REFRIGERATOR AND MOBILE TERMINAL FOR FOOD MANAGEMENT

• US 20140304126A1
• Filed: 04/09/2014
• Published: 10/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: MYOUNG, Kwan Joo, KIM, Se Il, JO, Su Ho, CHA, Jae Hoon, HAN, Na Jeong
• Application Number:
  US14/248,621
• Publication Number:
  US 20140304126A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 2400/361 Interactive visual displays
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 2500/06 Stock management
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 2700/06 Sensors detecting the presence of a product
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 2700/08 Sensors using Radio Frequency Identification [RFID]
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 29/00 Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A refrigerator includes storage chambers storing foods, cooling devices cooling the storage chambers, a display unit displaying a picture to manage foods, a communication unit receiving product information of products purchased by a user from a seller server, and a control unit extracting product information of food items purchased by the user from the product information of the products and controlling the display unit so as to display food management information generated based on the extracted product information of the food items. The refrigerator may display management information of the food items purchased by the user without separate input of the product information of the food items purchased by the user.

Claims

1. A refrigerator comprising:

storage chambers storing foods;

cooling devices cooling the storage chambers;

a display unit displaying a picture to manage foods;

a communication unit receiving product information of products purchased by a user from a seller server; and

a control unit extracting food information of food items purchased by the user from the product information and controlling the display unit to display food management information generated based on the extracted food information.

2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit receives an electronic receipt including the product information from the seller server.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein the electronic receipt is in the form of one of text, eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) including the product information.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein the control unit extracts names of the product included in the product information and comparing the names of the products with a food item list received from the seller server so as to extract the food information.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 2, further comprising a storage unit storing the food management information and the names of food items,

wherein the control unit extracts names of the products included in the product information and comparing the names of the products with the names of the food items stored in the storage unit so as to extract the food information.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein the control unit controls the communication unit to request an external server to search the names of the food items included in the product information and extracts the food information based on a response from the external server.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein the food management information includes the names of the food items, the categories to which the food items belong, the storage chambers in which the food items will be stored, and the storage periods of the food items.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 7, wherein the control unit extracts the names of the food items based on the food information and judges the categories to which the food items belong, the storage chambers in which the food items will be stored, and the storage periods of the food items based on the names of the food items.

9. The refrigerator according to claim 7, wherein the control unit controls the communication unit to transmit the food management information to a mobile terminal of the user or to receive food management information generated by the mobile terminal.

10. A mobile terminal displaying food management information to manage foods stored in a refrigerator, comprising:

a display unit displaying a stored food management picture to display the food management information;

a communication unit receiving product information of products purchased by a user from at least one of a seller server and a POS terminal; and

a control unit extracting food information of food items purchased by the user from the product information and controlling the display unit so as to display food management information generated based on the extracted food information.

11. The mobile terminal according to claim 10, wherein the communication unit receives an electronic receipt including the product information from the at least one of the seller server and the POS terminal.

12. The mobile terminal according to claim 11, wherein the electronic receipt is in the form of one of text, eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) including the product information.

13. The mobile terminal according to claim 11, wherein the control unit extracts the names of the products included in the product information and comparing the names of the products with a food item list received from the seller server so as to extract the food information.

14. The mobile terminal according to claim 11, further comprising a storage unit storing the food management information and the names of food items,

wherein the control unit extracts the names of the products included in the product information and comparing the names of the products with the names of the food items stored in the storage unit so as to extract the food information.

15. The mobile terminal according to claim 11, wherein the control unit controls the communication unit to request an external server to search the names of the food items included in the product information and extracts the food information based on a response from the external server.

16. The mobile terminal according to claim 11, wherein the food management information includes the names of the food items, the categories to which the food items belong, the storage chambers in which the food items will be stored, and the storage periods of the food items.

17. The mobile terminal according to claim 16, wherein the control unit extracts the names of the food items based on the food information and judges the categories to which the food items belong, the storage chambers in which the food items will be stored, and the storage periods of the food items based on the names of the food items.

18. The mobile terminal according to claim 17, wherein the control unit controls the communication unit to transmit the food management information to the refrigerator or to receive food management information generated by the refrigerator.

19. A food management method to manage foods stored in a refrigerator, comprising:

receiving product information of products purchased by a user from at least one of a seller server and a POS terminal;

extracting food information of food items purchased by the user from the product information;

generating food management information of the food items based on the extracted food information; and

displaying the generated food management information.

20. The food management method according to claim 19, wherein the reception of the product information of the product includes receiving an electronic receipt for the products purchased by the user.

21. The food management method according to claim 20, wherein the electronic receipt is in the form of one of text, eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) including the product information.

22. The food management method according to claim 21, wherein the extraction of the product information of the food items includes:

extracting the names of the products included in the product information; and

comparing the names of the products with a food item list received from the seller server.

23. The food management method according to claim 21, wherein the extraction of the product information of the food items includes:

extracting the names of the products included in the product information; and

comparing the names of the products with the names of food items stored in a storage unit of the refrigerator.

24. The food management method according to claim 21, wherein the extraction of the product information of the food items includes:

requesting an external server to search the names of the food items included in the product information; and

extracting the food information based on a response from the external server.

25. The food management method according to claim 21, wherein the food management information includes the names of the food items, the categories to which the food items belong, the storage chambers in which the food items will be stored, and the storage periods of the food items.

26. The food management method according to claim 25, wherein the generation of the food management information includes:

extracting the names of the food items based on the food information; and

judging the categories to which the food items belong, the storage chambers in which the food items will be stored, and the storage periods of the food items based on the names of the food items.