Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.

General Electric Company

Steven Keith Root

Eric Kent Watson

Jeff Donald Drake

Michael F Finch

Natarajan Venkatakrishnan

Eric K Watson

John Keith Besore

Darin Franks

John K Besore

Andrew Reinhard Krause

James Quentin Pollett

Jerrod Aaron Kappler

John Joseph Roetker

Richard DeVos

Haitian Hu

Hairong Li

Ramesh Janardhanam

Chad Michael Helms

Abdel Hamad

Donald Charles Ganiere

Donald Ganiere

Michael Goodman Schroeder

Timothy Dale Worthington

David Scott Dunn

Ryan James Scheckelhoff

Joshua Stephen Wiseman

Timothy Martin Wetzel

Joseph Thomas Waugh

Steven Chadwick Koepke

Ronald Gary Foster

Erick Graven

Timothy Allen Hamel

William Newton

Mark Thomas Fryman

Ashley Wayne Burt

Gregory Michael Thomas

Tyler James Doering

Brice Alan Bowley

Ryan Michael Hartlage

Victoria Steele

Daniel Stephen Frazer

Nagaraju Valluri

Jeffrey S Weber

Om Hari

Charles Dawes

Michael Kello

Rajendra Prasad Gottipati

Steven Phang

Robert Anthony Saling

Andres Guillermo Ruiz

Richard Devos

Erick Paul Graven

Joshua S Wiseman

Gregory M Thomas

A refrigerator appliance includes a liner positioned within a cabinet and having an inner liner surface that defines a chilled chamber. A door is rotatably hinged to the cabinet to provide selective access to the chilled chamber and a camera assembly is mounted to the liner for monitoring the chilled chamber. The camera assembly includes a camera housing, a camera mounted within the camera housing and being pivotable between a first orientation and a second orientation, and a pivoting mechanism that is operably coupled to the door such that the camera is oriented in the first orientation when the door is in an open position and in the second orientation when the door is in a closed position.

Pivoting camera assembly for a refrigerator appliance

An item-management system is provided having a household appliance, a camera assembly, and a controller. The household appliance may include a cabinet. The camera assembly may be directed at the cabinet to capture an image of the cabinet. The controller may be in operative communication with the camera assembly. The controller may have access to an item list of one or more stored items. The controller may be configured to direct an item-management operation. The item-management operation may include receiving the image from the camera assembly, identifying, automatically, based on the received image, a stored item from the item list, determining, based on identifying the stored item, an unsuitable status of the identified stored item to indicate the identified stored item is inappropriate for the household appliance, and directing, based on determining the unsuitable status, a responsive action at the household appliance.

Item management system for connected appliances

A system and method for data transmission and performance improvement for an appliance is provided. The system includes an appliance including a controller operably connected to a network computing device. The controller is configured to transmit a packet to a network computing device. The packet includes genealogical data for the appliance encoded in a positional numeral system. The network computing device is configured to receive the packet and decode the genealogical data for the appliance. Decoding includes translating the positional numeral system to an appliance configuration.

System and method for data transmission for appliance

Systems and methods for identifying a motor coupled to an electrical appliance are disclosed herein. The electrical appliance can include a motor assembly comprising at least one electric motor and a filter network including an electrical resistance component and an electrical capacitance component. The electrical appliance can also include a controller electrically coupled to the motor assembly and the filter network, the controller comprising one or more processors and a memory comprising instructions for performing a process. The process can include providing an input signal to the filter network and receiving an output signal from the filter network, the output signal being filtered by the filter network. The process can also include identifying a filter characteristic of the filter network based on the output signal and identifying a type of the electric motor based on the identified filter characteristic.

Motor identification by filter determination

An appliance including a control device in operative communication with a user input panel and a sensor provided. The control device is configured to emit, via the sensor, a first plurality of signals defining a first operating mode. The first operating mode includes one or more of a first scan rate or a first scan interval. The control device is configured to switch between the first operating mode and a second operating mode based on one or more of detection of a container, detection of a user, or a user input. The control device is configured to emit, via the sensor, a second plurality of signals defining the second operating mode. The second operating mode includes one or more of a second scan rate or a second scan interval different from the first operating mode.

Appliance with presence detection system

An oven appliance may include a cabinet, a heating element, temperature sensor, and controller. The heating element may be within the cabinet to heat a cooking chamber. The temperature sensor may be mounted in thermal communication with the cooking chamber. The controller may be configured to initiate a cooking operation. The cooking operation may include directing the heating element according to a predetermined holiday heating cycle during a first holiday occurrence, collecting a plurality of temperature readings from the temperature sensor during the first holiday occurrence as a first temperature group, determining, following the first holiday occurrence, a temperature deviation from a set reference temperature, the temperature deviation being based on the first temperature group, generating a modified holiday heating cycle based on the determined temperature deviation, and directing the heating element according to the modified holiday heating cycle during a second holiday occurrence following the first holiday occurrence.

Oven appliance and methods of operating during a religious holiday

An appliance, such as a refrigerator appliance, and controller configured to perform operations of a method for measuring contents in a container are provided. The operations include receiving, from a sensor, one or more signals indicative of a height of contents in a container, and determining a contents volume in the container based at least on the height of contents in the container.

Refrigerator appliance and method for measuring contents in a container

An appliance communication system is provided herein. The appliance communications system may include an appliance and a passive command tag. The appliance may include a controller configured to direct an operating cycle and an interface module configured to receive an instruction signal corresponding to the operating cycle. The passive command tag may be separably engaged with the appliance in selective communication with the interface module. The passive command tag may be configured to transmit the instruction signal in response to a read signal received from the interface module. The controller may be configured to vary the operating cycle based on the received instruction signal.

Interchangeable tag communications systems for consumer appliances

A method for operating a refrigerator appliance includes operating a dispenser of the refrigerator appliance to initiate a flow of liquid water or ice into a container positioned within a dispensing recess of the dispenser in response to a user input at a user input panel of the refrigerator appliance, receiving one or more signals from a sensor positioned at the dispensing recess after operating the dispenser to initiate the flow of liquid water or ice into the dispensing recess, and detecting a presence of the container in the dispensing recess based at least in part on the one or more signals from the sensor only after operating the dispenser to initiate the flow of liquid water or ice into the dispensing recess. A related refrigerator appliance is also provided.

Refrigerator appliance with a dispenser

A tablet for use with a consumer appliance is provided. The tablet may be removably attachable to the consumer appliance, which may charge the tablet through an integrated USB charger. The tablet may be in wired or wireless communication with the appliance and/or a remote server. In this manner, the tablet may provide the user with timely information related to operation of the consumer appliance or directly from the internet.

Consumer appliance with a detachable tablet

Systems and methods for managing appliance power consumption. In one embodiment, an appliance can include a plurality of microcontrollers. Each of the microcontrollers can be associated with at least one appliance component. The appliance can further include one or more low power management microcontrollers. The low power management microcontrollers can be configured to monitor a state of each of the microcontrollers. The low power management microcontrollers can be further configured to determine that one or more of the microcontrollers of the plurality of microcontrollers are in an inactive state. The low power management microcontrollers can be configured to send one or more command signals to place the one or more microcontrollers in the inactive state in a lower power mode based at least in part on the determination that the microcontroller is in the inactive state. The respective microcontroller can consume less power in the lower power mode than while in an active state.

Low power management system

Systems and methods for controlling the operation of a dispenser system are provided. In particular, one or more sensors associated with the dispenser system may be configured to detect one or more signals indicative of a container proximate the dispenser system and/or a level of water or ice within the container. The dispenser system may include an analog-to-digital converter configured to sample the detected signals at a predetermined sample frequency. The dispenser system may further include a direct memory access controller configured to store the sampled signals in memory without having to rout the sampled signals through a central processing unit associated with dispenser system. The operation of the dispenser system can then be controlled based at least in part on the sampled signals.

Controlling the operation of a dispenser system

A washing machine including a suspension system is provided. The suspension system includes a wash tub, a basket rotatably coupled within the wash tub, and a drive and motor assembly. The washing machine further includes a controller configured initiate a spin cycle by increasing a spin speed of the basket to a target spin speed, identify an out-of-balance load prior to reaching the target spin speed, and limit the spin speed of the basket to a spin speed lower than a natural frequency of the suspension system for a predefined period of time.

Method and apparatus for balancing an unbalanced load in a washing machine

A clothes washer is provided comprising one or more power consuming functions and a controller in signal communication with an associated utility. The controller can receive and process a signal from the associated utility indicative of current state of an associated utility. The controller operates the clothes washer in one of a plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode in response to the received signal. The controller is configured to change the power consuming functions by changing the duty cycling profile of the heater and/or mechanical action of the basket in the energy savings mode.

Clothes washer demand response by duty cycling the heater and/or the mechanical action

An appliance for conditioning air of a room comprises one or more power consuming features/functions including a temperature controlling element for one of heating and cooling air. A controller is operatively connected to the one or more power consuming features/functions. The controller is configured to receive and process a signal indicative of a utility state. The controller operates the appliance in one of a plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode in response to the received signal. The controller is configured to at least one of selectively adjust and deactivate at least one of the one or more power consuming features/functions to reduce power consumption of the appliance in the energy savings mode.

Energy management of household appliances

Growing community of inventors

Buckner, KY, United States of America

Steven Keith Root