Patent Issued for Appliance monitoring sensors (USPTO 11505892): United Services Automobile Association

2022 DEC 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Ethington, Benjamin D. (Savannah, TX, US), Flachsbart, Matthew (Fort Worth, TX, US), Hartman, Wayne M. (Chubbuck, ID, US), Scott, Kade L. (Scottsdale, AZ, US), filed on September 17, 2020, was published online on November 22, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11505892 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Appliance malfunctions are a common cause of home fires. Specifically, fires in a home can be caused by lint build up in clothes dryers. Appliances can have sensors that monitor the operation of the appliance, however, the sensors are generally used for control of the appliance not monitoring for abnormal or hazardous operating conditions.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Implementations of the present disclosure are generally directed to sensor units for detecting abnormal (e.g., unsafe) conditions in consumer appliances. More particularly, implementations of the present disclosure are directed sensor units for detecting unsafe conditions in clothes dryers, such as conditions that may result in a fire.

“In general, innovative aspects of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in a sensor unit that includes a power source, a communication interface, and a sensor coupled to the power source and the communication interface. The sensor is calibrated to connect the power source to the communication interface upon an occurrence of a condition in an appliance. The sensor, thereby, permits the communication interface to transmit data indicating the condition to a computing device. This and other implementations can each optionally include one or more of the following features.

“In some implementations, the sensor is calibrated to connect the power source to the communication interface upon an occurrence of a condition in a clothes dryer.

“In some implementations, the data includes at least one of identity information of the sensor unit, a time stamp, or a set-point of the sensor.

“In some implementations, the sensor is configured to disconnect the power source from the communication interface when the condition in the clothes dryer clears, thereby, causing the communication interface to cease transmitting the data indicating the condition.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system comprising: at least one processor; and a data store coupled to the at least one processor having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, from at least one appliance sensor, a series of discrete data transmissions, each data transmission including a serial number of the at least one appliance sensor; identifying a transmission pattern of the series of discrete data transmissions; determining, based on the transmission pattern, an operating condition of a household appliance that is monitored by the at least one appliance sensor by comparing the transmission pattern to a baseline transmission pattern of the at least one sensor that is associated with the appliance; and in response to determining that the operating condition is an abnormal operating condition: identifying, based on the serial number of the at least one appliance sensor, a user computing device that is registered to receive notifications related to household appliance; and providing, to the user computing device, an electronic notification to correct an unsafe condition in the household appliance.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein determining that a condition has occurred in the household appliance comprises determining that data transmissions have been received from a predetermined number of different appliance sensors associated with the household appliance.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein determining that a condition has occurred in the household appliance comprises determining that data transmissions have been received from a predetermined set of different appliance sensors associated with the household appliance.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the user computing device, a user input to shut down the household appliance; and causing the household appliance to be shut down remotely.

“5. The system of claim 4, wherein causing the household appliance to be shut down remotely comprises sending a command to a communication interface of the household appliance to shut down the household appliance.

“6. The system of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is part of a control system of the household appliance and causing the household appliance to be shut down remotely comprises causing the control system of the household appliance to shut down the household appliance.

“7. A computer-implemented appliance monitoring method executed by at least one processor, the method comprising: receiving, from at least one appliance sensor, a series of discrete data transmissions, each data transmission including a serial number of the at least one appliance sensor; identifying a transmission pattern of the series of discrete data transmissions; determining, based on the transmission pattern, an operating condition of a household appliance that is monitored by the at least one appliance sensor by comparing the transmission pattern to a baseline transmission pattern of the at least one sensor that is associated with the appliance; and in response to determining that the operating condition is an abnormal operating condition: identifying, based on the serial number of the at least one appliance sensor, a user computing device that is registered to receive notifications related to household appliance; and providing, to the user computing device, an electronic notification to correct an unsafe condition in the household appliance.

“8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that a condition has occurred in the household appliance comprises determining that data transmissions have been received from a predetermined number of different appliance sensors associated with the household appliance.

“9. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that a condition has occurred in the household appliance comprises determining that data transmissions have been received from a predetermined set of different appliance sensors associated with the household appliance.

“10. The method of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the user computing device, a user input to shut down the household appliance; and causing the household appliance to be shut down remotely.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein causing the household appliance to be shut down remotely comprises sending a command to a communication interface of the household appliance to shut down the household appliance.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is part of a control system of the household appliance and causing the household appliance to be shut down remotely comprises causing the control system of the household appliance to shut down the household appliance.

“13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, from at least one appliance sensor, a series of discrete data transmissions, each data transmission including a serial number of the at least one appliance sensor; identifying a transmission pattern of the series of discrete data transmissions; determining, based on the transmission pattern, an operating condition of a household appliance that is monitored by the at least one appliance sensor by comparing the transmission pattern to a baseline transmission pattern of the at least one sensor that is associated with the appliance; and in response to determining that the operating condition is an abnormal operating condition: identifying, based on the serial number of the at least one appliance sensor, a user computing device that is registered to receive notifications related to household appliance; and providing, to the user computing device, an electronic notification to correct an unsafe condition in the household appliance.

“14. The medium of claim 13, wherein determining that a condition has occurred in the household appliance comprises determining that data transmissions have been received from a predetermined number of different appliance sensors associated with the household appliance.

“15. The medium of claim 13, wherein determining that a condition has occurred in the household appliance comprises determining that data transmissions have been received from a predetermined set of different appliance sensors associated with the household appliance.

“16. The medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the user computing device, a user input to shut down the household appliance; and causing the household appliance to be shut down remotely.

“17. The medium of claim 16, wherein causing the household appliance to be shut down remotely comprises sending a command to a communication interface of the household appliance to shut down the household appliance.

“18. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission pattern comprises a series of transmission ON periods interspersed with a series of transmission OFF periods.

“19. The system of claim 18, wherein the operating condition of the appliance is represented by either one or both of: a timing between the transmission ON periods and the transmission OFF periods of the transmission pattern, or a length of the transmission ON periods of the transmission pattern.

“20. The system of claim 18, wherein a temperature profile of the household appliance is represented by either one or both of: a timing between the transmission ON periods and the transmission OFF periods of the transmission pattern, or a length of the transmission ON periods of the transmission pattern.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Ethington, Benjamin D. Appliance monitoring sensors. U.S. Patent Number 11505892, filed September 17, 2020, and published online on November 22, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11505892)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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