Home appliance provided with viewing window
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing home appliances face challenges in accurately detecting a user's knock input due to interference from vibrations and high temperatures, leading to incorrect detection and energy loss through opening doors for visibility, especially in appliances like refrigerators and ovens.
Innovation Solution
A home appliance with a sensor assembly installed on the hinge bracket or rear surface of the front plate, utilizing a 3-axis sensor module to detect vibrations in multiple directions, minimizing attenuation, and correcting for temperature influence, allowing precise detection of knocks and controlling a lamp for visibility without opening the door.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a sound wave sensor is attached to the door to detect knock input, then knock detection function is provided, but high-temperature heat transmitted to the door causes sensor malfunction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary structure (the front plate with opening part) between the knock input location and the sensor assembly. The sensor assembly is disposed at the rear surface of the front plate rather than directly on the door, allowing knock vibrations to be transmitted through the front plate while isolating the sensor from direct high-temperature exposure on the door surface.
2Measurement precision
If a microphone part protrudes toward external glass to receive knock input, then knock detection sensitivity is improved, but installation position becomes very limited due to medium continuity requirement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a protruding microphone design requiring line-of-sight acoustic path to a flush-mounted sensor assembly on the rear surface of the front plate. This dimensional repositioning allows vibration transmission through the solid structure of the front plate, eliminating the need for acoustic medium continuity and expanding installation flexibility.
3Measurement precision
If the sensor assembly is disposed at the front plate to detect vibration, then knock detection accuracy is improved by distinguishing from other vibrations, but installation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the sensor assembly with the front plate structure, disposing the sensor on the rear surface of the front plate. This integration allows the front plate to serve dual purposes: as the visible front surface with opening part and as the mounting substrate for the sensor assembly, thereby reducing overall structural complexity while maintaining detection accuracy.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Accurate detection of knocks is achieved, minimizing energy loss and door openings, enhancing usability and efficiency by ensuring the lamp operates only when needed, and maintaining sensor performance despite varying temperatures and vibrations.
Implementation Method 1
a vibration generated by a knock applied to a door may be transmitted to a sensor assembly through media different from each other
Implementation Method 2
a lamp configured to illuminate an inside of the reception space
Data Source
AI summary
A home appliance has a reception space that can be seen from the outside through a viewing window without opening a door. In the home appliance, the viewing window is mounted to the door, and when a user knocks on the door, a knock input by the user is detected and the inside of the reception space is illuminated such that the inside of the reception space can be seen from the outside through the viewing window. Accordingly, a user can see the inside of the reception space by a simple motion without opening the door.