KR100773178B1 - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator which avoids manual entry of food information and creates information in the refrigerator simply by putting a food with a wireless tag in the refrigerator.

In the present invention, when the front antenna 52 and the rear antenna 54 are provided in the vicinity of the opening of the refrigerating chamber 14, when the wireless tag information is detected in the order of the front antenna 52 and the rear antenna 54, food is stored. When it judges that it is accommodated and detects wireless tag information by the order of the rear antenna 54 and the front antenna 52, it is judged that goods are carried out.

Fridge, Front Antenna, Rear Antenna, Wireless Tag, Door Switch, Control Unit

Description

Refrigerator {REFRIGERATOR}

1 is a perspective view of a state in which a door of a refrigerator of one embodiment of the present invention is removed;

2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the refrigerating chamber;

3 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a refrigerator, a home server, an information server, and a mobile phone;

4 is a block diagram of a refrigerator.

Fig. 5 is a flow chart showing the storing and taking out of food.

6 is an explanatory diagram showing entry and exit of goods;

Fig. 7 shows the contents of the memory of the radio tag.

<Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings>

10: refrigerator

14: refrigerator

24: Wireless Tag

26: tag detection device

28: wireless adapter

40: control unit

42 to 50: door switch

52: front antenna

54: rear antenna

56: upper shelf antenna

58: middle side shelf antenna

60: lower shelf antenna

[Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-81848

The present invention relates to a refrigerator capable of storing and managing food having a wireless tag installed thereon.

In recent years, the technology of a wireless tag advances and the household refrigerator which can accommodate and manage the food with this wireless tag is proposed (for example, refer patent document 1).

Such a refrigerator is provided with a plurality of antennas for transmitting and receiving radio waves from a radio tag attached to food, a transceiver for transmitting and receiving radio tag information using these antennas, and a main controller for controlling the transceiver.

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-81848

One of the services performed in such a refrigerator is a food management service. This food management service is a service in which food in a refrigerator is input from a controller or the like in advance, and information input from the controller is transmitted from a home server to a mobile phone of each user to notify that the deadline is near.

However, in order to receive such a service, it is very cumbersome because each user needs to input a food name, an expiration date, etc. for the food put in the refrigerator.

In addition, in the case of the refrigerator using the wireless tag as described above, the user often writes information in the refrigerator by passing the product with the wireless tag through the antenna detection range, and whether the detected food is actually present in the refrigerator is determined by the user. It is often left to judgment.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a refrigerator which avoids manual input of food information and creates information in the refrigerator by simply putting a food with a wireless tag in the refrigerator.

The present invention is stored in the wireless tag from the storage compartment, a door for opening and closing the opening of the storage compartment, a door opening and closing detection means for detecting the opening and closing of the door, an antenna for communicating with a wireless tag installed in food, and the antenna. A refrigerator having tag detection means for detecting wireless tag information, wherein the antenna is a front antenna having a detection range in the vicinity of the opening and substantially parallel to the opening, and near the opening and rearward of the front antenna. And a rear antenna having a surface substantially parallel to the opening in a detection range, wherein the tag detecting means operates the front antenna and the rear antenna after the door open / close detection means detects an open state of the door. And the wireless tag information in order of the front antenna and the rear antenna. When it is detected that the food is stored, and when the wireless tag information is detected in the order of the rear antenna and the front antenna, the refrigerator characterized in that it is determined that the food is carried out.

[First Embodiment]

Hereinafter, the refrigerator 10 of 1st Embodiment of this invention is demonstrated based on FIGS.

The refrigerator 10 of the present embodiment can read and manage wireless tag information stored in the wireless tag 24 attached to food.

(1) Configuration of the Refrigerator 10

The structure of the refrigerator 10 is demonstrated based on FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1, a refrigerator 14, a vegetable compartment 16, an ice maker 18, and a freezer compartment 20 are arranged in the cabinet of the refrigerator 10 from an upper end of the refrigerator 10. The switching room 22 which can switch temperature is provided.

Inside the refrigerating chamber 14, the upper shelf 41, the intermediate | middle shelf 39, and the lower shelf 38 are provided in an up-down direction. The lower shelf 38 also serves as the ceiling surface of the cooling chamber.

On the ceiling surface of the cabinet 12, a tag detection device 26, which is a control unit for transmitting and receiving wireless tag information from the wireless tag 24 attached to food, is installed, and on the right side thereof, the tag detection device 26 is read. The wireless adapter 28 which transmits one radio tag information is provided.

In the refrigerating chamber 14, antennas 52 to 60 for receiving wireless tag information are provided. The front antenna 52 is provided in the vicinity of the opening of the refrigerating chamber 14, that is, at the corner of the opening of the refrigerating chamber 14. The front antenna 52 has a loop shape, is formed of coils circumferentially through the ceiling surface, the side surface, the bottom surface and the right surface of the refrigerating chamber 14, and the detection range is along the plane parallel to the opening surface of the storage chamber 14. Is formed. However, the depth direction of the planar detection range is small as shown in FIG.

The rear antenna 54 is provided behind the front antenna 52. Similar to the front antenna 52, this rear antenna 54 is also looped, and a detection range is formed along the surface parallel to the opening surface of the refrigerating chamber 14. And the detection range of the rear antenna 54 in the depth direction is small, as shown in FIG. 2, and is a range which does not overlap with the detection range of the front antenna 52 in the depth direction.

The upper shelf 41 is provided with an upper shelf antenna 56 in a planar shape to read wireless tag information of the food loaded on the upper shelf 41.

The intermediate shelf 39 is provided with an intermediate shelf antenna 58 in a planar shape to transmit and receive wireless tag information of the food loaded on the intermediate shelf 39.

The lower shelf 38 is provided with a lower shelf antenna 60 in a planar shape to read wireless tag information of the food loaded on the lower shelf 38 and the food inside the cooling chamber.

As shown in Fig. 3, the wireless tag information transmitted from the wireless adapter 28 is transmitted to the home server 30, which is one of the external devices. This home server 30 is connected to an external information server 32 via the Internet. The information server 32 is accessible from the user's cellular phone 34. The home server 30 also has a liquid crystal display 62.

(2) Electrical configuration of the refrigerator 10

Based on FIG. 4, the electrical structure of the refrigerator 10 is demonstrated.

The control apparatus 40 of the refrigerator 10 is a part which performs control for driving a compressor etc. in order to manage the internal temperature of the refrigerator 10, and is comprised by the microcomputer. The tag detection device 26 and the wireless adapter 28 are connected to the control device 40. The above-described front antenna 52, rear antenna 54, upper shelf antenna 56, middle shelf antenna 58, and lower shelf antenna 60 are connected to the tag detection device 26.

The control device 40 includes door switches 42, 44, 46 for detecting the opening and closing of the doors of the refrigerating chamber 14, the vegetable chamber 16, the ice making chamber 18, the freezing chamber 20, and the switching chamber 22. 48, 50) are installed. Based on the door open / close signals of each of the door switches 42 to 50, the control device 40 can detect which door of which storage chamber is open or closed. Further, the tag detection device 26 starts the operation state of each antenna 52 to 60 when the door switches 42 to 50 detect the open state of the door, and the door switches 42 to 50 close the door. When the state is detected, the operating state of each of the antennas 52 to 60 is stopped. This saves energy.

(3) Processing at the time of entry and exit of food

Next, based on FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the process of the refrigerator 10 at the time of entering and exiting goods is demonstrated. Fig. 5 is a process flow chart thereof, Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the state of food in and out, a side view of the refrigerating chamber 14, and an arrow indicating the movement of the food.

First, a description will be given of processing when a user stores food.

In step 1, when a user opens the door of the refrigerating compartment 14, the door switch 42 detects it and operates each antenna 52-60.

In step 2, when the user stores the food in the refrigerator compartment 14, the front antenna 52 near the opening receives the wireless tag information from the wireless tag 24 attached to the food.

In step 3, it is determined whether the rear antenna 54 has received the radio tag information of the food. That is, when the rear antenna 54 receives the wireless tag information, the user determines that the food is stored deeper and proceeds to step 4. On the other hand, when wireless tag information is not received within a predetermined time (for example, 10 seconds) in the rear antenna 54, it is determined that the user has stopped storing the food. This is the state of the arrow on the right side of (3) in FIG.

In step 4, when wireless tag information is received by the rear antenna 54 and not received by the front antenna 52 within a predetermined time, it is determined that the storing of food is completed. This is the state of the up arrow of (1) in FIG. The upper shelf antenna 56, the intermediate shelf antenna 58, and the lower shelf antenna 60 detect which shelf the food is stored in and store the storage position.

On the other hand, in step 4, when the wireless tag information is received again by the front antenna 52 within a predetermined time after receiving by the rear antenna 54, it is determined that the user has stopped storing food. This is the state of the up arrow of Fig. 6 (2).

Next, the process when a user takes out food is demonstrated.

In step 1, if the door of the refrigerating chamber 14 is opened, the process proceeds to step 5.

In step 5, if wireless tag information of the food to be carried out to the rear antenna 54 is received, the process proceeds to step 6.

In step 6, if wireless tag information of the food is received by the front antenna 52 within a predetermined time, the process proceeds to step 7. On the other hand, when the front antenna 52 does not receive the radio tag information of the food within a predetermined time, it is determined that the carrying out is stopped. This is the state of the lower arrow in Fig. 6 (3).

In step 7, if the wireless tag information of the food is not received again by the rear antenna 54 within a predetermined time, it is determined that the user has taken out the food. This is the state of Fig. 6 (1).

On the other hand, in step 7, when the wireless antenna tag information of the food is received again by the rear antenna 54, it is determined that the user has stopped the transport of the food. This is the state of the lower arrow in Fig. 6 (2).

6, the front antenna 52 and the rear antenna 54, even if the user holds the food in the refrigerator compartment 14 for a predetermined time when the user stores the food, as shown by the up and down arrows in FIG. When the wireless tag information is received in the order of &lt; RTI ID = 0.0 &gt; 1), &lt; / RTI &gt;

If the door of the refrigerating chamber 14 is closed after the stopping of the storage, the storing, the carrying out of the storage and the taking out of the storage in step 8 is completed, the operation of the antennas 52 to 60 is stopped to wireless tag information of the stored or taken out food. To the home server 30.

The home server 30 can read the information of the transmitted wireless tag and the wireless tag information of the food currently stored in the refrigerating chamber 14 on the liquid crystal display device 62. In particular, in the upper shelf antenna 56, the intermediate shelf antenna 58, and the lower shelf antenna 60, it is possible to detect which shelf the food is stored, so that the storage position of the food can also be browsed.

Second Embodiment

Next, 2nd Embodiment is described based on FIG.

The difference between the present embodiment and the first embodiment lies in that, in addition to the function of the first embodiment, the user can enter information necessary for the wireless tag 24 of food.

As shown in Fig. 7, the radio tag 24 has a fixed area and a user area, and data can be written for each user in the user area. Therefore, by specifying that the user writes the necessary writing information through the tag detecting apparatus 26 using the home server 30, the information required by the user can be written in the user area of the wireless tag 24. have. This makes it possible to make a distinction in each household or to manage foods of the user's own original.

[Change example]

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit thereof.

For example, the speaker 51 may be provided on the front surface of the door of the refrigerating chamber 14, and sound, voice, and music may be sounded whenever wireless tag information is received by each of the antennas 52 to 60. As a result, it is possible to know that the user has received the radio tag information, and it is possible to happily perform food material management without passing the food through the detection range several times or stopping the action from hassle.

The present invention is suitable for a domestic refrigerator.

In the refrigerator of the present invention, when the front antenna and the rear antenna are installed inside the storage compartment, when the wireless tag information is detected in the order of the front antenna and the rear antenna, it can be determined that food is stored. When the wireless tag information is detected, it can be determined that the goods are taken out. Therefore, the user does not need to manually input the food information for every entry and exit of the product.

Claims (7)

Storage room, A door for opening and closing the opening of the storage compartment; Door opening and closing detection means for detecting opening and closing of the door; An antenna for communicating with a wireless tag installed on food, A refrigerator having tag detecting means for detecting wireless tag information stored in the wireless tag from the antenna, The antenna is a front antenna near the opening and having a surface substantially parallel to the opening in a detection range, and a rear surface near the opening and rearward of the front antenna and substantially parallel to the opening in a detection range. Consisting of an antenna, The tag detecting means operates the front antenna and the rear antenna after the door open / close detection means detects the open state of the door, and when the wireless tag information is detected in the order of the front antenna and the rear antenna, And determining that food is to be taken out when the wireless tag information is detected in the order of the rear antenna and the front antenna. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag detecting means determines that the food is not stored when the wireless tag information is not received by the rear antenna within a predetermined time after detecting the wireless tag information by the front antenna. Featured refrigerator. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag detecting means determines that the food is not taken out when the wireless tag information is not received by the front antenna within a predetermined time after detecting the wireless tag information by the rear antenna. Featured refrigerator. The antenna of claim 1, wherein the antenna further has one or a plurality of area antennas, And the area antenna is behind the rear antenna and communicates with wireless tag information of the wireless tag in a predetermined area. The communication system according to claim 1, further comprising communication means for transmitting radio tag information to a home server, And the tag detecting means transmits the detected wireless tag information to the home server by the communication means. 6. The refrigerator according to claim 5, wherein the home server has display means for displaying the received wireless tag information. The refrigerator according to claim 5, wherein the home server can write arbitrary information in the user area of the wireless tag.

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