Personal care system

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a personal care system having a personal care device having a memory unit, a display unit, and a first wireless communication unit, and a separate input device with a second wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with the first wireless communication unit of the personal care device, the separate input device configured to allow a user to provide text data or image data or to select text data or image data from a database, the separate input device configured to wirelessly transmit the provided or selected text data or image data to the personal care device, the personal care device configured to receive the wirelessly transmitted text data or image data, store the received text data or image data in a memory of the memory unit, and use the received text data or image data in place of previously stored default text data or image data for user communication on the display unit.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a personal care device having a display unit capable of presenting text data and / or image data for user communication, and a separate input device capable of wirelessly communicating with the personal care device, comprising a personal care system.

Background Art

[0002] It is generally known that personal care devices, such as electric toothbrushes, may have a display capable of presenting text or graphics for user communication. The Oral-B iO series of electric toothbrushes is an example of such a personal care device. The Oral-B iO toothbrush is configured to present various information on a display, such as a so-called welcome screen or icons indicating the currently selected brushing mode. Text information is presented together with the graphics. It is also known that such personal care devices can be connected to a separate input device so that a personal care system is formed. For example, the Oral-B iO electric toothbrush can be connected to a smartphone on which the Oral-B App (software application) can be installed, thereby enabling additional features, such as the display of live brushing feedback on the smartphone display.

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0003] It is an object to make such known personal care systems even more customizable and / or versatile.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0004] According to at least one aspect, a personal care device having a memory unit, a display unit, and a first wireless communication unit, and a separate input device configured to wirelessly communicate with the first wireless communication unit of the personal care device, the separate input device being configured to enable a user to provide text data or image data or to select text data or image data from a database, the separate input device being configured to wirelessly transmit the provided or selected text data or image data to the personal care device, the personal care device being configured to receive the wirelessly transmitted text data or image data, store the received text data or image data in the memory of the memory unit, and use the received text data or image data in place of previously stored default text data or image data for user communication on the display unit, a personal care system is provided.

[0005] According to at least one aspect, a method for operating a personal care system, comprising: · providing a personal care device having a memory unit and a display unit; · storing default text data or image data in the memory of the memory unit; · providing a separate input device having an interface that enables a user to provide or select text data or image data that replaces the default text data or image data; · wirelessly transmitting the provided or selected text data or image data from the separate input device to the personal care device; · receiving the provided or selected text data or image data by the personal care device; · storing the received text data or image data in the memory of the memory unit, preferably within a dedicated memory segment; · visualizing the received text data or image data on the display of the display unit for user communication instead of default text data or default image data. A method is provided that includes these steps.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0006] The present disclosure will be made clearer by a detailed description of exemplary embodiments and reference to the drawings.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Modes for Carrying Out the Invention

[0007] In the context of this specification, "personal care" means the cultivation (or care) of the skin and its appendages (i.e., hair and nails), as well as the teeth and oral cavity (including the tongue, gums, etc.), aiming on the one hand at the prevention of diseases and the maintenance and enhancement of health, and on the other hand at the cosmetic treatment of the skin and its appendages and the improvement of appearance. This includes the maintenance and enhancement of well-being. This includes skin care, hair care, oral care, and nail care. This further includes cosmetic operations such as beard care, shaving, and hair removal. Thus, "personal care device" means any device for performing such cultivation or cosmetic operations, for example, (cosmetic) skin treatment devices such as skin massage devices or skin brushes; wet shavers; electric shavers or trimmers; electric hair removal devices; and oral care devices such as manual or electric toothbrushes, (electric) flossers, (electric) cleaners, (electric) tongue cleaners, or (electric) gum massagers. This does not exclude the possibility that the proposed personal care device may have more significant advantages in one or more of these cultivation or device areas than in one or more other areas of these areas. In this description, an electric toothbrush has been selected to present the details of the proposed personal care device, but it should be understood that this is not limiting. The proposed technology can be used in any other personal care device as long as the details are not specific to the electric toothbrush.

[0008] According to the present disclosure, a personal care system comprises at least one personal care device and at least one input device separate from the at least one personal care device. The separate input device is configured to wirelessly communicate with the personal care device, and the communication may be unidirectional (i.e., the communication channel enables data flow from the separate input device to the personal care device), but preferably is bidirectional, i.e., the communication channel enables data flow from the separate input device to the personal care device and data flow from the personal care device to the separate input device. Without being limited by theory, the separate input device may be configured to communicate with other devices and / or the Internet and / or cloud computers / servers, whether unidirectional or bidirectional, whether wireless or wired, via, for example, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi protocols. Merely for distinction, the personal care device comprises a wireless communication unit called the "first wireless communication unit", and the separate input device has a wireless communication circuit called the "second wireless communication unit". This does not exclude that the personal care device and / or the separate input device have additional communication units, and this term does not imply any order of the wireless communication units.

[0009] The description of the separate input device herein focuses on the use of the separate input device to provide or select text data or image data. This is not to exclude that the separate input device provides additional functions such as live brushing feedback, storage of brushing data, as already known from, for example, the Oral-B App running on a smartphone.

[0010] The personal care device comprises a display unit having a display such as a TFT display or an LED display (including but not limited to normal LEDs, OLEDs, AMOLEDs, micro LEDs, QLEDs, etc.), typically comprising a display having an M×N matrix of individually controllable display elements ( "display pixels" or simply "pixels"), and in some embodiments, a single display element comprises several light-emitting elements. For example, a single LED display pixel may comprise three LEDs of different colors, for example, an R-LED, a G-LED, and a B-LED. This is not to exclude that the display may be implemented as an LCD display or a segment display, and specifically, more complex sub-pixel shapes such as a pentile arrangement (RGBG) are also to be construed as being included as such. The display unit may comprise a support on which the display itself is mounted and / or further components such as a display controller.

[0011] The personal care device further comprises a memory unit having a memory that stores at least one default text data and / or default image data visualized on a display for user communication, such as graphics or icons and / or names that may be related to at least one operation mode or a welcome screen. The memory unit may further comprise additional components such as a memory manager. In the present disclosure, the terms "image data" or "image data" or "graphics data" are used interchangeably, and these terms refer to a set of digital data used directly or indirectly (e.g., after processing steps) to visualize graphics on a display. Thereby, such image data may exist in any standardized or proprietary format, whether or not lossless or lossy compression is applied, such as JPEG, PDF, TIFF, BMP, PNG, etc. In some embodiments, the default graphic data and / or default text data are stored in the memory of the memory unit for a plurality of different modes of the personal care device and / or for a plurality of different communication screens thereof. For example, in the case of an electric toothbrush, the operation mode may be named "Daily brushing", and the graphic / icon related to this operation mode may be a designed tooth. Then, when each operation mode is selected by the user, the icon may be displayed on the display together with the text to inform the user about the selected operation mode (in the present disclosure, the terms "operation mode" and "mode" are used interchangeably).In this specification, although a distinction is made between text data and graphic data, the text data displayed on the display unit of the personal care device may be stored as bitmap data or generally as image data. In some embodiments, the text data may mean plain text information such as the user's name, for example, "Matthias". Such text data may be stored as ASCII or ISO 10646 (Unicode) text information. It should be understood that the image converter may create image data representing the text data "John" for the operation of displaying the text information. For clarity, it should be understood that the phrase used in this specification, such as "default text data or image data", where "default" refers to both "text data" and "image data".

[0012] The personal care device according to the present disclosure is configured to display at least one default image data or at least one default text data on the display of the display unit. It should be understood that the personal care device, preferably the display unit or the control unit, may be configured to convert the text data into image data so that the text data is displayed in the same manner as the image data. The default text data may be simple words such as "Welcome" or "Hello". The default image data may be a patterned sunrise or star mark accompanied by words such as "Welcome". These are, of course, just a few examples. For example, the diversity of the image data is limited only by the number of display pixels and the respective color depths. For example, the display may have an M×N pixel matrix such as a 96×64 pixel matrix or a 1080×720 pixel matrix, and the available color depth may be 1 bit for a monochrome image, 8 bits for a grayscale image, or 24 bits for a true-color image. It has been stated that the personal care device may display a so-called initial screen by displaying the default initial text data and / or the default initial image data, but this should not be understood as a limitation. Instead, the personal care device may be configured to display only the goodbye screen (before switching off the personal care device), or to display a plurality of default text data and / or image data under different circumstances, for example, a morning screen during morning hours (e.g., between 4 am and 10 am) and a night screen during night hours (e.g., between 5 pm and 11 pm). For example, the personal care device may include a menu for setting operation parameters including several screens shown on the display, and / or a menu for selecting an operation mode in which continuous image data indicating different modes provided by the personal care device can be shown on the display - in the case of an electric toothbrush, one mode may be a normal cleaning mode and a shining tooth may be shown, and the second mode may be a sensitive mode and then a feather may be shown.

[0013] According to at least one aspect, the personal care system according to the present disclosure is configured to enable a user to change at least one default text data and / or at least one default image data so that the user can customize what is being displayed. For example, referring again to the electric toothbrush, one mode of the toothbrush may be "tongue cleaning", and the default image data associated therewith may be a stylized tongue. However, the user may prefer to use a customized image instead of the default stylized tongue. For example, the user may wish to use a photo of her dog sticking out its tongue. Similarly, if the mode of the toothbrush is called "daily brushing" and the word "daily brushing" is to be displayed by the associated default text data, the user may prefer to change the name of the mode by providing text data in which the word "Martin's brushing" is displayed instead.

[0014] A separate input device comprises a second wireless communication unit and optionally a display unit, a processor, and / or a memory unit. The separate input device is configured to enable a user to provide or select text data or image data, and then the provided or selected text data or image data can be transmitted to (or downloaded by) the personal care device. The personal care device can periodically or aperiodically check with the separate input device whether such provided or selected text data or image data is available for download, and then can initiate the transmission. For example, such a check can occur each time the personal care device is switched on and communication with the separate input device is established. Alternatively or additionally, the separate input device may transmit download availability information, e.g., respective flags as part of a standardized or proprietary communication protocol, so that the personal care device is notified about the provided or selected text data or image data that can be downloaded. The personal care device may then itself check whether it has the possibility to store such text data or image data (e.g., whether there is an available and non - damaged dedicated memory segment available for storage), and may transmit download ready information, e.g., again respective flags, to initiate the data transfer.

[0015] A separate input device may comprise an interface that enables a user to interact with the separate input device and provide or select text data or image data. The interface may be a keyboard or a touch-sensor display or one or more buttons or switches or other user-operable control elements. This is not to exclude the possibility that the interface may be configured as a voice control interface or a combination of generally known user device interface elements. The separate input device may comprise a camera or may be connectable to a camera that enables the user to take a photo and provide photo data. The separate input device may specifically be capable of converting a photo taken by such a camera or provided by another means (e.g., by selection from a photo database) into photo data having the data format required by the personal care device. This does not exclude the possibility that the personal care device may be configured to perform such a conversion, but it may be advisable to have such more processing power-related tasks performed by a processor within the separate input device. As already shown, the separate input device may itself comprise a database or may be connectable to a separate database (e.g., on a storage device within a home environment or on a remote computer / server or on a cloud computer / server, etc.), which database contains at least one text data or one image data that can be selected by the user. Usually, such a database contains a plurality of text data and / or image data that the user can select. The manufacturer or seller of the personal care device may provide such a database having a large variety of selectable image data and / or text data. The personal care system may be configured such that only the image data and / or text data provided by the manufacturer can replace the default image data and / or text data.With such a closed system, the manufacturer can avoid the use of image data and / or text data that does not conform to the manufacturer's specifications.

[0016] A separate input device may be configured to request input of associated data from the user to assign provided or selected text data or image data to one of a plurality of default text data or image data. The default text data or image data may be stored in a dedicated protected memory segment of the memory of the memory unit of the personal care device, for example, it may be stored there by the manufacturer during the manufacturing process. For example, the separate input device may enable the user to select one from a plurality of available default image data and / or text data to identify the default image data and / or text data to be replaced by the provided or selected image data and / or text data.

[0017] The separate input device may be a unique device provided by the manufacturer of the personal care device as a system package comprising the personal care device and the separate input device. Alternatively or additionally, the manufacturer may provide a separate input device independent of the personal care device to enable the user to upgrade the personal care device and enable the additional features described herein. Instead of using a dedicated separate input device, the separate input device may be implemented by a software application (e.g., an app that can be downloaded) that runs on a general-purpose device such as a smartwatch, mobile phone, smartphone, tablet, laptop, notebook, desktop computer, game console, etc.

[0018] According to some aspects, the personal care device and / or a separate input device may comprise an embedded system. For example, the memory unit and the control unit of the personal care device (and / or further components such as an input device or an output device) may be implemented by an embedded system (which may include a system on a chip (SoC)). The embedded system is typically set up in a cost-effective manner. The memory of the memory unit (or at least a portion of the memory) may be implemented as flash memory, specifically serial flash memory, but it should be understood that the use of flash memory or serial flash memory is not necessarily limited to the use of an embedded system. Such flash-type memory (whether or not it is part of an embedded system) typically includes a protected memory segment in which non-modifiable content such as program code or default files such as the aforementioned default text data and / or default image data is stored. A dedicated memory segment of the memory of the memory unit may be identified for storing customized files such as user-provided or user-selected text data and / or image data. Memory is prone to failure during read / write processes and the memory itself may also be damaged. Such failures are expected to occur infrequently, rather rarely, but certain countermeasures need to be taken to avoid user disappointment with the product. When the provided or selected text data or image data is received by the personal care device and / or stored in the dedicated memory segment, the control unit of the personal care device may perform a consistency check such as a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) on the received and / or stored text data or image data. If this consistency check results in verified data consistency or if the identified inconsistencies can be corrected by the consistency check routine, each received text data or image data is used in place of the default text data or image data stored in the protected memory segment.In the case of multiple available default text data or image data, each default text data or image data to be replaced is identified by additional data that is requested from the user and likewise received, i.e., transmitted by a separate input device. The control unit of the personal care device can then be configured to use only the received text data or image data for visual user communication on the display.

[0019] The personal care system can be configured to allow replacement of text data or image data provided or selected by the user via a separate input device. Each received text data or image data within a dedicated memory segment of the memory will then be overwritten if such newly provided or selected text data or image data is received.

[0020] If the above consistency check fails, specifically, if it fails a preset number of times, for example, 1, 2, 3, etc., each received text data or image data stored in the dedicated memory segment is marked as damaged, and the control unit of the personal care device returns to the default text data or image data. If the received and stored text data or image data is replaced by newly received text data or image data and the consistency check fails again, the stored text data or image data is marked as damaged again, and a parameter indicating the memory area damage level is increased, for example, incremented by 1. The initial value of this parameter may be zero. In this specification, the term "memory area" means a block or page of the dedicated memory segment where the received text data or image data is stored, and that block or page is identified by the start address. When a parameter indicating the memory area damage level reaches a certain threshold, for example, 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10, etc., the entire memory area is marked as damaged. Then, each memory area is blocked for further read and / or write operations. If all memory areas (if there are two or more) of the dedicated memory segment for storing the received text data or image data are marked as damaged, the personal care device, preferably the control unit of the personal care device, may be configured to prohibit further download of text data or image data provided or selected from a separate input device.

[0021] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary personal care system 1 according to this description. The personal care system 1 includes a personal care device 100 illustrated as an electric toothbrush and a separate input device 200, which are to be understood as non-limiting examples in this specification. The personal care device 100 may include a head portion 101, for example, a replacement brush head, and a handle portion 102. The personal care device 100 includes, in this specification, a memory unit 110, a display unit 120, a first wireless communication unit 130, and a control unit 140 coupled to other units.

[0022] The memory unit 110 includes a memory 1100 shown schematically with an expanded separation into memory segments. The memory 1100 includes, in this specification, various memory segments, namely, a protected memory segment 1110 for program code, a protected memory segment 1120 for default text data or image data, a dedicated memory segment 1130 for storing received text data or image data, and a free memory segment 1140 for intermediate storage or other purposes. The size of the segments should not be understood as limiting. The dedicated memory segment 1130 is itself segmented into several memory areas 1131, 1132, 1133, and it should be understood that the number of memory areas shown in this specification is not limiting. As already described, the memory areas 1131, 1132, 1133 may be individually marked as damaged if a specific number of integrity checks of the text data and / or image data fail, which is shown by the shading of the memory area 1132.

[0023] The display unit 120 includes a display 121 for visualizing user communications. In FIG. 1, in one example, the currently set mode of the personal care device 100 is shown as the "Daily Toothbrushing" mode additionally indicated by the designed teeth. The designed teeth can be a visualization of the default image data for this particular mode, and the text "Daily Toothbrushing" can be a visualization of the default text data for this particular mode. Of course, this example should not be understood as limiting. The image content and the text content are not related and are shown only as examples. Specifically, in some embodiments, the default image data includes an image visualization of the text data. However, it may be advisable to distinguish the default image data from the default text data in order to allow the user to customize either or both of the default text data and the image data. As explained in the previous paragraph, the separate input device 200 or the personal care device 100 can be configured to convert text data into image data such that the text data is stored as image data. The display 121 may have a certain size. For example, the display may include a matrix of 96×64 pixels, the image data may have a size of 64×64 pixels, and may always be visualized in the upper 64 pixel rows, while the text data may be stored as 64×32 image data and then may always be visualized in the lower 32 pixel rows. This example, as well as the pixel resolution of the display 121 referred to herein, should not be understood as limiting. Other display resolutions and other visualization concepts, specifically, the visualization concepts may be used without being fixed.

[0024] The first wireless communication unit 130 is configured to transfer wireless data in one direction (receiving) and, preferably, in both directions (transmitting and receiving).

[0025] A separate input device 200 includes, in this specification, a memory unit 210, a display unit 220, a second wireless communication unit 230, a processor 240, and an optional camera 250. The optional memory unit 210 may have a database 211 of selectable text data and / or image data. The display unit 220 includes a display 221, and the display 221 can be used to visualize text data and / or image data such that a user can select the text data and / or image data shown in place of the default text data and / or image data used in the personal care device 100. In the illustrated embodiment, the text data “Martin's Toothbrushing” is visualized as the text data selected by the user at a portion 2212 of the display 221. As described in the previous paragraph, the separate input device 200 may include an interface that enables a user to interact with the separate input device 200 (e.g., with the processor 240) to provide or select text data or image data. In the illustrated embodiment, a portion 2211 of the touch sensor type display 221 of this specification implements a touch sensor type keyboard to provide the interface. Thereby, a user may provide text data, for example, by typing “Martin's Toothbrushing”, and then the text data may be visualized at the display portion 2212. The processor 240 may use a predefined or selectable font style and may convert the provided text data into image data having a data format required by the personal care device 100. The interface may be configured to enable a user to set various parameters such as text color, background color, font size, etc. For the above embodiment, the provided text data may be converted, for example, into an image of 64×32 pixels with a 4-bit color depth. In FIG. 1, another portion 2213 of the display 221 is shown visualizing the default text data to be replaced.To visualize this default text data, the user may be required to input associated data to identify the default text data to be replaced. For example, in the case of five available default text data on a personal care device, the user may indicate that the first of these five default text data files should be replaced.

[0026] Since image data cannot be simply provided by the user like text data, the database 211 may include a plurality of image data that the user can select, or the user may use a camera, for example, the camera 250 of a separate input device 200, or a separate camera that can be connected to the separate input device 200 to provide image data. The processor 240 may be configured to convert the provided image data into the format required by the personal care device 100. For example, to again refer to the above embodiment, the provided image data may be converted into a 64×64 image with a color depth of 12 bits, for example. Instead of using the internal database 211 (optional), the separate input device 200 and particularly the second wireless communication unit 230 may be configured to connect to a separate, i.e., remote, device 300 that includes a database 301 having a plurality of image data and / or text data that the user can select. The separate, i.e., remote, device 300 may be a device that is part of the user's home environment (such as a router or computer or RAID storage, etc.), or it may be a remote computer / server or cloud computer / server.

[0027] Once provided or selected, each text data or image data can be stored in the memory unit 210 of the separate input device 200 as downloadable text data or image data, optionally along with associated data that identifies the default text data or image data to be replaced.

[0028] In some embodiments, the control unit 140 of the personal care device 100 periodically or aperiodically checks with a separate input device 200 whether the provided or selected text data or image data is available for download. For example, the personal care device 100 may check for downloadable text data or image data each time communication is established between the personal care device 100 and a separate input device 200. Additionally or alternatively, the separate input device 200 may send download availability information, such as a flag F A to the personal care device 100. The control unit 140 may send a download ready flag F R via the first wireless communication unit 130 to indicate that it is waiting for the transmission of downloadable text data and / or image data. The personal care device 100 may pre-check that it has an undamaged dedicated memory area for storing the received text data or image data. As described, the size of the provided or selected text data or image data may be predetermined based on a preset resolution and color depth. When the separate input device 200 receives the download ready flag F R via the second wireless communication unit 230, it will start transmitting the provided or selected text data or image data, which may occur in any known manner by applying a standardized communication protocol or a proprietary communication protocol, such as the Bluetooth protocol. Next, the text data T, the image data P, and potentially associated data A are transmitted to the personal care device 100, and at the personal care device 100, the respective text data or image data and potentially associated data are received. The control unit 140 may be configured to store the received text data or image data within a dedicated memory segment 1130 of the memory 1100.

[0029] Figure 2 illustrates a diagram 400 showing steps of a method for operating a personal care system according to the present disclosure. An exemplary method for operating a personal care system includes - step 401 of providing a personal care device having a memory unit and a display unit for visualizing user communication - step 402 of storing in the memory of the personal care device, preferably within a protected memory segment of the memory, at least one of default image data and text data visualized on a display of the display unit of the personal care device - step 403 of providing, on a separate input device, an interface that enables a user to provide or select image data or text data for replacing the default image data or text data - step 404 of optionally requesting, via the interface, an input of associated data to assign the provided or selected text data or image data to one of a plurality of default text data or image data - step 405 of optionally providing a database including a plurality of image data or text data and coupling the database to the interface - step 406 of wirelessly transmitting the provided or selected image data or text data from the separate input device to the personal care device - step 407 of optionally transmitting download ready information from the personal care device to the separate input device and / or, prior to the step of transmitting the provided or selected image data or text data, inspecting, by the personal care device using the separate input device, whether the provided or selected image data or text data is transmittable and / or transmitting download availability information from the separate input device to the personal care device to indicate the availability of the provided or selected text data or image data for download - Receiving the transmitted image data or text data by a personal care device and storing it in the memory of the memory unit of the personal care device, preferably storing it in a dedicated memory segment of the memory - step 408, - Optionally, performing a consistency check on the received and stored image data or text data, and if the consistency check fails a preset number of times, marking each image data or text data as damaged - step 409, - Visualizing the received image data or text data on a display for user communication instead of their respective default image data or text data - step 410, and comprising.

[0030] The above method also optionally - Performing a consistency check on the received text data or image data, and if the consistency check fails a preset number of times, marking the received text data or image data as damaged, thereby prohibiting the use of the received text data or image data and returning to the visualization of the default text data or image data, - Receiving new text data or image data to replace the previously received text data or image data, storing the newly received new text data or image data in a dedicated memory segment, performing a consistency check on the received new text data or image data, and if the consistency check fails a preset number of times, incrementally increasing a parameter indicating the memory area damage level, and marking the received new text data or image as damaged, - If a parameter indicating the memory area damage level is increased a preset number of times, marking the block or page of the dedicated memory segment in which the received text data or image data is stored as damaged, - prohibiting the download of any further text data or image data from a separate input device when all blocks or pages of the dedicated memory segment are marked as damaged, and one or more of the steps may be included.

[0031] The dimensions and values disclosed in this specification should not be understood as being strictly limited to the exact numerical values recited. Instead, unless otherwise indicated, each such dimension is intended to mean both the recited value and a functionally equivalent range surrounding that value. For example, a dimension disclosed as "40 mm" is intended to mean "about 40 mm".

Claims

1. A personal care system comprising: a personal care device having a memory unit, a display unit, and a first wireless communication unit; and a separate input device comprising a second wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with the first wireless communication unit of the personal care device, the separate input device being configured to enable a user to provide text data or image data or to select text data or image data from a database; the separate input device being configured to wirelessly transmit the provided or selected text data or image data to the personal care device, the personal care device being configured to receive the wirelessly transmitted text data or image data, store the received text data or image data in a memory of the memory unit, and use the received text data or image data on the display unit in place of previously stored default text data or image data; the memory unit having a dedicated memory segment for storing the received text data or image data, preferably, the memory unit being part of an embedded system; the personal care device having a control unit configured to perform a consistency check on the received text data or image data; the control unit being configured to mark the stored received text data or image data as damaged if the consistency check fails a preset number of times and to use associated default text data or image data in place of the received text data or image data on the display unit. A personal care system.

2. The separate input device is configured to request an input of associated data to assign the provided or selected text data or image data to one of a plurality of default text data or image data previously stored in the memory of the personal care device, and the default text data or image data is replaced by the provided or selected text data or image data. The personal care system according to claim 1.

3. The separate input device is configured to convert the provided or selected text data into image data having a data format required by the personal care device. The personal care system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The interface unit provided on the separate input device is configured to be wired-connected or wirelessly connected to a separate, i.e., remote, device having the database. The personal care system according to claim 1.

5. The separate input device includes a camera for creating image data. Preferably, the separate input device is a mobile phone, a smartphone, or a tablet computer. The personal care system according to claim 1.

6. The personal care device includes a control unit configured to check whether provided or selected text data or image data is available for download from the separate input device and to provide download ready information, such as a flag, to the separate input device. The separate input device is configured to start transmitting the provided or selected text data or image data to the personal care device when the download ready information is received. The personal care system according to claim 1.

7. The dedicated memory segment for storing the received text data or image data is implemented as a serial flash memory. The personal care system according to claim 1.

8. When the control unit fails a pre-set number of times in the integrity check of the received text data or image data stored in a portion such as a block or page of the dedicated memory segment, preferably, the received text data or image data is replaced by newly received text data or image data a pre-set number of times, and when the integrity check always fails, the control unit is configured to mark a portion such as the block or page of the dedicated memory segment as damaged. The personal care system according to claim 1.

9. When all portions of the dedicated memory segment are marked as damaged, the control unit is configured to mark the dedicated memory segment as damaged. Then, the control unit is configured to prohibit further downloading of text data or image data from the personal care device and to always access the default text data or image data. The personal care system according to claim 8.

10. A method for operating a personal care system having a memory unit and a display unit, comprising: storing default text data or image data in the memory of the memory unit; providing or selecting, in a separate input device having an interface for providing or selecting text data or image data for replacing the default text data or image data, text data or image data for replacing the default text data or image data; wirelessly transmitting the provided or selected text data or image data from the separate input device to the personal care device; receiving the provided or selected text data or image data by the personal care device; storing the received text data or image data in the memory of the memory unit, preferably, within a dedicated memory segment. visualizing the received text data or image data on the display of the display unit instead of the default text data or default image data; The memory unit has a dedicated memory segment for storing the received text data or image data. Preferably, the memory unit is part of an embedded system. The personal care device has a control unit, and the control unit is configured to perform a consistency check on the received text data or image data. When the consistency check fails a preset number of times, the control unit marks the stored received text data or image data as damaged and is configured to use associated default text data or image data instead of the received text data or image data on the display unit. **Claim 11** The method according to claim 10, further comprising requesting an input of associated data via the interface to assign the provided or selected text data or image data to one of a plurality of previously stored default text data or default image data in the memory of the memory unit. **Claim 12** The method according to claim 10 or 11, further comprising storing the received text data or image data in a serial flash memory that implements the memory of the memory unit.

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