Patent Publication Number: US-2016239901-A1

Title: Food inventory and purchasing tool

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority to Taiwan Patent Application No. 104104859, filed on Feb. 12, 2015, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. 
     FIELD 
     The subject matter herein relates to refrigerators, especially relates to a food inventory and purchasing tool. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Before going to the supermarket to buy food, people make a list of what food should be bought according to the food in a refrigerator, the non-refrigerated food in the house and a planned menu. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Implementations of the present technology will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached figures. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an embodiment of a refrigerator. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of another embodiment of a refrigerator. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a food inventory capturing module of the intelligent refrigerator in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, where appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the different figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. In addition, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments described herein. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments described herein can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the related relevant feature being described. The description is not to be considered as limiting the scope of the embodiments described herein. 
     The term “comprising” means “including, but not necessarily limited to”; it specifically indicates open-ended inclusion or membership in a so-described combination, group, series, and the like. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a refrigerator  10  includes a food inventory capturing module  20 , a menu interface module  30  and a required purchase determining module  40 . The food inventory capturing module  20  is configured to capture the inventory of food in the refrigerator  10 . The menu interface module  30  is configured to obtain a user menu. The user menu includes food the user plans to eat. In the embodiment, the menu interface module  30  is a touch screen interface device. The required purchase determining module  40  is configured to determine ingredient purchase information according to ingredients of the food in the refrigerator  10  and the obtained user menu. The ingredient purchase information includes information of ingredients that need to be bought, such as names and quantity of the ingredient needed to be bought. 
     The refrigerator  10  further includes a displaying module  50  and a food transmission module  60 . The displaying module  50  is configured to display the purchase information of the ingredients needed to be bought. In the embodiment, the food transmission module  60  communicates with a supermarket cloud  70 . The food transmission module  60  is configured to transmit the ingredient purchase information and home address information of a user to the supermarket cloud  70 . The supermarket cloud  70  is configured to determine supermarkets providing the ingredients needed nearby the home of the user, and transmit the determined supermarket and price information of the ingredient needed to be bought to the refrigerator  10 . The displaying module  50  is further configured to display the determined supermarket and price information of the ingredient. 
     The refrigerator  10  further includes a food interface module  80 . The food interface module  80  is configured to determine the supermarket the user selects and transmit the selected supermarket information to the supermarket cloud  70 . The refrigerator  10  further includes an online payment module  90 . The online payment module  90  is configured to pay for the ingredient needed at the selected supermarket to an cash account of the selected supermarket. The supermarket cloud  70  is further configured to transmit a delivery time of the ingredient to the refrigerator  10  according to a distance between the home address information of the user and the selected supermarket. The displaying module  80  is further configured to display the delivery time of the ingredient. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates, in another embodiment, the food transmission module  60  communicates with a mobile terminal  75 , for example, a mobile phone. The food transmission module  60  transmits the ingredient purchase information to the mobile terminal  75 . When the user goes to supermarket, the user can buy ingredients according to the ingredient purchase information in the mobile terminal  75 . 
     In the embodiment, the food inventory capturing module  20  is an input module. The user inputs the information of ingredient in the refrigerator  10  by the input module. The input information of ingredient includes names, quantity and expiration dates of the ingredient. 
     In another embodiment, the food inventory capturing module  20  is an ingredient identifying module positioned in the refrigerator  10 . The ingredient identifying module captures and identifies images of the ingredient to obtain the information of the ingredient in the refrigerator  10 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates that the food inventory capturing module  20  includes a food identifying module  22 , a selecting module  24  and a food update module  26 . The food identifying module  22  is positioned on a shell of a door of the refrigerator  10 . The food identifying module  22  captures images in a preset scope to obtain ingredient information. The selecting module  24  is selected by the user to determine if ingredients need to be stored or taken out. The food update module  26  updates information of ingredients in the refrigerator  10  according to the obtained ingredient information and the selection of the user. 
     The menu interface module  30  displays a menu list according to an operation and obtains the user menu according to a selection on the menu list. The menu interface module  30  further displays a suggested menu according to the information of the ingredients in the refrigerator  10 . The menu interface module  30  further displays the ingredient nearing its expiration date according to the information of the ingredient in the refrigerator. 
     The embodiments shown and described above are only examples. Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present technology have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the present disclosure, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in the details, including in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of the parts within the principles of the present disclosure, up to and including the full extent established by the broad general meaning of the terms used in the claims.