KR20110096670A - A refrigerator and control method the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a refrigerator and a method of controlling the refrigerator.
In the refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, a storage compartment for storing the storage; An evaporator in which a refrigerant is evaporated to supply cold air to the storage compartment; A heating unit for performing defrost of the evaporator; An imaging device provided at one side of the evaporator and operable to photograph the evaporator; And a controller configured to determine the amount of implantation of the evaporator from the image acquired by the photographing apparatus, and to control the heating unit to operate when the amount of implantation exceeds a preset amount.
According to the refrigerator according to the present embodiment, it is possible to photograph the frost imaged on the evaporator using the photographing apparatus and to determine the amount of implantation based on the photographed image.

Description

A refrigerator and control method the same}

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a refrigerator and a method of controlling the refrigerator.

In general, a refrigerator is a device that can keep food fresh for a certain period of time by cooling a storage compartment, that is, a freezer compartment or a refrigerating compartment while repeating a freezing cycle. The refrigeration cycle includes a compressor, a condenser, expansion means and an evaporator.

The refrigerator includes a main body that forms a storage space and a door that selectively shields the main body. A storage is stored in the storage space, and a user may open the door to take out the storage.

On the other hand, the evaporator is a heat exchange device for supplying cold air to the freezer compartment or the refrigerating compartment. When the evaporator is used for a long time, a phenomenon occurs in which wet air is frozen on the outside of the evaporator to form an idea.

According to the conventional refrigerator, there is a problem that the heat exchange efficiency of the evaporator is lowered due to the conception of the evaporator surface, and thus cold air is not easily supplied to the storage compartment.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator that can effectively defrost the evaporator is made.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator which can sense the amount of frost formed on the evaporator using the photographing means.

In the refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, a storage compartment for storing the storage; An evaporator in which a refrigerant is evaporated to supply cold air to the storage compartment; A heating unit for performing defrost of the evaporator; An imaging device provided at one side of the evaporator and operable to photograph the evaporator; And a controller configured to determine the amount of implantation of the evaporator from the image acquired by the photographing apparatus, and to control the heating unit to operate when the amount of implantation exceeds a preset amount.

In another embodiment, a control method of a refrigerator includes: driving a compressor to perform heat exchange of an evaporator; Photographing unit photographing the evaporator if a preset condition is satisfied; Extracting a pixel value corresponding to the idea of the evaporator by applying a binarization technique from the image of the evaporator; And defrosting the evaporator by driving a defrost heater when the pixel value is equal to or greater than a preset value.

According to the refrigerator according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to photograph the frost imaged on the evaporator using the photographing apparatus and to determine the amount of implantation based on the captured image.

In addition, the frost and the background can be distinguished from the image acquired by the photographing apparatus by an image processing technique, particularly a binarization technique, and the actual amount of implantation can be accurately determined according to the number of pixels brighter than the reference value.

In addition, since defrosting may be selectively performed according to the actual amount of implantation, unnecessary defrosting may be prevented and power consumption may be reduced.

1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a view illustrating a state in which a cover plate is removed with respect to the portion “A” of FIG. 1.
Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flow chart showing the operation of the refrigerator according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a refrigerator according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flow chart showing the operation of the refrigerator according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings will be described a specific embodiment of the present invention. However, the spirit of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments presented, and those skilled in the art who understand the spirit of the present invention can easily suggest other embodiments within the scope of the same idea.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a view illustrating a state in which a cover plate is removed with respect to a portion “A” of FIG. 1.

1 and 2, the refrigerator 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a main body 10 in which a storage compartment is formed and a front surface thereof is opened. The storage compartment includes a freezing compartment 11 and a refrigerating compartment 12, and the freezing compartment 11 and the refrigerating compartment 12 may be partitioned by a partition 15.

In addition, the main body 10 includes an inner case 10a that forms at least one surface of the storage compartment. The inner appearance of the storage compartment may be defined by the inner case 10a.

The refrigerator 1 includes a freezing compartment door 21 and a refrigerating compartment door 22 which are rotatably coupled to the front of the main body 10 and selectively shield the freezing compartment 11 and the refrigerating compartment 12, respectively. do.

In the present embodiment, a bottom freezer type in which a freezer compartment is formed at the bottom and a refrigerator compartment is formed at the top will be described as an example. However, the idea of the present invention is not only the structure of the refrigerator, but also a top mount type in which a freezer compartment is formed at the top and a refrigerator compartment is formed at the bottom, or a side by side in which the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment are provided at the left and right sides. Note that this also applies to types.

In detail, the storage chamber includes a shelf 52 in which the storage can be stored and a storage box 54 which is provided to be retractable. In addition, a plurality of door baskets 56 may be provided on the rear surfaces of the doors 21 and 22 to store the storage.

On the other hand, the freezing chamber 11 is provided with a cold air discharge unit 32 for discharging the cold air generated in the evaporator 100 to the freezing chamber 11. The cold air discharge part 32 may be provided on the rear portion of the freezing compartment 11 and may be formed on the cover plate 30. In addition, the evaporator 100 is disposed at the rear of the cover plate 30.

The cover plate 30 is provided with a cold air inlet 31 for allowing cold air circulating in the freezer compartment 11 to flow into the evaporator 100. The cold air inlet 31 may be formed under the cover plate 30.

The cold air generated in the evaporator 100 is discharged to the freezing chamber 11 through the cold air discharge unit 32, and the cold air circulated in the freezing chamber 11 is discharged through the cold air inlet 31. It may be moved to 100) and cooled again.

The evaporator 100 includes a refrigerant pipe 110 through which a refrigerant flows, and a cooling fin 120 into which the refrigerant pipe 110 is inserted and to facilitate heat exchange between the refrigerant and ambient air.

The refrigerant passing through the refrigerant pipe 110 may flow to the compressor (not shown) via the gas-liquid separator 180.

In addition, the lower side of the evaporator 100, a heating unit 140 is provided to remove frost formed on the surface of the evaporator 100. The heat generating unit 140 may include a defrost heater. The heat generating unit 140 may be operated while the heat exchange in the evaporator 200 is stopped, and may remove frost by supplying heat to the evaporator 240.

Below the evaporator 100, a defrost water receiver 130 is provided in which defrost water generated in the defrost process of the evaporator 100 collects.

On the other hand, on one side of the evaporator 100, a photographing apparatus 200 for photographing the evaporator 100 is provided.

In detail, the photographing apparatus 200 includes an image of the evaporator 100, that is, a coolant pipe 110 and a cooling fin 120 constituting the evaporator 100, and a shape of frost formed on the evaporator 100. It includes a photographing unit 210 for photographing, and an illumination unit 220 provided on one side of the photographing unit 210 and emitting light toward the evaporator 100.

A heater (not shown) may be provided around the lens (not shown) or the lighting unit 220 provided in the photographing unit 210. Since the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 may be exposed to a low temperature environment and frost may be caught, the heater may be driven periodically or at a specific time to prevent the formation of frost.

The lighting unit 220 includes an LED. The lighting unit 220 may be turned on at the time point at which the photographing unit 210 is photographed, and may be maintained in an OFF state when the photographing unit 210 is not photographed.

In the present exemplary embodiment, the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 are described as being separately configured. Alternatively, the lighting unit 220 may be formed integrally with the photographing unit 210.

That is, the lighting unit 220 may be provided in the photographing unit 210, and may be simultaneously driven on at the time when the photographing of the photographing unit 210 is performed.

3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a refrigerator according to the first embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of the refrigerator according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

3 and 4, the refrigerator 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a photographing unit 210 and an illumination unit 220 for photographing the evaporator 100, and the photographing unit 210. ) And a timer 280 for determining a driving time of the lighting unit 220, a heating unit 140 for generating heat for defrosting the evaporator 100, and a control unit 250 for controlling these components.

The timer 280 may count elapsed time after the refrigeration cycle is driven in the refrigerator 1, for example, when the refrigerator is turned on or a compressor (not shown) is started.

When the time counted by the timer 280 reaches a preset time, the controller 250 may control operations of the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220. The preset time may have one time value. In this case, the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 may be operated at regular time intervals.

As described above, since the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 are selectively driven according to a preset condition (time), power consumption can be reduced.

If it is determined that more than a predetermined amount of frost has occurred from the image acquired by the photographing unit 210, the controller 250 may drive the heat generating unit 140 to melt and remove frost formed on the evaporator 100. have.

Hereinafter, a process of determining the amount of frost from the image acquired by the photographing unit 210 will be described.

The original image obtained by the operation of the photographing unit 210 includes frost (object) implanted in the evaporator 100 and a background other than the frost. The background may include an image of the refrigerant pipe 110 and the cooling fin 120 constituting the evaporator 100, or the surroundings of the evaporator 100.

In this case, the frost may have a high brightness value, that is, a bright color compared to the background. In order to separate the frost from the background, an image processing method, in particular binarization, may be applied to obtain a pixel value proportional to the amount of implantation of the evaporator 100.

The term "binarization technique" means the operation of dividing (dividing) a pixel into 0 and 1 (or 255) according to a brightness value of an image (image). By the binarization technique, an object (object) contained in an image may be separated from a background.

In the present embodiment, the object may correspond to frost, and the background may correspond to an ambient image other than frost.

In order to separate the frost from the background, a threshold which is a reference is defined. A pixel having a brightness value higher than the threshold value is recognized as 255, and a pixel having a brightness value lower than the threshold value is recognized as 0.

For example, when one pixel of the image acquired through the photographing unit 210 has brightness 150 and the threshold is set to 120, the one pixel may be recognized as 255 and may be determined to be frost.

On the other hand, when another pixel has a brightness of 110 with respect to the threshold value 120, the other pixel may be recognized as 0 and determined to be a background. For convenience of explanation, hereinafter, a pixel corresponding to 255 is referred to as a "bright pixel", and a pixel corresponding to 0 is referred to as a "dark pixel".

The threshold may be set to an appropriate value in consideration of the brightness of the background and frost around the evaporator 100. In addition, the threshold value may be preset and stored in the controller 250.

In addition, the binarization technique is programmed and stored in the controller 250, and the controller 250 applies light and dark pixels to the image obtained by the photographing unit 210 by applying the binarization technique. Separate. The bright pixels correspond to the frost, and the dark pixels correspond to the background.

Since the number of the bright pixels, that is, the pixel value corresponding to the idea of the evaporator 100 is proportional to the amount of frost formed on the evaporator 100, when the number of the bright pixels is detected to be greater than or equal to a preset number, the evaporator It can be determined that more than a certain amount of frost is implanted in the (100).

At this time, the controller 250 may control the heat generating unit 140 to perform a defrosting operation.

With reference to FIG. 4, the control method of the refrigerator 1 which concerns on this embodiment is demonstrated.

When the refrigerator is powered on or the compressor starts up, a refrigeration cycle is run through which the refrigerant passes through the compressor, condenser, expander and evaporator. Here, the evaporator 100 functions to evaporate the refrigerant passing through the expansion device (S11).

When the refrigeration cycle is driven, the timer 280 measures the driving time of the cycle. Then, it is determined whether the driving time measured by the timer 280 has elapsed a predetermined time (S12, S13).

When the measured driving time passes a preset time, the lighting unit 220 is turned on, and the photographing unit 210 operates to capture frost and the surrounding background imaged on the evaporator 100. However, if the measured driving time has not passed the preset time, the process returns to the step S12 (S14, S15).

When the photographing of the photographing unit 210 is completed, the power of the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 is turned off. By such a control, there is an advantage that unnecessary power consumption can be prevented (S16).

A binarization technique is applied to an image obtained by imaging of the photographing unit 210. When a binarization technique is applied to the image, the frost of the evaporator 100 is defined as light pixels, and the background other than frost is defined as dark pixels. The amount of implantation of the evaporator 100 may be determined according to the number of bright pixels (S17, S18).

When it is determined that the number of bright pixels is equal to or greater than the preset number of pixels, that is, when the amount of implantation of the evaporator 100 is determined to be equal to or greater than a preset value (amount), the heat generating unit 140 is operated to perform defrosting of the evaporator. Can be. However, if it is determined that the amount of implantation of the evaporator 100 is smaller than the preset value (amount), it may return to the step S12 (S19, S20).

According to such a configuration and control method, according to the operation of the photographing apparatus 200, the amount of frost actually implanted on the evaporator 100 can be detected, and the defrosting effect can be performed according to the detected amount. have.

Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Since the present embodiment differs from the driving time of the photographing apparatus in comparison with the first embodiment, the description will be mainly focused on the differences, and the same reference numerals are used to describe the first embodiment.

5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a refrigerator according to a second embodiment of the present invention, Figure 6 is a flow chart showing the operation of the refrigerator according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the refrigerator 1 according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a photographing unit 210 in which imaging is performed, and the evaporator 100 for easy imaging of the photographing unit 210. A lighting unit 220 for illuminating and a heating unit 140 for generating heat for defrosting the evaporator 100 is included.

In addition, the refrigerator 1 includes a timer 280 that counts operation time of the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220, and a door switch 290 that detects whether the doors 21 and 22 are opened. And a controller 250 for controlling these configurations.

Referring to FIG. 6, a control method of the refrigerator according to the present embodiment will be described.

After the refrigerator is turned on, the number of openings of the doors 21 and 22 may be sensed by the door switch 290 while the refrigeration cycle is driven.

When the doors 21 and 22 are frequently opened, wet air having a predetermined humidity is introduced into the storage chambers 11 and 12, and the introduced wet air is more likely to land on the evaporator 100 in a low temperature environment. (S21, S22).

When the number of openings of the doors 21 and 22 reaches a preset number of times, the lighting unit 220 is turned on, and the photographing unit 210 operates to capture frost and the surrounding background imaged on the evaporator 100. do.

That is, the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 may be operated according to a preset condition, that is, whether the number of openings of the doors 21 and 22 reaches a preset number of times.

On the other hand, if the number of openings of the doors 21 and 22 does not reach the preset number of times, the process returns to the step S22 (S23, S24 and S25).

When the photographing of the photographing unit 210 is completed, the power of the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 is turned off. By such a control, there is an advantage that unnecessary power consumption can be prevented (S26).

The amount of implantation of the evaporator 100 is determined by applying a binarization technique to the image obtained by the imaging of the photographing unit 210 (S27 and S28).

When it is determined that the amount of implantation of the evaporator 100 is greater than or equal to a preset value (amount), the heat generating unit 140 is operated to perform defrosting of the evaporator (S29 and S30).

However, if it is determined that the amount of implantation of the evaporator 100 is smaller than a predetermined value (amount), the subsequent refrigeration cycle driving time is measured by the timer 280 (S31).

If the time measured by the timer 280 is a predetermined time elapses, the process returns to step S24 and the operation of the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 is performed (S32). Then, the steps of S24 to S30 are performed again.

Another embodiment is proposed.

In the present exemplary embodiment, the operation of the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 is controlled according to the number of openings of the doors 21 and 22 by using the door switch 290. The operation may be controlled according to the opening time.

That is, when the opening time of the doors 21 and 22 passes a predetermined time, the photographing unit 210 and the lighting unit 220 may operate to obtain frost and background images of the evaporator 100. . In addition, the amount of implantation of the evaporator 100 may be determined from the obtained image, and the operation of the heating unit 140 may be controlled.

100: evaporator 130: defrost water receiver
140: heat generating unit 200: recording device
210: photographing unit 220: lighting unit
280: timer 290: door switch

Claims (11)

A storage room in which the storage is stored;
An evaporator in which a refrigerant is evaporated to supply cold air to the storage compartment;
A heating unit for performing defrost of the evaporator;
An imaging device provided at one side of the evaporator and operable to photograph the evaporator; And
And a controller configured to determine an amount of implantation of the evaporator from the image acquired by the photographing apparatus, and to control the heating unit to operate when the amount of implantation exceeds a preset amount. The method of claim 1,
In the imaging device,
A photographing unit for photographing frost and surrounding background imaged on the evaporator; And
The refrigerator further includes an illumination unit for emitting light toward the evaporator in the process of capturing the photographing unit. The method of claim 2,
And the photographing unit or the lighting unit is turned on when a predetermined condition is met. The method of claim 3, wherein
A door is further included to selectively shield the storage compartment.
The preset condition includes a preset time or a preset number of openings of the door. The method of claim 1,
And the control unit applies image processing to obtain a pixel value proportional to the amount of implantation of the evaporator. The method of claim 1,
In the image processing,
In order to determine the amount of implantation of the evaporator, a refrigerator comprising a binarization (separation) to separate the frost and other images from the obtained image. A compressor is driven to perform heat exchange of the evaporator;
Photographing unit photographing the evaporator if a preset condition is satisfied;
Extracting a pixel value corresponding to the idea of the evaporator by applying a binarization technique from the image of the evaporator; And
And driving the defrost heater to defrost the evaporator if the pixel value is greater than or equal to a preset value. The method of claim 7, wherein
In the photographing unit photographing the evaporator,
And a lighting unit emits light toward the evaporator. The method of claim 8,
The photographing unit and the lighting unit,
The control method of the refrigerator, characterized in that to operate periodically when a predetermined time has passed since the compressor is driven. The method of claim 7, wherein
Extracting the pixel value,
And dividing the imaged frost of the evaporator and other images based on a predetermined threshold value. The method of claim 7, wherein
And the pixel value is increased in proportion to frost formed on the evaporator.

Images