Appliance network for a networked appliance and a cooking sensor accessory

• US 8,849,430 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2007
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Elston, Wallace J. III, Heilman, Layne E., Jenkins, Anthony E., McCoy, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): JENNISON, BRIAN W
• Application Number:
  US11/926,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20080105134A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,528 Days
• Field of Search: 219/483, 219/678, 219/679, 219/697, 219/702, 219/713, 219/714, 219/719, 700/83, 700/90, 700/100, 700/208, 340/286.02
• US Class Current: 700/87
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 15/0063 using remote monitoring or controlling of the dishwasher operation, e.g. networking systems
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/04 Signal transfer or data transmission arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/28 Arrangements for program selection, e.g. control panels therefor; Arrangements for indicating program parameters, e.g. the selected program or its progress
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 7/02 by radio
• CPC Class Codes: G04R 20/26 the radio signal being a near-field communication signal
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• 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 12/2823 Reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network device-related reporting H04L43/065; arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• 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 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2832 Interconnection of the control functionalities between home networks single bridge functionality H04L12/4625
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

An appliance network has a networked appliance configured to perform a food preparation operation on an article and a cooking sensor accessory in communication with the networked appliance and configured to sense a state of at least one of the article, the cooking sensor accessory, and the networked appliance.

Claims

1. An appliance network comprising:

a communication network having a plurality of interconnected nodes configured to communicate across the communication network;

at least one appliance configured to perform a cycle of operation to complete a food preparation operation on an article, the at least one appliance having a plurality of components, each component of the plurality of components being associated with at least one of the plurality of interconnected nodes;

a cooking sensor accessory connected to one of the plurality of nodes so as to be in communication with the communication network and configured to be in communication with a cooking vessel used to accomplish the food preparation operation and to detect a condition of the cooking vessel; and

a software architecture having a plurality of software elements and configured to generate a plurality of messages, with at least one of the software elements residing in each of the nodes and in the cooking sensor accessory and configured to enable transmission of at least one of the plurality of messages between each of the nodes and between the cooking sensor accessory and the nodes wherein the software architecture includes a cycle engine in communication with the cooking sensor accessory and having a first data portion describing a plurality of elements comprising an ordered collection of steps, the actions to be taken during each step, and the conditions under which the current step should transition to a next step in the ordered collection of steps, and a second compiled portion that reads the data portion and builds a cycle structure in memory which can execute instructions comprising the cycle of operation corresponding to the description suggested by the data portion and wherein the food preparation operation is customized to the data portion at runtime.

2. The appliance network of claim 1 wherein the cooking sensor accessory comprises at least one sensor configured to sense a state of at least one of the article, the cooking sensor accessory, and the at least one appliance.

3. The appliance network of claim 2 wherein the cooking sensor accessory is configured to communicate the sensed state to a specified one of the plurality of nodes on the communication network.

4. The appliance network of claim 3 wherein the cooking sensor accessory is configured to create at least one additional message on the communication network to communicate the sensed state to the specified one of the plurality of nodes on the communication network.

5. The appliance network of claim 3 wherein the cooking sensor accessory is configured to communicate the sensed state to the at least one appliance.

6. The appliance network of claim 5 wherein the at least one appliance is configured to respond to the sensed state by altering a parameter of the food preparation operation.

7. The appliance network of claim 5 wherein the at least one appliance is configured to respond to the sensed state in accordance with at least one of a programmed recipe usable by the at least one appliance and instructions programmed by a user.

8. The appliance network of claim 2 wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a temperature sensor, a time sensor, a sound sensor, a humidity sensor, a vision sensor, and a motion sensor.

9. The appliance network of claim 2 wherein the sensed state is at least one of boiling, boiling over, boiling time, simmering, simmering time, temperature at a given time, and temperature as a function of time.

10. The appliance network of claim 2 wherein the sensor is coupled to the cooking vessel for use in conjunction with food preparation operation of the at least one appliance.

11. The appliance network of claim 10 wherein the cooking sensor accessory is integrated with the cooking vessel.

12. The appliance network of claim 10 wherein the cooking sensor accessory is removably coupled to the cooking vessel.

13. The appliance network of claim 12 wherein the cooking sensor accessory comprises a clip that removably couples the sensor to the cooking vessel.

14. The appliance network of claim 10 wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a temperature sensor, a time sensor, a sound sensor, a humidity sensor, a vision sensor, and a motion sensor.

15. The appliance network of claim 1 wherein the at least one appliance comprises at least one of an oven and a cooktop.

16. The appliance network of claim 1 wherein the cooking sensor accessory comprises a cooking vessel and at least one sensor configured to sense a state of the cooking vessel.

17. The appliance network of claim 16 wherein the cooking sensor accessory is configured to communicate the sensed state to the at least one appliance.

18. The appliance network of claim 17 wherein the at least one appliance comprises a cooking appliance, and the sensor comprises a temperature sensor, whereby the cooking appliance and the cooking sensor accessory form a closed loop temperature control of the food preparation operation.

19. The appliance network of claim 1 wherein the food preparation operation comprises at least one of food cleaning, food chopping, food mixing, food heating, food peeling, and food cooling.

20. An appliance network comprising:

a first networked appliance configured to perform a food preparation operation on an article;

a cooking sensor accessory associated with the article and configured to sense a state of at least one of the article, the cooking sensor accessory, or the first networked appliance in connection with the food preparation operation;

a communication network coupling the first networked appliance and the cooking sensor accessory for communication therebetween; and

a software architecture having a plurality of software elements and configured to generate a plurality of messages over the communication network, with at least one of the software elements residing in the cooking sensor accessory and configured to enable transmission of at least one of the plurality of messages between the cooking sensor accessory and the first networked appliance wherein the software architecture includes a cycle engine in communication with the cooking sensor accessory and having a first data portion describing a plurality of elements comprising an ordered collection of steps, the actions to be taken during each step, and conditions under which the current step should transition to a next step in the ordered collection of steps, and a second compiled portion that reads the data portion and builds a cycle structure in memory which can execute instructions comprising the food preparation operation corresponding to the description suggested by the data portion and wherein the food preparation operation is customized to the data portion at runtime.

21. The appliance network of claim 20 wherein the cooking sensor accessory comprises at least one of a temperature sensor, a time sensor, a sound sensor, a humidity sensor, a vision sensor, and a motion sensor to sense the state of the at least one of the article, the cooking sensor accessory, or the first networked appliance.

22. The appliance network of claim 21 wherein the cooking sensor accessory is coupled to a cooking vessel for use in conjunction with the food preparation operation of the first networked appliance.

23. The appliance network of claim 20 wherein the cooking sensor accessory is configured to communicate the sensed state to the first networked appliance.

24. The appliance network of claim 23 wherein the first networked appliance is configured to respond to the sensed state by altering a parameter of the food preparation operation.

25. The appliance network of claim 20 wherein the cooking sensor accessory comprises a cooking vessel configured to hold the article and at least one sensor configured to sense the state of the at least one of the article, the cooking vessel, or the first networked appliance.

26. The appliance network of claim 20 wherein at least one of the plurality of messages includes a functional identifier which identifies a purpose of the message.

27. The appliance network of claim 20 wherein at least one transition condition includes logic configured to evaluate information received from the cooking sensor accessory via a message on the communication network.