Mobile application for controlling outdoor grill

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10791208-B2
Application number	US-201916432798-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 5, 2019
Priority date	Oct 23, 2015
Publication date	Sep 29, 2020
Grant date	Sep 29, 2020

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to controlling an electronically-controlled appliance using a software application and providing a user interface for controlling an electronically-controlled appliance. In one scenario, a computer system receives an indication from a remote computing system indicating that an electronically-controlled appliance is communicably connected to the remote computing system. The computer system provides a notification in the software application indicating that the electronically-controlled appliance is available to receive instructions, and receives a user input at the software application indicating that certain functions are to be performed by the electronically-controlled appliance. The computer system further generates instructions configured to control the electronically-controlled appliance based on the functions specified in the received user input, and sends the generated instructions to the electronically-controlled appliance to perform the specified functions. These functions are then interpreted and carried out on the electronically-controlled appliance via the hardware controller.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cloud computing system for communicating with and controlling operation of a wood-pellet grill comprising a hopper having an auger and for loading combustible pellets into a combustion area of the wood-pellet grill, the cloud computing system in direct network communication with the wood-pellet grill and comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to:
receive, from a remote device, one or more instructions for controlling an operation of the wood-pellet grill;
determine a location of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill;
in response to determining that the location of the remote device is within a certain distance of the wood-pellet grill, directly transmit the one or more instructions to the wood-pellet grill; and
in response to determining that the location of the remote device is outside of the certain distance of the wood-pellet grill, prevent the one or more instructions from being transmitted to the wood-pellet grill.

2. The cloud computing system of claim 1 , wherein the received one or more instructions comprises an instruction to ignite the wood-pellet grill.

3. The cloud computing system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to communicate directly with the wood-pellet grill via an access point within range of the wood-pellet grill.

4. The cloud computing system of claim 1 , wherein determining a location of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill comprises determining the location of the remote device based on a determined global positioning system (GPS) location of the remote device.

5. The cloud computing system of claim 1 , wherein determining a location of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill comprises determining the location of the remote device based on a Bluetooth geo-fence.

6. The cloud computing system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to receive usage data from the wood-pellet grill.

7. The cloud computing system of claim 6 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to:
analyze the usage data received from the wood-pellet grill; and
generate one or more wood-pellet grill-related analytics for the wood-pellet grill.

8. The cloud computing system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to transmit the one or more instructions to the wood-pellet grill to cause the hopper and auger to load additional pellets into the combustion area.

9. The cloud computing system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to perform remote diagnostics on the wood-pellet grill.

10. The cloud computing system of claim 9 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to predict problems for one or more components of the wood-pellet grill.

11. A cloud computing system for communicating with and controlling operation of a wood-pellet grill comprising a hopper having an auger and for loading combustible pellets into a combustion area of the wood-pellet grill, the cloud computing system in direct network communication with the wood-pellet grill and comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to:
receive, from a remote device, at least one first instruction for controlling an operation of the wood-pellet grill;
determine a first location of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill;
in response to determining that the first location of the remote device is outside of a certain distance of the wood-pellet grill, prevent the at least one first instruction from being transmitted to the wood-pellet grill;
receive, from the remote device, at least one second instruction for controlling the operation of the wood-pellet grill;
determine a second subsequent location of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill; and
in response to determining that the second subsequent location of the remote device is within the certain distance of the wood-pellet grill, directly transmit the at least one second instruction to the wood-pellet grill.

12. The cloud computing system of claim 11 , wherein the received at least one first instruction and the received at least one second instruction comprise an instruction to ignite the wood-pellet grill.

13. The cloud computing system of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to communicate directly with the wood-pellet grill via an access point within range of the wood-pellet grill.

14. The cloud computing system of claim 11 , wherein determining the first location and the second subsequent location of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill comprises determining the first location and the second subsequent location of the remote device based on determined global positioning system (GPS) locations of the remote device.

15. The cloud computing system of claim 11 , wherein determining the first location and the second subsequent location of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill comprises determining the first location and the second subsequent location of the remote device based on a Bluetooth geo-fence.

16. The cloud computing system of claim 15 , wherein determining the second subsequent location of the remote device comprises detecting that the remote device has crossed the Bluetooth geo-fence.

17. The cloud computing system of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing system to receive usage data from the wood-pellet grill.

18. A method for communicating with and controlling operation of a wood-pellet grill comprising a hopper having an auger and for loading combustible pellets into a combustion area of the wood-pellet grill, the method comprising:
receiving, from a remote device, one or more instructions for controlling an operation of the wood-pellet grill;
determining a plurality of locations of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill;
in response to determining that the remote device is within a certain distance of the wood-pellet grill based on a current location of the plurality of locations, directly transmitting the one or more instructions to the wood-pellet grill from a cloud computing system; and
in response to determining that the remote device is outside of the certain distance of the wood-pellet grill based on a current location of the plurality of locations, preventing the one or more instructions from being transmitted to the wood-pellet grill.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein determining the plurality of locations of the remote device relative to the wood-pellet grill comprises determining the plurality of locations of the remote device based on determined global positioning system (GPS) locations of the remote device.

20. The method of claim 18 , w

Assignees

• Traeger Pellet Grills Llc

Inventors

• Colston Michael Virgil

Classifications

• H04M1/72415 Primary

  for remote control of appliances · CPC title

• H04W68/005

  Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• G08C17/02 Primary

  using a radio link · CPC title

• G08C2201/30

  User interface · CPC title