JP2011021865A - Remote control for refrigerator, and refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve a life quality of elderly residents and others in view of the difficulty of knowing what is in a refrigerator without opening it, especially in a multigenerational household's dining kitchen, where a plurality of persons freely access it, by imaging foodstuff and dishes to be stored in a refrigerator through a digital camera built in a remote control and computerizing the date/time of imaging and an approximate volume determined by image analysis to indicate the condition of food storage in the refrigerator, so that material and food are consumed opportunely, by avoiding food hazards such as food poisoning due to growth of microorganisms and alteration of food components during unnecessary or extended storage. <P>SOLUTION: The condition of food stored in the refrigerator is used in the form of digital information for menu proposal, healthcare and the like by different families of close relatives, caregivers and others who access the Internet instead of opening the refrigerator. Electronic data acquired by the refrigerator remote control and refrigerator is analyzed by a food sensitivity engineering technique in which statistical data mining on how an elderly residents or others, prefer and select food, determines the optimum values of dishes and recipes useful in satisfying the elderly residents or others with daily desire for delicious dishes and preferences to improve its life quality. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

  The present invention relates to a domestic refrigerator-freezer that improves the quality of life of consumers, particularly the elderly.

  At present, home appliances with enhanced housework support functions are available in most homes, making everyday life rich and comfortable. In particular, according to the penetration rate of main durable consumer goods (all households) (as of the end of March 2004), refrigerators had a penetration rate of 32.9% in September 1962, but 90% around 1971. It reached 98 to 99% thereafter, and the statistics from 1992 show that the prevalence of 300 liter large refrigerators has been about 70% since 2000.

The role of the refrigerator is to control and control the chemical changes in food components that cause changes in the quality of food and the growth of microorganisms including food poisoning bacteria. Each food material, cooked food, and processed food are known to have suitable temperatures for storage, but in general, refrigerators for home use are chilled (chill) at 5 ° C to 0 °, and frozen at -18 to -25 ° C is employed. Demands for refrigerators are "large capacity", "freshness", "usefulness", and "energy saving".
Tomoyasu Saeki, “The History of the Refrigerator and Future Development”, Journal of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers 111, No. 964-965, 1081, 2008.12)

As a recent trend, some manufacturers use temperature ranges such as vegetable rooms and partial freezes. According to the catalogs of the companies in the summer of 2009, in addition to saving energy, Company P was able to make fresh taste by “fresh freezing”, by blowing new cold air of about −40 ° C and a newly developed “fresh freezing plate” hybrid freezing. Fresh freezing by quick freezing and arrangement of storage by enlargement as it is, freezing and instant freezing while hot in M company, cooking immediately without thawing, and increasing the size of vegetable room with increased vitamin, etc. Disinfection ion shower using “plasma cluster” technology, the inside of the cabinet is clean and dry prevention and hygiene with cold air, T company has about twice the freshness of the ingredients due to the stable moisture cold air with a humidity of about 85%, etc. It is strongly appealing that the aim of technological development is to preserve the taste by rapid freezing, maintain freshness, large storage capacity and ease of removal, cleanliness and hygiene. It is.
Akiyoshi Ohira, Atsuko Funayama, “Refrigerator that protects nutrients”, Journal of Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers 111, No. 966-967, 1081, 2008.12)

At T Company, there are functions and designs that are easy to use as universal designs that are easy on everyone. The aim was to introduce human-friendly refrigerators, but in reality, most of them were ingenuity in the layout of the refrigerator, such as easy access. The characteristics of these refrigerators seem to be pursuing comfort and convenience in the living kitchen where two and three households live together. On the other hand, in Japan, the life expectancy has been extended, but the proportion of the elderly population has increased significantly. In the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the World Health Organization (WHO), the age group of 65 years or older is regarded as an elderly person. In Japan, an aging society (1970) is rapidly progressing to an aging society (1994). According to the demographic data for 2006, the elderly ratio was 20.9%, exceeding 25 million. According to the WHO 2007 edition, the average life expectancy is 86 years for women (1st in the world) and 79 years for men (2nd in the world), and the healthy life expectancy is 78 for women and 72 for men.
Takashi Fujisaki Science and Industry, 82 (4), 176-183 2008) Although the life expectancy and life expectancy are personally long and short, there are many problems such as chewing and swallowing difficulties and cooking troubles even in eating habits. In order to maintain this, there is a need for a solution.

  If we dare classify elderly people, about 25 million people over the age of 65, of which about 20 million people are independent, about 4.6 million people who need care or some kind of support, There are 3.6 million people who need care. This is likely to lead to the emergence of a vast market that requires a new concept refrigerator that improves the quality of life of the elderly, unlike the large and easy-to-organize refrigerators that have been pursued in the past.

The breakdown of the approximately 3.6 million people who need care is about 1.1 million people receiving care at the facility and about 2.5 million people receiving care at home. It seems that the caregivers at the facility are in charge of specialists at the facility, but the caregivers at home not only store the ingredients for cooking, but also communicate with caregivers and close relatives. It is required to add a new function to how to use the refrigerator.
To promote the networking of information appliances with the expectation of information appliances that offer benefits such as reduction of domestic work and security by making appliances information based on recent advances in intelligent technology (IT) and network technology (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, December 27, 2005 http://www.meti.go.jp/commitee/materials/downloadfiles/g51228j04j.pdf ). The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Commerce Information Production Bureau published the “e-Life Initiative (Basic Strategy Report)” in 2003 to strategically promote the market of information appliances. There are reports from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's “Information Home Appliance Consortium”, IPA (Information Home Appliance Interconnection Safety Technology Development Project), and other companies alone, such as Nomura Research Institute and Fujitsu. In the home appliance "feminity", the operation menu is classified by purpose function, but there are ingredients management such as food and plastic bottle inventory management / expiration date management, and recipe distribution of functions linked to the microwave oven. The expiration date and quantity input method allows the user to input food data while touching images and characters on the touch panel. The amount can be selected from small, medium and many.

  In a dining kitchen where two households and three households live together, multiple people can go in and out without permission, so it is often difficult to know what is inside unless the refrigerator door is opened. As a method to solve these problems, Momoko Kanno et al. Have reported an intelligent refrigerator system concept using REID-system configuration and database design-(Ayako Kanno, Yoshifumi Masuda Information Processing Society of Japan, 2005.7.14 p539). -546). In this system, a REID tag is attached to each food, and when the food is taken in and out of the refrigerator, a unique ID (UID) written on the REID tag is read by a REID reader, and the weight of the food is measured by an electronic pan balance. Designed to measure with. Even in this method, the method of acquiring data on the usage of the refrigerator requires manual input, and it seems that there are many problems in operability for elderly users.

The frozen food stored in the freezer also has the following problems. Frozen foods have many characteristic conveniences such as high safety and long-term storage that does not require disinfectants and preservatives, and convenience that can save cooking time and labor at home or at cooking facilities such as school lunches. It is popular not only for household use, but also for home use as well as commercial use. In both the preservation of agricultural and livestock products and the production of cooked frozen foods, practical quality improvements have been mostly achieved by rapid freezing techniques. In the production of frozen foods, the freezing method in which high-speed cold air typified by the air blast method is sprayed on the food has become the mainstream. However, depending on the material and the cooking method, the freezing resistance of frozen foods is still a big problem (see Non-Patent Document 1, for example).
Frozen food (1), "Food and vitrification / crystallization technology" (Murase Norio, edited by Kiyotaka Sato), Masato Shiraishi, Chapter 4, Section 2, pages 246-252, Science Forum, July 2000 4th

  In recent years, due to advances in analytical technology, changes in food components related to nutrition and functionality during refrigeration and freezing have been analyzed, and refrigerators that increase nutritional components and functional components during storage have been put into practical use.

  The advantage of freezing is that it can be stored for a long period of time. In long-term storage, when and what kind of food is stored in the freezer, or the state at the time of storage is not known, it may not be able to thaw with an optimal thawing method.

Problems to be solved by the invention

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention aims to improve the quality of life of elderly people by taking a picture with a digital camera that incorporates ingredients and dishes stored in a refrigerator into a remote control, By converting the approximate amount obtained into electronic information, the food storage state of the refrigerator can be known. By connecting to the Internet as digital information about the state of food stored in the refrigerator without opening the refrigerator, menu proposals, health care, etc. can be used.

Means for solving the problem

  The present invention is incorporated into a remote controller when storing food and food in a refrigerator in order to eliminate the inconvenience of consumers, particularly elderly people, who do not know the stored state of stored food and food unless the refrigerator door is opened. It is possible to know information such as the ingredients stored in the refrigerator, the date and time of receipt of food, the approximate amount, how to eat deliciously by photographing with a digital camera and converting it to digital data . As a means for solving the problem, a remote controller with a digital camera is produced, and software for calculating an approximate amount by obtaining an area from a photographing screen. The data stored in the remote control can be analyzed by the texture engineering method in order to improve the quality of life of consumers.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples. The present invention is not limited to these examples. The approximate weight of the food is calculated by image analysis of the digital camera of the refrigerator remote control, which is the main part of the present invention. The weight is roughly one person, about two persons, or much more, much, just right, less, etc. Aim can be achieved. In order to confirm that, food was weighed in advance with an electronic balance, placed on a plate with a weighing scale, photographed with a digital camera, and the captured image was imported to a personal computer with image input software, and further sized with image analysis software. Calculated.
Shinji Otano, “A simple area measurement method using a digital camera and a personal computer”, Tokyo Agricultural Experiment Station Research Report, 29, 43-48, 2000. The approximate weight was estimated from the area data. The conversion from the area to the weight is determined by the characteristics of the food material, but when the water content is about 60 or more, the coefficient is almost 1 and the purpose is achieved.

  It is possible to provide a refrigerator that can improve the quality of life of the elderly by managing the storage state of food and food from the outside as digital information without opening the refrigerator in a household refrigerator, particularly an elderly household.

The invention's effect

    According to the present invention, the amount of the material stored in the refrigerator load when it is stored in the refrigerator, the amount of the food that has been cooked and stored, and the amount of the remaining material are monitored on the remote control You can know on the screen. This saves raw materials and foods, or extends the shelf life and avoids food poisoning caused by the growth of microorganisms and alteration of food ingredients, and improves the quality of life of consumers by eating while delicious. It is possible.

    According to this embodiment, the data stored in the remote control, such as the type of material, the type of food, and the menu, is based on the correlation of factors that improve the quality of life using the texture engineering method. It is possible to derive the maximum effect related to such things.

  As described above, the refrigerator remote controller of the present invention and the refrigerator can capture and record the images and the photographing date and time as data with the digital camera of the remote controller when storing food and cooked food in the refrigerator. The amount of ingredients and dishes is automatically calculated by image analysis software. It is possible to propose a menu of what kind of dishes were made from the receipt records of ingredients, or optimal nutrition, delicious dishes, etc., and the quality of life of the elderly households can be improved.

  The refrigerator remote control of the present invention and the refrigerator are connected to an information network such as the Internet and away from the home. For example, a close relative of an elderly household or a care assistant does not directly open the refrigerator as necessary. We can know the amount of stock, and can improve the quality of life of consumers and elderly households through nutrition management and health management.

  The refrigerator remote control of the present invention and the electronic data obtained by the refrigerator are applied to the analysis by food texture engineering techniques, how to use, prefer, and select foods for consumers and elderly households, etc. From statistical data mining, it is possible to improve the quality of life by finding the optimum value of menus that help to realize everyday delicious tastes and preferences for consumers and elderly households .

Claims (4)

  Remote control for refrigerators with image taking by digital camera and refrigerator that allows you to easily see the status of food stored in the refrigerator   Refrigerator remote controller and its refrigerator capable of displaying and searching information on the date, type, amount, and taste of food received from image information of a digital camera   Refrigerator remote control as a tool for collecting daily data useful for texture engineering analysis such as storage, cooking, and usage of ingredients in the refrigerator and its refrigerator   Refrigerator remote control and its refrigerator as an Internet terminal device that enables communication between elderly households, relatives, and care assistants using information devices such as the Internet