Patent Document

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
       [0001]    This disclosure relates generally to refrigerators, and, more particularly, to transparent touch displays for refrigerator drawers. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Most refrigerators have one or more drawers that facilitate the storage of food items at temperatures and/or humidities that are different from the rest of the refrigerator. For example, a drawer used to store produce might be controlled to have a higher humidity than the rest of the refrigerator, or a drawer used to store meat and cheese might be controlled to have a lower temperature than the rest of the refrigerator. In some refrigerators, a user can individually control the temperature and/or humidity of each drawer. A refrigerator drawer has an open top face that allows a person to place items in the drawer and remove items from the drawer. When the refrigerator drawer is in a closed position, the open top face of the refrigerator drawer may be closed by a shelf positioned above the drawer, the bottom of another drawer, or any other structure(s) of the refrigerator such as the refrigerator inner liner and/or interior partitions. The shelf, the bottom of another drawer and/or the other structure(s) define a refrigerator drawer compartment for the refrigerator drawer. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0003]    An example refrigerator drawer compartment to hold a refrigerator drawer includes a transparent panel forming a portion of the refrigerator drawer compartment, a transparent touch display embedded in the transparent panel to provide a user interface to control a function associated with the refrigerator drawer while allowing viewing of contents of the refrigerator drawer. 
         [0004]    An example refrigerator includes a refrigerator cabinet, a refrigerated compartment disposed within the refrigerator cabinet, a drawer disposed within the refrigerated compartment, and a transparent touch display forming a portion of the refrigerated compartment to provide a user interface that enables a user to control a function associated with the refrigerator drawer while allowing the user to view contents of the drawer. 
         [0005]    An example method includes presenting on a transparent touch display embedded in a transparent portion of a refrigerator drawer compartment a user interface to enable a user to control a function associated with a refrigerator drawer while allowing viewing of contents of the refrigerator drawer. 
         [0006]    An example refrigerator drawer includes a transparent panel forming a portion of the refrigerator drawer compartment, and a transparent touch display embedded in a surface of the refrigerator drawer to provide a user interface to control a function associated with the refrigerator drawer while allowing viewing of contents of the refrigerator drawer. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a perspective drawing of an example refrigerator having an embedded transparent touch display. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a perspective drawing of the example refrigerator drawer stack of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a perspective drawing of the example refrigerator drawer stack of  FIG. 1  when the embedded transparent touch display of  FIG. 2  is active. 
           [0010]      FIGS. 4-6  illustrate example user interfaces that can be presented on the embedded transparent touch display of  FIGS. 2 and 3 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0011]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example refrigerator  100  having a refrigerated compartment  101  and a freezer compartment  102 . The refrigerated compartment  101  and the freezer compartment  102  each have an open face to provide access to the compartments  101  and  102 . The refrigerator  100  includes doors  103  and  104  moveably mounted to the refrigerator  100  for movement between opened and closed positions to selectively open and close the open faces of the compartments  101  and  102 . While the example refrigerator  100  shown in  FIG. 1  is a side-by-side refrigerator, it should be appreciated that the transparent touch displays for refrigerator drawers disclosed herein are applicable to other refrigerators having other configurations. 
         [0012]    To allow food to be stored at different humidities and/or temperatures, the example refrigerator  100  includes a refrigerator drawer stack  105  having one or more transparent refrigerator drawers (one of which is designated at reference numeral  110 ). As discussed below in connection with  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the refrigerator drawer stack  105  includes a transparent touch display  205 . Of course, the transparent touch displays for refrigerator drawers disclosed herein are applicable to other refrigerators having other arrangements of refrigerator drawers. 
         [0013]    To control the transparent touch display  205 , the refrigerator  105  may include a controller (not shown). The controller may be implemented by one or more Intel®, AMD®, and/or ARM® microprocessors. Of course, other processors from other processor families and/or manufacturers are also appropriate. The controller executes coded instructions present in a main memory of the controller. 
         [0014]      FIG. 2  is a perspective drawing showing the example drawer stack  105  of  FIG. 1  in more detail. To enable a user to view information about and/or control functions of the refrigerator drawers  110 , the example drawer stack  105  of  FIG. 1  includes the transparent touch display  205  embedded in a transparent portion  210  of a refrigerator drawer compartment. The transparent portion  210  may be formed of glass, plastic, crystal and/or a composite material. In  FIG. 2 , the transparent touch display  205  is inactive and thus nothing is displayed. In  FIG. 3 , the transparent touch display  205  is active and displaying information and receiving inputs. As shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , items stored in the drawers  110  can be viewed through the transparent touch display  205 . The transparent touch display  205  may be a transparent touch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, a transparent touch liquid crystal display (LCD), etc. 
         [0015]    In some examples, the transparent touch display  205  is activated when the transparent touch display  205  is touched as shown in  FIG. 2 . Alternatively, the transparent touch display  205  may be automatically activated when the door  103  ( FIG. 1 ) is opened. As shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the transparent touch display  205  may be embedded in an angled portion of the transparent portion  210 . Alternatively, the transparent touch display  205  may be embedded in a flat portion of the transparent portion  210 , or in a transparent front face of the drawer  110 . 
         [0016]    As discussed below in connection with  FIGS. 4-6 , the transparent touch display  205  may be used to control functions and/or display information for a plurality of drawers. Alternatively, if a transparent touch display  205  was embedded in the front of each refrigerator drawer  110 , each transparent touch display  205  needs to only control functions and/or display information for its respective drawer  110 . 
         [0017]      FIGS. 4-6  illustrate example user interfaces that may be presented on the example transparent touch display  205 . The user interfaces may: include color or be black-and-white; may include animations; and/or be transparent or opaque. The example user interface of  FIG. 4  presents the temperature  405  and humidity  410  of each of three refrigerator drawers  110 . The example user interface can present additional and/or alternative information. For example, as shown, the user interface can display ethylene levels, and/or a high ethylene level warning  415 . Moreover, carbon-dioxide (CO 2 ) levels may also be displayed 
         [0018]    The example user interface of  FIG. 5  illustrates the use of the example user interface  205  of  FIG. 4  to control one or more functions of the refrigerator drawers  110 . As shown, if a top icon  420  is selected by touching the top icon  420 , the temperature  405  and the humidity  410  become parameters that can be adjusted by touching corresponding up and down arrows  425 . 
         [0019]    The example user interface of  FIG. 6  presents a temperature warning  430  indicating that a meat drawer  435  of the refrigerator reached an unsafe temperature due to, for example, a power outage, compressor failure, etc. 
         [0020]    While example user interfaces are shown in  FIGS. 4-6 , it should be appreciated that any number and/or type(s) of additional and/or alternative user interfaces could be presented on the transparent touch display  205 . Such additional and/or alternative user interfaces may display other types of data and/or enable the control of other functions of a refrigerator drawer. In some examples, a user may configure what information is displayed. 
         [0021]    Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the claims of this patent.

Technology Category: 2