A HOME APPLIANCE WITH AN INFRARED-LIGHT BASED IMAGING UNIT.

Abstract

The present invention presents a household appliance (100) comprising a cabinet (110) defining a storage compartment and a door (10) connected to the cabinet (110) which can move between a closed position to allow at least partial closure of the storage compartment and an open position to allow access to the storage compartment. The household appliance (100) additionally includes: a display unit housing (22); multiple infrared transmitters (23) mounted on the display unit housing (22) for the projection of infrared beams out of the display unit housing (22) across a detection zone (21); multiple infrared receivers (24) mounted on the display unit housing (22) for the detection of reflections of infrared light projected by the infrared transmitters (23) by a reflective object (26) in the detection zone (21);A number of primary lenses mounted and oriented in the image unit housing (22) according to infrared transmitters (23) and infrared receivers (24); a processor that communicates with infrared receivers (24) and infrared transmitters (23) and is configured to track the position of the object (26) in multiple detection areas in the detection region (21) and to generate the tracked data of the reflecting object (26); a communication module (14) that is configured to transmit the tracked data of the reflecting object (26) wirelessly to a remote device.

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