Refrigerator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9503635-B2
Application number	US-201615040333-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 10, 2016
Priority date	Mar 27, 2013
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

A refrigerator is provided. The refrigerator may include a main body having a storage compartment, a first door rotatably installed at a first side of the main body to open and close a first portion of the storage compartment, and a second door rotatably installed at a second side of the main body to open and close a second portion of the storage compartment. A first camera may be installed at the first door to take a picture of an interior of the first storage compartment during rotation of the first door, and a second camera may be installed at the second door to take a picture of the interior of the first storage compartment during rotation of the second door. A controller may combine plural pictures taken by the first camera and the second camera into a single corrected image of a region of the first compartment spanning from the first door to the second door.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A refrigerator, comprising:
a main body having a storage compartment;
a door coupled to the main body and configured to open and close the storage compartment;
a first camera installed in the storage compartment and configured to take a picture of the door;
a second camera installed on the door and configured to take a picture of the storage compartment;
a door opening/closing sensor;
a controller configured to actuate a light source and control the first camera to take the picture of the door and the second camera to take the picture of the storage compartment when the door opening closing sensor detects that the door closes the storage compartment;
a storage device configured to store the pictures taken by the first and second cameras; and
a communication device configured to transmit the pictures stored in the storage device to an external device.

2. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the controller controls the first camera to take the picture of the door and the second camera to take the picture of the storage compartment after actuating the light source.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the controller combines the picture of the door taken by the first camera and the picture of the storage compartment taken by the second camera to create a combined picture, and wherein the storage device stores the combined picture.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the controller controls the first camera to take the picture of the door and the second camera to take the picture of the storage compartment simultaneously.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the con trailer actuates the light source when the door opening/closing sensor detects that the door opens the storage compartment.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the light source is installed on the storage compartment of the main body.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the first camera is installed at a different height from the second camera.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 7 , wherein the first camera is positioned lower than the second camera.

9. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the communication device, transmits the last picture taken by the first camera and the last picture taken by the second camera to the external device.

10. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the communication device transmits the pictures when the controller receives a user's request signal.

11. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the external device includes a terminal having a display that displays the picture.

12. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the terminal is connected to the refrigerator through a network.

13. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the external device includes a smartphone, which is independent of the refrigerator to allow the user to have the smartphone remote from the refrigerator.

14. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the storage compartment includes a refrigerating compartment, and wherein the door opens and closes the refrigerating compartment.

15. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the second camera is installed at an inner surface of the door that faces the storage compartment.

16. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of first racks is provided in the storage compartment, and wherein a plurality of second racks is provided in the door.

17. The refrigerator according to claim 16 , wherein the second camera is installed on one of the plurality of second racks of the door such that the second camera faces the storage compartment.

18. The refrigerator according to claim 17 , wherein the one of the plurality of second racks of the door includes a decorative portion formed of an opaque material at a front surface of the one of the plurality of second racks, wherein a transparent window is provided at the decorative portion, and wherein the second camera is instilled at the transparent window of the decorative portion such that the second camera takes the picture of the storage compartment through the transparent window.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Ryu Inhwan
• Cha Minjoo
• Yang Hyein

Classifications

• H04N23/64

  Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image · CPC title

• H04N23/51

  Housings · CPC title

• F25D2700/06

  Sensors detecting the presence of a product · CPC title

• F25D2500/06

  Stock management · CPC title

• F25D2700/08

  Sensors using Radio Frequency Identification [RFID] · CPC title