Refrigerator Camera Module for Multi-Region Food Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional refrigerators require the door to be opened to check the interior, leading to inefficiencies in food storage management, including redundant purchases and incomplete information about stored food, and suffer from limitations in camera installation efficiency and dew condensation issues.
Innovation Solution
A refrigerator with a camera fixed to the ceiling that captures images of both external and internal food storage regions within a single frame, allowing for intuitive user information and minimizing camera installation while preventing dew condensation, using a controller to separate and display images of different regions effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If multiple cameras are installed to photograph various storage regions, then the photographing coverage is improved, but the device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a rotatable camera module that can dynamically change its photographing angle to capture images of different storage regions including the refrigerating compartment, freezing compartment, and drawer. This dynamic positioning capability allows a single camera to perform the function of multiple fixed cameras, resolving the contradiction between coverage area and device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The single camera system is designed to serve multiple storage regions through rotation and angle adjustment, making it a universal solution that replaces multiple specialized cameras. The camera can photograph various compartments by changing its orientation, achieving multi-functionality with a single device
2Loss of information
If the door is opened to check stored food, then complete information about food is obtained, but energy loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system captures photographs of storage regions in advance when the door is open, storing these images for later retrieval. When users want to check stored food, they can view previously captured images without opening the door, thus obtaining complete food information while avoiding energy loss from unnecessary door openings
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates visual copies (photographs) of the storage regions and makes them available through terminal devices. Users can view these copies to obtain information about stored food without physically opening the door, eliminating the trade-off between information access and energy conservation
3Loss of information
If the camera operates continuously to capture food storage information, then information freshness is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The camera operates periodically based on triggering events such as door opening/closing or drawer opening/closing, rather than continuously. This event-driven periodic operation ensures that storage region images are captured at relevant moments, maintaining information freshness while significantly reducing overall power consumption compared to continuous operation
Data Source
AI summary
A refrigerator includes a storage compartment formed in a cabinet of the refrigerator by a fixed insulation wall, the storage compartment being provided with an access opening. The refrigerator also includes a door rotatably provided to the cabinet to open and close the access opening, a drawer provided in the storage compartment, a camera fixed to a ceiling of the storage compartment to photograph both a first region for storing of food arranged in an external space of the drawer and a second region for storing of food arranged in an internal space of the drawer, and a controller configured to separate, through a capturing time of a picture containing both the first region and the second region, a first region picture and a second region picture from the picture to individually divide and store the first region picture and the second region picture.