Household appliance with user interface with bi-colored LEDs
AssigneeMaytag Corporation
InventorDenise Schult
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A household appliance, includes an appliance cabinet, an appliance user interface having multiple settings. Each setting has multiple selection options. There is a bi-color LED associated with each of the selection options. The bi-colored LEDs are used to indicate the current settings of the appliance and the availability of appliance selection options. The bi-colored LEDs can also be used to provide feedback during programming of the settings of the household appliance.
Claims23
A household appliance, comprising:
- an appliance cabinet;
- an appliance user interface comprising a plurality of appliance settings, each of the settings having a plurality of selection options, and a plurality of bi-color LEDs, each of the bi-color LEDs associated with one of the selection options.
A household appliance, comprising:
- an appliance cabinet;
- an appliance user interface;
- the appliance user interface comprising a plurality of selection buttons and a plurality of bi-colored LEDs wherein each of the plurality of selection buttons is associated with one of the plurality of bi-colored LEDs;
- the appliance user interface adapted to maintain each of the plurality of bi-colored LEDs in either a first color state or a second color state during programming whereby the first color state indicates that an appliance operation associated with the bi-colored LED is available and the second color state indicates that the washing machine operation associated with the bi-colored LED is unavailable for selection.
A method for programming a household appliance, comprising:
- (a) receiving a press of a program button from a user to initiate programming;
- (b) lighting a plurality of LEDs associated with an appliance setting, each LED associated with one of a plurality of appliance setting selection option buttons, each LED being a bi-color LED;
- (c) receiving a press of the appliance setting option button to select the appliance setting selection option LED associated with the appliance setting;
- (d) turning off all LEDs associated with the appliance setting except maintaining the LED associated with the selected appliance setting selection option as lit;
- (e) lighting all LEDs associated with the appliance setting selection options made unavailable by the selection made in the receiving step in a second color;
- (f) receiving a second press of the program button from the user to retain the appliance setting.
A method of using bi-color LEDs in an appliance user interface comprising:
- associating each of the bi-color LEDs with each of a plurality of selection options;
- lighting the bi-color LEDs during an appliance operation cycle to a first color state to indicate chosen selection options and to a second color state to indicate selection options unavailable for selection.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.