KR20170060713A

KR20170060713A - Refrigerators are available inside perspective

Info

Publication number: KR20170060713A
Application number: KR1020150165197A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 한동균
Original assignee: 롯데알미늄 주식회사
Priority date: 2015-11-25
Filing date: 2015-11-25
Publication date: 2017-06-02

Abstract

It is possible to confirm the food stored in the refrigerator from the outside even when the door is not opened and to provide the user with the information on whether or not the food is stored and the location when the user requests the refrigerator, An input unit for an operation for internal perspective, a camera angle adjustment signal input, and a storage food search information input; A camera for photographing the food stored in the compartment; A control unit for separately displaying food images photographed by the camera for each region; And a display device provided outside the refrigerator and displaying an image of the stored food under the control of the controller, thereby implementing a refrigerator capable of internal vision.

Description

[0002] Refrigerators are available inside perspective [0003]

The present invention relates to a refrigerator capable of inspecting an inside of a refrigerator, and more particularly, it is possible to confirm the food stored in the refrigerator from the outside even when the door is not opened, and it is possible to prevent waste of energy The present invention relates to a refrigerator capable of performing internal inspection so as to facilitate convenience in use.

The refrigerator is a device that prevents food from being stored at low temperature to prevent corruption and deterioration. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing trend of functional refrigerators having various functions as well as refrigerated storage.

A general refrigerator includes a top mount type in which a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment, which are storage compartments for storing foods, are divided into upper and lower portions and a freezing compartment is disposed on the upper side of the refrigerating compartment; Type (Side By Side-Type) refrigerators.

The main body of the refrigerator includes an outer case which forms an overall appearance when viewed from the outside and an inner case which forms a storage room for storing food therein. A passage may be formed in which a predetermined space is formed between the outer case and the inner case to circulate cool air. In addition, a heat insulating material is filled between the outer case and the inner case so that the inside of the storage compartment is relatively

It is possible to maintain the low temperature.

To identify the food stored in the refrigerator, the user opens the door and visually inspects the food stored in the freezer and freezer compartments. In the case of a refrigerator having a large number of stored foods and a wide width, the food stored in the front side is taken out, while the food stored in the rear side is checked to confirm the stored food.

The prior art for a refrigerator has been disclosed in the following Patent Documents 1 to 3.

The prior art disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a storage chamber for storing food; And a groove bar for communicating a part of the storage chamber with the outside, wherein the groove bar includes a groove bar weight sensing unit for measuring a weight, which is first information on the food, and a code including second information on the food, And a home bar code recognition unit for recognizing the home bar code.

Such a refrigerator and its control method makes it easy to manage the stored food or the food to be stored. Further, based on the stored food, cooking information such as a recipe and the like can be provided and user convenience can be increased.

In the conventional art disclosed in Patent Document 2, water or ice can be selectively taken out by only one operation using the water nozzle and one operation lever provided below the ice nozzle, thereby improving the usability of the dispenser.

In the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Document 3, a second hinge including a hinge shaft provided at a lower portion of a first groove bar and a hinge groove formed at an upper portion of a second groove bar is formed, and the hinge shaft is inserted into the hinge groove The number of necessary parts is reduced by using the structure to be fitted, and the refrigerator can be easily assembled and disassembled since it is a simple structure.

Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2015-0124155 (published on May 5, 2015) (Name of invention: refrigerator and control method thereof) Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2015-0121627 (published on October 20, 2015) (Name of invention: refrigerator) Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2014-0046555 (published on Apr. 18, 2014) (Name of invention: refrigerator)

However, the above conventional arts have a disadvantage in that the food stored in the freezing compartment or the freezing compartment can not be confirmed from the outside without opening the door.

Also, in the related art, since the user opens the door to check the food stored in the freezing room or the freezing room and checks the food stored in the naked eye, frequent opening of the door causes a cold loss, There are disadvantages.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator which can confirm the food stored in the refrigerator from the outside even when the door is not opened, The present invention has been made to provide a refrigerator capable of providing internal information and providing convenience in use.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator capable of inspecting food stored in a refrigerator from the outside even when the door is not opened and reducing the number of times of opening of the door to prevent energy wastage, .

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigerator comprising: an input unit for inputting information for searching for stored food; A camera for photographing the food stored in the compartment; A control unit for separately displaying food images photographed by the camera for each region; And a display device provided outside the refrigerator and displaying an image of the stored food under the control of the control unit.

The plurality of cameras are installed in the refrigerator compartments and the freezer compartments separated by regions.

The refrigerator according to the present invention may further include a storage unit for storing the information of the stored food inputted through the input unit under the control of the control unit. The stored food information includes food name and storage location information .

If the user inputs a food name and requests a search through the input unit, the control unit searches the storage unit to extract the food name, extracts position information corresponding to the food name, and displays the extracted food name on the display device .

The refrigerator according to the present invention further includes camera angle adjusting means for adjusting the angle of the camera according to a user's control command through the input unit.

Further, the refrigerator according to the present invention further includes an interior light for illuminating the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment even when the door is closed. The interior light may be turned on or off according to an external operation, Is turned on.

According to the present invention, it is possible to identify food stored in the refrigerator from the outside even when the door is not opened, and it is possible to provide food storage and location information at the request of the user, which is advantageous in convenience of use.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the food stored in the refrigerator can be identified from the outside even when the door is not opened, there is an advantage that power consumption can be reduced by reducing the number of door openings and preventing waste of energy.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a refrigerator capable of internal vision in the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a refrigerator capable of internal vision according to the present invention.
FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate examples of camera installation positions in the present invention. FIG.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, a refrigerator capable of internal vision according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic perspective view of a refrigerator capable of internal vision according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The refrigerator (1) according to the present invention has a display device (20) for checking information of food stored in a refrigerator at a predetermined position of the door (10) from the outside without opening the door (10) Respectively.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a refrigerator capable of internal vision in accordance with the present invention. The refrigerator includes an input unit 30, a light switch 40, a control unit 50, a camera 60, a camera angle adjusting unit 70, 80, and an interior light 90.

The input unit 30 is an input device for an operation for inserting a refrigerator, a camera angle adjustment signal input, and a storage food search information input. The input unit 30 may be provided at a predetermined position of the door 10 or may be used as an input device when the display device 20 is implemented with a touch panel.

The interior light switch 40 is an operation switch for manually controlling the interior light 90, which is an illumination separately provided in the refrigerating and freezing rooms. When the light switch 40 is implemented as a separate switch or when the display device 20 is implemented as a touch panel, the switch may be used as a switch.

The camera 60 serves to shoot food stored in the hood. The camera 60 may be provided on the upper front surface of the hood to photograph the entire area of the refrigerating compartment and the freezing compartment. The refrigerating compartment and the freezing compartment may be divided into a plurality of areas, and only the respective areas may be installed.

The camera angle adjusting unit 70 adjusts the angle of the camera 60 according to a user's control command through the input unit 30. [ The camera angle adjusting means 70 may adjust the angle of the camera 60 under the control of the controller 50. When the user adjusts the angle of the camera 60 through the input unit 30, it is preferable that the angle of the camera is adjusted by viewing the image state of each region photographed through the display device 20. The angle of the camera can be adjusted up, down, left, right.

The interior light 90 is a lamp that provides lighting for the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment even when the door 10 is closed. Generally, it plays a different role from the interior light (high light) provided in the refrigerator. In general, the interior light provided in the refrigerator is lit only when the door is opened and automatically turned off when the door is closed, but the added interior light 90 is used for photographing the food stored in the refrigerator by the camera 60 It is lighting. The interior light 90 can be turned on or off according to the external operation of the light switch 40. In the automatic mode, the interior light 90 can be controlled to be turned on for a predetermined period of time after the door is opened and closed.

The storage unit 80 stores the information of the stored food inputted through the input unit 30 under the control of the controller 50 and stores the image information photographed by the camera 60. [ Here, the information on the stored food may include food name and storage location information.

The control unit 50 controls the display of food images photographed by the camera 60 for each region. When the user inputs a food name through the input unit 30 and requests a search, the control unit 50 searches the storage unit 80 to extract the food name, and obtains the position information corresponding to the food name And controls the display device 20 to display it.

The operation of the refrigerator according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3B.

First, in a state where the camera 60 for photographing the food stored in the freezing compartment and the freezing compartment is installed at an appropriate position inside the refrigerator 1, the user stores the food in a desired position in order to store the food in the refrigerator 1 . Then, food name and location information for the food are input through the input unit 30. Here, the positional information may be referred to as positional information in a state in which the refrigerator is divided into a plurality of regions. The location information is predetermined for each area. In order to allow the user to input the location information more conveniently, the display device 20 displays drawing information in which the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment are separated in advance by the display device 20, So that it is possible to easily confirm the position. When the display device 20 is implemented with a touch panel, when the drawing information in which the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment are separated by area is displayed on the touch panel, the user simply inputs the position information by touching the storage position .

When the location information is designated and the food name is input, the controller 50 maps the name of the food and the location information to the storage unit 80 and stores the name and the location information in the form of a look-up table.

The control unit 50 recognizes that the door 10 is closed and operates the camera 60 so that the refrigerator compartment or the refrigerator compartment is opened or closed. Take the freezer. At this time, when the door 10 is closed, the interior light provided in the hood is turned off, and therefore, the interior light 90, which is separately provided automatically according to the operation state of the light switch 40 or the automatic mode, is controlled for photographing.

Here, the user can manually turn on / off the light switch 40 provided at a predetermined position of the door 10 to control lighting / lighting of the interior light 90. In this case, it is inconvenient for the user to operate the switch manually to light the interior light, and then turn the interior light off manually by operating the switch manually again after a certain period of time.

Therefore, according to another embodiment of the present invention, when the automatic mode is selected in addition to the manual mode as described above in addition to the manual mode as described above, the control unit 50 controls the lighting of the interior light 90 by software in the control unit 50 regardless of whether the interior light switch 40 is operated And the like. For example, the user can select the automatic mode through the input unit 30. When the automatic mode is selected, the control unit 50 automatically turns on the indoor light 90 only for a certain period of time after the door 10 is opened and then closed again. . Here, when the door 10 is opened and then closed again, the camera 60 also operates to photograph the respective photographing positions and transmit the photographed image information to the control unit 50. The control unit 50 stores the transmitted image information in the storage unit 80.

Here, as shown in FIG. 3A, the refrigerating and freezing compartments may be divided into a plurality of areas, and cameras 60 may be installed for each of the separated areas, so that the camera may photograph only one separated area.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 3B, only one camera 60 may be provided on the inner upper side of the refrigerator, and an image of the entire refrigerator may be acquired using only one camera. Here, when only one camera is used, it may be difficult to photograph the food stored in the inside of one area. It is almost impossible to shoot the inside of a vegetable room when using a single camera for an area with a separate door inside the refrigerator, such as a vegetable room.

Accordingly, in the present invention, the present invention separates a plurality of regions of the refrigerating and freezing chambers, and installs a camera for each of the separated regions, so that one camera photographs only one separated region.

On the other hand, as another feature of the present invention, the user can adjust the photographing angle of each camera. For example, the user can select a specific camera (also as an area selection) through the input unit 30 and input a camera adjustment signal. The camera control signal is up,. Right, left, and right directions. The controller 50 adjusts the angle of the camera selected by the user using the camera angle adjusting unit 70 when the camera is selected and the camera adjusting signal is input. Here, it is preferable that the user adjusts the angle of the camera while viewing the image taken by the camera that adjusts the angle through the display device 20. This makes it possible to adjust the angle of the camera conveniently.

The food name and the location information of the stored food are stored through the above process, and images photographed by the camera are stored for each area.

When the user wishes to confirm the contents of the food stored in the refrigerator 1 without opening the door 10 of the refrigerator 1, the user selects a specific area through the input unit 30 and inputs a search command. When a specific area is selected and a search command is input, the controller 50 extracts the image information of the corresponding area stored in the storage unit 80 and displays it on the display device 20. Thus, the user can check the contents of the food stored in the refrigerator even when the door 10 is not opened. Then, while confirming the food to be searched, the door is opened and the food is taken out directly to the area. As a result, not only the time for opening the door can be minimized, but also the number of door openings can be minimized, energy waste can be minimized, and power consumption can be reduced.

As another method for searching for food stored in the refrigerator 1 without opening the door 10, a keyword input method can be used.

For example, the user inputs only the food name to be searched through the input unit 30, and inputs a search command. When the name of the food to be searched is inputted, the control unit 50 searches the storage unit 80 to extract the information of the food name. Here, the food name information includes the food name and the corresponding stored location information.

If the name of the food is not searched, information indicating that the food name does not exist is displayed on the display device 20. Otherwise, if the name of the food is searched, the name of the food and the location information of the food are stored in the display device 20 Display. In this case, the position information display method can be displayed in the form of the third column, the second column, etc. In other ways, the entire internal image of the refrigerator is displayed and the corresponding position is displayed to allow the user to recognize the storage position at a glance It is also possible.

Thus, even when the door is not opened, the user can recognize whether or not the food to be searched is received and the position where the searched food is stored. Accordingly, by opening the door and quickly searching for the food, energy can be prevented from being wasted, .

Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the above embodiments, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

The present invention is applied to a technology for quickly and conveniently searching food stored in a refrigerator without outside the door and opening the door.

1: Refrigerator
10: Door
20: Display device
30: Input unit
40: light switch
50:
60: camera
70: camera angle adjusting means
80:
90: Highlight

Claims

A refrigerator capable of inspecting the inside of a refrigerator without opening the door,
An input unit for an operation for internal perspective, a camera angle adjustment signal input, and a storage food search information input;
A camera for photographing the food stored in the compartment;
A control unit for separately displaying food images photographed by the camera for each region; And
And a display device provided outside the refrigerator and configured to display an image of the stored food under the control of the control unit.

[6] The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the camera is installed in the refrigerator, and the refrigerator is divided into a plurality of refrigerator compartments and a freezer compartment.

The system of claim 1, further comprising: a storage unit for storing information of stored food inputted through the input unit under the control of the controller, wherein the information of the stored food includes a food name and storage position information. Refrigerator available.

The method of claim 1, wherein when the user inputs a food name and requests a search through the input unit, the control unit searches the storage unit to extract the food name, extracts position information corresponding to the food name, The refrigerator according to claim 1,

The refrigerator according to claim 1, further comprising camera angle adjusting means for adjusting an angle of the camera according to a user's adjustment command through the input unit.

[3] The refrigerator of claim 1, further comprising an interior light for illuminating the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment even when the door is closed, wherein the interior light is turned on or off according to an external operation, A refrigerator with internal vision.