Augmented-reality refrigerator and method of controlling thereof
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional refrigerators provide monotonous, unidirectional, and text-oriented information, lacking intuitive and interactive features, limiting user engagement and functionality.
Innovation Solution
A refrigerator equipped with a camera, processor, and display that uses augmented-reality objects and machine learning to provide interactive and bidirectional information, allowing users to receive responses and services based on captured images and inputs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a display is used to provide information in a refrigerator, then information can be presented to users, but the information is monotonous, unidirectional, and text-oriented, lacking intuitiveness and interactivity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional text-based display interfaces with augmented reality objects that overlay virtual information onto captured images of stored food. This substitution transforms static text information into dynamic, visual, and interactive AR elements that users can engage with through the camera and display system, thereby improving information presentation quality while enabling bidirectional interaction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an artificial intelligence model as an intermediary between the camera-captured image and the information presentation. The AI model processes the image to identify food items and generates corresponding augmented reality objects that provide relevant information. This intermediary enables intuitive and interactive communication between the user and the refrigerator system.
2Ease of operation
If a camera and AI model are added to the refrigerator, then augmented-reality objects can be generated for enhanced user interaction, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates multiple functions into a unified system: the camera serves both for monitoring storage room conditions and for capturing food images for AR object generation; the processor handles both refrigerator control and AI model execution; the display presents both standard interface information and augmented reality objects. This multi-functionality approach manages device complexity by making existing components serve multiple purposes.
Solution Approach 2:
The artificial intelligence model operates autonomously to identify food items from captured images and generate appropriate augmented reality objects without requiring manual configuration or complex external processing. The system self-manages the complex tasks of image recognition, AR object creation, and dynamic display updates, thereby handling increased functionality while maintaining manageable system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A refrigerator including a main body including a storage room, a door coupled to the main body and rotatable in front of a side of the storage room, and including a display on a front surface of the door, a camera disposed to capture the storage room, and a processor configured to acquire an augmented-reality object corresponding to a food included in an image captured by the camera using a trained artificial intelligence model, to control the display to display the acquired augmented-reality object and the captured image as being overlapped with each other, and based on a user input being acquired while the acquired augmented-reality object is displayed, to provide a response to the user input based on the acquired augmented-reality object. The refrigerator can utilize an artificial intelligence model trained according to at least one of machine learning, neural network or deep learning algorithm.