Smart Laundry Machine Remote Activation for Server-Based Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional laundry machines and home appliances face challenges in implementing additional user interfaces due to spatial limitations, leading to increased costs and difficulty in extending functions without modifying hardware, and they lack remote control capabilities, making it hard for users to manage operations from outside the laundry room.
Innovation Solution
A smart laundry machine that communicates with a server via a Wi-Fi communication module, allowing remote control through an external terminal, with a control panel featuring a remote service activation input unit to set or cancel remote service activation, enabling users to control the machine without direct access and preventing confusion between direct manipulation and remote control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If additional user interfaces are added to extend laundry machine functions, then functionality and versatility are improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary between the laundry machine and the user's external terminal (smartphone, tablet, or PC). The server handles complex communication protocols, data processing, and control signal transmission, allowing the laundry machine to maintain a simple local interface while providing sophisticated remote control capabilities through the server infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extends the user interface from the physical dimension (control panel at the machine location) to the remote digital dimension (external terminal accessed via network). This allows users to control the laundry machine from any location with network connectivity, effectively adding a spatial dimension to the interface without increasing the physical complexity of the machine itself.
2Ease of operation
If remote control capability is added, then ease of operation from outside laundry room is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The server acts as a mediator that handles all complex remote communication tasks, including establishing network connections, transmitting control commands, and receiving status updates. The laundry machine only needs simple local interface components (control panel, display, communication module), while the server manages the sophisticated remote interaction protocols.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically manages remote control operations through the server, which handles authentication, connection establishment, and data transmission without requiring the laundry machine to have complex built-in remote communication capabilities. The external terminal and server work together to provide self-service remote control functionality.
3Ease of operation
If remote service activation is implemented, then user control and monitoring capability is improved, but confusion between direct manipulation and remote control may increase
Solution Approach 1:
The server implements feedback mechanisms that provide real-time status information about the laundry machine's operation state to the external terminal. This allows users to see what actions are being executed (whether from direct or remote control) and receive notifications about operation progress, preventing confusion by making the system state transparent to the user.
Solution Approach 2:
The system requires users to activate remote service control in advance through a deliberate action on the control panel. This preliminary activation step creates a clear mental model for users that remote control mode is enabled, helping them understand that subsequent control actions may originate from remote sources rather than direct manipulation.
4Adaptability or versatility
If communication module and server connection are added, then remote control functionality is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server infrastructure provides sophisticated communication capabilities that would be expensive to implement directly in each laundry machine. By moving the complex communication processing to the server, the patent reduces the communication hardware requirements in the machine to a relatively simple module, significantly lowering manufacturing costs while maintaining advanced remote control functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The server provides a universal communication platform that can serve multiple laundry machines simultaneously. This multi-functionality amortizes the cost of sophisticated communication capabilities across many devices, making the remote control feature more cost-effective than implementing full communication stacks in each individual machine.
Data Source
AI summary
An online system, including a smart laundry machine, which is capable of easily and inexpensively using the smart laundry machine is disclosed. A further extended type of a smart home appliance, an online system including the same, and a method of using the online system are also disclosed. A laundry machine communicates with a server, is remotely controlled by an external terminal through the server, and has a control panel for a user interface. The control panel includes a course selection unit, an option selection unit, a start button, a display unit to display state information of the laundry machine, and a remote service activation input unit to set or cancel remote service activation according to user selection. The remote control is performed only in a case in which the remote service activation is set.