RFID-tagged textile article cleaning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10975509-B2
Application number	US-201615360921-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 23, 2016
Priority date	Nov 23, 2016
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

In some embodiments, a cleaning machine automatically identifies cleaning instructions associated with a load of textile articles, e.g., wearable and/or non-wearable textile articles, using an RFID reader. At least some of the wearable textile articles in the load include a respective RFID tag that provides information to the cleaning machine. In turn, the cleaning machine can configure various cleaning settings based upon the information. Some embodiments identify incompatibilities between the various cleaning settings, and provide a notification of this incompatibility. When the various cleaning settings are compatible, some embodiments automatically start a cleaning cycle.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A smart laundry device implemented as a cleaning machine comprising:
a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader;
computer-readable storage media comprising processor-executable instructions which, responsive to execution by a processor, the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations comprising to:
identify at least one textile article in a laundry load of textile articles based on article information extracted from at least one RFID tag associated with the at least one textile article using the RFID reader, the article information including article wear information that indicates how the at least one textile article was worn;
communicate the article information to a manufacturer of the at least one textile article;
receive characteristic information about the at least one textile article from the manufacturer;
determine cleaning settings of the at least one textile article based on the characteristic information received from the manufacturer and the article wear information extracted from the at least one RFID tag; and
start a cleaning cycle using the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article.

2. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations further comprising to:
determine whether the cleaning settings are compatible with one or more cleaning settings of other identified textile articles in the laundry load of the textile articles; and
responsive to a determination that the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article are incompatible with the one or more cleaning settings of the other identified textile articles in the laundry load of the textile articles, provide a notification that an incompatibility exists.

3. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 2 , wherein the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations further comprising to:
responsive to a determination that the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article are incompatible with one or more cleaning settings of other identified textile articles in the laundry load of the textile articles, determine to use default settings; and
configure the cleaning machine using the default settings.

4. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations further comprising to:
extract an address from the at least one RFID tag;
exchange data with a server using the address; and
obtain at least some of the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article from data received from the server.

5. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations further comprising to:
provide a notification of a status associated with the cleaning cycle.

6. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 5 , wherein the status comprises at least one of:
incompatible cleaning settings;
the cleaning cycle starting; or
the cleaning cycle completing.

7. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 1 , further comprising a communication transceiver to perform operations comprising to communicate the information extracted from the at least one RFID tag to a second cleaning machine that is implemented to adjust the cleaning cycle based on the information.

8. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the cleaning machine is a washing machine to determine the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article based on the characteristic information and the article wear information extracted from the at least one RFID tag, and start the cleaning cycle as a wash cycle of the washing machine using compatible wash settings to the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article.

9. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the cleaning machine is a drying machine to determine the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article based on the characteristic information and the article wear information extracted from the at least one RFID tag, and start the cleaning cycle as a drying cycle of the drying machine using compatible drying settings to the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article.

10. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the article wear information is associated with physiological information about the user wearing the textile article.

11. A smart laundry device implemented as a cleaning machine comprising:
a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader;
computer-readable storage media comprising processor-executable instructions which, responsive to execution by a processor, the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations comprising to:
identify at least one textile article in a laundry load of textile articles based on article information extracted from at least one RFID tag associated with the at least one textile article using the RFID reader, the article information including article wear information that indicates how the at least one textile article was worn;
determine cleaning settings of the at least one textile article based on characteristic information about the at least one textile article received from a manufacturer and the article wear information extracted from the at least one RFID tag;
determine whether the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article are compatible with cleaning settings of the cleaning machine; and
responsive to a determination that the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article and the cleaning settings of the cleaning machine are compatible, start a cleaning cycle using the cleaning settings of the cleaning machine.

12. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations further comprising to:
responsive to a determination that the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article are incompatible with the cleaning settings of the cleaning machine, provide a notification that an incompatibility exists.

13. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations further comprising to:
responsive to a determination that the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article are incompatible with the cleaning settings of the cleaning machine, determine to use default settings; and
configure the cleaning machine using the default settings.

14. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations further comprising to:
extract an address from the at least one RFID tag;
exchange data with a server using the address; and
obtain at least some of the cleaning settings of the at least one textile article from data received from the server.

15. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the cleaning machine is implemented to perform operations further comprising to:
provide a notification of a status associated with the cleaning cycle.

16. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 15 , wherein the status comprises at least one of:
incompatible cleaning settings;
the cleaning cycle starting; or
the cleaning cycle completing.

17. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 15 , wherein the notification is provided to an application remote from the cleaning machine.

18. The smart laundry device as recited in claim 11 , further comprising a communication transceiver to perform operations comprising to receive additional information from an additional cleaning machin

Assignees

• Motorola Mobility Llc

Inventors

• Debates Scott
• Shah Jagatkumar
• Hor-Lao Mary
• Lautner Douglas

Classifications

• D06F2101/06

  Type or material · CPC title

• D06F33/52

  Control of the operational steps, e.g. optimisation or improvement of operational steps depending on the condition of the laundry · CPC title

• D06F2105/52

  Changing sequence of operational steps; Carrying out additional operational steps; Modifying operational steps, e.g. by extending duration of steps · CPC title

• D06F34/28

  Arrangements for program selection, e.g. control panels therefor; Arrangements for indicating program parameters, e.g. the selected program or its progress · CPC title

• D06F2105/58

  Indications or alarms to the control system or to the user · CPC title