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US 11,143,450 B2Granted
Refrigerator and camera device
AssigneeToshiba Lifestyle Products & Services Corporation
InventorsKatsushi Sumihiro, Yuuki Marutani, Kazuhiro Furuta, Hirokazu Izawa, Kota Watanabe, Ryo Kawada
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refrigerator (1) is provided with an image capturing camera 18 (image capturing unit) configured to capture an image of an interior of a storage chamber (such as a refrigeration chamber 3); a communication portion (52) (communication unit) configured to transmit image of the interior of the storage chamber captured by the image capturing camera (18) to an exterior device; wherein the image capturing unit is stored in a recess provided in the interior of the storage chamber.
Claims8
A refrigerator comprising:
- a refrigerator body;
- a storage chamber formed in the refrigerator body;
- a pair of biparting double doors configured to open and close the refrigerator, wherein the first one of the double doors includes a storing portion and a revolving vertical partition configured to rotate to fill a clearance from the second one of the double doors;
- a lighting unit configured to illuminate an interior of the refrigerator;
- an image capturing unit configured to capture an image of the interior of the refrigerator, the image capturing unit being provided on the vertical partition on the lateral center of the refrigerator and being configured to change orientation by the rotation of the vertical partition;
- and
- a control portion configured to control the image capturing unit,
- wherein when the first one of the doors is closed, the image capturing unit faces the refrigerator so that it is capable of capturing an image of the refrigerator, and when the first one of the doors is opened the image capturing unit faces toward an opposite side of the opened side of the first one of the doors and faces the storing portion of the first one of the doors so that the image capturing unit is capable of capturing an image of the storing portion of the first one of the doors.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.