Method of facilitating servicing an appliance

• US 9,124,444 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Ebrom, Matthew P., McCoy, Richard A., Whipple, Andrew D.
• Primary Examiner(s): TODD, GREGORY G
• Application Number:
  US11/933,099
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,862 Days
• Field of Search: 709219-221, 709/203, 709/213, 709/216, 709/230, 714/4, 714/25, 714/30, 717171-177, 700/9, 700/12, 700/21, 700/65, 702/113, 702/116, 702/124, 702187-189
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

A method of facilitating servicing an appliance includes establishing two way communications between an appliance and a remote client, and monitoring and communicating to the remote client operational data associated with the appliance. In this way, the remote client can use the operational data to service the appliance.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating servicing an appliance, configured to perform a cycle of operation on a physical article, and having a processor with control logic in communication with at least one observable component in the appliance to effect the cycle of operation by way of a first software operating layer in a first operating state and an alternate logic for communication with the at least one observable component in the appliance by way of a second software operating layer in a second operating state, comprising:

establishing two way communication between the at least one observable component in the appliance and a remote client via the alternate logic, wherein the control logic of the first software operating layer is rendered ineffective unless invoked by way of the second software operating layer,

selecting on the remote client a diagnostic test having at least one command message and expected results,

transmitting the at least one command message from the remote client to the appliance,

executing the at least one command message by way of the second software operating layer in the second operating state either by way of the control logic of the first software operating layer if invoked by the by way of the second software operating layer or by way of the alternate logic of the second software operating layer and directly commanding the at least one observable component in the second operating state independently of the first software operating layer,

observing on the remote client any state change in the at least one observable component based on the execution of the at least one command message, and

comparing the expected results to the observation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the observing step includes receiving a message from the appliance in response to the transmitting step.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving an acknowledgment of the transmitting step.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the state change in the observable component comprises one of a development state, an error detection cycle, or a diagnostic cycle.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising sending credentials from the remote client and receiving authentication of the credentials prior to the enabling step.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of monitoring or receiving operational data associated with the appliance.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising analyzing the operational data to diagnose a failure in the at least one observable component, and communicating a response to a user.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the selecting step includes establishing an identifier for the at least one command message.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the identifier has a first value different from the value of any other identifiers of other command messages wherein the control program uses the first value to selectively effect at least one of aselection of observable components for control by the control program and the state.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the identifier has a value corresponding to a functionality communicatively available via the two way communication.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the functionality comprises at least one of a function call, the arguments thereof, or the data type of each argument and wherein the control program uses the value of the identifier to select the functionality for execution use when the command message is received via the two way communication.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the command message comprises at least one second identifier which, combined with the identifier, uniquely identifies the functionality from a plurality of functionalities available wherein the appliance uses the value of the identifier and the value of the at least one second identifier to select a unique functionality from the plurality of functionalities for execution use when the command message is received via the two way communication.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of using at least one discovery message to determine the availability of the at least one command message.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of using at least one discovery message to determine the model number of the appliance.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining diagnostic data from the appliance and using the diagnostic data in the selecting step whereby the diagnostic test is selected based on the diagnostic data.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the diagnostic data comprises at least one of appliance model number and at least one identifier that identifies a functionality available via the two way communication.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the functionality comprises at least one of a function call, the arguments thereof, or the data type of each argument.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a feedback message from the appliance after the transmitting step whereby the actual state is observed by the remote client by looking into the feedback message.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising a parsing step whereby at least the actual state is parsed from the feedback message for use in the comparing step.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring a message to create an event structure in a memory heap in the appliance.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising classifying the event structure as acknowledged or unacknowledged.