty operation of the home appliance. An erroneous data analysis and its associated erroneous diagnosis are prevented, so that the diagnostic system provides a service for more correctly diagnosing a faulty operation of the home appliance and also increases user satisfaction and reliability of the home appliance.

Claims

1. A home appliance comprising:

a controller for dividing prestored product information into a plurality of data units upon receiving a signal output command, inserting a preamble between the divided data units, and generating a digital signal of a predetermined format;

a converter for converting the digital signal into a modulated signal of a predetermined frequency band; and

a sound output unit for outputting the modulated signal as a predetermined sound,

wherein the controller divides the product information in such a manner that each of the data units has a predetermined size, inserts a uniform-sized preamble between the data units, and generates the digital signal in such a manner that the preamble is repeated at intervals of a predetermined distance.

2. A diagnostic system for a home appliance comprising:

at least one home appliance for outputting a sound signal including product information; and

a diagnostic server for receiving the sound signal from the home appliance and diagnosing a faulty operation of the home appliance using the received sound signal,

wherein the diagnostic server extracts a plurality of preamble candidates from the sound signal, detects a preamble for identifying the product information from the plurality of preamble candidates, extracts product information contained in the sound signal, and thus diagnoses a current status of the home appliance, a faulty operation, and the cause of the faulty operation.

3. The diagnostic system according to claim 2, wherein the diagnostic server includes:

a signal detector for performing matching and weighting processes between the plurality of preamble candidates so as to detect the preamble from the plurality of preamble candidates, and extracting the product information using the preamble; and

a diagnostic unit for diagnosing a current status of the home appliance, a faulty operation, and a cause of the faulty operation by analyzing the product information.

4. The diagnostic system according to claim 3, wherein the signal detector extracts a plurality of preamble candidates of a first time so as to form a first preamble candidate group;

extracts a plurality of preamble candidates of a second time according to not only data including the product information but also a preamble size and thus forms a second preamble candidate group; and

matches each preamble candidate of the first preamble candidate group to each preamble candidate of the second preamble candidate group on a one to one basis.

5. The diagnostic system according to claim 4, wherein the signal detector assigns a weight value to a matched bit caused by the one-to-one matching result, and sets a preamble candidate having a high sum of weight values of individual bits to the preamble.

6. The diagnostic system according to claim 3, wherein the signal detector, in response to a predetermined preamble size and a predetermined data size, detects the product information according to the data size on the basis of an end part of the preamble.

7. The diagnostic system according to claim 2, wherein the home appliance, upon receiving a signal output command, includes:

a controller for dividing the product information into a plurality of data units, inserting the preamble between the divided data units, generating a digital signal of a predetermined format, and generating a signal to output the sound signal;

a converter for converting the digital signal into a modulated signal having a predetermined frequency band; and

a sound output unit for outputting the modulated signal as a sound signal in response to the digital signal of the controller.

8. A diagnostic method for use in a diagnostic system of a home appliance comprising:

upon receiving a sound signal from the home appliance, extracting a plurality of preamble candidates from the sound signal;

detecting a preamble from the plurality of preamble candidates by performing matching and weighting processes between the plurality of preamble candidates;

detecting data including product information from the sound signal on the basis of the preamble; and

diagnosing the home appliance by analyzing the product information.

9. The diagnostic method according to claim 8, wherein the detecting of the preamble includes:

extracting a plurality of preamble candidates of a first time and a plurality of preamble candidates of a second time; and

matching the preamble candidates of the first time to the preamble candidates of the second time on a one to one basis.

10. The diagnostic method according to claim 9, wherein the detecting of the preamble includes:

assigning a predetermined weight to a matched bit according to the one-to-one matching result, and determining one preamble candidate having the highest sum of assigned weights to be the preamble of the first time.

11. The diagnostic method according to claim 8, wherein the detecting of the data includes:

in response to a predetermined preamble size and a predetermined data size, detecting the data according to the data size on the basis of an end part of the preamble.