System and method for controlling air mattress inflation and deflation

• US 8,832,886 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2011
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ANM Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Rapid Air Llc
• Inventors: Riley, John Joseph, Driscoll, David Delory Jr., Hrobar, Susan Marie, Grobarchik, Mark Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): CONLEY, FREDRICK C
• Application Number:
  US13/196,455
• Publication Number:
  US 20130031725A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,141 Days
• Field of Search: 570/6, 571/0, 5713-714
• US Class Current: 5/713
• CPC Class Codes: A47C 27/083 with pressure control, e.g. with pressure sensors

Abstract

The described system and method allows for the control of inflation and deflation of air mattresses such that fast and accurate deflate times and satisfaction of consumer expectations may be achieved. A combination of empirically-derived deflate profiles, corrected dynamic measurements, and static measurements may be used to achieve fast and accurate deflation to user-defined target pressures. Additionally, a marketing routine that invokes simulated deflation or simulated inflation when deflation or inflation is not necessary but a user is expecting deflation or inflation, respectively, may be used to better satisfy the user'"'"'s expectations.

Claims

1. A method for deflating an air mattress chamber in an airbed system, the method comprising:

receiving, at a control unit in the airbed system, a user input corresponding to a target pressure;

performing deflation of the air mattress chamber in response to determining that the target pressure is less than a current pressure of the air mattress chamber;

determining an estimated time to target pressure based on the current pressure of the air mattress chamber, the target pressure, and a first deflate profile stored at the control unit;

performing a dynamic pressure measurement while deflation is being performed and applying a deflate correction factor to the dynamic pressure measurement; and

stopping the deflation and performing a static pressure measurement after the deflation is stopped in response to determining a condition has been met, wherein the condition is based on at least one of the estimated time to target pressure and the corrected dynamic pressure measurement.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a second deflate profile based on the corrected dynamic pressure measurement; and

determining a new estimated time to target pressure based on the second deflate profile.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first deflate profile corresponds to deflation without weight on an air mattress and the second deflate profile corresponds to deflation with weight on the air mattress.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first deflate profile, the second deflate profile and the deflate correction factor are predetermined based on empirical data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a result of the static measurement is above the target pressure; and

in response to determining that the result of the static measurement is above the target pressure, performing deflation based on the result of the static measurement and the target pressure and determining an updated estimated time to target pressure based on the static measurement, the target pressure, and the first deflate profile or a different deflate profile.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the number of times the step of stopping the deflation and performing a static measurement is performed with respect to the user input.

7. An airbed system having a control unit, a pump and an air mattress chamber, the control unit comprising a tangible non-transient computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the computer-executable instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving a user input corresponding to a target pressure;

performing deflation of the air mattress chamber in response to determining that the target pressure is less than a current pressure of the air mattress chamber;

determining an estimated time to target pressure based on the current pressure of the air mattress chamber, the target pressure, and a first deflate profile stored at the control unit;

performing a dynamic pressure measurement while deflation is being performed and applying a deflate correction factor to the dynamic pressure measurement; and

stopping the deflation and performing a static pressure measurement after the deflation is stopped in response to determining a condition has been met, wherein the condition is based on at least one of the estimated time to target pressure and the corrected dynamic pressure measurement.

8. The airbed system of claim 7, the computer-executable instructions further comprising instructions for:

selecting a second deflate profile based on the corrected dynamic pressure measurement; and

determining a new estimated time to target pressure based on the second deflate profile.

9. The airbed system of claim 7, wherein the first deflate profile corresponds to deflation without weight on an air mattress and the second deflate profile corresponds to deflation with weight on the air mattress.

10. The airbed system of claim 9, wherein the first deflate profile, the second deflate profile and the deflate correction factor are predetermined based on empirical data.

11. The airbed system of claim 7, the computer-executable instructions further comprising instructions for:

determining that a result of the static measurement is above the target pressure; and

in response to determining that the result of the static measurement is above the target pressure, performing deflation based on the result of the static measurement and the target pressure and determining an updated estimated time to target pressure based on the static measurement, the target pressure, and the first deflate profile or a different deflate profile.

12. The airbed system of claim 7, the computer-executable instructions further comprising instructions for:

monitoring the number of times the step of stopping the deflation and performing a static measurement is performed with respect to the user input.

13. A method for simulating inflation of an air mattress chamber using an airbed control system, the method comprising:

receiving, at a control unit in the airbed control system, a user input corresponding to a target pressure for the air mattress chamber, wherein the target pressure is greater than a displayed pressure for the air mattress chamber displayed by the control unit;

measuring the pressure of the air mattress chamber;

determining that the measured pressure of the air mattress chamber is greater than the target pressure; and

performing simulated inflation by operating a pump of the air mattress chamber without inflating the air mattress chamber, and updating the displayed pressure to match the target pressure.

14. An airbed system having a control unit, a pump and an air mattress chamber, the control unit comprising a tangible non-transient computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the computer-executable instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving a user input corresponding to a target pressure for the air mattress chamber, wherein the target pressure is greater than a displayed pressure for the air mattress chamber displayed by the control unit;

measuring the pressure of the air mattress chamber;

determining that the measured pressure of the air mattress chamber is greater than the target pressure; and

performing simulated inflation by operating a pump of the air mattress chamber without inflating the air mattress chamber, and updating the displayed pressure to match the target pressure.