Patent Application
20130030552
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to appliances, and more particularly to improved user interfaces on such appliances.
User interfaces (UIs) are well known components of a wide variety of appliances and other user-controllable devices and equipment. For example, household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, cooking ranges and dishwashers are known to have human-machine interface (HMI) panels that allow the user to select functions (e.g., start, stop, cycle/mode select, temperature settings, etc.) of the appliance by activating one or more buttons on the panel. The HMI panel in existing appliances is typically known to be a physical panel cut into or mounted on the face of the appliance. On the panel are one or more pushbuttons or switches that the user can physically contact (push) so as to activate or deactivate a function. Some such existing HMI panels are known to also include light emitting diode (LED) displays or liquid crystal displays (LCD).
However, once an HMI panel is physically mounted on an appliance, it is, for all intents and purposes, permanently fixed at that position. Also, when the HMI panel has actual physical pushbuttons or switches mounted thereon, there is no way to change the configuration of the panel or update the functions that the panel presents to the user without physically modifying the panel.
As described herein, the exemplary embodiments of the present invention overcome one or more disadvantages known in the art.
One aspect of the present invention relates to an apparatus comprising a front projection system operatively mounted as part of an appliance and configured to optically project a virtual user interface. The apparatus also comprises an optics system operatively mounted as part of the appliance and configured to direct the virtual user interface optically projected by the front projection system onto a given surface. Further, the apparatus comprises a user input system operatively mounted as part of the appliance and configured to receive one or more input selections made by a user in correspondence with one or more features that are part of the virtual user interface optically projected by the front projection system on the given surface via the optics system. Still further, the apparatus comprises a controller operatively coupled to the front projection system and the user input system, and configured to control operation of one or more components of the appliance in response to the one or more input selections made by the user in correspondence with the one or more features that are part of the virtual user interface.
In one or more embodiments, the surface of the appliance may be a selectively moveable surface that can be moved to a first position to allow the virtual user interface to be optically projected thereon and to a second position when not in use.
In one or more embodiments, the one or more features that are part of the virtual user interface may comprise one or more images representative of functions associated with the appliance. The virtual display may also comprise one or more multimedia objects such as, but not limited to, one or more videos, one or more web pages, etc., and/or other user desired information.
Advantageously, illustrative principles of the present invention provide for a virtual HMI panel that is not required to be permanently fixed on an appliance, and that is more easily reconfigurable (e.g., by software updates rather than by physically modifying a panel) and able to display multimedia and other information (related and unrelated to the use of the appliance).
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. Moreover, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
In the drawings:
One or more of the embodiments of the invention will be described below in the context of an appliance such as a household appliance. However, it is to be understood that principles of the invention are not intended to be limited to use in household appliances. Rather, principles of the invention may be applied to and deployed in any other suitable environment in which it would be desirable to improve user interface efficiency and accessibility.
As illustratively used herein, the term “appliance” is intended to refer to a device or equipment designed to perform one or more specific functions, particularly but not limited to equipment for consumer use, e.g., a refrigerator, a cooking range, a laundry washer, a laundry dryer, a dishwasher, a microwave oven, etc. This may include but is not limited to equipment that is useable in household or commercial environments. Also, it is to be appreciated that the term “appliance” may include a water heater, an energy management device that interfaces to another appliance, or a standalone energy management device.
As illustratively used herein, the term “virtual” is intended to refer to “non-physical,” i.e., a virtual user interface is a non-physical user interface, or one that is realized via one or more optical projections (e.g., images and/or objects) presented on one or more surfaces.
As illustratively used herein, the phrase “user interface” is intended to refer to an area where interaction between a human and a machine occurs including but not limited to a user viewing or listening to some form of information presented by the machine and/or the user inputting one or more selections or commands to the machine. In the case of the appliance embodiments described herein, the machine is the appliance and the human is the user or consumer, and interaction between the user and the appliance is via a virtual user interface.
Illustrative principles of the invention provide for generation and presentation of a virtual user interface in an appliance. The virtual user interface is optically projected on a surface, such as a surface of an appliance or some other surface, and allows a user to control and select features of the appliance using the virtual user interface in conjunction with a user input system, as will be explained in detail below. In this manner, the physical HMI panel on an appliance can be supplemented or completely replaced with the virtual user interface. In the latter case, by eliminating the physical HMI panel used in existing appliances, such as a refrigerator, the panel cut-out that must be manufactured into the appliance is eliminated. Particularly in the case of a refrigerator where the HMI panel is typically on the refrigerator door and requires a portion of the refrigerator door and corresponding insulation to be cut out to accommodate the HMI panel, use of the virtual user interface allows for the refrigerator door to remain intact and thus free of cut-outs and loss of insulation. In this way, the energy efficiency of the appliance is greatly improved.
Furthermore, since the virtual user interface can be reconfigured simply by modifying or updating one or more computer programs (software or firmware) that are stored in the appliance and used to generate the virtual user interface and any features associated therewith, changes to the user interface can be made before, during and after installation of an appliance. That is, features on the user interface can be added, modified and/or deleted simply by changing the images and multimedia objects optically projected by the user interface system. Also, based on the use of a projection system that is capable of projecting multimedia objects, the virtual user interface may include the displaying of videos, web pages, television or other broadcast sources, and any information desired by a user (e.g., recipes, instruction manuals, manufacturer contact information, etc.).
Still further, due to the optical nature of the virtual user interface, the size and shape of the virtual user interface can be advantageously adjusted to accommodate any surface area size or shape upon which it is desired to display the interface. Also, sizes and shapes of individual features on the virtual user interface can be adjusted.
A description of one illustrative embodiment of an optically-projected user interface system is first given below, followed by several illustrative embodiments depicting different appliance implementations of such an advantageous user interface system. It is to be understood that while the figures below illustrate implementations in a few types of appliances, principles of the invention may be implemented in many other types of appliances not expressly illustrated.
As explained herein, the surface 104 may be a surface of the appliance (e.g., a door or other front surface or a top or side surface) or a surface that is not part of the appliance (e.g., a counter top, a floor or a wall in proximity to the appliance). The surface may be made of one or more of a metal material (e.g., steel), a glass material, a plastic material, or a paper material. There is no limitation on the type of material of which the surface can be composed so long as it will accommodate the projection of the virtual user interface thereon.
As shown, the user interface system 100 also comprises a front projection system 106, an optics system 108, a user input system 110, a micro controller 112, memory 114 and one or more additional input sources and output destinations 116. It is to be noted that the types of connections between components shown in
It is understood that a “front projection system” is intended to refer to an image/multimedia projector that projects an image/multimedia object on the front surface of the area upon which the image/multimedia object is intended to be presented. This is in contrast to a “rear projection system” that projects on a rear surface of the area upon which an image is intended to be presented, i.e., the projector is behind the projection surface and projects the image through the surface—which must of course be transparent or at least translucent.
It is realized that the use of a front projection system in an appliance implementation, such as a refrigerator, where the virtual user interface is to be projected on the front door (surface) of the appliance, is advantageous in that it does not require the projector to be mounted behind the projection surface in the refrigerator door as would be the case for a rear projection system. Thus, the insulation in the door would not be compromised since no mounting/cut-out area would be required to be made in the door of the appliance.
It is to be appreciated that principles of the invention are not limited to any particular front projection system. However, it is realized that certain advantages come from the projector being compact in size and energy usage. For these reasons, it is preferred to utilize a so-called “pico projector” as the front projection system. As is known, a pico projector includes miniaturized hardware that can accept instructions from a controller to generate and project one or more images and/or one or more multimedia objects onto a nearby surface. The pico projector typically utilizes laser light sources that are driven by control signals (from a controller) wherein the laser light sources may have different colors and intensities. The pico projector combines the laser light sources and projects the image or object. Pico projectors are known to be implemented with one or more integrated circuits.
While principles of the invention are not limited to any particular front projection system or pico projector, one or more models commercially available may be used. By way of example only, a Microvision (Redmond, Wash.) ShowWX+™, model BX10, pico projector could be employed. It is also understood however that, given specifications for colors, intensities, and proportions of the images/objects to be optically projected, any suitable pico projector could be used and/or customized for any particular implementation in a straightforward manner.
It is realized, however, that with the use of a front projection system and the topological configurations (and restrictions) of various appliances in which the front projection system may be used, it is preferable to utilize an optics system in conjunction with the pico projector that directs and focuses the projected images/objects onto the surface so that they are clear, accurate and readily viewable. This is the function of optics system 108 mounted in front of the optical output of front projection system 106. Optics system 108 may comprise one or more lens and/or one or more mirrors that provide the desirable directing and focusing of the image/object projected by the front projection system 106 so that it is properly presented on the surface 104.
Advantageously, with the addition of focusing optics 208 (i.e., one or more lens) as shown in
Lastly,
Thus, returning to
As also shown in
By way of example only, in resistive or capacitive-based approaches, the area of the surface 104 upon which the virtual user interface (images/objects) 102 is being projected has a corresponding area of resistive or capacitive sensitivity respectively built therein.
In a resistive input detection system, the area of resistive sensitivity comprises at least two thin electrically conductive (metallic) layers separated by a narrow gap. When an object, such as a finger, pushes down on a point in a given area of the surface, the two metallic layers come into electrical contact with one another at that point. This causes a change in an electrical current, which is registered as a touch event.
In a capacitive input detection system, the area of capacitive sensitivity comprises an insulator such as glass coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide. Since the human body is also an electrical conductor, touching a given area of the surface causes a distortion of in an electrostatic field, which is measurable as a change in capacitance. This is registered as a touch event.
An optical-based input detection systems works by monitoring the area of the user interface with one or more cameras that record where the user touched the interface. Further, an infrared-based system can be used whereby a disturbance or break in an infrared light beam is detected as a touch event. In a surface acoustic wave input detection system, the user's finger absorbs a portion of the acoustic wave propagating across the surface of the given area, which is registered as a touch event.
It is to be understood that any other suitable input detection technology can be used by the user input system 110 to identify feature selections made by the user at the virtual user interface. Principles of the invention are not restricted to any particular input detection technology. In fact, combinations of known input detection technologies may be utilized.
Since features of the virtual user interface are geometrically mapped to the underlying surface area upon which the virtual user interface is projected, the input system 110 reports the touch events to micro controller 112, which can then identify which feature was intended to be selected via the touch event by looking up the features mapped to the detected locations.
As further shown in
For example, when the micro controller 112 is a microprocessor or central processing unit (CPU), this control may be accomplished by the controller executing one or more computer programs (software or firmware) that are loaded from memory 114. It is understood that the computer programs are preloaded (stored) in the appliance (e.g., in memory 114) prior to installation of the appliance. Such computer programs can also be easily updated after installation by replacing older software/firmware with newer software/firmware. In this way, features can be added to, modified or deleted from a virtual user interface, or entirely new virtual interfaces can be loaded.
Furthermore, the computer programs executed by the micro controller 112 instruct it as to what images/objects the micro controller is to instruct the front projection system 106 to project. This decision is also based on the selections made by the user at the virtual user interface, and by any input sources 116 (e.g., Internet, television broadcast, appliance components and subsystems, etc.) connected to the micro controller. Still further, the micro controller 112 can instruct components and subsystems of the appliance what to do based on user selections at the virtual user interface.
By way of example only, assume that a virtual user interface according to an embodiment of the invention is projected on the front door of a refrigerator. Assume also that one feature on the virtual user interface is a temperature control icon for the fresh food compartment of the refrigerator. Thus, when the user selects the temperature control icon, perhaps to decrease the temperature, the user input system 110 detects the touch event and reports it to the micro controller 112. The micro controller 112 may then instruct the front projection system 106 to project another image 102 on the surface 104 that shows the current temperature of the fresh food compartment with an up arrow icon and a down arrow icon. The user then touches the down arrow icon, and the user input system, micro controller, and front projection system work in cooperation to update the view that the user sees, i.e., the user sees the temperature of the fresh food compartment drop to the desired level on the display.
In addition, the micro controller 112 also instructs the components or subsystems of the appliance (e.g., evaporator system) that control the temperature in the fresh food compartment to decrease the temperature to the desired level. It is to be understood that the above is just one simple example of the multitude of features and functions that can be displayed and controlled for any given appliance via a virtual user interface formed according to principles of the invention.
Descriptions of several illustrative embodiments depicting different appliance implementations of an optically-projected user interface system according to the invention will now be given in the context of
As illustrated, front projection system 602 (106 in
Advantageously, the virtual user interface embodiment shown in the refrigerator in
Also note that the virtual user interface 610 can be displayed on curved surfaces rather than just flat surfaces. Any distortion that may otherwise be an issue due to the curved nature of the projection surface can be mitigated or eliminated by selection of appropriate lens in the optics system 604, as described above.
It is also assumed that the door surface 606 of the refrigerator is configured to have one or more user input detection technologies built therein or associated therewith (e.g., resistive, capacitive, optical, infrared, surface acoustic wave, etc.), as described above in detail. Further, by using surface acoustic wave technology where acoustic waves are propagated across the surface of the refrigerator door, the entire door can easily become part of the user input system (110 in
Advantages similar to those realized in the refrigerator implementations are realized in the embodiment of
It is to be appreciated that since a cooking range and laundry (washer and dryer) appliances have similar structural configurations and topologies, an optically-projected user interface system of the invention could be implemented in laundry appliances in the same or a similar manner as shown in
Lastly,
It is to be appreciated that the one or more features that are included on a virtual user interface (and thus the corresponding virtual icons, virtual buttons, etc.) depend on the functions of the appliance in which the optically-projected user interface system of the invention is implemented. By way of example, and not intended to be an exhaustive list, below are some examples of the features/functions that may be incorporated into a virtual user interface in an appliance implementation: freezer/fresh food temperature control, diagnostics, show room mode control, display of weather information, display of pictures/photos, display of maintenance manuals, display of manufacturer contact information, display of multimedia objects, demand management controls, display of precise fill information, display of Internet content, display of time and date, oven/surface temperature controls, display of cooking applications, and wash/dry settings and controls. Of course, those of ordinary skill in the art will realize many other features that may be implemented in accordance with the inventive teachings disclosed herein.
Thus, while there have been shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. Moreover, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Furthermore, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
