Certain consumer appliances include displays that provide users with useful information or enable control of the consumer appliance. For example, on a door of a refrigerator appliance, a display may be attached and operatively coupled with the refrigerator control system to allow the user to adjust operational parameters, such as temperature settings or icemaker settings. In addition, the display may provide the user with useful information related to refrigerator operation or may provide information from the internet, such as news or weather. Such displays are often attached to the consumer appliance and heavily integrated with the control system of the consumer appliance.
However, as displays become obsolete due to advances in technology and products become available that are newer and more desirable to the consumer, conventional displays are often not easily replaceable or updateable. For example, these displays are often fixed to the consumer appliance and require significant disassembly to remove or replace. Even if the display is detachable from the appliance, it is often tightly integrated with the control system of the consumer appliance and is not easily interchangeable with newer models.
Furthermore, these displays are often highly dependent on communication with the appliance controller for operation. More specifically, these displays are often directly connected to the appliance and rely on power supplied from the controller. In addition, even if the displays are battery powered, they typically rely on the controller of the consumer appliance to provide connection to a network, e.g., to connect to a network and display timely content directly from the internet. As a result, conventional displays are of limited benefit to the consumer and quickly become outdated as newer technologies emerge.
Accordingly, a consumer appliance capable of communicating with a detachable and interchangeable tablet would be useful. More particularly, a tablet that may be removably mounted to a consumer appliance and may communicate directly with the appliance or a network would be especially beneficial.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds