Domestic appliance with a digital camera, and method for operating a domestic appliance comprising a digital camera

Abstract

A domestic appliance has a heat-insulated housing with two lateral walls, a rear wall, and a cover. The housing delimits a coolable interior for storing food. The appliance has a refrigerating device for cooling the coolable interior, at least one pivotally mounted door leaf for opening and closing the coolable interior, a drawer which can be at least partly pulled out of the coolable interior when the door leaf is open, and a digital camera in or on the housing in order to produce an image of the drawer at least partly pulled out of the coolable interior when the door leaf is open. The digital camera is arranged in or on the cover or in an upper region in or on one of the lateral walls. The digital camera faces diagonally downwards and away from the rear wall at an angle of at least 20° relative to the vertical.

1 - 12 . (canceled) 
     
     
         13 . A household refrigerator, comprising:
 a heat-insulated housing having two lateral walls, a rear wall, and a cover delimiting a coolable interior for storing food;   a refrigerating device for cooling the coolable interior;   at least one pivotally mounted door leaf for selectively opening and closing the coolable interior;   a drawer configured to be at least partly pulled out of the coolable interior when said door leaf is open; and   a digital camera disposed in or on said cover, or in an upper region in or on one of said lateral walls, said digital camera facing diagonally downwards and away from said rear wall at an angle of at least 20° relative to the vertical, and said digital camera being configured to produce an image of said drawer while said drawer is at least partly pulled out of the coolable interior and said door leaf is open.   
     
     
         14 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 13 , which comprises at least one door rack for storing food arranged on a side of said door leaf facing the coolable interior, and wherein said digital camera is oriented to be capable of recording an image of the side of the door leaf facing the coolable interior at a predetermined opening angle of said at least one door leaf. 
     
     
         15 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 14 , wherein the predetermined opening angle of the at least one door leaf lies between 30° and 60°. 
     
     
         16 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 13 , wherein said digital camera is arranged in or on said cover or in an upper region in or on one of the lateral walls to be oriented diagonally downwards and away from the rear wall at an angle of 30° to 60° relative to the vertical. 
     
     
         17 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 13 , wherein said digital camera is arranged in or on said cover centrally relative to the horizontal, and/or said digital camera has a viewing angle of is at least 80°. 
     
     
         18 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 13 , wherein the viewing angle of said digital camera is at least 110°. 
     
     
         19 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 13 , wherein an optical axis assigned to said digital camera runs parallel to said lateral walls. 
     
     
         20 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 13 , wherein said digital camera is arranged in or on the cover or, respectively, in or on the lateral wall such that:
 a projection of an optical axis assigned to said digital camera into the horizontal is oriented at least approximately at a right angle to said door leafwhen said door leaf is open at a predetermined opening angle; and/or   the optical axis assigned to said digital camera strikes said door leaf at least approximately centrally relative to the horizontal when said door leaf is open at the predetermined opening angle.   
     
     
         21 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 13 , wherein said at least one door leaf is one of two door leaves arranged adjacent one another for opening and closing the coolable interior, wherein one of said door leaves is pivotally mounted on a left-hand side and another of said door leaves is pivotally mounted on a right-hand side relative to said heat-insulated housing, and wherein each of said two door leaves carries at least one door rack for storing food on a side thereof facing the coolable interior. 
     
     
         22 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 21 , wherein:
 said digital camera is configured to record an image of said drawer that is at least partly pulled out of the coolable interior when said door leaves are open and said drawer is at least partly pulled out of the coolable interior; and/or   said digital camera is configured to record an image of the side of said door leaf mounted on the left-hand side and facing the coolable interior when said door leaf is open at a predetermined opening angle; and/or   said digital camera is configured to record an image of the side of said door leaf mounted on the right-hand side and facing the coolable interior when said door leaf is open at a predetermined opening angle.   
     
     
         23 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 22 , wherein the predetermined opening angle lies between 30° and 60°. 
     
     
         24 . The household refrigerator according to  claim 21 , wherein said digital camera is one of two digital cameras arranged in or on said cover, wherein one of said digital cameras is oriented in a direction of said door leaf that is mounted on the left-hand side when said door leaf is open at a predetermined opening angle, and another of said digital cameras is oriented in a direction of said door leaf that is mounted on the right-hand side when said door leaf is open at a predetermined opening angle. 
     
     
         25 . A method, comprising:
 providing a household refrigerator according to  claim 13  with at least one door rack for storing food on a side of the door leaf facing the coolable interior of the household refrigerator;   recording an image with the digital camera when the door leaf is open and the drawer is partly pulled out of the coolable interior; and   recording an image with the digital camera of the side of the door leaf facing the coolable interior at a predetermined opening angle while the door leaf is being closed.   
     
     
         26 . The method according to  claim 25 , which comprises recording the image with the digital camera while the opening angle lies between 30° and 60°. 
     
     
         27 . The method according to  claim 25 , which further comprises post-processing image data assigned to the image or to a plurality of images and enabling the image or images of the post-processed image data to be viewed with a mobile terminal device. 
     
     
         28 . A method, comprising:
 providing a household refrigerator according to  claim 13  with two door leaves arranged adjacent one another, one of the door leaves being a left-hand door leaf and another being a right-hand door leaf, and the door leaves carrying at least one door rack for storing food on a side thereof facing the coolable interior;   recording an image with the digital camera when the door leaves are open and the drawer is partly pulled out of the coolable interior;   recording an image with the digital camera of a side of the left-hand door leaf facing the coolable interior at a predetermined opening angle while the right-hand door leaf is being closed; and   recording an image with the digital camera of a side of the right-hand door leaf facing the coolable interior at a predetermined opening angle while the door leaf is being closed.   
     
     
         29 . The method according to  claim 28 , which comprises recording the image with the digital camera while the opening angle lies between 30° and 60°. 
     
     
         30 . The method according to  claim 28 , further comprising post-processing image data assigned to the image or to a plurality of images and enabling an image with the post-processed image data to be viewed with a mobile terminal device.