Laundry treating appliance and method of operation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12454783-B2
Application number	US-202318541861-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2023
Priority date	Apr 18, 2019
Publication date	Oct 28, 2025
Grant date	Oct 28, 2025

Abstract

A laundry treating appliance for treating laundry items according to a cycle of operation includes a chassis defining an interior. A rotatable treating chamber is located within the interior. An antenna is configured to receive RFID data from RFID tags on the laundry items and outputs a signal indicative of the RFID data. A controller receives the signal from the antenna and is configured to process the signal and to suggest, alter, or implement the cycle of operation based on the signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a laundry treating appliance for treating laundry items according to a cycle of operation, the method comprising:
rotating a rotatable treating chamber containing laundry items having RFID tags;
receiving, by an antenna, RFID data from the RFID tags on the laundry items;
processing, by a controller communicably coupled with the antenna, the RFID data to distinguish between RFID tags that are moving and RFID tags that are stationary;
ignoring RFID data from the stationary RFID tags; and
suggesting, altering, or implementing the cycle of operation based on the RFID data from the moving RFID tags.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving the RFID data by the antenna occurs during the rotation of the rotatable treating chamber.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the rotation of the rotatable treating chamber and the receiving the RFID data by the antenna occurs prior to supplying water to the treating chamber.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the antenna is an RFID reader.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the controller is an antenna controller and is integrated with the antenna.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the antenna controller is communicably coupled with a laundry treating appliance controller.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein distinguishing between the moving RFID tags and the stationary RFID tags comprises signal processing of the RFID data.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the signal processing of the RFID data comprises analyzing signal strength.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the signal processing of the RFID data comprises at least one of signal strength analysis, signal phase analysis, signal amplitude change analysis, frequency analysis, transformed frequency analysis, standard deviation metrics, or short time Fourier transformations.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the RFID tags are removably or non-removably coupled to the laundry items.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Hammond Richard L
• Moelker David Adrian
• Paul Luke John

Classifications

• D06F93/005

  Marking arrangements · CPC title

• D06F2105/56

  Remaining operation time; Remaining operational cycles · CPC title

• D06F2103/02

  Characteristics of laundry or load · CPC title

• D06F33/44

  Control of the operating time, e.g. reduction of overall operating time · CPC title

• D06F33/32

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