Refrigerator with sequential interior lighting
AssigneeMidea Group Co., Ltd.
InventorMichael Grant
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A refrigerator includes sequential interior lighting to dynamically vary the light level in a compartment of the refrigerator. At least one light of a plurality of lights in the compartment may be activated after activation of at least one other light of the plurality of lights upon opening of a door such that the brightness level in the compartment progressively increases after opening of the door, thereby enabling a user's eyes to better acclimate to the compartment illumination.
Claims20
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cabinet including a food storage compartment defined therein;
- a door coupled to the cabinet to provide external access to the food storage compartment, the door movable between closed and open positions;
- a plurality of lights disposed within the food storage compartment;
- and
- a controller coupled to the plurality of lights, the controller configured to detect opening of the door, and the controller further configured to, in response to detecting opening of the door, illuminate the food storage compartment by sequentially activating first and second lights of the plurality of lights such that the first light is activated prior to activation of the second light;
- wherein the plurality of lights includes a first subset of lights extending generally from a midline of the food storage compartment to and along a first side wall of the food storage compartment and a second subset of lights extending generally from the midline to and along a second side wall of the food storage compartment, and the controller is configured to illuminate the food storage compartment by sequentially activating lights from each of the first and second subset of lights starting proximate the midline to generate a wraparound animation.
The refrigerator of claim 12, wherein the plurality of lights includes a first subset of lights extending generally from a midline of the food storage compartment to and along a first side wall of the food storage compartment and a second subset of lights extending generally from the midline to and along a second side wall of the food storage compartment, and the controller is configured to illuminate the food storage compartment by sequentially activating lights from each of the first and second subset of lights starting proximate the midline to generate a wraparound animation.
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cabinet including a food storage compartment defined therein;
- a door coupled to the cabinet to provide external access to the food storage compartment, the door movable between closed and open positions;
- a door position sensor;
- a plurality of lights disposed within the food storage compartment;
- and
- a controller coupled to the plurality of lights, the controller configured to detect opening of the door using the door position sensor, and the controller further configured to, in response to detecting opening of the door, illuminate the food storage compartment by sequentially activating first and second lights of the plurality of lights such that the first light is activated prior to activation of the second light;
- wherein the door position sensor is configured to detect a plurality of open positions of the door having different rotational differences from the closed position, and the controller is configured to illuminate the food storage compartment by increasing a number of activated lights of the plurality of lights as a current position of the door moves away from the closed position.
A method comprising, with a controller of a refrigerator of a type including a cabinet having a food storage compartment defined therein and a door coupled to the cabinet and movable between closed and open positions to provide external access to the food storage compartment:
- detecting opening of the door;
- and
- in response to detecting opening of the door, illuminating the food storage compartment by sequentially activating first and second lights of a plurality of lights disposed in the food storage compartment such that the first light is activated prior to activation of the second light;
- wherein the plurality of lights includes a first subset of lights extending generally from a midline of the food storage compartment to and along a first side wall of the food storage compartment and a second subset of lights extending generally from the midline to and along a second side wall of the food storage compartment, and wherein the food storage compartment includes sequentially activating lights from each of the first and second subset of lights starting proximate the midline to generate a wraparound animation of a type including storage positions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.