Home appliance and method of controlling the same

• US 9,558,653 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2014
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Ha, Mikyung, Jeon, Jinho, Cho, Bokyung
• Primary Examiner(s): Yacob, Sisay
• Application Number:
  US14/248,289
• Publication Number:
  US 20140300447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 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

Abstract

A home appliance and a method of controlling the same are provided. The home appliance may include a controller that processes state data. The state data may include raw data representing an operation state of the home appliance. The controller may also output diagnosis result data representing whether or not an error has occurred in the home appliance. A tag device including a tag storage device may store the state data and the diagnosis result data, and a transmitting and receiving device may transmit the state data and the diagnosis result data when an external device is tagged.

Claims

1. A home appliance, comprising:

a controller configured to process state data including raw data corresponding to an operation state of the home appliance and to output diagnostic data indicating whether or not an error has occurred during operation of the home appliance; and

a tag device operably coupled to the controller and configured to exchange data with an external device through a tagging operation, the tag device including;

a tag storage device that receives and stores the state data and the diagnostic data; and

a transmitting and receiving device that transmits the state data and the diagnostic data when near field communication is established with the external device,

wherein the controller transmits data to the tag device with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code, and

wherein the tag device receives the state data and the diagnosis result data from the controller and determines whether data is appropriately received based on the CRC code.

2. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the tag storage device maintains storage of the state data and the diagnostic data even when a power supply thereto is interrupted.

3. The home appliance of claim 1, further comprising a detection device that detects a state of the home appliance,

wherein the controller updates the state data and the diagnostic data stored in the tag storage device when the detection device detects that at least one predetermined event has occurred,

wherein the at least one event includes at least one of when the detection device newly detects the operation state of the home appliance, when the detection device detects that an error has occurred during operation of the home appliance, when the detection device detects that a supply of power to the home appliance has been interrupted, or when a plug of the home appliance is unplugged.

4. A home appliance diagnostic system, comprising:

a home appliance, comprising a tag device that stores state data including raw data indicating an operation state of the home appliance and diagnostic data obtained from the state data and indicating whether or not an error has occurred in operation of the home appliance; and

a mobile device, comprising;

a communication device that establishes near field communication with the tag device of the home appliance, and that receives the state data and the diagnostic data from the tag device; and

a display that displays data received by the communication device,

wherein the home appliance transmits data to the tag device with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code, and

wherein the tag device receives the state data and the diagnosis result data from the home appliance and determines whether data is appropriately received based on the CRC code.

5. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 4, further comprising a controller that updates the state data and the diagnostic data stored in the tag device when at least one predetermined event occurs.

6. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 4, wherein the mobile device further includes:

an input device configured to receive an external input; and

a controller that determines whether the diagnostic data includes information requested by the external input received by the input device.

7. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to control the display to display the state data when information requested by the external input is not one of a plurality of diagnostic result values included in the diagnostic data.

8. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 4, wherein the mobile device further includes a speaker that outputs a sound signal to indicate that near field communication is established between the communication device and the tag device.

9. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 8, wherein the speaker outputs at least one of the state data or the diagnostic data with a corresponding sound signal.

10. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 4, wherein the display of the mobile device is configured to display an indicator to indicate that the tag device and the communication device are communicating.

11. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 4, wherein the mobile device further includes a controller that determines whether the diagnostic data includes information requested by a user,

wherein the tag device stores model information of the home appliance, and the communication device receives the model information from the tag device, and

wherein the controller determines whether a diagnosis mode can be performed based on the model information.

12. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 4, wherein the model information includes at least one of a production company or a model name of the home appliance, and information indicating whether or not the home appliance is capable of external communication.

13. The home appliance diagnostic system of claim 4, wherein the display of the mobile device displays at least one of the state data or the diagnostic data related to a state of the home appliance at a plurality of points in time corresponding to a plurality of events that have occurred in operation of the home appliance.

14. A method of controlling a home appliance, the method comprising:

detecting an operation state of the home appliance;

storing state data including raw data detected while detecting the operation state of the home appliance;

obtaining diagnostic data from the state data indicating whether or not an error has occurred during operation of the home appliance;

transmitting the state data and the diagnostic data to a tag device with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code;

determining whether the state data and the diagnostic data are appropriately received based on the CRC code by the tag device;

detecting whether or not an external device has been tagged and has established near field communication with the home appliance; and

when it is detected that an external device has been tagged, transmitting the state data and the diagnostic data to the tagged external device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein storing state data and obtaining diagnostic data further includes storing the state data and the diagnostic data in a tag storage device of a tag device of the home appliance.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining that at least one predetermined event has occurred, and wherein storing the state data and the diagnostic data further includes updating the state data and the diagnostic data when it is determined that the at least one predetermined event has occurred.

17. A method of controlling a home appliance diagnostic system, the method comprising:

executing a diagnostic mode of a home appliance;

determining whether or not a communication device has been activated and initiating a tagging operation to establish near field communication between the communication device and the home appliance if it is determined that the communication device has been activated;

transmitting the state data and the diagnostic data to the communication device with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code;

receiving state data and diagnostic data obtained from the state data, the diagnostic data indicating whether or not an error has occurred during operation of the home appliance, through the near field communication between the communication device and the home appliance established by the tagging operation; and

displaying the received state data or diagnostic data,

wherein receiving the state data and diagnostic data includes determining whether the state data and the diagnostic data are appropriately received based on the CRC code.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving an external request for information; and

determining whether or not the diagnostic data includes the information requested in the external request.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising displaying the state data when it is determined that the diagnostic data does not include the information requested in the external request.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein receiving state data and diagnostic data includes displaying an indicator on a display or outputting a sound signal through a speaker indicating that near field communication has been established between the communication device and the home appliance and the tagging operation is being performed while receiving the state data and the diagnostic data.