AI Water Purifier with Camera and Distance Sensor for Overflow Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing water purifiers face issues with accurately dispensing water at the correct temperature and amount, often resulting in user inconvenience due to incorrect container size recognition and habitual mistakes in selecting water types, leading to overflow or incorrect water usage.
Innovation Solution
A water purifier equipped with a camera and distance sensor that generates real-time image and distance information to recognize containers and contents, allowing for bidirectional communication to adjust water discharge based on the container's capacity and content, ensuring accurate temperature and amount dispensing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the water purifier uses default settings for water type and amount, then the operation is simple and convenient, but the user may receive incorrect water type or amount due to habitual mistakes
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides visual feedback by displaying icons representing different water types (hot, warm, cold) and their corresponding container recommendations. This feedback mechanism helps users verify their selection and understand the relationship between water type and container size, reducing habitual mistakes while maintaining ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically calculating the appropriate water amount based on the selected water type and detected container size before the user completes the operation. This preliminary calculation ensures that even if the user makes a habitual mistake, the system has already prepared the correct parameters for dispensing.
2Device complexity
If the water purifier uses fixed amount settings, then the control is simple, but the water amount may not match the container capacity leading to overflow or repeated operations
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the water dispensing amount based on real-time detection of container size and shape. Instead of using fixed amount settings, the system continuously adapts the dispensing parameters to match the detected container capacity, preventing overflow and eliminating the need for repeated operations while maintaining simple user interaction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual adjustment mechanisms with automated optical detection and calculation. The camera and processing unit substitute for mechanical dials or buttons that users would manually adjust, automatically determining the correct water amount based on container detection, thereby improving precision without significantly increasing user-facing complexity.
3Productivity
If the water purifier uses maximum water amount setting, then the container can be filled quickly, but the water may overflow if the timing to stop is missed
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses real-time feedback from the camera to monitor the water level in the container during dispensing. When the water level approaches the container's calculated capacity, the system automatically stops dispensing, preventing overflow. This feedback mechanism allows the system to maintain high dispensing speed while eliminating overflow risk through automated level monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary calculation of the container's maximum capacity before dispensing begins. By knowing the exact capacity in advance, the system can pre-calculate the stopping point and control the dispensing process to stop just before overflow occurs, thereby preventing the harmful effect while maintaining efficient filling speed.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the water purifier uses manual container capacity measurement, then the system can adapt to different containers, but the measurement may have errors leading to incorrect water amount
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces visual markers as an intermediary element between the container and the measurement system. Users place markers at known volume levels on the container, and the camera detects these markers to calculate capacity. This intermediary approach allows the system to adapt to various container shapes and sizes while improving measurement precision by using standardized reference points.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from one-dimensional linear measurement to two-dimensional area measurement by detecting the container's opening area and using it to calculate capacity. This dimensional change allows for more accurate measurements across different container shapes, as the area-based calculation method is more robust to variations in container geometry than linear dimension measurement.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are a water purifier and a control method thereof for controlling a main body by executing an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm or a machine learning algorithm in a 5G environment established for the Internet of things. The control method of the water purifier according to the present disclosure includes a photographing step, a scanning step, a recognizing step, a calculating step, a determining step, and a water discharging step. When the water discharging step is initiated, the distance sensor generates real-time height information on the water surface, and may stop discharging water before a real-time height exceeds the highest point height.