Methods of determining a load size in a laundry treating appliance

• US 9,416,479 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2013
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Leitert, Andrew, McAllister, Karl David
• Primary Examiner(s): Ko, Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): BELL, SPENCER E
• Application Number:
  US13/908,020
• Publication Number:
  US 20140352078A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,170 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2103/04 Quantity, e.g. weight or variation of weight
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2103/06 Type or material
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/02 Water supply
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/24 Flow or velocity
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/42 Detergent or additive supply
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/48 Drum speed
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/56 Remaining operation time; Remaining operational cycles
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/58 Indications or alarms to the control system or to the user
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/18 Condition of the laundry, e.g. nature or weight
• 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

Abstract

Methods of determining a laundry load size in a laundry treating appliance comprising a rotatable drum at least partially defining a treating chamber for receiving laundry for treatment in accordance with a treating cycle of operation, at least one imaging device, and a controller having a processor, the method includes generating multiple images and determining, by the controller, a load size based on the multiple images.

Claims

1. A method of determining a laundry load size in a laundry treating appliance comprising a rotatable drum at least partially defining a treating chamber for receiving laundry for treatment in accordance with a treating cycle of operation, at least one imaging device, and a controller having a processor, the method comprising:

generating multiple images of a static laundry load located within the treating chamber, where the generated multiple images are from different viewpoints of the load wherein generating the multiple images comprises moving a single imaging device to generate the multiple images from different angles within the treating chamber; and

determining, by the controller, a load size based on the multiple images.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the multiple images comprises generating the multiple images at different predetermined rotational positions of the drum.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the predetermined rotational positions of the drum are not equidistant.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the load size based on the multiple images comprises determining a 3D model of the laundry load based on the multiple images.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the 3D model of the laundry load is determined utilizing a computer algorithm.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining a load type based on the determined 3D model of the laundry load.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the imaging comprises taking at least one of a still image and a moving image.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple images comprise two images.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the load size comprises determining multiple heights of the laundry load based on the multiple images.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the determining a load size further comprises estimating a volume of the laundry load based on the determined multiple heights.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the multiple images comprises taking at least one of a visible light image, an ultraviolet light image and an infrared image.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising setting at least one parameter of the treating cycle of operation based on the determined load size.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the at least one parameter is a cycle time, an air flow rate in the treating chamber, a wash liquid fill level, or an amount of treating chemistry.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising indicating the set cycle time on a user interface of the laundry treating appliance.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating the determined load size on a user interface of the laundry treating appliance.