Refrigerator Management System: Making Fridges Smarter and Affordable

Project Poster: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lC7VIF3ZvWfEhk3vOLH9Bd4Rzt3PFVBx

Project Demonstration Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLT2Nl8W5io&feature=youtu.be

Team Name: High Five 

Mentor: Professor Syed A. Jafar

Team Members:

Abstract

With the promising vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) applications, engineers thrive to emerge and evolve this industry. IoT devices have the ability to operate in an automatic system, allowing these so-called "smart devices" to be more efficient and energy sufficient. Being able to make fridges smarter and more affordable is not an exception. Even though IoT applications have progressed a lot over the past decade, many consumers would have to pay top dollars to own one of the "Smart Fridges". Therefore, the idea of transforming a non-smart refridgerator into a smart fridge emerged. By connecting a regular fridge at home to a "module", consumers can have a smart fridge that could provide food management and energy efficiency assitance.

Problem

With the evolution of technology, smart devices are becoming increasingly integrated into modern human lifestyle. But these advances usually comes at a high price to the consumer’s wallet. Our team will provide a solution to this challenge by implementing smart IoT features onto a standard fridge; greatly reducing the cost of a manufactured smart fridge. The implemented smart features will sense temperature changes, pH level, humidity and even take pictures inside of the fridge. All of this information will be displayed back onto a user interactive LCD screen for the household members to conveniently check up on the status of the fridge. Our team will also take this handling of information a step forward by developing a mobile app for the consumers. That way, consumers can easily access their fridge status on their phone when shopping outside and thus save money on their grocery supply. We believe this device will help the transition  of non-smart to smart devices in households by providing an easy and affordable change. There will be no need to buy a new and expensive fridge, and it could be implemented on a large scale since all families will have already have a standard fridge.

With the increase use of sensors and IoT enabled smart devices, the smart refrigerator’s capability continues to be enhanced. However, with all the invested research efforts to improve performance and features, the price has almost doubled in comparison to traditional models. Furthermore, depriving ownership of smart fridges to the average citizen. According to Frank Gillet of Forrester, a research firm, by 2021 only 15% of Americans will have smart home devices. Our solution will bridge the gap between ownership and cost barrier.  Not only will our smart fridge device help solve the cost barrier, but it will also alleviate water quality concerns. According to the 2013 NSF International Germ Study, one of the most germ ridden places is the water dispenser in the refrigerator. Our device will help monitor water quality; therefore, decreasing waterborne diseases. Additional features and low cost always accompany limitations to devices. One of the limitations of our device would be integrating the control of our phone through the refrigerator. Our device will be controlled through a mobile device but not vice versa. This includes being able to stream videos, message, make phone calls, etc. on the LCD through the refrigerator.

Proposed Solution: 

Camera, Temperature Sensor, Ultrasonic Sensor, pH Level Sensor, and Turbidity Sensors: these are subsystems that converts one form of signal to another (i.e analog to digital). These sensors are used to detect environmental conditions and report these outputs into the microcontroller unit. In our case, it will be the raspberry pi.

Raspberry Pi: The main processing unit of the system. Raspberry Pi is a powerful microcontroller unit (MCU) capable of connect many peripherals such as keyboard and mouse for user interface. In the fridge management system, the Raspberry Pi will be reading information from the sensors, process them and transfer them to the server or display them on a screen.

LCD Display: Peripheral to the Raspberry Pi serves the interaction purpose with the user. Users will be interacting with the fridge management system through this display. The fridge management system will act upon the requested commands from the users.

Server: Information from the micro-controller unit will be fetched to the server. This information can be archived or requested to pull to the user’s mobile device.

Mobile Device: besides from the LCD display where the user can directly give the system basic commands, the users can also interact to the system wirelessly when the users are not at home.

• User Interface

The overall user interface will be composed of two independent  interactive touch devices that will enable synchronization between them. Both the mobile application and the standalone lcd display will carry out their distinct features to enhance the user experience.

Mobile Application: The mobile application will be optimized to perform advanced tasks and procedures such as live image feed, and other food management utilities. An integrating  community chat option can provide users to interact with others to share and ask questions about their daily lifestyle. Sensor connectivity can be established along with information can be requested for troubleshooting. The purpose of the mobile application is to allow the user bring their fridge information to the user when they are away from their home network, and or refrigerator.

Standalone LCD Display:  Due to the lcd size limitation, the Standalone lcd display will be design with a minimalist appearance and  less features but give the user shortcuts for easy accessibility. The purpose of this standalone display is to give user quick information without the inconvenience of navigating to pages.

Standalone LCD Display Features: Accessibility to function shortcuts, along with a simple screen animation can be display to give the user feedback, along with certain chimes to provide notification alerts. All main sensors information can be access from the home screen.

Gestures: Tap to advance for a simplistic  navigation experience.

Mobile Application Features: Key features that this mobile user interface is the utilization of a food management with an interactive calendar for food entries with a notification center. A chat feature for quick communication will be included with the ability to create a user account. A synchronized calendar and notes will be integrated  for food management control .

Gestures: Gestures included in the iOS application API will be used such as tap to navigate to different pages. Swipe functionality features will also be included such as swiping down to refresh new feed and establish connections and requesting new feed.

Future Work & Boarder Impact: 

• Implementation: Since we have already designed the high level schematic diagram along with finalizing the parts list, the next step is to order the parts and initiate designing the low level schematic to integrate the sensors. Preliminary layout of the basic electronic housing should also be designed with the components’ dimensions. From the low level schematic, the developers can easily integrate the peripherals to the microprocessor. Last, the user interface will be finalized into a more interactive and user friendly platform.

• Feasible Extra Features: a few possible extra features that we might include are Alexa-compatible, more interactive UI design layout with more applications such as notepad, weather.

• Impact:  Not only can the Refrigerator Management System provide amenity and convenience, the project can also help bring awareness to energy efficiency of everyday household electronics. In the near future, we hope to decrease the cost of consumer’s usage as we raise their awareness towards how much energy their daily household electronics would consume.  We hope to reduce the size of the device by creating a custom PCB which allow more available space for sophisticated electronics. The Refrigerator Management System would, in a way, contribute to the Internet of Things community.