Consumable holder with a cycle structure for an appliance

• US 8,314,678 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2008
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Ebrom, Matthew P., Glotzbach, Mark E., Luckman, Joel A., McCoy, Richard A., Moes, Christopher S., Pires, Andre O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Syed, Nabil
• Application Number:
  US12/256,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20090040012A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,489 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 340/10.3, 340/3.1, 340/641, 340/638, 340/643, 340/572.1, 340/3.4, 700/65, 700/17, 700/18, 700/23, 235/385, 235/381, 68/121.8, 68/120.4, 68/120.2
• US Class Current: 340/3.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• 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 consumable holder for use in an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle related to a consumable in the consumable holder, in response to a cycle structure, has or is enabled to acquire information about the cycle structure. The information about the cycle structure can be communicated to the appliance for use by the appliance to change the cycle structure and thereby change the operation cycle related to the consumable.

Claims

1. A consumable holder for use in an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle related to a consumable in the consumable holder, and configured to receive messages, the consumable holder having or enabled to acquire information associated with the consumable and configured for communication to the appliance in at least one message, wherein the information includes uncompiled data having a description of an ordered collection of steps, actions to be taken by at least one component of the appliance during each step, and conditions under which a current step should transition into a next step in the ordered collection of steps wherein the transition conditions are logic expressions that must be resolvable to a Boolean value, whereby the appliance can build the operation cycle based on the information upon receipt of the at least one message from the consumable holder, and perform the built operation cycle related to the consumable.

2. The consumable holder of claim 1 wherein the information is represented by one of key-value pairs, XML, relational data tables, comma separated variable files, a hierarchical composite tree or graph, byte arrays, data packets, command objects, binary encoded data, data encoded as a programming language such as a C header file, text, scripts, serialized objects, and messages.

3. The consumable holder of claim 1 wherein the consumable holder comprises a sensor and information is acquired from the sensor.

4. The consumable holder of any of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of information is acquired from a distinct source of information about one of the consumable and the consumable holder.

5. The consumable holder of any of claim 1 wherein the information includes data about at least one attribute of the consumable that would enable the appliance to ascertain the utility of the consumable.

6. The consumable holder of any of claim 1 wherein the information includes any one of a sound, a graphic, a ring tone, and licensable information.

7. The consumable holder of any of claim 1 wherein the holder is one of a bag, a box, a carton, a bottle, a can, a cartridge, a bowl, a dish, a plate, and any other rigid or semi-rigid body suitable to contain a substance.

8. The consumable holder of any of claim 1 wherein information is created by an authoring tool.

9. The consumable holder of claim 8 wherein the authoring tool resides in a user interface operably connected to the appliance.

10. A performance tag for affixing to one of a consumable holder for use in an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle related to a consumable in the consumable holder and to an article adapted to be operated on in an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle related to the article, the appliance further being configured to receive messages, the performance tag comprising information associated with one of the consumable and the article, and configured for communication to the appliance in at least one message, wherein the information includes uncompiled data having a description of an ordered collection of steps, actions to be taken by at least one component of the appliance during each step, and conditions under which a current step should transition into a next step in the ordered collection of steps wherein the transition conditions are logic expressions that must be resolvable to a Boolean value, whereby the appliance can build the operation cycle based on the information upon receipt of the at least one message from the performance tag, and perform the built operation cycle related to the consumable or to the article.

11. The performance tag of claim 10 wherein the information is represented by one of key-value pairs, XML, relational data tables, comma separated variable files, a hierarchical composite tree or graph, byte arrays, data packets, command objects, binary encoded data, data encoded as a programming language such as a C header file, text, scripts, serialized objects, and messages.

12. The performance tag of claim 10 further comprising a link to another source of the information.

13. An article adapted to be operated on in an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle related to the article, and configured to receive messages, the article comprising a performance tag having information associated with the article, and configured for communication to the appliance in at least one message, wherein the information includes uncompiled data having a description of an ordered collection of steps, actions to be taken by at least one component of the appliance during each step, and conditions under which a current step should transition into a next step in the ordered collection of steps wherein the transition conditions are logic expressions that must be resolvable to a Boolean value, whereby the appliance can build the operation cycle based on the information upon receipt of the at least one message from the performance tag, and perform the built operation cycle related to the article.

14. The article of claim 13 wherein the information is represented by one of key-value pairs, XML, relational data tables, comma separated variable files, a hierarchical composite tree or graph, byte arrays, data packets, command objects, binary encoded data, data encoded as a programming language such as a C header file, text, scripts, serialized objects, and messages.

15. A consumable holder for use in an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle related to a consumable in the consumable holder, and configured to receive messages, comprising a performance tag having information associated with the consumable and configured for communication to the appliance in at least one message, wherein the information includes uncompiled data having a description of an ordered collection of steps, actions to be taken by at least one component of the appliance during each step, and conditions under which a current step should transition into a next step in the ordered collection of steps wherein the transition conditions are logic expressions that must be resolvable to a Boolean value, whereby the appliance can build the operation cycle based on the information upon receipt of the at least one message from the consumable holder, and perform the built operation cycle related to the consumable.

16. The consumable holder of claim 15 wherein the information is represented by one of key-value pairs, XML, relational data tables, comma separated variable files, a hierarchical composite tree or graph, byte arrays, data packets, command objects, binary encoded data, data encoded as a programming language such as a C header file, text, scripts, serialized objects, and messages.

17. The consumable holder of claim 15 wherein the information includes data about one of appliance types, fabric types, and stain types whereby the information can be used alone or combined with the other information to create or modify a cycle of operation in response to the information.

18. A consumable information holder for use by an appliance configured to perform an operation cycle related to a consumable, and configured to receive messages, the consumable information holder comprising information associated with one of the consumable and user interface data, and configured for communication to the appliance in at least one message, wherein the information includes uncompiled data having a description of an ordered collection of steps, actions to be taken by at least one component of the appliance during each step, and conditions under which a current step should transition into a next step in the ordered collection of steps wherein the transition conditions are logic expressions that must be resolvable to a Boolean value, whereby the appliance can build the operation cycle based on the information upon receipt of the at least one message from the consumable information holder, and perform the built operation cycle related to the consumable or to render the user interface data.

19. The consumable information holder of claim 18 wherein the information is represented by one of key-value pairs, XML, relational data tables, comma separated variable files, a hierarchical composite tree or graph, byte arrays, data packets, command objects, binary encoded data, data encoded as a programming language such as a C header file, text, scripts, serialized objects, and messages.

20. The consumable information holder of claim 19 wherein the consumable information holder is one of a consumable holder, a performance tag, a consumable, and a data pod.

21. The consumable information holder of claim 19 wherein the information includes data about at least one attribute of the consumable that would enable the appliance to ascertain the utility of the consumable.

22. The consumable information holder of claim 19 wherein the information includes any one of a sound, a graphic, a ring tone, licensable information, advertising information, usage instructions, purchasing and replenishment information, and ingredient information relating to the consumable.

23. The consumable information holder of claim 19 wherein the information comprises two of first and second cycle structures and first and second user interface data sets.

24. The consumable information holder of claim 23 wherein the first and second cycle structures and first and second user interface data sets are associated, respectively, with first and second appliances or appliance types.

25. The consumable information holder of claim 19 wherein the consumable information holder is configured to receive and store information associated with the consumable.