EP1690271B1 - Electric device with a user guide - Google Patents

Abstract

An electric device comprising a plurality of operating elements which can be operated by a user. Said device is associated with a status display device, and it also comprises a control logic unit which is coupled to the operating elements in order to detect user operations and which is adjusted. Furthermore, the electric device has an operational state which corresponds to the user operations which are to be adjusted. In a first state, the control logic unit displaces the status display of each operational element, from which it is able to process a user operation, according to an adjusted operational state, and in a second state, said unit displaces the status display of each operational element, whereby it is not possible to process a user operation, according to an adjusted operational state.

Description

The present invention relates to an electric appliance having a plurality of user-operable controls, each associated with a status indicator, and having control logic coupled to detect user operations to the controls and configured to adjust an operating condition of the refrigerator in accordance with user operations ,

Complex, versatile control logic based on microprocessors or microcontrollers allows for the provision of a variety of functions to electronic devices aimed at enhancing the ease of use of the device, but whose diversity is perceived by many users as more confusing than handling become.

Assigning each function to its own key quickly results in a confusing variety of keys on the device, requiring a user to first activate the key in order to activate a desired function. This is not very comfortable and the large number of buttons is also expensive.

The alternative is to allow the selection of a desired function by successively pressing several keys. Although this reduces the number of keys required, this too can be confusing for a user, as not every combination of key presses can give a meaningful result and there can be intermediate states involving the control logic to set a function , expecting certain keys to be pressed and possibly ignoring other key presses.

It is also common to use in electrical appliances controls with an associated status indicator. In the simplest case, it may be z. B. be a power switch with built-in lamp, which is turned on when the device is in operation is off, and that is off when it is out of service or vice versa. While such a status indicator facilitates a user's awareness of an operating condition set on an electrical appliance, it does not in any way simplify the setting of a desired operating condition.

The font IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 5, October 1992 , as the closest prior art, describes a design for dynamically illuminating keys of a computer keyboard using light emitting diodes. The keys can be controlled in such a way that those keys are illuminated with which a control of a program can be effected.

The patent US 4,447,692 describes a control system for a domestic appliance. This home appliance has buttons with a display in the background. The display may show different icons for each button.

Object of the present invention is to provide an electrical appliance with a uniform surface, although controls are integrated into the surface.

The object is achieved by an electrical appliance with the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.

While usually at a control with status indicator the status indicator is used to indicate the "actuated" or "not actuated" status of the control, the present invention utilizes such a status indicator to display to a user, under the control of the control logic, the status "operable" or "non-actuatable" of the control that is, to indicate whether or not the electrical appliance is in a state in which it can or do not respond to the operation of a particular control element. Thus, a user may be limited to the actually operable in the selection of an operating element to be operated and so effortlessly bring to an end a setting process that requires the successive operation of multiple controls.

The status display device is preferably an illumination of the associated operating element.

It is also expedient that the operating elements are arranged behind a closed surface of the housing of the electrical appliance. On the one hand, this makes the electrical device easy to clean, without the risk of affecting the operating elements. On the other hand, the closed surface makes it possible to optically withdraw an operating element in the second state vis-à-vis a control element in the first state, or even to render it virtually invisible. For this purpose, of course, with a luminous status display device, the illuminated state should expediently be the first state of each status display device.

A non-illuminated control should, to be inconspicuous, have the color of the surrounding surface of the housing.

In order to save energy in the case of a luminous status indicator, the control logic is further suitably arranged to switch with a predetermined delay after detection of the last actuation of a control all illuminated status indicators in the non-illuminated state.

This switching should be reversed appropriately when the operation of any control element is detected.

In particular, capacitive proximity sensors which are able to detect when a person touches a respective area of the surface of the housing assigned to a control element come into consideration as control elements.

If the electrical appliance has an interior closable with a door, in particular, if the opening and closing of the door for the intended use of the device belongs, such as in an oven, a dishwasher, a washing machine, a tumble dryer, a freezer or refrigerator, so it makes sense that the above-mentioned switching in the not lighted state is reversed when the opening of the door is detected. Thus, a user who opens the door always gets the operable controls displayed.

The electrical device can also be equipped with an acoustic signal generator, which provides an acoustic signal when handling of the operating element has been detected. This is particularly useful for actuators that are little or no move during operation, such as the aforementioned capacitive proximity sensors, and in which a user can thus not immediately detect whether a handling of the operating element has been perceived by the device.

Preferably, the controls are combined together with an alphanumeric display in an assembly. This display can display the operation of the device supportive, possibly as well as the state of the individual status display devices adapted to a current operating state of the device information and / or measured values of operating parameters of the electrical appliance. Any illumination of the alphanumeric display, like the status indicators of the controls, may be turned on and off in response to sensed handling of a control or, if applicable, movement of the door.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of an embodiment with reference to the accompanying figures. Show it:

Fig. 1 a perspective view of a detail of a refrigerator according to the invention; and

Fig. 2 a section of a control panel of the refrigerator Fig. 1 ,

Fig. 1 shows a section of the housing of a refrigerator in table construction, which is considered here as an example of an inventive electrical appliance. The housing of the refrigerator is essentially composed of a body 1, a hinged to the body 1 door 2, which encloses a heat-insulated interior together with the body 1, and a cover plate 3, which closes the housing upwards. The cover plate 3 is hollow in the interior and the cavity is closed by a control panel 4 ago. The control panel 4 is an elongated, flat strip of transparent plastic, the back on a Most of their surface is coated with a dark color opaque.

Fig. 2 shows a section of the control panel 4. Behind a large-scale window 5, in which the dark ink layer is recessed, is an LCD display and behind the LCD display, approximately parallel to the control panel 4, a screen disposed. At one edge of the screen, hidden by the dark color of the control panel and therefore shown in the figure as a dashed outline, light sources 6 for illuminating the screen and visualizing the LCD display are arranged.

On both sides of the window 5 more controls or buttons 7 are arranged on the control panel 4. The keys 7 are each bounded by a frame-shaped recess 8 in the dark colored layer, with which the control panel 4 is deposited. A label 9, which designates the function of the keys 7, is formed in a corresponding manner by omitting the letters in the dark color layer. Each key 7 has a mounted on the back of the control panel 4, hidden by the ink layer capacitive proximity sensor 10, shown in the figure as a dashed outline, which serves to detect a touch of the corresponding key 7 by a user.

The luminescent screen extends to the rear of the keys 7, and adjacent to them, hidden by the color layer from the immediate view, light sources 6 are arranged to illuminate the luminescent screen behind the keys 7, thus illuminating their respective frames 8 and lettering 9.

The proximity sensors 10 are connected to a (not shown) behind the control panel 4 hidden control logic that controls the operation of the refrigerator and the LCD display and the light sources 6.

To the control logic, a door opening switch is also connected, with the help of the control logic in a conventional manner, an interior lighting of the refrigerator according to the state, open or closed, the door 2 controls.

An alarm signal generator 11 is integrated in a row with the keys 7 in the control panel 4. Like the keys 7, it has a frame 8 and a label 9, which are recessed in the ink layer, and a light source 6 'whose color, preferably red, is different from that of the light sources 6.

In a combination refrigerator with a normal refrigeration compartment and a freezer compartment, it can, for example, to each compartment an on-off button 7 ₁ , 7 ₂ for switching on and off the cooling of the subject compartment, a button 7 ₃ , 7 ₄ for activating a High performance cooling mode, one increment key 7 ₅ , 7 ₆ and one Decrement key 7 ₇ , 7 ₈ . Furthermore, a menu button 7 ₉ and an OK button 7 _{10 is} provided.

In a rest state, all light sources 6, 6 'are turned off. The luminescent screen is dark, and the recessed areas 8, 9 of the cover layer do not differ appreciably from the dark color layer itself in their hue visible to a user and their brightness. The buttons 7 are hardly recognizable to a user in this state.

When the door opening switch registers door opening or any one of the proximity sensors 10 detects a touch, the control logic goes from sleep to a standby state by turning on the light sources 6 on the window 5 so that the LCD display becomes readable indicates the temperatures measured by the refrigerators. In addition, the control logic turns on the light sources 6 of all the buttons except the OK button 7. If the increment or decrement button of the standard or freezer compartment is touched, the control logic responds by displaying a line of "Set freezer compartment temperature" or "Set refrigerator compartment temperature" and an ordered list of adjustable temperature values, under which the currently set is highlighted, in the LCD. Display, and also the OK button 7 ₁₀ is illuminated. Upon each further touch of the increment or decrement keys associated with the selected refrigeration compartment, the control logic responds by incrementing or decrementing the desired temperature for that compartment by one step and indicating the value now selected on the LCD display. By touching the OK button 7 ₁₀ , the user can terminate the setting process, the control logic accepts the highlighted value as the new temperature set point for the subject compartment and returns to the previous standby state.

When the user touches one of the on-off buttons 7 ₁ , 7 ₂ or the quick-cooling mode buttons 7 ₃ , 7 ₄ , the command concerned is immediately processed by the control logic, and the state, illuminated or unlit, of the individual buttons does not change.

If the user touches the menu key 7 ₉ , the control logic displays a designation of a first menu item on the LCD display, switches the illumination of the increment and decrement keys 7 ₅ , 7 ₇ or 7 ₆ , 7 ₈ as well as the OK Button 7 _{10 on} and all other buttons off. By touching the increment or decrement buttons, the user can scroll back and forth in a list of menu items and the name of a selected menu item in the LCD display show.

A menu item are, for example, storage instructions. When this menu item is selected, the LCD will initially display a list of the letters of the alphabet, and the user will be given the option to select a letter using the Increment and Decrement buttons and confirm with the OK button 7 ₁₀ . The control logic then displays a name of a foodstuff starting with the selected letter and information on its recommended storage period in the freezer compartment on the LCD display; other foods beginning with the same letter can again be selected using the increment and decrement keys. Press menu button 7 ₉ again to leave the menu item "Storing notes", and the selection state is restored, in which the user can select another menu item.

Another menu item can be the display of the room temperature, if the refrigerator is equipped with a sensor for this purpose. The detected temperature value is displayed simultaneously with the name of the menu item; the increment and decrement buttons for scrolling through the list of menu items and the menu button 7 ₉ for ending the menu selection mode are illuminated.

A third possible menu item is the setting of the brightness of the light sources 6. If this menu item is selected by touching the OK key, increment and decrement keys 7 ₅ , 7 ₆ or 7 ₆ , 7 ₈ for varying the brightness of the light sources 6, the OK button 7 ₁₀ illuminated to end the brightness adjustment mode, taking over a possible change and the menu button 7 ₉ to terminate the setting mode, and rejecting a possible change illuminated and operable.

A fourth menu item for adjusting the volume of an alarm tone, with which the refrigeration appliance draws attention to a fault state in support of the optical display by the signal generator 11, functions in an analogous manner.

A fifth possible menu item is the display of a service number; as in the case of room temperature, this telephone number appears immediately together with the name of the menu item in the display, and only increment and decrement keys for scrolling in the menu and the menu key 7 ₉ for ending the menu selection mode are illuminated and operable.

A sixth menu option is the language of the text messages appearing in the ad. If this menu item is confirmed by touching the OK key 7, the user can use the increment and decrement keys display the supported languages one after the other and select one of them by touching the OK button 7 ₁₀ or exit the selection mode without making a change by touching the Menu button 7 ₉ .

Each touch of a button 7 or opening the door 2 sets an internal timer of the control logic in motion, which turns off after a predetermined period of time, all the light sources 6 and puts the control logic in its idle state. If a new door opening or key touch is registered before the expiry of the time period specified by the timer, the timer is reset, so that the predetermined period of time each time begins again from this last detection time point.

Claims (9)

1. Electric appliance comprising a plurality of user-actuable control elements (7₁ - 7₁₀), with each of which a respective status indicating device (6) is associated, and a control logic which for detection of user actuations is coupled to the control elements (7₁ - 7₁₀) and is equipped for setting an operational state of the electric appliance, which requires successive actuation of several control elements, in correspondence with the user actuations, wherein the control logic is further equipped to transfer, depending on the set operational state, the status indication of each control element (7₁ - 7₁₀), from which the logic is capable of processing a user actuation, to a first state and to transfer the status indication of each control element, from which the logic is incapable of processing a user actuation, to a second state, wherein the status display device is a light source (6) for lighting the associated control element (7₁ - 7₁₀) and the lit state is the first state of each status indicating device, characterised in that the electric appliance is a refrigerating appliance, the control elements are arranged at a closed surface (4) of the housing of the refrigerating appliance and an unlit control element (7₁ - 7₁₀) has the colour of the surface (4), which surrounds it, of the housing.
2. Electric apparatus according to claim 1, characterised in that the control logic is further equipped to switch over all lit status indications (6) to the unlit state with a predetermined delay after detection of the last actuation of a control element (7).
3. Electric appliance according to claim 2, characterised in that the control logic is equipped to make the switching-over reversible when the actuation of any control element (7) is detected.
4. Electric appliance according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the control elements (7) comprise capacitive proximity sensors (10).
5. Electric appliance according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it has an interior space closable by a door (2).
6. Electric appliance according to claim 3 or 4 and claim 5, characterised in that the control logic is equipped to make the switching-over reversible when opening of a door (2) of the housing (1) of the electric appliance is detected.
7. Electric appliance according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised by an acoustic signal transmitter which supplies an acoustic signal when actuation of a control element (7) has been detected.
8. Electric appliance according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the control elements (7) are combined with an alphanumeric display to form a subassembly.
9. Electric appliance according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it is a refrigerating appliance.

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