The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 28, 2014
Filed:
May. 01, 2009
Yong-su Kim, Seoul, KR;
Dong-hoon Lee, Seoul, KR;
Kyung-han Jeong, Seoul, KR;
Kwang-ha Suh, Seoul, KR;
Yong-Su Kim, Seoul, KR;
Dong-Hoon Lee, Seoul, KR;
Kyung-Han Jeong, Seoul, KR;
Kwang-Ha Suh, Seoul, KR;
LG Electronics Inc., Seoul, KR;
Abstract
An ice detecting apparatus for a refrigerator having an ice maker includes an ice detecting sensor which determines whether or not an ice storage container which receives and stores ice made by the ice maker is full or nearly full of ice based on pulses transmitted from and received by transmitting and receiving units. The ice detecting sensor includes a transmitting unit to transmit one or more pulses and a receiving unit to detect the pulses transmitted from the transmitting unit. A controller is operably coupled to the transmitting and receiving units to determine whether the storage container is full or nearly full based on pulses detected by the receiving unit among one or more pulses transmitted by the transmitting unit. The controller also determines whether or not external light has been introduced into the ice maker based on the pulses detected by the receiving unit.