Controllable appliance arrangement

• US 7,110,836 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2004
• Issued: 09/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Sturm, Thomas, Stromberg, Guido
• Primary Examiner(s): BARNES-BULLOCK, CRYSTAL JOY
• Application Number:
  US10/930,731
• Publication Number:
  US 20050096760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 749 Days
• Field of Search: 700/9, 700 11- 14, 700 17- 19, 700/65, 700/66, 700/83, 700/302, 340/3.1, 340/3.9, 340 33- 332, 340/3.43, 340/3.44, 340/3.7, 340/3.71, 715/740, 715/749
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24086 Expert system, guidance operator, locate fault and indicate how to repair
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25167 Receive commands through mobile telephone
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2633 Washing, laundry
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/00 Arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless electrical link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/20 Binding and programming of remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/21 Programming remote control devices via third means
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/50 Receiving or transmitting feedback, e.g. replies, status updates, acknowledgements, from the controlled devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/91 Remote control based on location and proximity
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission

Abstract

A transmission/reception device is provided merely as an embedded system, and a domestic appliance control program and/or an industrial appliance control program is/are transferred from the transmission/reception device to an external control apparatus, and the latter is used to control the appliances. In addition, the appliances contain at least one sensor for recording state information about the respective appliance, the recorded sensor variables being transferred to the external control apparatus.

Claims

1. A controllable appliance arrangement comprising:

an appliance having at least one sensor for recording at least one sensor variable which represents a state of the appliance;

a transmission/reception device coupled to the appliance, the transmission/reception device having a control unit, a first memory unit storing an appliance control program, a control interface, and a communication interface coupled to the control unit;

a second memory unit provided in the appliance or in the transmission/reception device for storing the recorded sensor variables;

an external control apparatus configured to receive and store the appliance control program, wherein the transmission/reception device automatically transmits the appliance control program to the external control apparatus when the appliance control program for controlling the appliance is not already stored in the external control apparatus, and the external control apparatus being able to execute the appliance control program stored therein to control the appliance;

wherein the transmission/reception device transmits the sensor variables to the external control apparatus.

2. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, in which the appliance is a domestic appliance in the form of:

a refrigerator;

a stereo system;

a dishwasher;

a washing machine;

a tumble dryer;

a microwave oven;

or

a stove.

3. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, in which the appliance is an industrial appliance in the form of a heating system or a radiator.

4. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, in which the sensor is set up as

a temperature sensor;

a filling level sensor;

a humidity sensor;

a gas sensor; and

/or

a pressure sensor.

5. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, comprising wherein the communication interface is configured as a radio communication interface.

6. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, in which the first memory unit

is writable;

is nonwritable;

or

is a memory having a first submemory and a second submemory, the first submemory being writable and the second submemory being nonwritable.

7. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 6, in which the writable first memory unit or the first submemory is a random access memory.

8. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 6, in which the nonwritable first memory unit or the second submemory is a read only memory.

9. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, in which the first memory unit has a first submemory and a second submemory;

where the first submemory stores at least a portion of an appliance control program; and

where the second submemory stores another portion of the appliance control program or other data.

10. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 9, in which the other data comprises:

information regarding a menu structure and/or information regarding a user interface.

11. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, comprising wherein the transmission/reception device has an initialization unit which is set up such that the initialization unit can be used to set up a communication connection to the external control apparatus.

12. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 11, comprising wherein the initialization unit is set up such that it can set up a communication connection to the external control apparatus by transmitting a signal to the latter.

13. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 12, comprising wherein the initialization unit is set up such that it can set up a communication connection to the external control apparatus by accepting a signal from the external control apparatus.

14. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 11, comprising wherein a communication protocol used for communication between the initialization unit and the external control apparatus is one of the following communication protocols:

Common Object Request Broker Architecture;

Simple Service Discovery Protocol;

Universal Plug and Play;

JXTA;

or

Java Intelligent Network Infrastructure.

15. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, comprising wherein the appliance control program is in the form of a JAVA code.

16. The controllable appliance arrangement of claim 1, comprising wherein the transmission/reception device is in the form of an embedded system.

17. The control system of claim 1, in which the external control apparatus comprises:

a workstation;

a personal computer;

a laptop;

a webpad;

a mobile radio telephone;

or

a personal digital assistant.

18. The control system of claim 1, comprising:

the external control apparatus has a memory device for storing at least one appliance control program and also a processor which is set up such that it can execute the at least one appliance control program in order to control the appliance as a result.

19. A controllable appliance arrangement comprising:

an appliance having at least one sensor for recording at least one sensor variable which represents a state of the appliance;

a transmission/reception device coupled to the appliance, the transmission/reception device having a control unit, a first memory unit storing an appliance control program, a control interface, and a communication interface coupled to the control unit;

a second memory unit provided in the appliance or in the transmission/reception device for storing the recorded sensor variables; and

an external control apparatus having a memory device for storing the appliance control program and a processor which is set up such that it can execute the appliance control program in order to control the appliance as a result, the external control apparatus being configured to control the appliance via the control interface and via the communication interface by using the control unit;

wherein the communication interface can be used to transmits the appliance control program and the sensor variables to the external control apparatus, and wherein the external control apparatus has a storage-period management device which is set up such that for each appliance control program stored in the memory device it prescribes a time value which indicates the time after which an appliance control program stored in the memory device is/are erased from the memory device.

20. The control system of claim 19, in which a time value is prescribed by the storage-period management device on the basis of at least one of the following criteria:

how often the appliance control program has/have been executed in the past;

when the appliance control program was/were last executed;

what memory requirement the appliance control program has/have; and

what type of application the appliance control program is/are concerned with.

21. A controllable appliance arrangement comprising:

an appliance having at least one sensor for recording at least one sensor variable which represents a state of the appliance;

a transmission/reception device coupled to the appliance, the transmission/reception device having a control unit, a first memory unit storing an appliance control program, a control interface, and a communication interface coupled to the control unit;

a second memory unit provided in the appliance or in the transmission/reception device for storing the recorded sensor variables; and

an external control apparatus having a memory device for storing the appliance control program and a processor which is set up such that it can execute the appliance control program in order to control the appliance as a result, the external control apparatus being configured to control unit; and

an interrogation unit in the external control apparatus, wherein the interrogation unit is set up such that it can be used to ascertain whether the memory device already contains an appliance control program which is/are stored in the memory unit.

22. The control system of claim 21, wherein if the interrogation unit has been used to ascertain that the memory device already contains an appliance control program which is/are stored in the first memory unit, then the appliance control program is/are not transmitted to the external control apparatus.

23. A controllable appliance arrangement comprising:

an appliance having at least one sensor for recording at least one sensor variable which represents a state of the appliance;

a transmission/reception means coupled to the appliance, the transmission/reception means having a control unit, a first memory unit storing an appliance control program, a control interface, and a communication interface coupled to the control unit; and

a second memory unit provided in the appliance or in the transmission/reception means for storing the recorded sensor variables;

an external control apparatus configured to receive and store the appliance control program, wherein the transmission/reception means is configured transmitting the appliance control program to the external control apparatus when the appliance control program for controlling the appliance is not already stored in the external control apparatus, and the external control apparatus being able to execute the appliance control program stored therein to control the appliance;

wherein the transmission/reception means transmits the sensor variables to the external control apparatus.