GB2627501A

GB2627501A - Communicating an operating state of an appliance to a user

Info

Publication number: GB2627501A
Application number: GB2302694.1A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ballarati Maurizio; Brendan Davey Jamie; Usman Afzal Mohammad; Ginete Domingo Marco; Kowtha Yaswanth; David Selway Christopher; Peter Gate David; Edwin Halls David; Nhat Quang La Nguyen
Original assignee: Dyson Technology Ltd
Current assignee: Dyson Technology Ltd
Priority date: 2023-02-24
Filing date: 2023-02-24
Publication date: 2024-08-28
Also published as: GB202302694D0; WO2024176069A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of communicating an indication of an operating state of an appliance 10 to a user. The method comprises: determining, by the appliance, its operating state, being one of plural known possible operating states; and modulating an output of a display element 16 of the appliance to produce a dynamic indicium that represents the determined operating state. The method also comprises capturing the dynamic indicium using a capture device 20 that is external to the appliance; associating, by the capture device, the captured dynamic indicium with a user indication representing the determined operating state; and communicating the indication to the user, possibly via screen 24. The display element could comprise multi-coloured LEDs 17 which can be selectively illuminated in a repeatable sequence. The operating state could reflect a fault and the communication could suggest possible remedial action. The method could be applied to floorcare or haircare devices.

Description

COMMUNICATING AN OPERATING STATE OF AN APPLIANCE TO A USER

Background

When an appliance is not operating as expected, it is useful to be able to communicate to a user information indicating or representing the operating state.

Summary

According to a first aspect, there is provided a method of communicating an indication of an operating state of an appliance to a user, the method comprising: determining, by the appliance, an operating state of the appliance, the operating state being one of plural known possible operating states; modulating an output of a display element of the appliance to produce a dynamic indicium that represents the determined operating state; capturing the dynamic indicium using a capture device that is external to the appliance; associating, by the capture device, the captured dynamic indicium with a user indication representing the determined operating state; and communicating the user indication to the user.

The method may allow a user of the appliance to determine the operating state of the appliance quickly and easily. Communicating the user indication to the user may allow the user to easily determine the operating state of the appliance without having to refer to documentation. By capturing the dynamic indicium (such as an infrared indicium) using the capture device, this may allow a dynamic indicium, which may not otherwise be visible to a user, to be captured by the capture device.

The method may comprise encoding information that represents the determined operating state of the appliance into the dynamic indicium, and associating the captured dynamic indicium with the user indication that represents the determined operating state may comprise decoding the information that represents the determined operating state of the appliance from the dynamic indicium. Encoding the information that represents the determined operating state of the appliance into the dynamic indicium may provide a relatively simple signal that can be captured by the capture device. The signal may then be decoded at the capture device, e.g. without interaction from a user, and used to ascertain the determined operating state of the appliance.

The dynamic indicium may comprise a visual indicium. The visual indicium may allow the dynamic indicium to be easily seen by the user and/or by the capture device, or another device. This may make it easier for the user to know where the capture device should be directed and/or located to capture the dynamic indicium.

The display element may comprise a light source, and modulating an output of the display element may comprise selectively illuminating the light source in an illumination sequence that represents the determined operating state of the appliance. Each illumination may be a distinct flash of the light source having an illumination period of at least 100 ms, at least 200 ms, at least 300 ms, atleast 400 ms or at least 500 ms, so that it can be observed directly by a human. Alternatively, each illumination may have an illumination period such that the illumination pattern is not discernible by a human. The illumination period may be less than 100 ms, such as 75 ms.

The light source may comprise a light-emitting diode (LED). The LED may be relatively energy efficient (requiring little energy to operate) and may allow for shorter illumination periods (e.g. the LED may be quicker to turn on and off compared to other light sources).

The light source may comprise a multi-purpose light source. The multi-purpose light source may be configured to provide functionality in addition to the dynamic indicium. The multi-purpose light source may be configured to indicate, for example, whether the appliance is on or off, or may be configured to indicate another status of the appliance, such as a low battery status. Such indications may be by a static indicium (e.g. a light is either on or off to indicate the respective status) or by an alternative dynamic indicium (e.g. a low-power indication may be given by a relatively slowly flashing light). A multipurpose light source may reduce the cost and complexity of the appliance as additional light sources may not be required. The light source may be configured to emit visible light. The light source may be configured to emit infrared light.

The method may comprise selectively illuminating the light source to continually repeat the illumination sequence. Repeating the illumination sequence may reduce the likelihood of the capture device missing a part (e.g. the beginning or end) of the illumination sequence. This may make it easier for a user to capture the entire illumination sequence. The capture device may provide an indication, such as a sound or visual indication, when the entire illumination sequence has been captured.

The light source may comprise a plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the plurality of LEDs are selectively illuminated in the illumination sequence. This may increase the number of illumination patterns that can be created, which may increase the amount of information which can be conveyed by the dynamic indicium.

The light source may comprise a multi-coloured LED and the multi-coloured LED may be configured to emit light with a first colour before and after the illumination sequence and may be configured to emit light with a second colour during the illumination sequence, wherein the first colour is different to the second colour. By emitting different colours before and after the illumination sequence, compared with during the illumination sequence, this may allow the start and end of the illumination sequence to be easily determined. As such, the capture device may be able to determine when the illumination sequence is complete, and therefore when to stop capturing the illumination sequence. The multi-coloured LED may comprise a three-colour LED, for example, which is capable of displaying red, green and blue coloured light.

The determined operating state may comprise a fault of the appliance, and the method may comprise determining, by the capture device, remedial action to be taken based on the fault of the appliance. This may allow a fault of the appliance, along with action to be taken to address the fault, to be quickly and easily determined without having to refer to additional documentation.

The method may comprise communicating the determined remedial action to the user. This may allow the user to be informed of action needing to be taken to fix the fault of the appliance. This may reduce the need for the appliance to be serviced at a different location. As such, this may reduce the need to transport the appliance to a different location, which may reduce the environmental impact of such transport. Moreover, communicating the remedial action to the user may reduce the chance of the user unnecessarily disposing of the appliance as they are informed how to fix the fault, which may reduce environmental impact.

The remedial action communicated to the user may comprise a link to a web page. The web page may contain instructions for how to address/fix the fault. The remedial action may comprise a series of images, or a video, showing steps to be taken to address/fix the fault.

The dynamic indicium may comprise information that relates to a plurality of determined operating states of the appliance. This may allow a user to be informed of multiple determined operating states of the appliance at the same time. The known possible operating states of the appliance may comprise a fault of the appliance, such as a fault of a filter of the appliance. The operating states of the appliance may comprise a property of a battery of the appliance, such as a charge level of the battery, time to charged status of the battery, or health of the battery.

The communicating the user indication to the user may comprise displaying the user indication on the capture device, or in other examples may comprise sending the user a message (such as a text or e-mail) including the user indication. This may allow the user to see the user indication and be informed of the determined operating state of the appliance quickly and easily. The user may then act based on the determined operating state of the appliance, such as by replacing/cleaning a filter, which may help to increase the lifetime and/or efficiency of the appliance.

The capture device may comprise a camera, and capturing the dynamic indicium may comprise capturing an image of the dynamic indicium with the camera. The capture device may be a mobile telephone, such as a smartphone. The camera may be a camera of the mobile telephone.

The method may comprise determining an area of interest within the image, wherein the area of interest contains the dynamic indicium, and determining an average colour of the area of interest. This may allow only the area of interest to be analysed, which may reduce computational requirements compared with analysing the entire image. Determining the average colour of the area of interest may comprise averaging the colour values of all pixels within the area of interest.

The appliance may comprise, without limitation, a floorcare appliance, a personal care appliance such as a haircare appliance, an environmental care appliance, a lighting appliance or a wearable appliance.

According to a second aspect, there is provided a system comprising: an appliance comprising a display element configured to be modulated to produce a dynamic indicium that represents an operating state of the appliance, the operating state being one of plural known possible operating states; and a capture device external to the appliance, wherein the capture device is configured to capture the dynamic indicium, associate the captured dynamic indicium with a user indication representing the operating state, and communicate the user indication to a user.

The display element may comprise a light source, and the light source may be configured to be selectively illuminated in an illumination sequence indicative of the operating state of the appliance.

Optional features of aspects of the present invention may be equally applied to other aspects of the present invention, where appropriate.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic view of a system comprising an appliance and a capture device according to an example; Figure 2 is a schematic view of the capture device of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a schematic view of the capture device of Figure 1 in use; and Figure 4 is a flowchart of a method of communicating an indication of an operating state of an appliance to a user, according to an example.

Detailed Description

Figure 1 shows a system 1 comprising an appliance 10 (in this example, a floorcare appliance) and a capture device 20 (in this example, a mobile telephone) that is external to the appliance 10.

The appliance 10 comprises a handle unit 12, an attachment 14 removably attached to the handle unit 12, a display element 16, a battery 18 and a filter 19.

The capture device 20 comprises a camera 22 and a screen 24.

The display element 16 of the appliance 10 comprises three multi-coloured light-emitting diodes (LEDs) 17 (shown in Figure 3) which are configured to illustrate a charge level of the battery 18 of the appliance 10. In use, the number of LEDs 17 illuminated is indicative of the charge level of the battery 18. For example, if all three LEDs 17 are illuminated, this indicates that the battery 18 is fully (or near fully) charged. In other examples, the LEDs 17 are illuminated to indicate another property of the device 10 in addition to, or instead of, the charge level of the battery 18, such as whether the appliance 10 is powered on or off. In some examples, greater or fewer than three LEDs 17 are used, such as one, two, five or ten LEDs 17. In some examples, the LEDs 17 are single-coloured LEDs, and/or are configured to emit infra-red light.

The multi-coloured LEDs 17 are multi-purpose, such that the LEDs 17 have a function in addition to illustrating the charge level of the battery 18. As well as indicating the charge level of the battery 18, the LEDs 17 are also configured to produce a dynamic indicium that represents a fault (or other operating state) of the appliance 10.

To produce the dynamic indicium, the LEDs 17 are modulated to create an illumination (e.g. on-off and/or colour change) sequence that represents the fault of the appliance 10. This encodes the fault into a signal that can subsequently be decoded to determine the fault of the appliance 10.

The multi-coloured LEDs 17 are configured to emit a blue light before and after the illumination sequence, and are configured to emit a red light during the illumination sequence. In other examples, the LEDs 17 emit different colours during the illumination sequence. The illumination sequence is also continually repeated, to ensure that no part of the illumination sequence is missed.

To create the illumination sequence, the LEDs are switched on and off to create distinct flashes of light. In one example, each flash of light has a time period of 75 ms, such that the illumination sequence is indistinguishable to a user of the system 1 (i.e. the illumination sequence appears as a constant light to the user). As such, the capture device 20 (which has a frame/sampling rate higher than that of a human eye) is used to capture the illumination sequence. In other examples, the multi-coloured LEDs 17 are switched between different colours to create the illumination sequence.

The camera 22 of the capture device 20 is configured to capture images of the illumination sequence. The images are captured at a rate such that the modulation of the LEDs 17 can be determined from the images. The capture device 20 determines an area of interest within the images that contains the illuminated LEDs 17 and averages the colour of this area. Any change in the average colour of the area of interest is then used to determine the illumination sequence. In other examples, the intensity of the illuminated LEDs 17 is averaged over the area of interest and changes in the average intensity are used to determine the illumination sequence. From the illumination sequence, the capture device 20 is configured to decode the illumination sequence to determine an associated user indication related to the fault of the appliance 10. The capture device 20 is configured to display the user indication on the screen 24 of the capture device 20 such that it is visible to the user.

Figure 2 shows a schematic view of the screen 24 of the capture device 20. In use, the screen 24 is configured to show a preview of the image being captured by the camera 22 in a first section 26 of the screen 24 (to aid the user in orienting the camera 22), and display the determined user indication in a second section 28 of the screen 24. In this example, the first section 26 of the screen illustrates the area of interest of the image. The user indication includes information related to what the fault is and any remedial action to be taken to address the fault of the appliance 10. For example, when the fault is with the filter 19, for example the filter needs cleaning, the user indication includes directions to remove, clean and replace the filter 19. In some examples, the user indication includes an image or video showing actions to take, a web page link indicating where further information is available and/or a telephone number of a help centre.

In use, the LEDs 17 of the display element 16 are illuminated in the illumination pattern representing the fault of the appliance 10. The user then opens an app on the capture device 20 which informs them to direct the camera 22 towards the LEDs 17. As shown in Figure 3, the user orients the camera 22 of the capture device 20 such that the LEDs 17 are within the field of view of the camera 22 (illustrated by dashed lines 23). The capture device 20 captures the illumination pattern using the camera 22, and determines the user indication related to the fault of the appliance 10 based on the illumination pattern. The capture device 20 then displays the user indication on the screen 24 to inform the user of the determined fault of the appliance 10. In other examples, the capture device sends the user a message, such as a text or an e-mail, containing the user indication. The user indication includes instructions for remedial action to be taken to address the fault with the appliance 10.

Figure 4 shows a flow chart of a method 100 of communicating an indication of an operating state of the appliance 10 to the user. The method 100 comprises determining 102, by the appliance 10, an operating state of the appliance 10. The operating state is one of plural known possible operating states, such as a fault of the appliance 10. The dynamic indicium representing the determined operating state is produced by modulating 104 an output of the display element 16. The dynamic indicium is then captured by capturing 106 an image of the of the dynamic indicium using the camera 22 of the capture device 20.

After capturing the dynamic indicium, the method 100 comprises determining 108 an area of interest within the image that includes the digital indicium and determining 110 an average colour of the area of interest. The average colour is determined by averaging the colour values of all pixels within the area of interest. In other examples, the method comprises determining an average intensity of the area of interest instead of an average colour. In such an example, the average intensity is determined by averaging the intensity values of all pixels within the area of interest.

The method 100 further comprises associating 112, by the capture device 20, the captured dynamic indicium with a user indication representing the determined operating state, and communicating 116 the user indication to the user. Where the determined operating state is a fault of the appliance 10, the method also comprises determining 114 remedial action to be taken based on the fault of the appliance 10 and communicating the remedial action to the user.

In some examples, such as when the operating state of the appliance 10 is not a fault of the appliance 10, the step of determining remedial action to be taken is omitted. Additionally, in some examples one or more of the steps of determining an area of interest and/or averaging the colour of the area of interest may be omitted.

The system I and method 100 described above may allow a user of the appliance 10 to determine the operating state of the appliance 10 quickly and easily. For example, communicating the user indication to the user may allow the user to easily determine the operating state of the appliance 10 without having to refer to documentation, and capturing the dynamic indicium using the capture device 20 may allow a dynamic indicium that may not otherwise be visible to a user, to be captured by the capture device 20.

Although in the examples discussed above, the appliance 10 is a floorcare appliance, in other examples the appliance 10 may be another suitable appliance, such as a haircare appliance, a headgear or a fan. Moreover, although in the examples discussed above the capture device 20 is a mobile telephone, in other examples the capture device 20 may be another suitable device such as a computer or tablet, and the camera 22 may be another suitable capture device, such as a webcam or an infra-red receiver.

In the examples discussed above, the operating state of the appliance 10 is a fault of the appliance 10. In other examples, the operating state of the appliance 10 is another possible known operating state, such as a health of the battery 18, or other information about the appliance 10. In some examples, the operating state of the appliance 10 comprises identification information of the appliance 10 which aids in pairing the appliance 10 to, for example, the capture device 20 or a local network. Moreover, in some examples the digital indicium may relate to a plurality of operating states of the appliance 10.

Although the appliance 10 described above produces a visual digital indicium (e.g. using visible light), in some examples the LEDs 17 comprise infra-red LEDs and the digital indicium is not visible to a human eye.

Claims

Claims 1. A method of communicating an indication of an operating state of an appliance to a user,the method comprising: determining, by the appliance, an operating state of the appliance, the operating state being one of plural known possible operating states; modulating an output of a display element of the appliance to produce a dynamic indicium that represents the determined operating state; capturing the dynamic indicium using a capture device that is external to the 10 appliance; associating, by the capture device, the captured dynamic indicium with a user indication representing the determined operating state; and communicating the user indication to the user.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the display element comprises a light source, and modulating an output of the display element comprises selectively illuminating the light source in an illumination sequence that represents the determined operating state of the appliance.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the light source comprises a multi-purpose light source.
4. The method according to claim 2 or claim 3, comprising selectively illuminating the light source to continually repeat the illumination sequence.
5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the plurality of LEDs are selectively illuminated in the illumination sequence.
6. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the light source comprises a multi-coloured LED and the multi-coloured LED is configured to emit light with a first colour before and after the illumination sequence and is configured to emit light with a second colour during the illumination sequence, wherein the first colour is different to the second colour.
7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the determined operating state comprises a fault of the appliance, and the method comprises determining, by the capture device, remedial action to be taken based on the fault of the appliance.
8. The method according to claim 7, comprising communicating the determined remedial action to the user.
9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein communicating the user ndicati on to the user comprises displaying the user indication on the capture device.
10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the capture device comprises a camera, and capturing the dynamic indicium comprises capturing an image of the dynamic indicium with the camera.
11. The method according to claim 10, comprising determining an area of interest within the image, wherein the area of interest contains the dynamic indicium, and determining an average colour of the area of interest.
12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the appliance comprises a floorcare appliance or a haircare appliance. 25
13. A system comprising: an appliance comprising a display element configured to be modulated to produce a dynamic indicium that represents an operating state of the appliance, the operating state being one of plural known possible operating states; and a capture device external to the appliance, wherein the capture device is configured to capture the dynamic indicium, associate the captured dynamic indicium with a user indication representing the operating state, and communicate the user indication to a user.
14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the display element comprises a light source, and the light source is configured to be selectively illuminated in an illumination sequence indicative of the operating state of the appliance.