Refrigerator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9829243-B2
Application number	US-201615298520-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 20, 2016
Priority date	Mar 27, 2013
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

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 first door rotatably coupled to a first end portion of the main body, the first door having a basket to store food and the basket to be arranged on an inner surface of the first door;
a second door rotatably coupled to a second end portion of the main body opposite the first end portion thereof, wherein the first and second doors open and close an open front face of the storage compartment;
a plurality of cameras provided at the first door and configured to take at least one picture, the plurality of cameras arranged in a row;
a door opening/closing sensor;
a controller configured to actuate a light source and control the cameras to take pictures 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 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 a first one of the cameras is arranged on a upper portion of the first door and a second one of the cameras is arranged on a lower portion of the first door.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein cameras are positioned at a middle portion of the storage compartment in a width direction.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the cameras takes pictures when the light source is operated.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the controller controls the cameras to take the pictures after actuating the light source.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the cameras take pictures simultaneously.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the controller combines a plurality of pictures taken by the cameras simultaneously.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 7 , wherein the storage device stores a combined picture of the plurality of the pictures.

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

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

11. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the communication device transmits, to the external device, the last pictures taken by the cameras.

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

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

14. The refrigerator according to claim 13 , wherein the terminal is connected to the refrigerator through a network.

15. 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.

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

17. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of racks are provided in the storage compartment.

18. A refrigerator, comprising:
a body having a storage compartment;
a first door to rotatably couple to a first end portion of the main body,
a basket on an inner surface of the first door;
a second door to rotatably couple to a second end portion of the main body, wherein the first and second doors open and close an open front face of the storage compartment;
a plurality of cameras provided in one row at the basket at the first door;
a door sensor to sense a closing of at least the first door;
a controller configured to actuate a light source and control the cameras to capture pictures of the storage compartment when the door sensor detects that the first door is closed;
a storage device configured to store the pictures captured by the cameras; and
a communication device configured to transmit, to an external device, the pictures stored in the storage device.

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

• G06T11/60

  Creating or editing images; Combining images with text · CPC title

• F25D2500/06

  Stock management · CPC title

• F25D2400/06

  Refrigerators with a vertical mullion · CPC title