Refrigerator Storage Control Using Shared Item Condition Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional refrigerators require users to manually enter storage information, leading to potential mismanagement of storage environments for items, especially when items are moved between refrigerators, resulting in undesirable storage conditions.
Innovation Solution
A refrigerator system that includes a communication module, processor, and memory to receive and share storage information with other refrigerators, allowing automatic control of temperature and humidity based on received storage information, ensuring items are stored in optimal conditions regardless of their location.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users manually enter storage information in conventional refrigerators, then the refrigerator can control storage environments, but the storage information may be inaccurate or lost when items are moved between refrigerators
Solution Approach 1:
The refrigerator system implements feedback mechanisms where storage information is continuously monitored, updated, and transmitted back to the system. When items are moved between refrigerators, the storage information feedback loop ensures that the new refrigerator receives and applies the correct storage conditions, preventing information loss and maintaining accuracy throughout the item's storage lifecycle.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces communication modules and processors as intermediaries that facilitate the transfer of storage information between refrigerators. These intermediary components encode, transmit, and decode storage information, ensuring accurate relay of temperature and humidity parameters when items are moved, thereby preventing information loss without requiring direct user intervention.
2Ease of operation
If users directly control storage environments via smartphones, then remote control is enabled, but user burden increases and exact storage information may not be grasped
Solution Approach 1:
The refrigerator system performs self-service by automatically managing storage information without requiring user intervention. The system autonomously monitors storage conditions, detects item movements, updates storage parameters, and communicates with other refrigerators, thereby maintaining ease of operation while reducing the complexity of user tasks to simple actions like placing items in the refrigerator.
Solution Approach 2:
The system takes preliminary action by pre-configuring and storing optimal storage conditions for different items before they are moved or transferred. This advance preparation ensures that when items are moved between refrigerators, the correct storage information is already available and automatically applied, eliminating the need for users to manually input or adjust complex storage parameters.
3Stability of the object's composition
If refrigerators share storage information automatically, then storage environment consistency is improved, but communication complexity between refrigerators increases
Solution Approach 1:
The communication modules and protocols are designed with universality to handle multiple functions within a single integrated system. The same communication infrastructure manages information exchange between refrigerators, coordinates storage condition updates, tracks item movements, and maintains environmental consistency, thereby achieving stable storage composition without proportionally increasing communication complexity through specialized separate systems.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for controlling a refrigerator may comprise controlling at least one of a temperature and humidity of at least one storage area of the refrigerator based on first storage information, receiving, from a second refrigerator different from the refrigerator, second storage information of the second refrigerator, and controlling at least one of the temperature and the humidity of the at least one storage area of the refrigerator based on the received second storage information.