Patent ID: 7836719

Claim:
An appliance comprising: an ice maker configured to make ice; an ice storage bin configured to store ice made by the ice maker; a dispenser including an ice dispensing chute; an ice processing device configured to process ice in at least two shapes, the ice processing device including an outlet configured allow ice processed by the ice processing device to enter the ice dispensing chute; a user input device configured to receive a selection of a shape of ice the user desires to dispense, the desired shape of ice corresponding to one of the at least two shapes; and a controller configured to control the ice processing device to process ice in the desired shape of ice to allow dispensing of the desired shape of ice by the dispenser, wherein the ice processing device includes a rotary blade that has a rotary shaft arranged to be perpendicular to a direction in which ice cubes enter an area occupied by the ice processing device, wherein the ice processing device includes a fixed blade that has a blade unit that is configured to cut ice cubes and that is arranged to face ice cubes dropping into the area occupied by the ice processing device such that at least some ice cubes dropping into the area occupied by the ice processing device fall into the blade unit of the fixed blade based on the force of gravity unless guided by the rotary blade to bypass the fixed blade, wherein the controller is configured to control the ice processing device to rotate the rotary blade in a first direction at a first speed to process ice in the first shape, and wherein the controller is configured to control the ice processing device to rotate the rotary blade in a second direction at a second speed to process ice in the second shape that is different than the first shape, the second direction being opposite the first direction and the second speed being faster than the first speed.