Method for detecting outlier garments and preventing color contamination issues in a washing machine appliance

Abstract

A washing machine appliance includes a wash tub positioned within a cabinet, a wash basket rotatably mounted within the wash tub and defining a wash chamber configured for receiving a load of clothes, and a camera assembly positioned in view of the load of clothes. A controller is configured to obtain one or more images of the load of clothes to be washed during a wash cycle, analyze the one or more images using an image recognition process to identify an outlier garment in the load of clothes, determine that the outlier garment is not on a safelist, and implement a responsive action in response to identifying the outlier garment that is not on the safelist.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A washing machine appliance comprising:
 a wash tub positioned within a cabinet;   a wash basket rotatably mounted within the wash tub and defining a wash chamber configured for receiving a load of clothes;   a camera assembly positioned in view of the load of clothes; and   a controller operably coupled to the camera assembly, the controller being configured to:
 obtain one or more images of the load of clothes to be washed during a wash cycle; 
 analyze the one or more images using an image recognition process to identify an outlier garment in the load of clothes; 
 determine that the outlier garment is not on a safelist; and 
 implement a responsive action in response to identifying the outlier garment that is not on the safelist. 
   
     
     
         2 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 determine that a user has begun loading the load of clothes into the wash chamber, wherein the one or more images are obtained while the load of clothes is being loaded.   
     
     
         3 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a door rotatably mounted to the cabinet to provide selective access to the wash chamber, wherein the camera assembly is mounted to the door, and wherein the one or more images are obtained within the wash chamber when the door is in a closed position.   
     
     
         4 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 3 , wherein obtaining the one or more images comprises:
 obtaining a first image of the load of clothes using the camera assembly;   operating a motor assembly to rotate the wash basket and tumble the load of clothes; and   obtaining a second image of the load of clothes using the camera assembly.   
     
     
         5 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a door rotatably mounted to the cabinet to provide selective access to the wash chamber, wherein the camera assembly is mounted to the door, and wherein the one or more images are obtained outside the wash chamber when the door is in an open position.   
     
     
         6 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein analyzing the one or more images using the image recognition process to identify the outlier garment in the load of clothes comprises:
 identifying a light garment in a dark load or identifying a dark garment in a light load.   
     
     
         7 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein analyzing the one or more images using the image recognition process to identify the outlier garment in the load of clothes comprises:
 identifying a primary load color of the load of clothes and an outlier garment color of the outlier garment; and   determining that a difference between the primary load color and the outlier garment color exceeds a predetermined threshold.   
     
     
         8 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the image recognition process is a machine learning image recognition process comprising at least one of a convolution neural network (“CNN”), a region-based convolution neural network (“R-CNN”), a deep belief network (“DBN”), a deep neural network (“DNN”), or a vision transformer (“ViT”) image recognition process. 
     
     
         9 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 transmit data indicative of the outlier garment for storage in the safelist on a remote server; and   receive an algorithm update for implementing the image recognition process during a subsequent wash cycle.   
     
     
         10 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein determining that the outlier garment is not on the safelist comprises:
 transmitting data indicative of the outlier garment to a remote server, wherein the safelist is stored on the remote server; and   receiving a determination from the remote server that the outlier garment is not on the safelist.   
     
     
         11 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein implementing the responsive action comprises:
 providing a user notification of the identification of the outlier garment that is not on the safelist.   
     
     
         12 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 determine that the outlier garment is on the safelist; and   perform the wash cycle in response to determining that the outlier garment is on the safelist.   
     
     
         13 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 a water supply for providing a flow of wash fluid into the wash tub, wherein performing the wash cycle in response to determining that the outlier garment is on the safelist comprises operating the water supply to lower a temperature of the flow of wash fluid during performance of the wash cycle.   
     
     
         14 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 determine a confidence level associated with the identification of the outlier garment;   determine that the confidence level falls below a predetermined confidence threshold; and   seek a user confirmation regarding the identification of the outlier garment.   
     
     
         15 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 14 , wherein the user confirmation is received through a microphone or a remote device. 
     
     
         16 . The washing machine appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 receive a command to enter the outlier garment into the safelist;   prompt a user to position the outlier garment in view of the camera assembly in one or more orientations;   obtain item identification images of the outlier garment; and   transmit the item identification images of the outlier garment to a remote server to be added to the safelist.   
     
     
         17 . A method of operating a washing machine appliance, the washing machine appliance comprising a wash basket rotatably mounted within a wash tub and defining a wash chamber configured for receiving a load of clothes, and a camera assembly positioned in view of the load of clothes, the method comprising:
 obtaining one or more images of the load of clothes to be washed during a wash cycle;   analyzing the one or more images using an image recognition process to identify an outlier garment in the load of clothes;   determining that the outlier garment is not on a safelist; and   implementing a responsive action in response to identifying the outlier garment that is not on the safelist.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein analyzing the one or more images using the image recognition process to identify the outlier garment in the load of clothes comprises:
 identifying a light garment in a dark load or identifying a dark garment in a light load.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 transmitting data indicative of the outlier garment for storage in the safelist on a remote server; and   receiving an algorithm update for implementing the image recognition process during a subsequent wash cycle.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 determining that the outlier garment is on the safelist; and   performing the wash cycle in response to determining that the outlier garment is on the safelist.