Original story

From Household Appliance News - 2.9.2004

Brisk demand for new Siemens range of VideoGSM refrigerator/freezers

  • other manufacturers looking for new sales gimmicks

A speciality developed originally by amateur inventors has provided a real sales boost for refrigerator maker Siemens. The company has fitted all the models in its top-of-the-line Luxus range with miniature cameras and a GSM connection.

It’s a familiar complaint - many people have to call home on their way back from work and ask what there is in the refrigerator, and what has to be bought from the shop on the corner. That’s all very well, if there is someone at home to answer the phone. In families with children in particular, the problem is often one of disappearing stocks of fridge staples like milk, eggs, tomatoes and the like. Or then again, people buy too much just to be on the safe side, and find themselves throwing away rotting vegetables and cartons of milk. In order to avoid this headache, several years ago a number of technology enthusiasts came up with a solution - to install simple closed-circuit cameras inside their refrigerator. Everybody remembers the early days of the Internet, when cameras were installed beside Coca-Cola machines on university campuses, so students could check from the Web if their local machine was full or empty, thus saving their tired young legs. This is simply taking things one step further.

Product development engineers at Siemens were the first to spot the potential of the idea. The company’s sales in the kitchen appliance sector have suffered for some time from the lack of a “luxury” image in their range. Normally known for its dour German conservatism, Siemens has now surprised the market by installing the technology in all the models in its Luxus range.

Siemens sales staff believe that “stock-up” shoppers want to be able to check from their mobile just what is in the fridge and what isn’t, as this sort of service saves both time and money.

Siemens has fitted small Connectix QuikCam digital internet cameras equipped with multiple viewfinders, allowing several images to be shown from different shelves and the refrigerator door. The camera terminal is linked up to each shelf by an optical fibre cable, at the end of which is a small lens and a flashlight. From the phone keypad it is possible to select the image required from the relevant shelf. The camera carries Siemens own GSM module, which can be contacted from any GSM phone and thus allow the caller to look inside the fridge. Siemens technicians report that the system is very reliable in operation.

Not to be outdone, Philips has announced that it, too, is developing a similar system, but that it will be made available on almost all the company’s household appliances, including ovens and washing machines. Preliminary press releases have said that Philips will not be using the GSM network, but a system developed in the 1990s by Novell, now a part of the IBM group of companies. Under the Novell arrangement, all the domestic appliances are hooked up to one another through the electrical network and via the Internet to a computer. In this system the image is transferred to the mobile phone from the computer terminal via a conventional Internet connection.

Electrolux has not yet made any announcements concerning its own response, but has reported discussions on possible cooperation with a number of mobile phone manufacturers. However, a call we made to the Director of Corporate Communications at Nokia produced only a flat denial of any such negotiations. On the other hand, Electrolux has recently built a largish laboratory to examine the aumotaic analysis of digital images. Professor Joop van Damm, who chairs the Digital Technology Department at the University of Amsterdam, commented to HAN that the analysis of the colours of digital camera images and of heat sensors associated with these could open up a vast array of new possibilities in the use of domestic appliances.

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Älyjääkaappien prototyypit syntyivät varhain ja kaupalliset mallit tarjoavat kameroita, näyttöjä, varastotietoa ja etäyhteyksiä. Ratkaisusta ei tullut jokaisen kodin vakiovarustetta.

Johtopäätös: ydintoiminto toteutui oikeassa aikaikkunassa, mutta käyttö jäi ennakoitua rajallisemmaksi.