Method for providing health service and refrigerator therefor

• US 10,115,286 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2014
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Young Hyun
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim, Steven
• Assistant Examiner(s): Adnan, Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US14/563,612
• Publication Number:
  US 20150161871A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,422 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/117 Identification of persons methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1171 based on the shapes or appearances of their bodies or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/35 by template matching
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4561 Evaluating static posture, e.g. undesirable back curvature A61B5/1116 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4872 Body fat
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6887 mounted on external non-worn devices, e.g. non-medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7475 User input or interface means, e.g. keyboard, pointing device, joystick
• CPC Class Codes: F25B 2700/02 Humidity
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 23/12 Arrangements of compartments additional to cooling compartments; Combinations of refrigerators with other equipment, e.g. stove
• CPC Class Codes: F25D 2700/04 Sensors detecting the presence of a person
• 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: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0092 Nutrition
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A method of providing a health service through a refrigerator that includes determining biometric information of a user using the refrigerator, searching for a user profile including biometric information corresponding to the determined biometric information from a user profile database stored in the refrigerator, and providing the user with a health service based on a user profile stored in the user profile database corresponding to the user.

Claims

1. A method of providing a health service through a refrigerator, the method comprising:

obtaining first biometric information of a user using at least one sensor unit of the refrigerator;

searching a storage unit of the refrigerator for a user profile including biometric information corresponding to the obtained first biometric information;

determining whether the user is an object for measuring second biometric information based on the searched user profile;

in response to the user being the object, obtaining at least one image of the user using at least one camera of the refrigerator;

determining whether a posture of the user is appropriate for measuring the second biometric information, based on the at least one image;

when determining that the posture is inappropriate, providing advice about a predetermined posture;

when determining that the posture is appropriate, measuring the second biometric information of the user; and

modifying a value of the measured second biometric information based on at least one of the user profile and the at least one image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtained first biometric information is an electrocardiogram of the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the electrocardiogram of the user is identification information from which a predetermined common component is removed.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to update the user profile, based on a point in time of registration of information included in the user profile.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring a body resistance of the user when it is determined to be appropriate to measure the body resistance; and

determining body fat of the user based on the body resistance.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the user is the object comprises determining that the user is not the object for measuring second biometric information and measuring a body resistance of the user is inappropriate, in response to the user profile including information indicating that a pacemaker is used.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtained first biometric information includes facial recognition information of the user, iris recognition information, or fingerprint recognition information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving device information of an electronic device adjacent to the refrigerator,

wherein the received device information is used for searching for the user profile.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that records a program for implementing a method of providing a health service through a refrigerator, the method comprising:

obtaining first biometric information of a user using at least one sensor unit of the refrigerator;

searching a storage unit of the refrigerator for a user profile including biometric information corresponding to the obtained first biometric information;

determining whether the user is an object for measuring second biometric information based on the searched user profile;

in response to the user being the object, obtaining at least one image of the user using at least one camera of the refrigerator;

determining whether a posture of the user is appropriate for measuring the second biometric information, based on the at least one image;

when determining that the posture is inappropriate, providing advice about a predetermined posture;

when determining that the posture is appropriate, measuring the second biometric information of the user; and

modifying a value of the measured second biometric information based on at least one of the user profile and the at least one image.

10. A refrigerator that provides a health service, the refrigerator comprising:

a storage unit;

at least one sensor unit;

at least one camera;

a controller configured to;

obtain first biometric information of a user using the at least one sensor unit;

search the storage unit for a user profile including biometric information corresponding to the obtained first biometric information;

determine whether the user is an object for measuring second biometric information based on the searched user profile;

in response to the user being the object, obtain at least one image of the user using the at least one camera;

determine whether a posture of the user is appropriate for measuring the second biometric information, based on the at least one image;

when determining that the posture is inappropriate, provide advice about a predetermined posture;

when determining that the posture is appropriate, measure the second biometric information of the user; and

modify a value of the measured second biometric information based on at least one of the user profile and the at least one image.

11. The refrigerator of claim 10, wherein the at least one sensor unit includes an electrocardiogram sensor unit configured to determine an electrocardiogram of the user using an electrode;

and

wherein the obtained first biometric information is the determined electrocardiogram of the user.

12. The refrigerator of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to search for the user profile using identification information obtained by removing a predetermined common component from the determined electrocardiogram of the user.

13. The refrigerator of claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether to update the user profile based on a point in time of registration of information included in the user profile.

14. The refrigerator of claim 10, further comprising:

a body resistance sensor unit,

wherein the controller is further configured to measure a body resistance of the user using the body resistance sensor unit in response to determining that it is appropriate to measure the body resistance of the user, and calculate body fat of the user based on the body resistance.

15. The refrigerator of claim 10, wherein, the controller is further configured to determine that the user is not the object for measuring second biometric information and measuring a body resistance of the user is inappropriate, in response to the user profile containing information indicating that a pacemaker is used.

16. The refrigerator of claim 10, wherein the at least one sensor unit includes at least one of a camera configured to recognize a face of the user, an iris sensor configured to recognize an iris of the user, a fingerprint sensor configured to recognize a fingerprint of the user, and a communication unit configured to receive device information of an electronic device adjacent to the refrigerator.