Laundry treating appliance with drying rack detection based on imaging data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9284679-B2
Application number	US-201314022124-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 9, 2013
Priority date	Feb 19, 2009
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of determining the presence of a drying rack based on image data of the laundry located in a treating chamber of a laundry treating appliance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating a clothes dryer having a rotating drum defining a drying chamber, the method comprising:
imaging at least a portion of the drying chamber with an imaging device mounted to the clothes dryer and having a sensor operably coupled with at least a portion of the drying chamber;
determining a presence of a stationary drying rack in the drying chamber based on the imaging of the at least a portion of the drying chamber; and
controlling the operation of the clothes dryer based on the presence of the drying rack.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the imaging comprises taking at least one of a still image or a moving image.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the imaging comprises taking multiple still images.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a visible light sensor, an ultraviolet light sensor or an infrared sensor.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the controlling the operation of the clothes dryer comprises determining a cycle of operation.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining the cycle of operation comprises selecting a cycle of operation specific to drying on a stationary drying rack.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the controlling the operation of the clothes dryer comprises determining an operating characteristic of the dryer based on the presence of the drying rack.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the determining the operating characteristic comprises not rotating the drum.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising identifying an article on the drying rack based on the imaging and determining an operating characteristic specific to the identified article.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the controlling the operation of the clothes dryer comprises determining at least one of:
a drying temperature;
an actuation of a heating element that heats air supplied to the drying chamber;
a rate of air supplied to the drying chamber;
a rotation of the drum;
a rotational speed of the drum;
a direction of rotation of the drum;
a type of chemistry to dispense; or
an amount of chemistry to dispense.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying an article on the drying rack based on the imaging.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the identifying is a category identification of the article.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the identifying is an identification of at least one physical characteristic of the article.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining the presence of the stationary drying rack comprises detecting a physical characteristic of the drying rack from the imaging.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the detecting a physical characteristic of the drying rack comprises detecting an edge of the drying rack.

16. A method for operating a clothes dryer having a rotating drum defining a drying chamber and a stationary drying rack located within the drying chamber, the method comprising:
imaging at least a portion of the drying chamber with an imaging device mounted to the clothes dryer and having a sensor operably coupled with at least a portion of the drying chamber;
determining a presence of an article on the stationary drying rack based on the imaging of the at least a portion of the drying chamber; and
controlling the operation of the clothes dryer based on the presence of the article on the drying rack.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the imaging comprises taking at least one of a still image or a moving image.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a visible light sensor, an ultraviolet light sensor or an infrared sensor.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the controlling the operation of the clothes dryer comprises determining an operating characteristic based on the presence of the drying rack.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising identifying the article on the drying rack based on the imaging and determining an operating characteristic specific to the identified article.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein the controlling the operation of the clothes dryer comprises setting at least one of:
a drying temperature;
an actuation of a heating element that heats air supplied to the drying chamber;
a rate of air supplied to the drying chamber;
a rotation of the drum;
a rotational speed of the drum;
a direction of rotation of the drum;
a type of chemistry to dispense; or
an amount of chemistry to dispense.

22. The method of claim 16 , further comprising identifying an article on the drying rack based on the imaging.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the identifying is a category identification of the article.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the identifying is an identification of at least one physical characteristic of the article.

25. The method of claim 16 wherein the determining the presence of the stationary drying rack comprises detecting a physical characteristic of the drying rack from the imaging.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the detecting a physical characteristic of the drying rack comprises detecting an edge of the drying rack.

27. A method for operating a clothes dryer having a rotating drum defining a drying chamber and a stationary drying rack located within the drying chamber, with an article on the stationary rack, the method comprising:
imaging at least a portion of the drying chamber with an imaging device mounted to the clothes dryer and having a sensor operably coupled with at least a portion of the drying chamber;
identifying an article on the stationary drying rack based on the imaging of the at least a portion of the drying chamber; and
controlling the operation of the clothes dryer based on the identification of the article on the drying rack.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the imaging comprises taking at least one of a still image or a moving image.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a visible light sensor, an ultraviolet light sensor or an infrared sensor.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the controlling the operation of the clothes dryer comprises determining an operating characteristic based on the identified article.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein the controlling the operation of the clothes dryer comprises setting at least one of:
a drying temperature;
an actuation of a heating element that heats air supplied to the drying chamber;
a rate of air supplied to the drying chamber;
a rotation of the drum;
a rotational speed of the drum;
a direction of rotation of the drum;
a type of chemistry to dispense; or
an amount of chemistry to dispense.

32. The method of claim 27 , further comprising identifying an article on the drying rack based on the imaging.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the identifying is a category identification of the article.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the identifying is an identification of at least one physical characteristic of the article.

35. An automatic clothes dryer for drying laundry according to a drying cycle of operation, comprising:
a rotatable drum defining a drying chamber;
an air supply system fluidly coupled to the drying chamber configured to supply air to and

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Ashrafzadeh Farhad
• Carow James P
• Kanchanavally Shreecharan
• Sundaram Sathish Andrea

Classifications

• D06F2103/02

  Characteristics of laundry or load · CPC title

• D06F58/04

  Details  (controlling or regulating devices D06F34/00) · CPC title

• D06F2058/2861

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F58/28 Primary

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F58/36 Primary

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