Appliance control system, home appliance, and notification control method for home appliance

A home appliance comprising:

• a notification unit to provide a notification of a state by display and/or annunciating,
• control circuitry configured to perform operation control in accordance with an instruction of operation settings from a remote operation unit that enables the operation settings of the home appliance to be performed, and control the notification unit in accordance with an operating state of the home appliance, wherein
• the control circuitry controls the notification unit by performing switching the notification unit between
• a first mode in which the notification unit provides a notification of the operating state of the home appliance, wherein the notification of the operating state is configured to indicate one of a plurality of different operation states of the home appliance which is operating, and
• a second mode in which the notification unit provides a notification of information regarding network connection including connection of a wireless communication unit to a wireless network and to a server device, the wireless communication unit enabling the home appliance to be connected to the server device via the wireless network, wherein the notification of the information regarding the network connection is configured to indicate a wireless communication unit connection success, a wireless communication unit connection failure, a server device connection success, and a server device connection failure, in a network connection sequence, and
• the control circuitry, in response to receiving, from the remote operation unit, an instruction of settings of the network connection, performs switching to the second mode between a time when a predetermined first condition is satisfied in the first mode and a time when a predetermined second condition is satisfied, wherein
• the predetermined first condition is a time when the wireless communication unit starts pairing and
• the predetermined second condition is a time when the connection to the server device is completed or fails.

A notification control method for a home appliance in an appliance control system, the appliance control system including:

• a home appliance including a notification unit to provide a notification of a state by display and/or annunciating and control circuitry;
• a wireless communication unit to enable the home appliance to be connected to a server device via a wireless network;
• and
• a remote operation unit to enable operation settings of the home appliance and settings of network connection including connection of the wireless communication unit to the wireless network and to the server device to be performed,
• the notification control method for the home appliance, comprising:
• performing operation control in accordance with an instruction of the operation settings from the remote operation unit, and controlling the notification unit in accordance with an operating state of the home appliance in a first mode in which the notification unit provides a notification of the operating state of the home appliance, wherein the notification of the operating state is configured to indicate one of a plurality of different operation states of the home appliance which is operating;
• and
• controlling the notification unit by performing switching between the first mode and a second mode in which the notification unit provides a notification of information regarding the network connection, wherein the notification of the information regarding the network connection is configured to indicate a wireless communication unit connection success, a wireless communication unit connection failure, a server device connection success, and a server device connection failure, in a network connection sequence, wherein
• switching to the second mode is performed between a time when a predetermined first condition is satisfied in the first mode and a time when a predetermined second condition is satisfied, wherein
• the predetermined first condition is a time when the wireless communication unit starts pairing and
• the predetermined second condition is a time when the connection to the server device is completed or fails.