Home appliance and home appliance system

• US 9,054,953 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2009
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Phal Jin, Jeong, Hoi Jin, Han, Jong Hye, Kim, Young Soo, Cho, In Haeng, Jeon, Si Moon
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MINH CHAU
• Application Number:
  US12/432,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20100023938A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,232 Days
• Field of Search: 709220-222
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/007 with remote control systems remote control in general G08C

Abstract

A home appliance and a home appliance system are provided. The home appliance receives input of a sound including update information, and updates a product operating program. The home appliance system receives a sound including product information from the home appliance, judges whether to update the product operating program of the home appliance, and transmits update information.

Claims

1. A home appliance system, comprising:

a home appliance configured to, upon receipt of a signal conversion command, output a first sound corresponding to product information, including identification of a present product operating program;

an external terminal configured to transfer the first sound output from the home appliance via a communication network to a management device and receive an analog acoustic signal from the management device via the communication network and output a second sound corresponding to the analog acoustic signal received from the management device; and

the management device, which inversely converts the first sound being transmitted via the communication network into the product information and searches for a digital update information for the product operating program of the home appliance, and transfers an analog acoustic signal corresponding to the digital update information to the external terminal via the communication network, wherein the home appliance comprises;

a sound input device that receives the second sound output from the external terminal in response to receipt of the analog acoustic signal corresponding to the digital update information;

an inverse conversion device that inversely converts the second sound input through the sound input device to generate the digital update information;

a storage device in which the product operating program of the home appliance is stored; and

a controller that updates the product operating program using the digital update information generated by the inverse conversion device, wherein the management device further comprises;

a storage device that stores the digital update information for the product operating program of the home appliance;

a transmission/reception device that communicates with the external terminal via the communication network;

a conversion device that converts the digital update information stored in the storage device into the analog acoustic signal; and

a controller that controls the transmission/reception device to transmit the analog acoustic signal output from the conversion device via the communication network, and after the transmission/reception device transmits the analog acoustic signal, controls the conversion device of the management device to convert the digital update information into another acoustic signal with a different frequency band from that of the previous acoustic signal, and controls the transmission/reception device to transmit the another acoustic signal.

2. The home appliance system of claim 1, wherein the home appliance further comprises:

an input device configured to receive input of an external signal for executing fault diagnosis from a user, wherein the controller of the home appliance, upon receipt of the external signal through the input device, outputs a first control signal;

a conversion device that, upon receipt of the first control signal, converts the digital product information into an analog acoustic signal; and

a sound output device that outputs a sound corresponding to the analog acoustic signal output by the conversion device of the home appliance.

3. The home appliance system of claim 1, wherein the product information includes information on the product operating program of the home appliance.

4. The home appliance system of claim 1, wherein, when the transmission/reception device receives a retransmission request signal after transmitting the analog acoustic signal, the controller of the management device controls the transmission/reception device to retransmit the analog acoustic signal.

5. The home appliance system of claim 1, wherein, when the transmission/reception device receives a retransmission request signal after transmitting the analog acoustic signal, the controller of the management device controls the conversion device of the management device to convert, the digital update information into the another analog acoustic signal.