Smart coupling device

• US 8,250,163 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Castaldo, Rodrigo C., Ebrom, Matthew P., Glotzbach, Mark E., Glotzbach, Patrick J., Horst, Gale R., Jeffery, Randy L., McCoy, Richard A., Moes, Christopher S., Nibbelink, Matthew J., Pires, Andre O., Yamakawa, Eduardo K., Zimmerman, Cesario
• Primary Examiner(s): ENGLAND, DAVID E
• Application Number:
  US11/932,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20080143489A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,756 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/26 Special purpose or proprietary protocols or architectures network applications for proprietary or special purpose networking environments H04L67/12
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 6/688 for thawing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 40/00 Technologies aiming at improving the efficiency of home appliances, e.g. induction cooking or efficient technologies for refrigerators, freezers or dish washers

Abstract

A smart coupler for connecting two networks has a processor, a memory, a means to connect to a first network, a means to connect to a second network, and a power source. The first network has a client, and the memory has information which must be transferred to the client to enable the client to be usefully operable relative to the second network.

Claims

1. A smart coupler for communicatively connecting to an appliance configured to perform a cycle of operation on a physical article and having at least one appliance component and at least one controller enabled to control the at least one appliance component, wherein at least one appliance component has means to control at least one portion of the cycle of operation, the smart coupler comprising:

a processor,

memory,

means to communicatively connect to the at least one controller, and a software component in the memory,

wherein the software component includes programmed code having information effective to enable the appliance to build the at least one portion of the cycle of operation at runtime when the software component is communicated, by using the processor, from the memory of the smart coupler to the at least one controller and installed on to the appliance so the built at least one portion of the cycle of operation can be executed by the at least one controller and control the at least one appliance component.

2. The smart coupler of claim 1 wherein the information is an operational cycle so that the controller can use the operational cycle to change the at least one portion of the cycle of operation according to the operational cycle by controlling the at least one appliance component according to the operational cycle.

3. The smart coupler of claim 2 wherein the operation cycle includes at least one of options for the operation cycle and steps for the operation cycle.

4. The smart coupler of claim 2 wherein the appliance further comprises a cycle engine and the at least one controller communicates the operational cycle to the cycle engine to effect the change to the at least one portion of the cycle of operation.

5. The smart coupler of claim 1 wherein the information is data about a cycle structure so that the controller can use the data about a cycle structure to change the at least one portion of the cycle of operation according to the data about a cycle structure by controlling the at least one appliance component according to the data about a cycle structure.

6. The smart coupler of claim 1 further having a means to access data from a source of information about a resource.

7. The smart coupler of claim 6 wherein the source of information about a resource is one of an energy supplier, a power utility, and a second appliance different from the appliance.

8. The smart coupler of claim 1 wherein appliance further comprises a component configured for response to a resource related command and the smart coupler is configured to provide information to the component to effect the response.

9. The smart coupler of claim 1 wherein the information is data about a consumable and the controller uses the data about a consumable to change the at least one portion of the cycle of operation according to the data about a consumable by controlling the at least one appliance component in response to the data about a consumable.

10. The smart coupler of claim 9 wherein the information includes at least one of an operating cycle associated with the consumable, usage directions associated with the consumable, cooking instructions associated with the consumable, dosage information associated with the consumable, washing instructions associated with the consumable, and drying instructions associated with the consumable.

11. The smart coupler of claim 1 wherein the information includes an upgrade for the appliance.

12. The smart coupler of claim 1 wherein the appliance further comprises at least one routing table and the information includes routing information used to populate the at least one routing table wherein the cycle of operation can be affected by a message sender which use at least one of the at least one routing table and routing information to send at least one message to the at least one controller for affecting the cycle of operation.

13. The smart coupler of claim 1 wherein the information further includes authentication data used to verify the information wherein connections with the appliance cannot be made by unauthorized external clients.

14. A smart coupler for communicatively connecting to an appliance configured to perform a cycle of operation on a physical article and having at least one appliance component and at least one controller enabled to control the at least one appliance component, wherein at least one appliance component has means to control at least one portion of the cycle of operation, the smart coupler comprising:

a processor,

memory,

means to communicatively connect to the at least one controller,

means to connect to a client, and

a software component in the memory,

wherein the software component includes programmed code having information effective to enable the client to build the at least one portion of the cycle of operation at runtime when the software component is communicated from the smart coupler to the client by the processor via the means to connect to a client and stored on the client so the built at least one portion of the cycle of operation can be communicated to the at least one appliance component and at least one controller.

15. The smart coupler according to claim 14 wherein the information comprises a driver to enable additional communication functions by the client.

16. The smart coupler of claim 15 wherein when the smart coupler is communicatively coupled to the at least one controller and the processor transfers the communications driver to the client, communication is enabled between the client and the appliance.

17. The smart coupler of claim 14 wherein the memory is removable.

18. The smart coupler of claim 14 and further comprising one of an opto-isolator, an software component that communicates with an appliance to accomplish one of collecting data about the appliance and changing the operation of the appliance, a visual indicator, and an interface expander.

19. The smart coupler of claim 14, further comprising a power source, wherein the power source comprises one of a client, a battery, and a USB connection.

20. The smart coupler of claim 14 connected to an appliance as an external client.

21. The smart coupler of claim 14 wherein the software component further collects data about the appliance.

22. The smart coupler of claim 14 wherein the client is a second appliance.

23. The smart coupler of claim 14 wherein the information is a software application executable by the client.

24. The smart coupler of claim 23 wherein the application is configured to use the smart coupler to acquire data from the appliance when the smart coupler is connected to the appliance and connected to the client and the application is being executed by the client.

25. The smart coupler of claim 24 wherein the application is one of a service and diagnostic application.

26. A portable smart coupler for message exchange between an appliance and an external client that can be removably coupled to the appliance comprising:

a first transmission media for connecting to a first appliance network of an appliance,

a second transmission media for connecting to a second external client network,

a first memory for holding information from at least one of the appliance and the external client

a processor communicatively coupled to the first and second transmission media;

the processor communicatively coupling the external client to the appliance when the appliance first transmission media is connected to the first appliance network and the second transmission media is connected to the second external client network;

wherein the processor takes the information from the memory and produces a signal representing the information and conveys the signal onto at least one of the first and second transmission media for use by the other of the appliance and the external client;

a first software component having at least one function including message handling to specifically facilitate the message exchange, a communication driver to specifically facilitate the message exchange, and message routing specifically to facilitate the message exchange;

a second software component having programmed code effective to enable the appliance to build a cycle of operation at runtime when the software component is communicated from the smart coupler to the appliance via the message exchange and stored on the appliance so the built cycle of operation can executed by the appliance; and

a means to receive power from at least two sources selected from the appliance, the external client, and an auxiliary power source.

27. The smart coupler of claim 26 further comprising a second memory for holding data associated with the second software component.

28. The smart coupler of claim 27 wherein the data is at least one of a test script, data collected from the first network, control parameters, operational cycle data, a cycle structure, data about a consumable.

29. The smart coupler of claim 26 further comprising a ground fault current sensor, an interface expander port for communicatively coupling to a device over a third device network, a network health analyzing circuit, an alternate power source, a wireless communication component, a sensor for measuring operational data associated with the appliance, and an auxiliary wireless communication component.

30. The smart coupler of claim 29 further comprising a third software component for sending and receiving propagated messages with the third device network.

31. The smart coupler of claim 26 further comprising a third software component for sending and receiving discovery messages.