KR20160000931A

KR20160000931A - A SYSTEM FOR MANAGING FOOD KEEPING IN A REFRIGERATOR BY AN IoT AND THE REFRIGERATOR THEREOF

Info

Publication number: KR20160000931A
Application number: KR1020140078082A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 강태정
Original assignee: (주)한국크레딕라이프
Priority date: 2014-06-25
Filing date: 2014-06-25
Publication date: 2016-01-06

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system in which a user can easily manage the quality of food stored in a refrigerator and a refrigerator having such a function. The food management system stored in the refrigerator according to the present invention includes a refrigerator and a user equipment. The refrigerator reads an identifier for a food, extracts food name data from the identifier, and stores the shelf life or quality Calculating a validity date of the quality of the food based on the retrieved expiration date and the current date, storing the quality validity date and corresponding food name data, and comparing the food name data and the quality validity Date, and can communicate with the user equipment and the home appliance AS center system. The user device may include a user device capable of receiving the food name data and the quality effective date from the refrigerator, outputting the food name data and the quality effective date, and communicating with the refrigerator. Wherein the refrigerator searches for an effective date of the impending quality for a predetermined period of quality valid days and outputs the retrieved quality effective date together with the corresponding food name data.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a system for managing food stored in a refrigerator through Internet (IoT)

The present invention relates to a system in which a user can easily manage the quality of food stored in a refrigerator and a refrigerator having such a function.

The refrigerator is provided in most homes and offices, and is a device for storing food at low temperatures such as freezing or refrigeration so as not to cool or decay the food. The refrigerator is generally cooled continuously by repeating the compression process in the compressor, the condensation process in the condenser (radiator), the expansion process passing through the capillary, and the evaporation process in the evaporator.

It is necessary to recognize and memorize the information of the food stored when the user uses the refrigerator. However, if many foods are stored in the refrigerator, there is a problem that it is troublesome for the user to memorize such food storage information.

On the other hand, Article 10 of the Food Hygiene Law allows the Food and Drug Administration to announce the standards for the labeling of food for sale. Based on this, the Food and Drug Administration has established the " Manufacture, processing, subdivision and imported food are subject to expiration date. Retort food, beverages, sterilized products, kimchi, seafood, pickles, starch, etc. Quality shelf life is displayed, and agriculture, forestry, and aquatic products in the natural state are displayed as a product which can display the shelf life display indication, and the shelf life and the quality maintenance shelf life are shown in detail. Here, the shelf life means a shelf-life that is allowed to be sold to consumers from the date of manufacture of the product, and the shelf-life of the shelf-life refers to a period in which the inherent quality of the food can be maintained when the shelf- .

In the case of manufacturers who manufacture and sell food, it is not easy for consumers to recognize the expiration date or the quality maintenance period in accordance with the labeling method of the Food and Drug Administration. However, The fishery products (vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, shellfish, etc.) are not shown both the shelf life and the quality maintenance period, so it is troublesome to eat or cook as soon as possible.

Conventional patent application No. 10-2012-0071606 discloses a food management system based on purchasing information god recognition using a mobile terminal, and discloses a food management system by applying expiration dates according to information codes of receipts or information input from a user And Patent Application No. 10-2011-0094049, a refrigerator for easy food management, a food management server, and a food management method disclose a refrigerator that displays a shelf life of a food calculated on the basis of a recognized bar code. However, both of them have a limit in that they can not be applied to a product which does not show the expiration date separately (that is, a product that displays the quality maintenance period and a product that can display the expiration date display) because it considers only the expiration date.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of storing a quality effective date calculated according to a food quality and shelf life of each food stored in a refrigerator, .

It is another object of the present invention to provide a food management system that is housed in a refrigerator that sorts and stores articles stored in a refrigerator by an application of a user device communicable with the refrigerator by category, do.

In addition, the present invention can be applied to a home appliance (home appliances) by a near field communication (NFC) between a refrigerator and a user equipment, and further by Internet of Things (IoT; Internet of Everything And to transmit the message data to the AS center system so that the message data can be notified.

The refrigerator according to the present invention comprises: an identifier recognizing unit for reading an identifier for a food; A memory for storing a plurality of food names and a database of shelf life or quality for the plurality of food names; Extracting the food name data from the identifier, retrieving from the database stored in the memory a shelf life or a quality maintenance period corresponding to the food name data, and determining a quality effective date for the food based on the retrieved time limit and the current date A control unit for calculating And a display unit for outputting the food name data and the quality effective date for the food, and the memory further stores the food name data and the quality effective date for the food.

The refrigerator according to the present invention may further include a communication unit capable of communicating with the management server and transmitting and receiving the food name data and the quality effective date of the food to the user equipment, If the NFC module of the user equipment is recognized, the control unit generates message data indicating the failure of the refrigerator and forwards the message data to the communication unit, and the communication unit transmits the message data to the home appliance product center system And the database of the memory can be updated from the management server at predetermined intervals (for example, one week, one month, one month, etc.) through the communication unit.

The refrigerator according to the present invention may further include a voice input unit and a voice conversion unit for recognizing the voice input through the voice input unit and converting the voice into text data. In this case, Can be extracted. Meanwhile, the refrigerator according to the present invention may further include a keypad. In this case, the controller may further extract food name data from the data input through the keypad.

Further, the controller of the refrigerator according to the present invention searches for an imminent quality effective date for a preset period of quality valid dates stored in the memory, and forwards the retrieved quality valid date to the display unit together with the corresponding food name data do.

Meanwhile, the food management system stored in the refrigerator according to the present invention includes a refrigerator and a user equipment, wherein the refrigerator reads the identifier for the food, extracts the food name data from the identifier, Calculating a quality validity date for the food based on the retrieved expiration date and the current date, storing the quality validity date and corresponding food name data, Output the quality effective date, and be able to communicate with the user equipment and the home appliance AS center system. The user device may include a user device capable of receiving the food name data and the quality effective date from the refrigerator, outputting the food name data and the quality effective date, and communicating with the refrigerator. Wherein the refrigerator searches for an effective date of the impending quality for a predetermined period of quality valid days and outputs the retrieved quality effective date together with the corresponding food name data.

According to the present invention having the above-described characteristics, it is possible to store a database (a shelf life or quality maintenance period) stored in a memory of a refrigerator and a quality effective date calculated based on the current time for each food stored in the refrigerator, In this case, it is possible to take a fresh food to be stored in the refrigerator by engraving it to the user.

In addition, the communication unit of the refrigerator is mutually recognized by the NFC function or the object Internet (IoT) function with the user equipment, and the message data to notify that there is a failure in the refrigerator is transmitted to the home appliance product center System, there is an advantage that the user can conveniently manage the refrigerator.

1 is a front view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is an example of an identifier for a food that can be applied to an embodiment of the present invention, and shows a one-dimensional bar code.
Figure 4 is an example of a database maintained in a memory of a refrigerator according to one embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of calculating a quality effective date for a food in a controller of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is an exemplary screen displayed on a display unit of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is an exemplary screen output from a refrigerator food management application of a user equipment capable of communicating with a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a case where an NFC function of a refrigerator and a user equipment is activated according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention and a food management system stored in a refrigerator through mutual operation between a refrigerator and a user equipment will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, The present invention will be described in detail. It is to be understood, however, that the intention is not to limit the invention to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. In the meantime, the same or similar reference numerals are used for similar components while explaining each drawing.

1 is a front view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1, the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment are vertically divided. The refrigerator compartment door 101 is provided with a dispenser 1011 for allowing a user to take out beverages such as water without opening the refrigerator compartment door 101, And an input / output unit is provided on the upper side of the display unit 1011. Also, the position of the freezing chamber door 102 corresponding to the input / output unit provided in the refrigerating chamber door 101 is provided with an input / output unit. The input / output unit includes an identifier recognizing unit 10 and a display unit 40, and may optionally include a keypad 70 and a voice recognizing unit 80.

Although not shown in FIG. 1, which is a front view of the refrigerator, components of the refrigerator according to the present invention include a control unit, a refrigerator, A memory, and a communication unit. This will be described with reference to FIG.

2 is a block diagram of a refrigerator 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The refrigerator (100) comprises an identifier recognizing section (10) for reading an identifier for a food, a first database (21) having a plurality of food names and a corresponding shelf life or quality maintenance period and a plurality of food name data and a plurality of foods A memory 20 for holding a second database 22 for storing quality valid dates, a display unit 40 for outputting food name data and a quality effective date for the food, a management server 300, And a communication unit (50) capable of transmitting and receiving the food name data and the quality effective date of the food to the device (200).

The display unit 40 for outputting the food name data and the quality effective date for the food can be interlocked with the user device 200 so that the display unit 40 of the refrigerator 100 and / The name of the food stored in the actual refrigerator 100 among the food name data stored in the second database 22 of the refrigerator can be retrieved.

The refrigerator 100 may also include a controller 30. The controller 30 extracts food name data from the read identifier and stores the shelf life or quality maintenance period for the food name data in the memory 20 From the database 21, and calculate the quality effective date for the food based on the retrieved deadline and the current date. How the control unit 30 specifically calculates the quality effective date for the food will be described later.

When the communication unit 50 recognizes the NFC module of the user equipment, the control unit 30 generates message data indicating the failure of the refrigerator and forwards the message data to the communication unit 50. The communication unit 50 controls the message data (Not shown) through the server 300 to the household appliances AS center system (not shown).

2, the communication unit 50 is not limited to the NFC function, but may be an existing WPAN (Wireless Personal Network (E.g., Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc.), WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network (WIFI), etc.), MAN (Metropolitan Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network) .

In other words, not only the communication unit 50 in FIG. 2 but also the 'communication unit' to 'functional features responsible for the communication function' in the present specification may be a CDMA network such as UTRA, WCDMA, IS-2000 and cdma2000, An OFDMA network such as an E-UTRA, an IEEE 802.11, an IEEE 802.16, and an IEEE 802.16, and a functional part capable of data communication such as an LTE and an LTE-A, and can implement the Internet (IoT) function.

In particular, in the case of the Internet (IoT) function, the communication unit 50 is connected to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), One M2M, 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) IOT standard communication functions established by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), International Org. For Standardization (ISO), and so on.

2, the refrigerator 100 may further include a voice input unit and a voice conversion unit for recognizing the voice input through the voice input unit and converting the voice into text data. In this case, The control unit 30 can further extract the food name data from the text data. Similarly, the refrigerator 100 may further include a keypad, in which case the control unit may further extract food name data from the data entered via the keypad.

2, the identifier recognition unit 10, the memory 20, the control unit 30, the display unit 40, and the communication unit 50 are represented in a singular form. However, as described with reference to FIG. 1, The refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment.

The user device 200 may be any device capable of communicating with the communication unit 50 of the refrigerator 100, such as a smart phone, a tablet PC, a notebook, and the like. In addition to the above-described NFC function, the user can receive the food name data and the quality effective date from the refrigerator 100 through the refrigerator food management application (tentative name) of the user device 200, and output it by category, food name, or quality effective date. The function of the user device 200 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The management server 300 may transmit fault message data from the refrigerator 100 to the household appliances AS center system in the NFC function of the refrigerator and the user equipment, (21), that is, a plurality of food names and the corresponding shelf life or quality maintenance period can be automatically updated at predetermined intervals.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a one-dimensional barcode as an example of an identifier for a food that can be applied to an embodiment of the present invention. The identifier may be, for example, a one-dimensional bar code or a two-dimensional bar code, and may be information in which a code is given in a certain manner according to information of a product. It should be noted that the barcode shown in FIG. 3 is an example of 'an identifier for food' for the sake of understanding of the present invention, but is not intended to limit the identifier to a one-dimensional barcode.

One-dimensional barcodes used in Korea are granted according to the Global Standard No. 1 (GS1) system at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) and the European Article Number (EAN) used for retail products may vary slightly, but the GTIN-13 is common worldwide, the EAN-13 is the standard, and the GTIN and EAN A 13-digit format is commonly used, and FIG. 3 shows an example according to EAN-13.

As shown in FIG. 3, the area (31) is a three-digit country indicating the country, and 880 is the country. (32) area is a four-digit number indicating the manufacturer code, (33) area is a five-digit number indicating the own commodity code, and (34) area is a one-digit verification code. (32) and (33) are applied to the management organizations for each manufacturer (Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Distribution and Distribution Promotion Agency). If the one-dimensional barcode is read from the identifier recognition unit of the refrigerator according to the present invention, the controller of the refrigerator according to the present invention extracts the food name data from the (32) region and the (33) can do.

Figure 4 is an example of a database maintained in a memory of a refrigerator according to one embodiment of the present invention. The database may store a plurality of food names and a shelf life or quality shelf life for the plurality of food names arranged and stored.

As exemplified in Fig. 4, the food names of the database include kimchi, tofu, lettuce, spaghetti sauce, cucumber, milk, etc. to distinguish natural farming, forestry, marine products, manufacturing, processing, Can be stored. In addition, the database may be provided with information on the shelf life or quality maintenance period specified by the Food and Drug Administration, such as "indication standards for foods", "shelf life and quality maintenance time limit indication guidelines" in response to corresponding food names. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the quality maintenance period of the kimchi produced and sold is 60 days, the tofu shelf life is 5 days, the lettuce quality maintenance period is 7 days, the quality maintenance period of spaghetti sauce is 90 days, The shelf life is set in the database, such as 9 days, and the milk shelf life is 3 days.

On the other hand, the update date can be recorded together on the database, and in the example of FIG. 4, the date of the latest update is shown on April 1, 2014. The database of such memory may be updated every predetermined period (e.g., one week, one week, one month, etc.) from the management server to which the communication unit of the refrigerator can be connected. For example, if the predetermined period for the database illustrated in FIG. 4 is one month, it will be updated on May 1 and June 1.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method of calculating a quality effective date for food in a controller (30 of FIG. 2) of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention. And the food name data is extracted from the identifier read out by the identifier recognition unit of the refrigerator (step 51). Then, the first database (21 in Fig. 2; Fig. 4) of the memory is accessed and the name of the food matching the extracted food name data is retrieved (step 52). Next, the expiration date or quality maintenance period corresponding to the food name retrieved on the first database (21 in FIG. 2) is forwarded to the control section (30 in FIG. 2) (step 53). Then, the controller (30 in FIG. 2) calculates the quality effective date for the food based on the retrieved time limit and the current date (step 54).

For example, in connection with the database illustrated in FIG. 4, if the food name data extracted from the read out identifier is 'cucumber', 'cucumber' is a display target of 'quality maintenance period' And the term for maintaining the quality is indicated as 9 days in Fig. If so, the 9th date is forwarded to the control section (30 in FIG. 2) of the refrigerator and the quality valid date for the cucumber based on the retrieved date (9 days) and the current date (assuming the current date is April 4, 2014) Is calculated as April 13.

6 is an exemplary screen displayed on a display unit of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention. The display unit 50 may be any electronic display device capable of visually implementing data such as an LCD, an LED, and an OLED, by way of example and not limitation.

On the other hand, according to the display unit 50 exemplified in Fig. 6, the food whose impending quality date is within one day on the basis of the current date March 5 is pork and fried meat, and the quality effective date is within 3 days The food is informing the user that it is fish cake. FIG. 6 is an example only, and it is possible to display all the foods stored in the refrigerator according to the setting state, both the food name and the quality effective date.

Specifically, the control unit 30 of the refrigerator reads out, from the second database (the food name data and the quality effective date for the food) stored in the memory 20, a predetermined period (for example, one day, two days, 3 days, etc.), and forwards the searched quality valid date to the display unit 40 together with the corresponding food name data. The display unit 40 can output the forwarded food name and the quality effective date.

Such a display unit 40 can be confirmed by the user equipment through the refrigerator food management application of the user equipment communicable with the refrigerator. At this time, not only the output through the display unit of the user device but also the pop-up expression notification is given through the user device at a predetermined time or predetermined predetermined period, so that the food name data in which the quality effective date is imminent, Lt; / RTI >

7 is an exemplary screen output from a refrigerator food management application of a user equipment capable of communicating with a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention. User device 200 may be any device capable of communicating with refrigerator 100, such as, but not limited to, a smart phone, a tablet PC, a notebook, and the like. The user device 200 can receive the food name data and the quality effective date from the refrigerator and output the food name and the validity date of the food by the category 71, the name of the food 72, or the quality effective date 73. In the example shown, if today's date is March 5, and the user selects it to confirm 73 by quality valid date, the food name is output in order of the impending quality valid date. For example, a food having a validity date of March 6 may be output in the form of pork and fried meat, a food having a quality effective date of March 8, a fish cake, and a food having a quality effective date of March 9, in the form of milk. According to the user's choice, the effective date of food and quality can be identified (seafood, meat, vegetables, processed food, etc.), by food name, or by quality effective date.

As described above with reference to Fig. 2, since the user device shown in Fig. 7 is capable of communicating with the refrigerator, it is possible to transmit actual food among the food name data stored in the second database (for example, 22 in Fig. 2) It is of course possible to search for food names stored in the refrigerator.

Further, when the "AS notification" 74 is selected in the refrigerator food management application of the user equipment, the NFC function of the user equipment is activated and can perform close communication with the communication unit of the refrigerator. How this works in this case will be described later in Fig.

Meanwhile, although not shown in the embodiment of the refrigerator food management application of FIG. 7, the refrigerator food management application according to another embodiment of the present invention is associated with the shopping mall so that the quality valid date information is stored in the present refrigerator It is possible to purchase goods in real time in connection with a shopping mall so that the purchase of necessary food can be easily performed.

As described above, the shopping mall that can be interlocked by the refrigerator food management application according to another embodiment of the present invention may be an arbitrary shopping mall preset by the management server of the application and accessible by the communication network.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a case where an NFC function of a refrigerator and a user equipment is activated according to an embodiment of the present invention. The communication unit 50 of the refrigerator has the NFC function and can activate the NFC function through the AS notification menu on the application of the user device 200 (as described in FIG. 7) have. When the communication unit of the refrigerator recognizes the local communication function between the communication unit and the user equipment (step 81), the communication unit 50 notifies the control unit 30 of the refrigerator and the control unit generates message data indicating the failure of the refrigerator 82). Then, the message data generated in the control unit is forwarded to the communication unit 50 (step 83), and the communication unit transmits the message data to the home appliance product AS center system through the management server 300 (step 84).

If there is an abnormality in the refrigerator due to the NFC function of the refrigerator and the user equipment, the user selects the AS notification in the user equipment, activates the NFC function, and tags the user equipment in the refrigerator. Can cope.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical example embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, will be.

100: Refrigerator
200: User device
300: management server
10:
20: Memory
21: First database
22: Second database
30:
40:
50:

Claims

An identifier recognizing unit for reading an identifier for the food;
A memory for storing a plurality of food names and a database of shelf life or quality for the plurality of food names;
Extracting the food name data from the identifier, retrieving from the database stored in the memory a shelf life or a quality maintenance period corresponding to the food name data, and determining a quality effective date for the food based on the retrieved time limit and the current date A control unit for calculating And
And a display unit for outputting the food name data and the quality effective date for the food,
Wherein the memory further has a second database for storing the food name data and the quality effective date for the food,
Refrigerator.

The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising a communication unit capable of communicating with the management server and capable of transmitting and receiving the food name data and the quality effective date for the food,
If the NFC module of the user equipment is recognized through the Near Field Communication (NFC) module of the communication unit,
Wherein the control unit generates message data indicating a failure of the refrigerator and forwards the message data to the communication unit, and the communication unit transmits the message data to the home appliance product center system through the management server.
Refrigerator.

3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the database of the memory is updateable from the management server through the communication unit every predetermined period,
Refrigerator.

The method of claim 3,
A voice input unit; And
Further comprising: a voice conversion unit for recognizing a voice input through the voice input unit and converting the voice into text data,
And the control unit further extracts food name data from the text data.
Refrigerator.

Extracting food name data from the identifier, searching for a shelf life or quality maintenance period corresponding to the food name data from the first database, and determining a quality of the food based on the retrieved expiration date and the current date, Storing the quality valid date and the corresponding food name data in a second database, searching for an impending quality effective date by a preset period of the quality effective date, and comparing the retrieved quality effective date with corresponding food name data A refrigerator capable of outputting together and communicating with a user device and an appliance center AS center system;
And a user device capable of receiving the food name data and the quality effective date from the refrigerator and outputting the food name data and the quality effective date and communicating with the refrigerator,
Food management system stored in refrigerator.