# RFID Based Embedded System for Sustainable Food Management in an IoT Network Paradigm
## 2 Related Work  
To date, several authors have developed different approaches to monitor fridge content. Samsung [5] presents a smartfridge equipped with cameras located in its interior. These cameras take photos from the fridge content each time the door is opened, which are sent to our smartphone through a proprietary app afterwards. Furthermore, the smartfridge has a touch screen on the outside that allows the user to buy products, write notes, watch tv, and listen to music. However, photos could not put hidden products into the inventory and information, such as expiration or issued date, can not be provided. LG [6] launched its smartfridge at the end of 2012. This smartfridge is based on a traditional fridge and is equipped with a touch screen and several apps. These apps allow one to manually perform inventories by adding products to a list every time one of them is placed on the fridge, or remove them when they are consumed. These applications also give the option to manually enter the expiration date of products in order to receive notifications on our smartphone when they are about to expire. Other apps provide recipes and the historical consumption of products. Although this smartfridge provides an updated inventory and product information, it requires a manual inventory. [PERSON] et al. [7] introduced a smartfridge prototype where applications focus on providing products nutritional and dietetic information, controlling the user's food-related behavior. Their approach is equipped with a touch screen where one can manually introduce products and their expiration date, so that a warning is issued when products are close to their expiration date. It is possible to search in a database the previously inserted products nutritional information and recipes that might be prepared with them. In addition, each user can create a personal profile with his medical information (i.e., if the user suffers from diabetes or cholesterol), as well as his weight and height, so that he is able to control his body mass. Although [PERSON] et al. 's approach introduced the medical monitorization function, their prototype requires a manual introduction of products and the user has to check the products information on the front of the fridge. [PERSON] [8] presents a smartfridge prototype, Pervasive Fridge, based on a mobile application. It is capable of registering the entrance/exit of products to/from the fridge through barcode and RFID readings, or voice recognition. Once the products have been registered, the user is notified when they are about to expire. Furthermore, the user can check the products nutritional information, recipes,and dietetic recommendations. This prototype is compatible with all fridges, since the system is based on a mobile application. However, the smartphone requires barcode and RFID reading capabilities. Furthermore, the inventory procedure is performed by reading one product at a time. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [9] introduced an RFID-equipped fridge. Their approach provides services to keep control of the user's food-related behavior. For instance, if the user suffers any disease, the fridge interacts with the hospital to gather medical information and recommends the right products. Besides providing product recommendation, the real-time embedded system recommends recipes to lead a healthy life. In addition, their approach creates a list of products to buy based on historical information. As a disadvantage, every user needs a server placed in their house in order to store product information that must be kept updated by the manufacturer. Thus, this approach is poorly scalable because of the need of server pre-configuration, which lacks autonomy. Our work aims to monitor not only those products located inside a fridge but also outside. Most of the previously mentioned approaches do not take into account those products located out of the fridge, even though they are an important part of users' diet and recipes.