Smart refrigerator

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". The proposed idea of a smart fridge that could keep track of its contents with "a bar-code reader within the fridge" had become popular in various technology newspapers. In June 2000, LG launched the first internet refrigerator, the Internet Digital DIOS. This refrigerator was unsuccessful because consumers saw it as unnecessary and, at over $20,000, too expensive.

Controversy

Security

In 2000, Russian anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab warned that in a few years Internet-connected refrigerators and other household appliances might be targets of net viruses or trojans in a publication: Internet Security: Emerging Threats and Challenges (Adamov, Alexander; A, Milan). Examples included attacks that could make the refrigerator door swing open in the middle of the night.{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/06/21/fridges_to_be_hit_by/|title=Fridges to be hit by Net viruses |first=Linda |last=Harrison

Support

In late 2014, several owners of Internet-connected Samsung refrigerators complained that they could not log into their Google Calendar accounts, after Google had discontinued the calendar API earlier in the year and Samsung failed to push a software update for the refrigerator.

Examples

• Electrolux ScreenFridge
• LG Internet Digital DIOS
• LG GR-D267DTU
• LG Smart ThinQ LFX31995ST
• Samsung RH2777AT HomePAD Internet Refrigerator
• Samsung T9000
• Samsung Zipel e-Diary
• Whirlpool GD5VVAXT Refrigerator

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 2004 film The Stepford Wives, features a smart refrigerator that can tell whenever it has no juice, etc. in Joanna's new Stepford home.
• The 2012 film Total Recall, features a smart refrigerator that is covered by a touchscreen which enables the user to leave notes and messages.
• Silicon Valley features a smart fridge that is bought by Jian-Yang, after the old refrigerator broke down in Season 4 episode, "The Patent Troll". The smart refrigerator is able to communicate in friendly male voice and give a warning if the food items are expired, which bothers Gilfoyle enough to hack it. In season 4 finale, "Server Error", thanks to his hacking, Pied Piper's plan for the new Internet is proven by the 30,000 smart refrigerators connected together that create the new Internet, as he hacked using some of their code, replacing his dead server, Anton, who backed itself up to the smart refrigerator before it died.

References

References

1. (27 January 2020). "You Still Probably Shouldn't Buy a Smart Fridge".
2. (2022-03-17). "New technologies in refrigerators iPhone Apps".
3. "What Is so Smart About a Smart Fridge?".
4. Foote, Keith D.. (2021-12-17). "A Brief History of Cloud Computing".
5. Milan A, Smart Fridge Professor. "The Deseret News - Google News Archive Search".
6. (2017). "Smart Refrigerator Using IOT". [[International Journal of Latest Engineering Research and Applications]].
7. (September 2000). "2010 East-West Design & Test Symposium (EWDTS)". IEEE.
8. (17 January 2014). "Fridge sends spam emails as attack hits smart gadgets".
9. Neagle, Colin. (26 August 2015). "Smart refrigerator hack exposes Gmail account credentials". Network World.
10. Limer, Eric. (9 December 2015). "Hilarious Tech Support Thread Reveals the True Horror of a Smart Home". Popular Mechanics.
11. Franceschi-Bicchierai, Lorenzo. (11 December 2015). "Smart Fridge Only Capable of Displaying Buggy Future of the Internet of Things". Motherboard.
12. Henderson, Odie. (4 June 2017). "Silicon Valley Recap: The Price of Dignity".
13. Henderson, Odie. (2017-06-25). "Silicon Valley Season-Finale Recap: Servers Have Souls Too".