Method of demonstrating a household appliance

• US 7,742,951 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Molloy, Phillip A., Glotzbach, Mark E., Ebrom, Matthew P., McCoy, Richard A., Jenkins, Anthony E., Elston, Wallace J. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg; Yogesh C
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E
• Application Number:
  US11/931,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20080109311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 700/234, 434/107, 434/118, 434/365, 434/379, 434/380, 434/382, 434/383, 186/52, 609/08
• US Class Current: 705/26.4
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/58 Indications or alarms to the control system or to the user
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/05 for wireless communication between components, e.g. for remote monitoring or control
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/32 characterised by graphical features, e.g. touchscreens
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A method of enabling adaptable demonstrations of a household appliance comprising providing consumer-specific updates to a demonstration software at a location remote from an appliance and downloading the consumer-specific updates to the appliance over an information network in response to a determined characteristic of the consumer or enabling a video conference over multimedia interface during the demonstration.

Claims

1. A method of enabling adaptable demonstrations of a household appliance comprising:

providing a household appliance including;

a first component;

a second component;

a user interface with a multimedia display;

a controller configured to perform a specific function that implements both the first and second components;

a demonstration software which, when executed by the controller, causes a demonstration of the specific function by implementing the first component but not the second component and further causes a display of information related to the demonstration on the multimedia display; and

wherein the household appliance is selected from a group consisting of;

a clothes washing machine, a clothes dryer, an oven, a dishwasher, a refrigerator, a freezer, a microwave oven, a trash compactor, and a countertop appliance;

determining a characteristic of a consumer within a predefined distance of the household appliance;

downloading, to the household appliance, a consumer-specific update for the demonstration software from a remote database, wherein the consumer-specific update is selected based on the characteristic of the consumer; and

executing, by the controller, the demonstration software and the consumer-specific update, wherein the demonstration software causes the demonstration of the specific function and the display of the information related to the demonstration and wherein the consumer-specific update causes the demonstration to be tailored to the consumer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined characteristic is at least one of:

biometric, gender, age, height, mass, voice, facial expression, native language, eye color and hair color.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the consumer-specific update is at least one of sales incentive, appliance recommendation, appliance accessory, appliance options and appliance build options.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising updating a consumer profile database of consumer characteristics and corresponding consumer-specific updates at a remote location from the household appliance.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising matching the determined characteristic to a consumer characteristic in the consumer profile database to select a consumer-specific update for downloading.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the matching and selection is done in real time.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the matching and selection is done in response to a user interaction with the demonstration through the user interface.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a video conference over the user interface between the consumer and a sales representative during the demonstration.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising adding an additional person to the video conference over the user interface.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the additional person is a service technician.

11. A method of enabling adaptable demonstrations of a household appliance comprising:

providing a household appliance selected from a group consisting of;

a clothes washing machine, a clothes dryer, an oven, a dishwasher, a refrigerator, a freezer, a microwave oven, a trash compactor and a countertop appliance, said household appliance including;

a first component;

a second component;

a user interface including a multimedia display;

a controller for controlling the first and second components, with the household appliance being configured to execute a specific function utilizing both the first component and the second component; and

a demonstration software which, when executed by the controller, causes a demonstration of the specific function by implementing the first component but not the second component and further causes a display of information related to the demonstration on the multimedia display;

determining a characteristic of a consumer for the household appliance;

downloading, to the household appliance, a consumer-specific update for the demonstration software from a remote database, wherein the consumer-specific update is selected based on the characteristic of the consumer;

executing, by the controller, the demonstration software and the consumer-specific update, wherein the demonstration software causes the demonstration of the specific function and the display of the information related to the demonstration and the consumer-specific update causes the demonstration to be tailored to the consumer; and

establishing a video conference over the user interface between a consumer and a sales representative during the demonstration.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising adding an additional person to the video conference over the user interface.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the additional person is a service technician.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the determined characteristic is at least one of:

biometric, gender, age, height, mass, voice, facial expression, native language, eye color and hair color.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising updating a consumer profile database of consumer characteristics and corresponding consumer-specific updates at a remote location from the household appliance.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising matching the determined characteristic to a consumer characteristic in the consumer profile database to select a consumer-specific update for downloading.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the matching and selection is done in real time.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the matching and selection is done in response to a user interaction with demonstration through the user interface.