ITTO20090408A1 - REFRIGERATOR APPARATUS PROVIDED WITH A SYSTEM OF RECOGNITION OF FOODS INTRODUCED IN IT AND METHOD OF MANAGEMENT OF AN INVENTORY OF THE CONTENT OF A REFRIGERATOR. - Google Patents

Description

â € œ REFRIGERATOR EQUIPMENT EQUIPPED WITH A SYSTEM FOR RECOGNIZING THE FOODS INTRODUCED AND METHOD OF MANAGING AN INVENTORY OF THE CONTENTS OF A REFRIGERATING APPARATUSâ €

DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to a refrigeration apparatus according to the preamble of claim 1.

In the present description and in the ensuing claims, a refrigerator, a freezer or a fridge-freezer, usually provided with at least one cooled compartment closed by a door, is intended as a refrigerator apparatus, inside which the foods to be stored are placed.

Keeping a precise updated inventory of what is contained in the refrigerator is not easy, both for the large quantity of food that can be contained there, and for the fact that more people can often access the same refrigerator.

For this reason, a user engaged in the act of shopping is often not able to mentally reconstruct the inventory of the foods contained in the refrigerator and therefore may incur incorrect purchases; it would therefore be advisable for a user to know the inventory of what is contained in the appliance.

To compile the inventory of the foods in the refrigerator it is necessary to draw up a list or a list of the products included in the apparatus and to unmark the products that are out of stock or that are removed from this list.

In order to solve these problems, various solutions have been created over time.

For example, as shown in the patent EP1174667 in the name of the owner DAINIPPON PRINTING CO LTD it has been planned to affix electronic labels on the food and to provide the refrigerator apparatus with a reader of these labels: this system is commonly known as RFID acronym - Radio Frequency IDentification - and allows, among other things, a control unit of the refrigerator to know which foods are contained in it, so that it is possible to generate an updated inventory.

However, this solution has not found a sufficient practical diffusion, as it is necessary to apply the relative electronic label to each food, with an increase in packaging costs.

Another solution is shown in the document JP2003004368 in the name of RICOH KK which foresees affixing a barcode on the food and providing the refrigerator with a barcode reader. However, even this solution entails some problems: the bar codes usually provided on the packaging of foodstuffs on the market are coded according to methods established by the manufacturer or distributor. Therefore, to make a correct reading it is necessary to know and load in the control unit of the refrigerator all the codes used by the producers or distributors: this solution, as it is evident, is not easily applicable. In principle, another solution could be to apply an additional bar code to each food package that is coded in a standardized way, and therefore easily identifiable by the control unit; however, even this solution has not found space in the market.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a refrigeration apparatus which is capable of overcoming these drawbacks.

The object of the present invention is a refrigeration apparatus according to the attached claim 1.

The idea behind the present invention is to provide a refrigeration apparatus comprising at least one cooled compartment closed by a door, suitable for storing food, which includes an alphanumeric character recognition system.

In fact, to obtain the inventory it is sufficient to detect the products that are inserted in the refrigerator, generating a list and progressively eliminating from that list the products that are out of stock or that are removed.

It has been noted that this last operation does not seem to present particular problems, because it can be carried out easily, as normally only one product runs out at a time.

On the other hand, the operation of creating the list of products included in the refrigerator can cause certain problems, for example in the case in which the number of foods placed in the refrigerator (for example after a large expense) is high, this operation involves a considerable waste of time.

Advantageously, using an alphanumeric character recognition system to read, for example, the shopping receipt, it is possible to obtain a list of the products inserted in the refrigerator in an extremely fast and simple way.

A further object of the present invention is a method of managing an inventory of the contents of a refrigerating apparatus according to claim 8.

In this way, advantageously, it is avoided having to prepare special labels applied on the food packages, overcoming the drawbacks of the known art.

Further advantageous characteristics are the subject of the attached claims, which are intended as an integral part of the present text.

These characteristics and further advantages of the present invention will become clearer from the description of an embodiment thereof shown in the attached drawings, provided purely by way of non-limiting example, in which:

fig. 1 shows a schematic sectional view of the refrigeration apparatus according to the present invention, provided with an alphanumeric character recognition system;

fig. 2 shows a schematic sectional view of the alphanumeric character recognition system of fig. 1;

fig. 3 shows a perspective view of the refrigeration apparatus of fig. 1;

fig. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of the method of the present invention;

fig. 5a-5e illustrate various moments in the recognition of alphanumeric characters of a receipt and the generation of a list of purchased products;

figs. 6a-6c illustrate various moments of adding the purchased products to the inventory;

fig. 7 illustrates a first communication configuration in which the apparatus of fig. 1 communicates with an electronic computer and this with a remote device;

fig. 8 illustrates a second communication configuration in which the apparatus of fig. 1 communicates with a remote device;

fig. 9 shows a schematic sectional view of a variant of the alphanumeric character recognition system of fig. 2.

In fig. 1 it is possible to see a schematic section of a refrigeration apparatus 1 comprising an upper refrigerator compartment 2 and a lower freezer compartment 2A, both closed by the respective doors 3 and 3A.

Each compartment is shown provided with support shelves 4 and 4A on which the foods 5 and 5A are arranged and stored there.

The apparatus 1 will then usually be provided with a refrigeration system comprising at least one motor, a compressor and the exchangers for cooling the compartments 2 and 2A, not shown in the figure for reasons of clarity.

In figs. 1 and 3 there is also a system for recognizing alphanumeric characters 6 located on door 3, at a height that can be easily reached by a user.

In principle, the positioning of the system 6 can also be different from the one just described: for example it could equivalently also be placed on one of the walls of the apparatus (such as for example a side wall or a front wall) or even internally to one of the compartments 2 or 2A, even if in the latter case for its operation it would be necessary to keep the corresponding door 3 or 3A open, causing a dispersion of cold and therefore a worsening of the operating conditions of the apparatus 1; if it were positioned on the side or front wall, there would be a further advantage in the sense of reducing and simplifying the wiring connected to it.

An example of the alphanumeric character recognition system 6 is shown in detail in fig. 2, and it comprises an image reader 61, a processing unit 62 for recognizing the characters and a memory unit 63 operatively connected to each other.

In this embodiment reported by way of explanation but not limitation, the system 6 also comprises a device for moving the paper support on which the alphanumeric characters are printed, for example a moving device 7 for the receipt 8, which in turn comprises two opposing rollers 71 and 72 and a sliding guide 73.

The paper support 8, in its movement along the guide 73, can be moved forward and backward so as to come out from the same inlet side, or alternatively be moved forward to cover the entire guide 73 and exit at its end 9 , which opens outwards at the wall on which the system is mounted 6.

It goes without saying that, despite in the example of fig. 2 and 3 the system 6 is shown as an integrated system, it is possible that the various components, such as the processing unit 62 and the memory 63 are separated or placed in areas of the apparatus 1 remote from the reader of images 61.

The operation, with reference also to the flow chart fig. 4, takes place as follows: the user takes the ticket 8 between the two rollers 72 and 71 which, by rotating, gradually bring him into the detection area of the image reader 61, the which acquires the image of the receipt 8, which is transmitted in the form of data to the processing unit 62; the latter therefore recognizes the alphanumeric characters present in the image of the receipt.

The actuation of the rollers 72 and 71 and of the reader 61 can take place with a sensor (for example optical) or with a button that can be controlled by the user.

The processing unit 62 is therefore able to generate a first list of products L1, which contains all the words and numbers of the receipt 8, which also includes all the products purchased and therefore also those to be kept in a compartment refrigerated.

This first list of products L1 is then compared with a database, or comparison list LR, stored in the memory unit 63, in order to determine which products among the names of the list L1 are products to be kept in a refrigerated compartment. ; these are then added to a food list L2 foods, which will then update the inventory of foods stored in the apparatus 1.

The LR list is preloaded into the memory unit by the manufacturer, but can be upgradeable by the user.

Referring to figs. 5a-5e the various steps of the method just discussed are schematically shown: in fig. 5a you can see the receipt 8, which shows the name of the shop (for example â € œSUPERXâ €) together with the products purchased there, for example meat, bread, milk and detergent, with the relative price and the total amount.

In fig. 5b the image 88 of the receipt 8 is shown as detected by the image reader 61: as you can see it is simply an image (such as a photograph or similar) of the receipt 8.

The image processing unit 62 obtains from image 88 a list of products L1 which contains all the words and numbers written in image 88 by means of a character recognition function known per se (and normally defined as O.C.R. Optical Character Recognition) and on which we do not dwell further, suffice it to say that this function allows you to extrapolate the alphanumeric characters contained in an image.

List L1 therefore contains not only the words corresponding to what was purchased, but also numbers relating to the prices indicated on the receipt 8 and possibly the name of the shop and other similar information, such as date and time of purchase.

The list L1 is then processed by the unit 62 which compares it with the reference list LR shown in fig. 5d which contains a list of foods that must be kept cool (in the refrigerator or freezer) and which, therefore, it is assumed the user will insert in compartments 2 and 2a of the apparatus 1.

The list L2 is thus generated, shown in fig. 5e, which contains only those words that appear in both the L1 and LR lists.

The content of list L2 can then be added to the inventory of the foods present in apparatus 1, as shown in the last step of the flow chart in fig. 4 and as shown schematically by figs. 6a, 6b, 6c, which respectively show the contents of list L2, the contents of inventory I before adding the contents of list L2 and the contents of inventory I updated after this addition; this inventory is normally stored in a memory unit, such as memory 63.

It is also possible to foresee that the inventory contains an indication of the quantity of foods present, so that, in the event of the addition of foods already present, the quantity can be highlighted.

The inventory is also accessible and modifiable by the user to allow him to update it according to the foods that are used up over time.

This access can be carried out thanks to user interface means, such as those shown in fig. 3 which comprise a screen 10 for displaying data and images and a keyboard 11 for entering data or commands.

The user, through this interface, can call up the inventory on the screen and delete those foods that are taken from the refrigerator 1 (for example because they are out of stock or expired or destined for other use).

In this way, the inventory of what is contained in the apparatus 1 can therefore be updated in a simple way using only the shopping receipt 8 and without requiring the application of labels or barcodes on the products, and by means of the use of the user interface just described.

It should be noted that the user interface can also be used to manually add foods to the inventory: this situation occurs, for example, when the receipt shows terms that are not matched by the LR reference list, but which actually correspond to products to be kept in the device, or when for some reason the receipt is not available or is damaged or unreadable.

It is also possible to foresee in this sense that whenever the manual addition function to the inventory is used, the processing unit adds the word to the LR reference list, thus generating a sort of `` self-learning '' function of the Apparatus 1: for example the word â € œbreadâ € will normally not be included among those present in the LR list, as the bread is usually stored at room temperature; however, it may happen that a user prefers to keep the bread in the refrigerator, and therefore will add it manually to the inventory I: in this case the processing unit will add the word â € œbreadâ € to the reference list LR (possibly upon confirmation request to the user), or the introduction of the words corresponding to the foodstuffs and the consequent updating of the LR list can also be done using the keyboard 11.

In this sense, it is also possible to use the apparatus according to the present invention to monitor the inventory of the stocks present in the house, regardless of whether they are placed in the refrigerated compartments: it will be sufficient to add the name corresponding to the product to the LR list.

It may also be the case that on receipt 8 there are ambiguous items of expenditure, such as â € œvarious gastronomyâ € or the like, which may indicate both foods that must be stored in the apparatus 1 and foods to be kept at room temperature.

In this case the processing unit 62 will not insert these elements in the inventory a priori, as neither the word â € œvariousâ € nor the word â € œgastronomyâ € will presumably be present in the reference list LR, since they do not uniquely identify foods to be stored in a refrigerated environment.

In any case, the user can introduce the food items corresponding to these items on the receipt 8 into the compartments, and then manually update the inventory using the interface, as described above.

Obviously, in place of the receipt 8, other paper supports can be provided which can be read by the alphanumeric character recognition system 6, such as for example a shopping list or the like.

A variant then provides that the system 6 can be removed from a special seat obtained on the refrigerator 1, in order to allow the user to be able to use it (once removed from the seat) with greater comfort, for example by placing it on a surface horizontal support such as a table or similar.

In this case the system 6 is equipped with its own means of electrical power supply, such as a battery, and is in signal communication with the apparatus 1 by means of communication suitable for the purpose, such as a transceiver device in radiofrequency or similar, provided on both system 6 and refrigerator 1.

Instead of being completely removable, the system 6 can be partially extracted or folded down to a position of convenient use.

In another variant shown in fig. 9 the alphanumeric character recognition system 6A has no handling means 7, and the receipt is read by an image reader 61A directly accessible by the user.

The paper support 8 is placed by the user in contact with the image reader 61A, for example by making it adhere to the reading surface of the reader 61A, which performs a scanning operation of the support 8 or a digital photograph of the support 8 .

In this case, advantageously, it is possible to eliminate the handling means 7, with a consequent saving in terms of components.

To read a paper support having dimensions greater than that of the reading surface of the image reader 61A, it is possible to simply position the support 8 on the reading surface several times. Alternatively, the user may be required to slide the support 8 along the reading surface.

According to a further improvement, it is also possible to provide that the content of the inventory is transmitted via a communication network to a remote terminal.

For example, referring to fig. 7, a first solution is noted which provides that the apparatus 1 is in communication with an electronic processor 15, such as a â € œhome computerâ € or the like, to which it transmits, for example by means of a wireless technology (wireless) the contents of the inventory, so that the user can view it: for this purpose the apparatus 1 is equipped with means of transmission / reception of data, not shown and of a type known in itself; in this case it is possible to omit both the keyboard 11 and the screen 10 on the refrigerator.

The communication line between the apparatus 1 and the electronic processor 15 can also be bidirectional, so that the user can intervene on the inventory I, on the LR list or on other parameters by operating on the electronic processor 15, which remotely intervenes on the memory unit 63 of the apparatus 1.

Advantageously, the electronic processor 15 can then be in communication, via a telephone line, with a further remote terminal, such as a portable telephone 16, to which it can communicate the contents of the inventory: in this way the user can know the contents of the inventory at any time; this aspect is extremely useful when the user is in the store, at the supermarket and is shopping: in fact, he can know the contents of the inventory in real time and buy what he needs based on the information received.

According to another variant, shown in fig. 8, the apparatus 1 can be in communication with a remote terminal consisting of a portable telephone 16: in this case the communication line can be a telephone line, such as a GSM, GPRS or similar network, and the device 1 can be equipped with an electronic card reader for use in the mobile telephony field, otherwise known as SIM from the English acronym for â € œStandard Identification Moduleâ €, of type known in itself; in this case the device 1 is uniquely identified by a telephone number associated with the SIM associated with it. When the user wants to know the inventory I, he dials the telephone number of the SIM of the device 1: the latter receives a call from the portable telephone 16 and sends in response a text message showing the Inventory updated, so that the user can purchase products based on the information received.

Alternatively, if the portable telephone 16 is equipped with advanced functions, he can intervene on the inventory I or on the LR list or on other parameters by operating as in the case of the electronic processor 15, described above.

A very useful function that can be envisaged is that of associating information of a temporal nature to the information obtained from the receipt 8, ie an indication of the date on which a particular food was added to the inventory.

In this case, in fact, it will be sufficient to provide that the processing unit 62 is equipped with an internal clock capable of identifying the date (and possibly time) in which certain foods were added to the inventory, associating this information with that of the inventory. ™ food; alternatively, the date and time can be obtained from the paper support and will refer to the date and time of purchase of the products indicated on the support itself (typically this information is always indicated on the purchase receipts).

In this condition, the user will have access to further information, useful in order to understand if a certain food has been present in the system for too long 1.

This information could be useful for foods, such as vegetables or fruit, which remain fresh only for a few days: the user then, when viewing the contents of the inventory on the remote terminal, also receives the information time of the date of release of these foods, from which it can obtain an indication, albeit brief, on the state of freshness of these foods and thus derive the need, or not, to purchase new ones.

According to a very advantageous improvement, system 6 is able to generate a pre-filled shopping list to be provided to the user, in order to facilitate their purchases.

In this case, the pre-filled shopping list can be generated as follows: the processing unit 6 stores the number of times in which a certain product belonging to the LR list is added to the L2 list, and catalogs the products of the LR list by ordering them in based on the number of times a given product has been added to the L2 list; this cataloging, in other words, identifies the products that are introduced most frequently in the apparatus 1 and therefore substantially corresponds to those most used by the user.

The first N products of the LR list thus ordered are then selected for the generation of the precompiled shopping list; the number N can be set as desired by the user and, for example, can correspond to 10 products.

In this case, the processing unit compares the first N products of the LR list with those contained in the L2 list and identifies those that are absent from the latter; the pre-filled shopping list is then generated on the basis of these products.

The processing unit can also compare the products belonging to the L2 list and having a date (and possibly time) of addition to the inventory with the first N products of the LR list, in order to generate a pre-filled list of the shopping I also take this information into account. The pre-compiled shopping list can then be transmitted to a remote terminal, such as the computer 15 or the portable telephone 16 as described above, in order to assist the user in making purchases.

Finally, the pre-filled shopping list can simplify the operation of entering information relating to the contents of the refrigerator. For example, in system 6 a function can be implemented such that the user can update list L2 starting from the last pre-filled list of the shopping generated by system 6 and performing easy operations such as confirmations or deletions of data.

* * * * *

Claims (15)

CLAIMS 1. Refrigerating apparatus (1) comprising at least one cooled compartment (2.2A) closed by a door (3.3A), suitable for storing food (5.5A), characterized by the fact that includes an alphanumeric character recognition system (6,6A). Refrigerating apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein the alphanumeric character recognition system (6,6A) comprises an image reader (61), a processing unit (62) for character recognition and a unit memory (63) operatively connected to each other, for reading alphanumeric characters on a support. Refrigerating apparatus (1) according to claim 2, wherein said support is a paper support (8). Refrigerating apparatus (1) according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the alphanumeric character recognition system (6) further comprises a device for moving the paper support, in particular of the type comprising two opposing rollers (71,72) and a sliding guide (73). Refrigerating apparatus (1) according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the refrigerating apparatus (1) comprises a user interface (10,11) for displaying data and entering data or commands. 6. Refrigerating apparatus (1) according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the refrigerating apparatus (1) comprises data transmission / reception means, for the transmission / reception of data to and from a remote terminal (15, 16). Refrigerating apparatus (1) according to one or more of claims 2 to 6, wherein the processing unit (62) is provided with an internal clock to identify the instant in time of reading the alphanumeric characters. Refrigerating apparatus (1) according to one or more of the preceding claims, in which said alphanumeric character recognition system (6,6A) can be removed from a seat obtained on said refrigerating apparatus (1). Refrigerating apparatus (1) according to the preceding claim, wherein said alphanumeric character recognition system (6,6A) is equipped with its own electrical power supply means, such as for example a battery, and is in communication with said apparatus refrigerator (1) by means of communication suitable for the purpose, such as for example a radio frequency transceiver device or the like. 10. Method of managing an inventory (I) of the contents of a refrigerating apparatus (1) according to one or more of claims 1 to 9, characterized by understanding the steps of a) recognizing alphanumeric characters on a paper support (8) and b) update said inventory (I) in function of said recognition. Method of managing an inventory (I) of the contents of a refrigerating apparatus (1) according to claim 10, wherein step a) comprises the following subways: a1) acquire an image (88) of said paper support (8) containing at least alphanumeric characters corresponding to products to be included in the inventory a2) recognize said alphanumeric characters present in said image (88) a3) generate a first list of products (L1), containing said alphanumeric characters, and in which step b) includes the following sub-steps: b1) comparing said first list with a comparison list (LR) to determine the matches b2) add these matches to a food list (L2) b3) add the contents of said food list (L2) to an inventory (I) 12. Method of managing an inventory (I) of the contents of a refrigerating apparatus (1) according to claim 10 or 11, wherein said inventory (I) can be modified by the user. 13. Method of managing an inventory (I) of the contents of a refrigerating apparatus (1) according to claim 12, in which said comparison list (LR) can be modified according to changes made to the inventory (I). 14. Method of managing an inventory (I) of the contents of a refrigerating apparatus (1) according to one or more of claims 10 to 13, further comprising step c) of associating each term of the inventory (I) with a temporal instant coinciding with the temporal instant of updating of said inventory (I). 15. Method of managing an inventory (I) of the contents of a refrigeration apparatus (1) according to one or more of claims 10 to 14, wherein said inventory (I) is communicated by the apparatus to at least one remote terminal ( 15.16). * * * * *