Laundry treating appliance with imaging control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10113263-B2
Application number	US-201615046033-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 17, 2016
Priority date	Feb 19, 2009
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A laundry treating appliance having a rotatable drum defining a laundry treating chamber, where the laundry in the laundry treating chamber may be imaged and a condition of the laundry determined based on the imaging of the laundry. A notification can be provided to a user based on the determined motion condition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treating appliance for treating laundry according to an automatic treating cycle of operation, comprising:
a laundry treating chamber receiving laundry for treatment;
at least one component operable to implement at least part of the automatic treating cycle of operation;
an imaging device mounted to the laundry treating appliance and having a sensor operably coupled with at least a portion of the laundry treating chamber during execution of the automatic treating cycle of operation and outputting data representative of at least a portion of the laundry in the laundry treating chamber;
an indicator configured to output a signal; and
a controller receiving the data and operably coupled to the indicator, the controller comprising analysis software that is configured to determine a motion condition of the laundry based on the data and the controller configured to determine a condition of concern of the laundry based on the data and to activate the indicator to emit a signal based on the determined condition to notify a user of the determined condition of concern.

2. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , further comprising a user interface and wherein the indicator is located on the user interface.

3. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 wherein the signal is an audible signal or a visual signal.

4. A laundry treating appliance for treating laundry according to an automatic treating cycle of operation, comprising:
a laundry treating chamber receiving laundry for treatment;
at least one component operable to implement at least part of the automatic treating cycle of operation;
an imaging device mounted to the laundry treating appliance and having a sensor operably coupled with at least a portion of the laundry treating chamber during execution of the automatic treating cycle of operation and outputting data representative of at least a portion of the laundry in the laundry treating chamber;
a controller operably coupled to the at least one component and the imaging device, the controller configured to determine a condition of the laundry based on the data; and
a user interface operably coupled to the controller and providing an input and output function for the controller; and
wherein the controller comprises analysis software that is configured to determine a motion condition of the laundry based on the data and the controller is operably coupled to the user interface and configured to send a signal based on the determined condition to activate a portion of the user interface to notify a user of the determined condition.

5. The laundry treating appliance of claim 4 wherein a portion of the user interface can be activated to emit an audible signal or a visual signal.

6. The laundry treating appliance of claim 4 wherein determining the condition comprises the controller being configured to analyze multiple images over time.

7. The laundry treating appliance of claim 6 wherein the condition determined by the controller comprises at least one of rolling, tumbling, sliding or satelliting.

8. The laundry treating appliance of claim 4 wherein the output on the user interface comprises an indictor light configured to indicate a condition of concern.

9. The laundry treating appliance of claim 4 wherein the controller is configured to control at least one component, based on the determined condition, to set at least one of:
a rotational speed of a drum defining the laundry treating chamber;
a direction of rotation of a drum defining the laundry treating chamber;
a temperature in the laundry treating chamber;
an air flow through the laundry treating chamber;
at least one of a start and end of cycle condition;
at least one of a start and end of cycle step condition;
a rotational speed of an agitator;
a direction of agitator rotation; or
a wash liquid fill level.

10. The laundry treating appliance of claim 4 wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a visible light sensor, an ultraviolet light sensor or an infrared sensor.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Ashrafzadeh Farhad
• Carow James P
• Kanchanavally Shreecharan

Classifications

• D06F2101/00

  User input for the control of domestic laundry washing machines, washer-dryers or laundry dryers · CPC title

• D06F37/42

  Safety arrangements, e.g. for stopping rotation of the receptacle upon opening of the casing door · CPC title

• D06F2058/2854

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F33/02

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F2058/2803

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic