Product Demonstration System and Method

• US 20080109310A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Molloy, Phillip, McCoy, Richard, Ebrom, Matthew, Glotzbach, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,656 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration
• 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

Abstract

A method of demonstrating a household appliance by executing a demonstration software to cause demonstration of at least one component of the appliance and to display related information on a user interface of the appliance by a multimedia program.

Claims

1. A method of demonstrating a household appliance comprising the steps of:

providing a household appliance comprising a user interface capable of multimedia display, at least one component, and an internal communications network coupling the user interface and the at least one component;

providing a smart device coupled to the internal communications network and having a demonstration software capable of assuming control of the user interface and the at least one component; and

executing the demonstration software to cause demonstration of the at least one component and to display related information on the user interface by a multimedia program.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the multimedia program is interactive with a consumer.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the interaction comprises prompting the consumer for consumer information.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising customizing at least one of the demonstration of the at least one component and the information displayed on the user interface based on the consumer information.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the customizing of the information displayed on the user interface can comprise displaying at least one of:

sales incentive, appliance recommendation, related-appliance recommendation, appliance accessory, appliance options, and appliance build options.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the consumer information is transferred to a related appliance also having a smart device and the related appliance executes demonstration software based on the transferred information.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein a display language is set based on the consumer information.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the demonstration software is updated in response to the consumer information.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the demonstration software is updated in real time to customize the demonstration for the consumer.

11. The method of claim 2 wherein the interaction with the consumer comprises real-time video conference with a person through the user interface.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the person is at least one of a sales representative and a technician.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the sales representative is remotely located from the household appliance.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the person can remotely take control of the demonstration of the at least component during the real-time video conferencing.

15. The method of claim 2 wherein the interaction with the consumer comprises navigating the consumer through the demonstration of the at least one component.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising sensing the presence of a consumer at the household appliance and executing the demonstration software when a consumer is present.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the sensing comprises determining a personal characteristic of the consumer.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the personal characteristic comprises at least one of:

biometric, gender, age, height, mass, voice, facial expression, native language, eye color and hair color.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein at least one of the demonstration of the at least one component and the display of related information is customized based on the determined personal characteristic.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the demonstration software is updated based on the determined personal characteristic.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the determined personal characteristic is stored in a database remote from the household appliance.

22. The method of claim 16 further comprising notifying a sales representative when a consumer is present.

23. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a second household appliance comprising a second user interface capable of multimedia display and establishing video conferencing communication between the household appliances through the user interfaces.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the establishing video conferencing communication comprises establishing communication between the household appliances over a communications network.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the smart device is integrated with the multimedia display.

10. The method of claim 10 wherein the consumer information is stored in a remote database accessible by the household appliance through a communications network.