Master of Science in
Information Systems
Bachelor of Science in
Visual Arts Education
Drawing & Painting Work Experience Other Hobbies

Smart Fridge
(Individual Project)

For this project, each student was given the task of finding something in their lives that they think could be improved with technology, and to present on that idea. The presentation was to also include a prototype.

A meme from the internet about the same problem that this solution is addressing.

I consider what steps I currently take to make a meal at home.

It is tough to see what all is in there!

An imperfect ending to a hungry scenario.

When you can't see what foods you have, you may miss out on your chance to eat some foods because they will expire or spoil. Also, you may buy another head of lettuce when you already had lettuce at home that you couldn't see because it was buried behind the eggs and milk.

Also, different foods have different expiration dates and different quantities. It may be that you have to eat the strawberries today because they might go bad, but you forgot you had them and ate a slice of cake from the fridge instead.

Now, not only do you now have a bunch of mushy strawberries, but maybe you were planning to save the cake until the end of the week as a reward for eating healthy.

Perhaps one morning you really wanted french toast, but you forgot that you used the last egg days ago.

If a fridge was smart like smartphones are, then it could tell the user what is inside the fridge so that food can be better managed.

On the right is an idea of how the fridge can be "smart". A fridge could have a screen on the front to tell the user the status of their food.

For example, food that is due to spoil this week would be in the red part, and food that is ok for two weeks can be in the green part.

A smart fridge could keep track of what kinds of foods are in it either based on RFID tags, based on a shopping list sent electronically to the fridge's computer, or by having sensors and webcams inside the fridge that can idnetify what is being stored inside the fridge.

Each shelf could also have sensors to keep track of common molecules released during decomposition (to warn the user about spoiling food), and keep track of individual shelf weight (for better food quantity estimations) to keep track of where each food item is stored.

A smart fridge could also alert a household when they are running low on a certain food item that is on their "favorites" list so that the user can buy the item during his or her commute, or it can be delivered to the home through a home delivery service.

The fridge could also keep track of who is getting what foods out of the fridge and generate food analytics for each fridge user. Users can use this data to modify their diet accordingly. They could also share their eating habits with their general practitioner to get personalized medicine.


1:03 PM 2013/3/18
Resume available upon request.
skimlines@gmail.com