Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.

General Electric Company

Keith Wesley Wait

William Everette Gardner

Bahman Abbasi

Brent Alden Junge

Alan Joseph Mitchell

Joel Erik Hitzelberger

An ice maker assembly and a method for operating an ice maker are provided. The method includes measuring a temperature of the ice maker and determining a first derivative of the temperature of the ice maker with respect to time. An operating state of the ice maker is established based at least in part on the temperature of the ice maker and the first derivative of the temperature of the ice maker with respect to time. Knowledge of the operating state of the ice maker can assist with preventing damage to a motor of the ice maker and with detecting super-cooled liquid water in a mold body of the ice maker.

Ice maker assembly for a refrigerator appliance and a method for operating the same

Refrigerator appliance with movable individually temperature controlled bins are provided. One example refrigerator appliance includes one or more transmitter coils and one or more bins. Each of the one or more bins includes a temperature sensor positioned to read a temperature in a bin storage volume. Each of the one or more bins includes a receiver coil. The receiver coil receives power from one of the one or more transmitter coils through inductive power transfer. Each of the one or more bins includes a thermoelectric heat pump. The thermoelectric heat pump receives power from the receiver coil. The operation of the thermoelectric heat pump is controlled based on the temperature in the bin storage volume read by the temperature sensor, such that the temperature in the bin storage volume is maintained at a setpoint temperature associated with such bin.

Refrigerator appliances with movable individually temperature control bins

A method for selecting an image of an appliance with a suitable position or orientation of a door of the appliance is provided. The method includes obtaining a digital RGB image from a camera of the appliance and converting the digital RGB image to a device independent color space in order to generate at least one of a first chromatic primary plane image or a second chromatic primary plane image from the digital RGB image. The method also includes comparing the first or second chromatic primary plane images to a reference image.

Method for selecting an image of an appliance with a suitable position or orientation of a door of the appliance

Refrigerator appliances and methods for operating refrigerator appliances are provided. In one embodiment, a method includes detecting a user's presence, associating the user's presence with a heated beverage preference, and initiating heating of a liquid stored in the refrigerator appliance. The detecting step, the associating step and the initiating step are performed by a controller of the refrigerator appliance.

Method for operating a refrigerator appliance

A control system for a refrigeration system with dual evaporators is provided. In one embodiment, a control system for a dual evaporator refrigeration system is provided where the evaporators are operated simultaneously to provide for improved temperature and humidity control in a refrigerator appliance. In another embodiment, the control system can also use a linear model that is designed to minimize or remove excess enthalpy from one or more compartments and/or features of the appliance. The control system can also be configured with at least one variable speed compressor that is operated at a speed that will remove excess enthalpy within a desired time period while also operating at an optimized speed for energy efficiency.

Control system for a dual evaporator refrigeration system

Systems and methods for intelligent placement of appliance response to a voice command are provided. An exemplary system includes a plurality of appliances. An exemplary method includes connecting each of the plurality of appliances over a local area network and generating a location map providing a location of each of the plurality of appliances. The method includes receiving the human voice signal at a plurality of microphones respectively included in the plurality of appliances and determining an originating location of the human voice signal based at least in part on the location map. The method includes selecting one of the plurality of appliances to respond to the human voice signal based at least in part on the location map and the originating location.

Intelligent placement of appliance response to voice command

A method for operating an appliance, such as a refrigerator appliance, is provided. The method includes establishing a location of the appliance, obtaining weather information associated with the location of the appliance, scheduling a predicted power loss event for the appliance based at least in part on the weather information from the step of receiving, and operating the appliance according to a power loss operating profile before or during the predicted power loss event. A related refrigerator appliance is also provided.

Method for operating an appliance and a refrigerator appliance

Generally the present disclosure is directed to appliances that provide a user-specific response to a received voice command. In particular, the appliance can store a plurality of voice samples respectively associated with a plurality of users. The appliance can also store one or more preferences for each of the plurality of users. For example, the preferences can be input by the user and/or learned or inferred over time. When the appliance receives a human speech signal or voice command, it can match the received speech signal against one or more of the plurality of voice samples to identify the user. The preferences stored and associated with the identified user can then be obtained and the appliance can perform any requested operations in accordance with the obtained preferences. In such fashion, the appliance can provide a user-specific response to a received voice command.

Appliances for providing user-specific response to voice commands

Appliance systems providing user-friendly shared music playlist editing are provided. An example method of operating an appliance includes identifying a plurality of audio files accessible by the appliance over one or more local area networks. The method includes uploading data identifying the plurality of audio files to a server. The method includes providing an access code to a user computing device. The access code allows the user computing device to communicate with the server to select one or more of the plurality of audio files for playback. The method includes receiving from the server data identifying a first audio file selected for playback. The method includes causing one or more speakers to play the first audio file.

Appliance systems providing user-friendly shared music playlist editing

A control system for operating a refrigerator appliance is provided. The refrigerator has a variable damper, a variable speed fan, and a variable speed compressor. The damper position, evaporator fan speed, and compressor speed are determined through interacting feedback control loops based on the set point temperatures for the fresh food and freezer compartments as well as the measured temperatures in such compartments. The adjustment of these actuators can eliminate large temperature fluctuations and discontinuities in the air flow and improve the thermal performance and energy efficiency of the refrigerator.

Refrigerator control system and method

A control system for a refrigeration appliance is provided. The control system uses a linear model that is designed to minimize or remove excess enthalpy from one or more compartments and/or features of the appliance. At least one variable speed compressor is operated at a speed that will remove excess enthalpy within a desired time period while also operating at an optimized speed for energy efficiency.

Growing community of inventors

Louisville, KY, United States of America

Keith Wesley Wait