Retrofitting Fridges with IoT Devices - Enabling Smart Capabilities with Sensors and AI

17 November 2022, by Jakob Fischer, Markus Behrens

Photo: Asim Faraz

The goal of this work is to evaluate different methods for detecting the fill level of a beverage refrigerator. In addition, the system to be designed should be able to track which person has taken how many drinks.

To do this, it must first be possible to measure the fill level of the refrigerator. The sensors must be accurate enough to measure the level down to a single bottle. It should also be possible to detect whether a person has just placed something else in the refrigerator (for example, an empty bottle or a brick) in order to bypass the system.

In addition, the refrigerator must be lockable so that it can be tracked which person is removing drinks. This locking mechanism should be secure (barrier to tampering sufficiently high), simple and, if possible, not obstruct the view of the drinks. For this purpose, a system must be designed that opens the refrigerator after authentication by a person.

In order for this solution to be used as easily as possible, the design must not be too complicated and not too expensive. In addition, the maintenance effort of the system should be as low as possible.

Participants: Jakob Fischer, Markus Behrens