Intelligent (Smart) cabinets, drawers and refrigerator arrays allow remote monitoring and reporting of commodities inside from the internet (mobile and web applications)

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed. - COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

This is a set of new products "Intelligent (Smart) cabinets, drawers and refrigerator arrays" to the middle class and upper class consumers where customers, from their computers, cell phone, tabs or from www web link from anywhere in the world, will be able to access and monitor their kitchen cabinets and refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers situated at hotel kitchens / stores, catering service provider kitchens / stores, home kitchens, shops etc. This smart appliance technology allows to view and monitor the virtual cabinets displaying real time level / quantity, expiry of items stored in it and it also allows to generate various reports on the items consumed, re-orders etc.

2.1. - Field of invention: -

These are set of new intelligent (Smart) appliances to be introduced in the consumer durables sector and supplies and distribution industry of domains such as, health care, Medical, pharmaceuticals, blood banks, beverages, farm products, groceries, jewellery products and engineering products etc. This concept is a unique one in the Consumer Electronics and Consumer appliances segments. This is a durable product.

2.2. - Background of invention with regard to the drawback associated with known art:-

Hotels, Catering service providers stores grocery items for ex: Cereals (Rice, Maize, wheat, Barley, Oats), Pulses (Dal, ground nut, soya bean, kidney beans, black-eyed peas , green peas) sugar, flour, powders in large, medium and small sized trays and containers inside kitchen or store cabinets and drawers. They use these items for their daily preparation of food items.

Normally the daily usage and usage pattern of these grocery items for the daily food preparation is not monitored in an effective way and due to that, a lot of wastage, theft, misusage, and carelessness occurs. An optimized and cost effective re-ordering of these cooking items is not in place.

At home, working husband and wife as well face the similar issue of not having a clear idea of what items will be remaining and how much quantity of items left in their kitchen and store cabinets as well as refrigerators.

Both Hotels and home scenarios, we need to physically / manually check and find out what items to be re-ordered and how much quantity of what food items are needed and refilled. A lot of time, labor, money is spent additionally on this process.

By understanding of facts and circumstances that surround above mentioned situations at home, hotels, stores, an idea lead to the invention of intelligent (smart) appliances got evolved. This invention is to apply intelligence into the kitchen cabinets, drawers, refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers and to be able to automate and enhance the approach of timely ordering, reordering, monitoring, reporting of the groceries, vegetables and other food items used in home kitchens, hotels of various ranking, fast food retailers, centralized kitchens and their stores, kitchens and stores of catering service providers, stores in the shopping malls, stores in the retail shops, stores in the whole sale business shops and department stores.

This is a unique, one of its kind and affordable product solution to the middle class and upper class consumers where Customers from their Cell phone application or from www web link from anywhere in the world, will be able to access their own kitchen cabinets and refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers situated at home, shops, stores and view and monitor the virtual cabinets displaying real time level / quantity, expiry of items stored in it.

Also a digital display on these cabinets will show the customer the actual quantity, weight of each item with expiry dates and also displays color indicators for each tray. Green indicator shows when items in the tray is available more than 75%, a yellow indicator shows items in the tray is more than 25%, and Red indicator shows items in the tray is less than 25% and needs to be refilled.

These appliances will timely alert customers by sending SMS / Email regularly at what point they need to purchase and re-fill groceries into the trays / cabinets situated at home, hotels, food stores etc. Object of invention

To Provide timely update to the customers about the information, expiry dates, re -order levels of groceries and other commodities used at home kitchens, hotels, pantries, food outlets and centralized kitchens

To provide Customers access to their own kitchen cabinets, drawers, refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers from anywhere in the web or from their Cell phone applications, to monitor and view them virtually. Software application provides virtual screen of real time status, quantity of items stored along with expiry dates.

To achieve effective usage of groceries and other commodities used to cook food and also to be able to supervise the employees (chefs, cooks) effectively by monitoring & tracking the usage of items and also mapping the history data of items (pulses, Cereals, powders and vegetables etc..) stored in the cabinets, drawers, refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers with the daily usage parameters.

To avoid discrepancies and identify theft attempts of labourers (if any) with automated tracking, alerts and reporting features from the software applications.

To timely send SMS / email alerts, reports which will enable users to purchase the required items on time and also it enable users to buy the actual quantity of items required.

Customize the existing legacy cabinets, refrigerator arrays and coolers into intelligent (smart) ones.

2.4. - Statement of invention

These Smart appliance products are Intelligent Kitchen cabinets, Intelligent drawers, Intelligent refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers which hold groceries, house hold items (pulses, Cereals, powders), vegetables and other commodities in the trays, containers or arrays inside. LCD screen in front of these appliances display the actual and varying quantity, weight of each items and expiry dates. It also displays color indicators. Green indicator shows when items in the tray is available more than 75%, a yellow indicator shows items in the tray is more than 25%, and Red indicator shows items in the tray is less than 25% and automatically alert the users that items need to be re-filled.

Customers from their Cell phone application or from www web link will be able to access their own kitchen cabinets, intelligent drawers, intelligent refrigerator arrays, and coolers from home, office or from anywhere in the web and view the cabinets virtually in their desktops and phones by displaying real time status, expiry dates, quantity of items stored in.

These Intelligent appliances will timely alert customers by sending SMS / Email regularly at what point they need to purchase and re-fill groceries, other commodities into the trays / cabinets situated at home, hotels, stores, and kitchens. Also this software from these appliances can be linked to the industry's online grocery applications to automate the re-order requests. Intelligent (Smart) cabinets will benefit Pharmaceutical companies, Hospitals / Clinics, blood banks, beverages, farm products, jewellery stores and engineering stores etc. as well to store the items and monitor and track the real time usage from Internet.

2.5. - Summary of invention :-

This invention of Intelligent (Smart) kitchen cabinets, drawers, refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers comprises of trays, arrays and containers with wireless / wired load sensors and controller card with Wi-Fi and Ethernet modules. Wireless / wired load sensors measure the weight of the items placed on the trays or containers and it communicates the data to the controller board which is placed in one of the intelligent (Smart) cabinets. Mother board of the controller board has an algorithm to convert the weight information received from the load sensors from each trays or containers and calculate it into 75 %, 50 % and 25 % formats based on the real time occupancy of the trays and it forwards the weight, and the approximate percentage of the commodities into a display screen in a human readable format on the front side of each intelligent cabinet.

Controller board initiates an alarm from the inbuilt system with beep sound to alert the user if any of the shelves/ trays or containers occupy less than 25 % of the commodities. It consolidates the data which falls into the threshold of less than 25% from each trays or containers residing in all the smart cabinets and sends SMS to the customer mobile numbers that the corresponding shelf has only 25% of the commodities existing. It is also possible to send email to the end users so that users are aware of the real time status of the commodities in their kitchen cabinets and be able to purchase and re-fill the items in a timely manner.

Intelligent (Smart) cabinets will have temperature controls and dehumidifiers to keep the items free from bacteria and with the temperature control, items in the cabinets will remain fresh throughout.

Most importantly Intelligent (Smart) allows remote monitoring and reporting of customer's kitchen cabinets, drawers, refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers from world wide web applications and mobile applications from anywhere in the world.

Intelligent (Smart) cabinets will also benefit Pharmaceutical companies, Hospitals / Clinics, Operation theatres, blood banks and surgical stores to store the items and monitor and track the usage from Internet. This technology also benefits beverages, farm products, jewellery stores and engineering stores etc. to store their items and monitor and track the usage from Internet.

2.6. - Drawing figures:-

Fig. 1 is a view of Modular kitchen with intelligent cabinets and drawers

Fig. 2. is another example of Modular kitchen with intelligent cabinets and drawers

Fig. 3. is an example of LCD / LED display placed outside the cabinets, drawers and containers

Fig. 4: Intelligent drawer with wireless / wired load sensors and LCD display.

Fig. 5:_Internal and external world connectivity from Sensors and Control board.

Fig .6: is another view of Internal and external world connectivity from Sensors and Control board.

Fig .7: is a view of sample web interface

Detailed description of the invention with reference to drawing/examples:- Application areas of the invention

• Modular kitchens (Kitchen cabinets, drawers)

• Refrigerator (Refrigerator arrays and trays)

• Coolers

• Containers

• Store cabinets

• Large Kitchen cabinets, drawers

• Freezers

Business application areas of this invention

• Star hotels of different ranking.

• Home Kitchens

• Fast Food retailers

• Centralized kitchens ( Ex: Akshaya patra in India)

• Kitchens of Catering service providers

• Office pantries

• Canteens of institutions.

• Hospitals / Operation theaters

• Clinics

• Blood banks

• Hospital laboratories

• Pharmacies and Pharmaceutical companies

• Jewellery stores

• Engineering stores

• Hardware stores

• Surgical items stores

• Beverage stores

• Farm product stores

Business tie-up / partnership possible with other vendors

• Modular kitchen vendors

• Refrigerator companies

• Pharmaceutical companies

• Cabinet vendors

• Home appliance vendors 2.7. - Business viability and growth of the invention:

This is a technology based innovation can be used in consumer durables sector, supplies and distribution industry of domains such as groceries, health care, Medical, surgical, pharmaceuticals, blood banks, beverages, farm products, jewellery products and engineering products etc.. This can have tie up with modular kitchen partners, refrigerator companies and in turn provide intelligent kitchen cabinets, drawers, refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers to the customers from various sectors. Also it allows customizing the existing non-intelligent cabinets, drawers, refrigerator arrays, coolers and containers to intelligent (smart) ones. These cabinets will allow viewing, managing the information of the components inside the trays and arrays from internet and will provide a real time status of their cabinets to the customer.

Customers who do not have internet connectivity at home can be provided with semi intelligent cabinets and drawers which will alert them the real time data by displaying outside the cabinets and drawers and also by sending SMS to their mobile phones. Most importantly, system will alert them re-order requirement of the items based on the threshold level validations implemented in the firmware of the control cards. This way this invention can target all classes of customers and grow to a greater extend.

Smart cabinets can be introduced to the normal and Star rated hotels and also food retailers, catering service providers, stores, pharmacies, hospitals, jewellery stores, engineering stores, beverage product stores, blood banks, surgical stores and clinics etc. which will allow them to track down and achieve effective usage of the items. Access to historic data and reports of the consumption / usage of the items will allow supervisors, managers, and F& B managers to remediate the discrepancies and avoid improper and excessive usages and wastages.

• Intelligent Kitchen cabinets and intelligent drawers comprise of wireless / wired load

Sensors on the trays, and a controller card with Wi-Fi and Ethernet modules on the cabinets. These cabinets and Drawers hold items in the trays inside. LCD / LED screen in front of the cabinets / drawers display the actual quantity, load of each item in the trays inside and also display color indicators for trays. Green indicator shows when items in the tray is available more than 75%, a yellow indicator shows items in the tray is more than 25%, and Red indicator shows items in the tray is less than 25% and needs to be re-filled.

Refer to Fi l: Modular kitchen with intelligent cabinets and drawers.

Refer to Fig2: Another example of Modular kitchen with intelligent cabinets and drawers.

Refer to Fig 3: Example of LCD display outside the cabinets, drawers and containers. Refer to Fig 4: Intelligent drawer with load sensors and LED display. • Load Sensors (Wireless / wired) communicates to the control card, and control card capture and store the real time flow and historical data in its internal database and further communicates it to the users in the internet / mobile by using GSM module and or Ethernet / Wi-Fi module by using industry standard encryption protocols, it also alerts the user by SMS when % of the commodities stored in the particular tray or container of modular kitchen is getting low and it sends email and also allows remote monitoring in a virtual format and also provides customized reporting features on world wide web applications and mobile applications from anywhere in the world.

Refer to

Fig 5: Internal and external world connectivity from Sensors and Control board.

Fig .6: Another view of Internal and external world connectivity from Sensors and Control board.

• Web applications and mobile apps which are designed to use securely from world wide web and also from the mobile phones will process the timely refreshed data existing in the database and provide a user friendly secured application interface to the end users to view their cabinets, trays and containers in their kitchen or stores virtually with the real time data. Users can login to the application with their user id and password and access their kitchen cabinets, drawers and containers from the user friendly front end provided by the application.

Refer to Fig 7: Sample web interface

This innovation covers the following domains and has potential to provide employment to a greater extend: -

Instrumentation and Electronics domains: -

Key devices to be built are wireless / wired load Sensors, controller board with Wi-Fi and Ethernet modules. Wireless / wired load Sensors measure the weight of the commodities placed on the trays or containers and it communicates the data to the controller board. Mother board of the controller card has an algorithm to convert the load information to digital signals and further process and send the data internally to the cabinet display and to the internet.

These domains will provide employment opportunities for technicians, engineers to a wide extend.

Network, IT infrastructure. Application and Database domains: -

Control board from Cabinets encrypts the data and communicates to the internet through Wide area network. Appropriate routing, configuration to be performed to & fro communication between control board and internet. This will have required applications, tools, web components, Databases installed and configured to further process the data received from the sensors. These domains will employ engineers, system admins, application developers, database administrators, team leads and managers. R&D:-

Provides an R&D scope for the product enhancements, to research on applying this appliance on various other consumable durable and other segments and also to research and invent new products and services in the market. This domain provides employment opportunities for R&D engineers, team leads and managers.

Other areas covered: -

Governance, Marketing, export capabilities and international scope.