GB2560060A

GB2560060A - Domestic appliance

Info

Publication number: GB2560060A
Application number: GB1711618.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Anthony Denny Bassett Alexander
Original assignee: Conta sro
Current assignee: Conta sro
Priority date: 2017-02-27
Filing date: 2017-07-19
Publication date: 2018-08-29
Also published as: WO2018154142A1; GB201711618D0; CN108498009A

Abstract

A domestic appliance 10 which can be operated by user comprises a communications device 14 arranged to establish wireless connection with a remote hand-held device 16, such as a mobile phone or smartphone and a sensor for determining a parameter of the appliance, wherein the communications device is arranged to transmit information derived from the sensor to the remote hand-held device. The appliance may comprise a battery with memory which stores information about the battery for transmitting to the hand-held device. The appliance may be vacuum cleaner with a motion sensor, pressure sensor or a sensor arranged to detect whether a dust separation device needs emptying. Alternatively the appliance may be an iron. The communication device is preferably a Bluetooth device, a wi-fi device or a near field communication NFC device. The hand-held device can be arranged to communicate to a remote communications network such as the internet.

Description

(71) Applicant(s):

Conta S.R.O

Hlubany 121, Podborany 441 00, Czech Republic (51) INT CL:

A47L9/28 (2006.01) D06F 75/00 (2006.01) (56) Documents Cited:

WO 2015/106142 A CN 204931579 U US 20070124890 A (58) Field of Search:

INT CLA47L, D06F Other: WPI, EPODOC

A47L5/00 (2006.01)

CN 205568875 U CN 105046917 A US 20060103523 A (72) Inventor(s):

Alexander Anthony Denny Bassett (74) Agent and/or Address for Service:

Chapman IP

Cardiff Business Technology Centre, Senghennydd Road, Cathays, CARDIFF, CF24 4AY, United Kingdom (54) Title of the Invention: Domestic appliance Abstract Title: Domestic appliance (57) A domestic appliance 10 which can be operated by user comprises a communications device 14 arranged to establish wireless connection with a remote hand-held device 16, such as a mobile phone or smartphone and a sensor for determining a parameter of the appliance, wherein the communications device is arranged to transmit information derived from the sensor to the remote hand-held device. The appliance may comprise a battery with memory which stores information about the battery for transmitting to the hand-held device. The appliance may be vacuum cleaner with a motion sensor, pressure sensor or a sensor arranged to detect whether a dust separation device needs emptying. Alternatively the appliance may be an iron. The communication device is preferably a Bluetooth device, a wi-fi device or a near field communication NFC device. The hand-held device can be arranged to communicate to a remote communications network such as the internet.

ώ ώώ 6^³¹ γ-ί^32

Ύ

1/1

FIG.1

DOMESTIC APPLIANCE

This invention relates to a domestic appliance such as a vacuum cleaner or iron and more particularly to a domestic appliance arranged to transfer various information to a mobile telephone, tablet PC or other hand-held device.

US7269877 discloses a vacuum cleaner having a microprocessor control circuit provided with a port for connection to a computer. Once connected to a computer, software updates for the microprocessor may be downloaded or diagnostic information stored in the microprocessor's memory may be uploaded for diagnostic purposes. In one embodiment, the communication port is configured to be connected to a local computer for possible further connection to a remote computer over a computer or telephone network. In an alternate embodiment, the communication port is configured to connect to and dial up a remote computer over a telephone network.

It is difficult and inconvenient for users to connect the vacuum cleaner of US7269877 to a remote network and hence such types of vacuum cleaner have not found popularity in the marketplace.

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is widely used for contactless shortrange wireless communication based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, using magnetic induction to enable communication between adjacent electronic devices over short distances of up to 10 centimetres or so. Applications for NFC technology include ticketing and cashless payment.

EP2495883 discloses a mobile telephone battery having an NFC device that can transmit battery data to another NFC device disposed in a mobile telephone. The transmitted battery data may include the identification (ID) or Universal Product Code (UPC) of the battery, the power rating of the battery and the determined charge level of the battery.

An object of the present invention is to solve the problem that domestic appliances are becoming very complex and users must remember how to use each feature of the appliance and remember to perform the necessary maintenance to keep the appliance operating correctly.

Another object of the present invention is to meet the demands of users who, with advancements in technology, now have very high expectations of the way in which they can interact with objects and devices that they encounter during everyday life.

We have now devised a domestic appliance which meets the above objects.

In accordance with the present invention, as seen from a first aspect, there is provided a domestic appliance which can be operated by a user, the appliance comprising a communications device arranged to establish a wireless connection with a remote hand held-device, a sensor for determining an operating parameter of the cleaner, the communications device being arranged to transmit information derived from the sensor to the remote hand held-device.

The present invention thus provides users the ability to access sensory information from the appliance of a kind which has not previously been accessible by the user. The present invention allows users to use their products more efficiently by providing one or more simple sensors which can measure respective operating parameters, which can be displayed to the users on the display of their hand-held device.

The appliance may comprise a memory. The appliance memory may store one or more of the following pieces of information, which can be transmitted to the remote hand held-device:

a. Appliance identification information, such as the type of appliance, the model number of the appliance, the serial number of the appliance, the place of manufacture of the appliance and/or the date of manufacture of the appliance;

b. Manufacturer’s identification information, such as the manufacturer’s name, the manufacturer’s contact details, the manufacturer’s trade marks, the importer’s name, the importer’s contact details, the vendor’s name, compliance symbols, legislative symbols, standards symbols

The memory may store information obtained from the sensor for transmission to the user at a later stage.

The appliance may comprise a battery. In one embodiment, the appliance memory may store one or more of the following pieces of information, which can be transmitted to the remote hand held-device: the serial number of the battery, the chemistry of the battery (e.g. lithium ion), the voltage of the battery and/or the capacity of the battery.

In an alternative embodiment, the battery may comprise a memory which stores one or more of the following pieces of information, which can be transmitted to the remote hand held-device: the serial number of the battery, the chemistry of the battery (e.g. lithium ion), the voltage of the battery and/or the capacity of the battery.

The sensor may be arranged to detect one or more parameters of the battery, such as its state of charge and/or temperature, which can be transmitted to the remote device.

The battery may be a rechargeable battery for operating the appliance and the appliance may determine the recharge time remaining and/or the remaining operating time, which can be transmitted to the remote device.

The appliance may be arranged to analyse the battery charging voltage and/or current over time to determine any fault with the battery or charger, and to transmit this information to the remote device.

The communications device may be provided inside a housing of the battery.

The communications device may further be arranged to receive control signals from the remote hand held-device and to output signals to a control circuit for controlling one or more features of the appliance in accordance with the transmitted control signals.

A feature may be to enable or disable one or more operating features of the appliance. The appliance may comprise an operating timer and an activity sensor, the operating timer may be arranged to disable the or each operating feature of the appliance after a set period inactivity.

The appliance may be a moveable appliance such as a vacuum cleaner or iron and may comprise a motion sensor and processor, which monitors the motion sensor and determines one or more following pieces of information, which can be transmitted to the remote hand held-device: the operating time of the appliance, the calories used by the user in operating the appliance, the average energy use (e.g. in Watts/meters²) and/or the area covered (each session / historical sessions I total).

The sensor may comprise a pressure sensor arranged to detect when an airflow duct thereof is blocked and to transmit this information to the remote device.

The sensor may be arranged to detect the remaining capacity of a dust separation device thereof and to transmit this information to the remote device.

The sensor may be arranged to detect that a dust filter thereof needs cleaning or replacing and to transmit this information to the remote device.

It will be appreciated that the foregoing removes the burden on the user having to remember simple maintenance tasks.

The appliance may detect when the communications device is first connected to a remote device and may cause the remote device to register details of the appliance with a registrar, such as the manufacturer, for example for warranty purposes.

The communication device may be a Bluetooth device, a Wi-Fi device, or an NFC device.

The appliance may be a so-called attended appliance, namely any appliance that is operated by an attending consumer such as a vacuum cleaner or iron.

Also in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a system comprising domestic appliance as hereinbefore defined and a remote hand held-device containing application software for interacting with the appliance, a display for displaying information received from the appliance and a communication device for communicating with the communication device of the appliance.

The remote hand held-device may be arranged to connect to a remote communications network, such as the internet. The application software may transmit a user’s details to the registrar over the network together with said appliance details, for example by extracting the user’s details from a memory of the remote hand helddevice.

The application software may be arranged to calculate and display the remaining warranty period.

The application software may be arranged to display any extended warranty information and/or a hyperlink which the user can use to obtain extended warranty over the network.

The application software may be arranged to provide a graphical representation of the information received from the appliance.

The application software may be arranged to provide reminders about parts of the appliance requiring regular maintenance or cleaning.

The application software may be arranged to provide a notification when the battery requires recharging.

The application software may be arranged to provide appliance support information, such as operating instructions, repair instructions and maintenance instructions, which information can be obtained from a database over the network, from the appliance memory or from data stored in the application software.

The application software may be arranged to enable the upgrade of any software or firmware of the appliance.

The application software may be arranged to enable third parties to provide remote assistance, for example for fault diagnosis purposes.

The application software may be arranged to provide information on new appliances.

The application software may be arranged to facilitate the ordering of spares and consumables over the network.

The communication device of the remote hand held-device may be a Bluetooth device, a Wi-Fi device or an NFC device corresponding to the communication device of the appliance.

The application software may be arranged to transmit information derived from the sensor over the network to a third party, such as the manufacturer, for example so that the quality and/or service division of the manufacturer can now understand precisely how users use their appliances.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of an example only and with reference to the accompanying drawing, the single figure of which is a schematic diagram of a vacuum cleaner system in accordance with the present invention.

Referring to the drawing, the system comprises a vacuum cleaner 10 having a body 11 and a rechargeable battery pack 12 detachably mounted to the body 11.

A printed circuit board 13 inside the body 11 comprises an NFC device 14 for wirelessly communicating with an NFC device 15 of a remote smart telephone 16 disposed adjacent the vacuum cleaner 10. The smart telephone 16 comprises a touch-screen display 17 and is arranged to run application software 18. The smart telephone 16 is arranged to connect to a remote communications network N, such as the internet.

The battery 12 comprises power terminals 19, 20 which communicate power to the circuit board 13 and the motor 21 of a motor and fan unit. The battery 12 also comprises a memory 23 which stores the serial number of the battery, the chemistry of the battery (e.g. lithium ion), the voltage of the battery and/or the capacity of the battery for example. The battery 12 also comprises a detector 24 for detecting the state of charge of the battery 12 and a sensor 25 for sensing the battery temperature. A processor 26 inside the battery 12 is connected to the memory 23, the detector 24 and sensor 25. The battery processor 26 communicate with a processor 27 on the circuit board 13 via data and clock connections 28,29. The processor 27 is also connected to the NFC device 14 by data and clock connections 28’,29’.

The circuit board 13 comprises a memory 30 connected to processor 27. The memory may store one or more of the following pieces of information, which can be transmitted to the smart telephone 16 via the NFC device 14:

a. Appliance identification information, such as the type of appliance (e.g. a vacuum cleaner), the model number of the appliance, the serial number of the appliance, the place of manufacture of the appliance and/or the date of manufacture of the appliance;

b. Manufacturer’s identification information, such as the manufacturer’s name, the manufacturer’s contact details, the manufacturer’s trademarks, the importer’s name, the importer’s contact details, the vendor’s name, compliance symbols, legislative symbols, standards symbols

The vacuum cleaner 10 comprises a plurality of sensors e.g. 31 arranged to sense various operating parameters of the cleaner, such as:

a) the air pressure inside the cleaner, such as inside dust collection chamber 32;

b) the temperature of the motor 21 of the motor and fan unit; and/or

c) the speed of rotation of the motor 21 of the motor and fan unit.

The memory 30 may store information obtained from the or each sensor e.g 31 for transmission to the smart telephone 16 via the NFC device 14 when the smart telephone 16 is next connected to the vacuum cleaner 10.

In use, when the cleaner 10 is purchased, a user first must install the application software 18 on his/her smart telephone 16 via network N. The literature supplied with the cleaner 10 may direct the user which software to use or a QR code may be provided. Once the application software 18 is installed, the user must then pair his/her smart telephone 16 with the cleaner 10 and use of the cleaner may be inhibited before it has been paired with at least one smart telephone 16.

Once paired, the processor 27 causes the remote device to register details of the cleaner 10 with a registrar, such as the manufacturer, for example for warranty purposes. In order to do this, it transmits the necessary information about the cleaner stored in memory 30 to the smart telephone 16 via the NFC device 14. The application software 18 then transmits this to the registrar over the network N along with the user’s details from a memory 33 of the smart telephone 16.

Each time the user wishes to interrogate or control the vacuum cleaner 10, he/she simply must bring the smart telephone 16 in close proximity to the vacuum cleaner 10, which automatically launches the application software 18. The application software 18 displays a menu on display 17, by means of which the user can access a wide variety of operational, statistical and informatory data from the cleaner 10: this is then transmitted by the cleaner 10 to the smart telephone 16 via and the application software 18 takes the data from the cleaner 10 and creates and displays all sorts of statistics and useful information on display 17. Since the NFC communication is also two way, the smart telephone 16 can also be used to control certain features of the cleaner 10.

The application software 18 is arranged to transmit information derived from the or each sensor 31 over the network N to a third party, such as the manufacturer, for example so that the quality and/or service division of the manufacturer can now understand precisely how users use their vacuum cleaners 10.

A vacuum cleaner in accordance with the present invention conveniently informs users how to use each feature of the cleaner and reminds them to perform the necessary maintenance to keep the cleaner operating correctly.

A vacuum cleaner in accordance with the present invention conveniently provides users with stored and derived information about the cleaner.

A vacuum cleaner in accordance with the present invention also allows users to interact with the vacuum cleaner in a way which incentivises them to purchase this kind of vacuum cleaner.

Claims

1. A domestic appliance which can be operated by a user, the appliance comprising a communications device arranged to establish a wireless connection with a remote hand held-device, a sensor for determining an operating parameter of the cleaner, the communications device being arranged to transmit information derived from the sensor to the remote hand held-device.

2. A domestic appliance as claimed in claim 1, which comprises a memory arranged to store information about the cleaner for transmitting to the remote hand held-device.

3. A domestic appliance as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, which comprises a memory arranged to store information obtained from the sensor for transmitting to the remote hand held-device.

4. A domestic appliance as claimed in any preceding claim, which comprises a battery having a memory which stores information about the battery for transmitting to the remote hand held-device.

5. A domestic appliance as claimed in claim 4, in which the battery comprises a detector for detecting an operating parameter of the battery for transmitting to the remote hand held-device.

6. A domestic appliance as claimed in claim 4 or claim 5, in which the communications device is provided inside a housing of the battery.

7. A domestic appliance as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the communications device is arranged to receive control signals from the remote hand held-device and to output signals to a control circuit for controlling one or more features of the appliance in accordance with the transmitted control signals.

8. A domestic appliance as claimed any preceding claim, in which the appliance is an attended appliance.

9. A domestic appliance as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the appliance is a vacuum cleaner.

10. A domestic appliance as claimed in claim 9, in which the sensor is a motion sensor, the motion sensor being connected to a processor which monitors the motion of the cleaner and determines information which can be transmitted to the remote hand held-device.

11. A domestic appliance as claimed in claims 9 or 10, in which the sensor is a pressure sensor arranged to detect air pressure in an airflow duct of the vacuum cleaner and the communications device is arranged to transmit this information to the remote device.

12. A domestic appliance as claimed in any of claims 9 to 11, in which the sensor is a sensor arranged to detect whether a dust separation device needs emptying and to transmit this information to the remote device.

13. A domestic appliance as claimed any of claims 1 to 8, in which the appliance is an iron.

14. A domestic appliance as claimed in claim 7, in which the communication device is a Bluetooth device, a Wi-Fi device, or an NFC device.

15. A system comprising domestic appliance as claimed in any of claims 1 to 14 and a remote hand held-device containing application software for interacting with the appliance, a display for displaying said information received from the appliance and a communication device for communicating with the communication device of the appliance.

16. A system as claimed in claim 15, in which the remote hand held-device is arranged to connect to a remote communications network.

17. A system as claimed in claim 15 or claim 16, in which the application software is arranged to display information received from the appliance to the user.

18. A system as claimed in any of claims 15 to 17, in which the application software is arranged to provide a graphical representation of the information received from the appliance on a display of the remote device.

5

19. A system as claimed in any of claims 15 to 18, in which the application software is arranged to enable the user to control one or more features of the appliance.

20. A system as claimed in any of claims 15 to 19, in which the communication

10 device of the remote hand held-device is a Bluetooth device, a Wi-Fi device or an NFC device corresponding to the communication device of the appliance.

21. A system as claimed in any of claims 15 to 20, in which the application

15 software is arranged to transmit information derived from the sensor over the network to a third party.

Intellectual

Property

Office

Application No: Claims searched: