APPLIANCE NETWORK FOR A NETWORKED APPLIANCE WITH A NETWORK BINDER ACCESSORY

• US 20080123557A1
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: McCoy, Richard A., Morrell, Michael A., Jenkins, Anthony E., Elston, Wallace J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,122,788 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• 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

Abstract

An appliance network has a network binder accessory to establish a private network among nodes that might be on different networks, using “one-click”.

Claims

1. An appliance network comprising:

a first networked appliance configured to perform a cycle of operation to complete a physical domestic operation on an article, the first networked appliance having;

a communication network comprising a plurality of interconnected nodes configured to communicate across the communication network;

a plurality of components, each component associated with at least one of the plurality of nodes; and

a network binder accessory configured to selectively bind at least one of the interconnected nodes to a wireless network; and

a software architecture comprising a plurality of software elements and configured to generate a plurality of messages, with at least one of the software elements residing in each of the components and in the network binder accessory and configured to enable transmission of at least one of the plurality of messages between the components and between the accessory and the components.

2. The appliance network of claim 1 wherein the network binder assigns a unique identifier to each selected node.

3. The appliance network of claim 1 wherein the network binder is a wireless device.

4. The appliance network of claim 3 wherein the network binder has limited transmission range.

5. The appliance network of claim 1 wherein the network binder is selectively operable within the vicinity of the first networked appliance.

6. The appliance network of claim 1 wherein the network binder communicates with a personal computer.

7. A network binder accessory for use in conjunction with a first networked appliance having a communication network comprising a plurality of interconnected nodes configured to communicate across the communication network;

a plurality of components, each component associated with at least one of the plurality of nodes;

a first instance of a software architecture having a plurality of software elements configured to at least one of generate and receive a plurality of messages configured for controlling the components to perform a cycle of operation to complete a physical domestic operation on an article, the net work binder accessory comprising;

a second instance of the software architecture configured to at least one of generate and receive the plurality of messages; and

a communication link configured to be coupled with the first networked appliance to permit the plurality of messages to be transferred between the accessory and the first networked appliance, wherein the network binder is configured to selectively bind at least one of the plurality of nodes to a wireless network.

8. The network binder accessory of claim 7, further comprising a message generator configured for generation of a message usable by the first networked appliance.

9. The network binder accessory of claim 7 wherein the plurality of messages generated by the second instance of the software architecture includes at least one message not included in a set of messages generated by a user interface of the first networked appliance.

10. The network binder accessory of claim 7 wherein the network binder assigns a unique identifier to each selected node.

11. The network binder accessory of claim 7 wherein the network binder is a wireless device.

12. The network binder accessory of claim 11 wherein the network binder has limited transmission range.

13. The network binder accessory of claim 7 wherein the network binder is selectively operable within the vicinity of the first networked appliance.

14. The network binder accessory of claim 7 wherein the network binder communicates with a personal computer.

15. A network binder accessory comprising:

a processor, memory, and a power source to energize the processor and the memory,

a wireless transmitter/receiver, wherein the processor and memory operate to communicate with a first node by way of the wireless transmitter/receiver, and store a private network ID

a visual indicator that indicates communication with the first node, and

at least one button to cause the wireless transmitter/receiver to transmit the private network ID, whereby when the private network ID is transmitted to a second node, the private network ID is attached to the second node to establish a private network comprising the first and second nodes having the private network ID.

16. The network binder of claim 15 wherein the private network ID is stored in memory.