A laundry appliance includes a camera for determining whether the drum is rotating during operation of the appliance. A controller is operably coupled to the camera. The controller is configured for obtaining one or more images of the drum during operation of the appliance. An artificial intelligence image recognition process is used to perform image classification and determine whether a drum rotation fault has occurred. In the event of a drum rotation fault, operation of the laundry appliance is adjusted.

A laundry appliance includes a camera for determining the air flow through an appliance during operation. A controller is operably coupled to the camera. The controller is configured for obtaining one or more images of an air flow indicator positioned in the path of the air flow. An artificial intelligence image recognition process is used to perform image classification and determine whether air flow through the appliance is fully or partially obstructed based on the amount of deflection of the air flow indicator. In the event of an air flow obstruction, operation of the laundry appliance is adjusted.

A control method of a laundry treating apparatus including a first treating unit, a second treating unit, and a display unit includes displaying selection information on the display unit and receiving selection of at least one of the first or second treating units, based on selection of at least one of the first or second treating units, displaying the operation command performable by the selected treating unit and receiving selection of the operation command, and based on the selected treating unit, performing the operation command and displaying a progressing state of the operation command.

Disclosed herein is an artificial intelligence-based laundry treating apparatus. The artificial intelligence-based laundry treating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention receives big data about information of an external environment capable of affecting laundry and life log data including activity information of a user wearing the laundry and automatically sets an optimal laundry management course for the laundry based on input factors including the big data and the life log data. Further, the artificial intelligence-based laundry treating apparatus may operate based on the optimal laundry management course to clean the laundry.

A washing machine of the present invention may be associated with an artificial intelligence module, a drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV), a robot, an augmented reality (AR) device, a virtual reality (VR) device, a device related to a 5G service, and the like.

A laundry washing machine having an outer casing, a washing tub, a rotatable drum, a detergent dispenser, a fresh-water supply circuit, an internal water softening device filled with a water softening agent capable of reducing the hardness degree of the fresh water directed towards the detergent dispenser or the washing tub, a regeneration-agent reservoir located/recessed inside the outer casing and structured for being manually fillable with consumable salt or other regeneration agent, a first water-supply line for channeling fresh water into said regeneration-agent reservoir so as to form brine, a brine reservoir fluidically connected to said regeneration-agent reservoir for receiving and accumulating the brine arriving from said regeneration-agent reservoir, and a detector assembly for detecting when the salinity degree of the brine stored into brine reservoir exceeds a predetermined minimum salinity value.

A household appliance for treating at least one item according to at least one cycle of operation includes a treating chamber for receiving the at least one item for treatment according to the at least one cycle of operation, a treating chemistry dispenser receiving a unit dose container having an electrically conductive element, a physical alteration element located proximate to the treating chemistry dispenser and operable to physically alter at least a portion of the electrically conductive element and a sensor for sensing the physical alteration.

A laundry washing machine and method adapt the operation of a laundry washing machine for a particular installation environment using a calibration process that may be performed at installation and/or at various times thereafter to determine one or more operational settings used to control the operation of the laundry washing machine. A calibration process, for example, may determine one or more of an ambient light characteristic, a water supply pressure, and an empty wash tub weight to generate one or more operational settings used by a controller of a laundry washing machine.

An apparatus, a system, and a method for detecting water supply based on a vision sensor by performing big data, an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, and/or a machine learning algorithm in a 5G environment connected for the Internet of things is provided. The apparatus for detecting water may be used for a washing machine and includes a vision sensor mounted on a tub or in the vicinity of the tub, directed toward at least one water supply region of interest in the tub, and configured to acquire an image of the water supply region of interest, and a water supply level determiner configured to detect a water supply level through a vision algorithm based on the image information acquired by the vision sensor. The determiner may predict water supply time to the point in time at which the water supply will be completed based on models trained by machine learning.

The present disclosure concerns a method for operating or controlling an operation of a household appliance (100, 300) performed by at least one device (100, 200, 300, 400). The method includes: obtaining external information representative of at least one external given situation outside the household appliance (100, 300); and operating or controlling an operation of the household appliance (100, 300) at least taking into account the external information obtained. In addition, the present disclosure concerns a device and a system for performing such a method.

A washing machine appliance as provided herein, may include a cabinet, a tub, a fluid additive dispenser, and a controller. The tub may be disposed within the cabinet. The fluid additive dispenser may include a housing, a dispenser drawer, a water supply conduit, a conduit water valve, and an optical sensor. The optical sensor may be mounted to a housing and directed at a pod compartment. The controller may be operably coupled to the fluid additive dispenser and may be configured to initiate a washing operation. The washing operation may include receiving an image signal from the optical sensor, determining a pod characteristic within the pod compartment based on the received image signal, and directing water to the pod compartment based on the determined pod characteristic.