Internet refrigerator
Internet refrigerator (also known as an smart refrigerator) is a refrigerator which has been programmed to sense what kinds of products are being stored inside it and keep a track of the stock through barcode or RFID scanning. This kind of refrigerator is often equipped to determine itself whenever a food item needs to be replenished.
History
By the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the idea of connecting home appliances to the internet (Internet of Things) had been popularized and was seen as the next big thing. In June 2000, LG launched the world’s first internet refrigerator, the Internet Digital DIOS. This refrigerator was an unsuccessful product because the consumers had seen it as unnecessary and expensive (more than $20,000) and that the problems solved were obscure. For example, many juice bottles are transparent, providing a visual reminder that a purchase is needed eventually; vegetable drawers are similarly transparent and contain items often removed from packages, thus eliminating bar codes for inventory which meant manually keying in descriptions and dates. Moreover, the ability of the device to remind users of upcoming purchases when there are often multiple buyers in a household who communicate informally is not typically addressable as a use case.
Controversy
Security
In 2000, Russian anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab warned that in few years Internet-connected fridges and other household appliances may be targets of net viruses, such as ones that could be designed to make your fridge door swing open in the middle of the night.[1] In January 2014, the California security firm Proofpoint, Inc. announced that it discovered a large “botnet” which infected an internet-connected refrigerator, as well as other home appliances, and then delivered more than 750,000 malicious emails.[2] In August 2015, security company Pen Test Partners discovered a vulnerability in the internet-connected refrigerator Samsung model RF28HMELBSR that can be exploited to steal Gmail users' login credentials[3]
Support
Since late 2014, several owners of internet-connected Samsung refrigerators started to complain that they could not log in to their Google Calendars accounts after Google had discontinued the calendar API earlier in the year and Samsung failed to push a software update for the refrigerator.[4][5]
Examples
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Popular culture
- The 2000 film The 6th Day, features an internet refrigerator which informs Arnold Schwarzenegger that the milk is over its expiring date and asks him to confirm a new order.
- The 2012 film Total Recall, features a smart refrigerator that is covered by a touchscreen which enables the user to leave notes and messages.
References
- ↑ Harrison, Linda (21 June 2000). "Fridges to be hit by Net viruses". The Register. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
- ↑ "Fridge sends spam emails as attack hits smart gadgets". BBC News. 17 January 2014. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
- ↑ Neagle, Colin (26 August 2015). "Smart refrigerator hack exposes Gmail account credentials". Network World. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
- ↑ Limer, Eric (9 December 2015). "Refrigerator Tech Support Shows the True Horror of Having All Your Appliances Are All Online". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
- ↑ Franceschi-Bicchierai, Lorenzo (11 December 2015). "Smart Fridge Only Capable of Displaying Buggy Future of the Internet of Things". Motherboard. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
External links
- "What Is a Smart Refrigerator?". Wise Geek.
- Bennett, Bill (23 August 2009). "What happened to the internet fridge?". Technology News. New Zealand.