Automatic self clean cycle start using artificial intelligence in a laundry appliance
AssigneeHaier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.
InventorsJe Kwon Yoon, Seung-Yeong Park, Jaehyo Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A laundry appliance includes a basket rotatably mounted within a cabinet and defining a chamber configured for receiving a load of clothes, a door pivotally mounted to the cabinet for providing selective access to the chamber, and a camera assembly mounted within the cabinet in view of the chamber. A controller is configured to initiate an automatic self-clean cycle, the method comprising determining that the door is closed, obtaining one or more images of the chamber using the camera assembly, determining that there is no load in the chamber based at least in part on the one or more images, determining that a self-clean condition is satisfied, and commencing the self-clean cycle.
Claims20
A laundry appliance comprising:
- a cabinet;
- a basket rotatably mounted within the cabinet and defining a chamber configured for receiving a load of clothes;
- a door pivotally mounted to the cabinet for providing selective access to the chamber;
- a camera assembly mounted within the cabinet in view of the chamber;
- and
- a controller operably coupled to the camera assembly, the controller being configured to:
- determine that the door has moved to an open position and then to a closed position after completion of a wash cycle;
- obtain one or more images of the chamber using the camera assembly;
- determine that there is no load in the chamber based at least in part on the one or more images;
- determine that a self-clean condition is satisfied;
- and
- commence a self-clean cycle in response to determining that the door is in the closed position, there is no load in the chamber, and the self-clean condition is satisfied.
A method of operating a laundry appliance, the laundry appliance comprising a basket rotatably mounted within a cabinet and defining a chamber configured for receiving a load of clothes, a door pivotally mounted to the cabinet for providing selective access to the chamber, and a camera assembly mounted within the cabinet in view of the chamber, the method comprising:
- determining that the door has moved to an open position and then to a closed position after completion of a wash cycle;
- obtaining one or more images of the chamber using the camera assembly;
- determining that there is no load in the chamber based at least in part on the one or more images;
- determining that a self-clean condition is satisfied;
- and
- commencing a self-clean cycle in response to determining that the door is in the closed position, there is no load in the chamber, and the self-clean condition is satisfied.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.