System for warming up and/or cooking food with microwave detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11234299-B2
Application number	US-201515301632-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 1, 2015
Priority date	Apr 7, 2014
Publication date	Jan 25, 2022
Grant date	Jan 25, 2022

Abstract

A system for warming up and/or cooking food is provided herein and includes: a frame; operating means for heating an active zone defined within the volume delimited by said frame; an emitter device for irradiating said active zone with incident microwaves; a detector device for detecting corresponding radiations coming from said active zone; a first transmission unit associated with at least said detector device and configured for sending first data, representative of said corresponding radiations, to a processing unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An oven, comprising:
a frame;
an electric resistor for heating an active zone defined within a volume delimited by the frame;
a microwave emitter for irradiating the active zone with incident microwaves;
a radiation detector configured to detect separate corresponding radiations coming from the active zone, wherein the separate corresponding radiations are generated in response to the incident microwaves acting upon food present in the active zone, wherein the separate corresponding radiations differ from the incident microwaves with at least some of the separate corresponding radiations having a different wavelength compared to the incident microwaves, and wherein the radiation detector is configured to detect the separate corresponding radiations concurrently with emission of the incident microwaves; and
a processor operably coupled to the radiation detector, wherein the processor receives radiation data from the radiation detector related to the separate corresponding radiations and is programmed to determine a parameter representative of a freshness of the food present in the active zone using the radiation data, wherein the processor is also programmed to determine a set of parameters representative of a quantity of skin, a quantity of meat, and a quantity of stuffing in the food in the active zone using the radiation data, and wherein the detected corresponding radiations are representative of spectral absorption of the incident microwaves by the food.

2. The oven of claim 1 , wherein the separate corresponding radiations include microwave radiation and infrared radiation.

3. The oven of claim 1 , wherein the processor generates one or more images representative of the food present in the active zone based on the separate corresponding radiations.

4. The oven of claim 1 , wherein the processor determines, based on the radiation data, at least one of the following characteristic parameters:
a parameter representative of a volume occupied by the food present in the active zone; and
a parameter representative of a cooking level of the food present in the active zone.

5. The oven of claim 1 , wherein the processor sends data to a display device via at least one of wired and wireless technology.

6. The oven of claim 5 , wherein the data comprises one or more images representative of the food present in the active zone.

7. The oven of claim 5 , wherein the data sent to the display device comprises one or more of the following characteristic parameters:
a parameter representative of a freshness of the food present in the active zone;
a parameter representative of a volume occupied by the food present in the active zone;
a parameter representative of a cooking level of the food present in the active zone; and
a set of parameters representative of a composition of the food present in the active zone, comprising values concerning a relative quantity of skin, a relative quantity of meat, a relative quantity of water, and a relative quantity of stuffing.

8. The oven of claim 1 , wherein said oven is of a combined type of oven, wherein the microwave emitter is configured for being brought into an operating condition in which the combined type of oven warms up the food present in the active zone and an operating condition for cooking the food present in the active zone.

9. The oven of claim 1 , further comprising:
a transmission unit that utilizes at least one of wired and wireless technology integrated into said oven and configured to send data to a display device.

10. The oven of claim 9 , wherein said oven is operably coupled to the display device integrated into a portable auxiliary device separate from said oven.

11. The oven of claim 1 , wherein said oven is operably coupled to a transmission unit integrated into a portable auxiliary device separate from said oven, wherein the transmission unit utilizes wireless technology.

12. The oven of claim 11 , wherein a display device is integrated into the portable auxiliary device.

13. The oven of claim 1 , wherein the separate corresponding radiations are infrared radiations.

14. The oven of claim 1 , wherein the processor is programmed to generate one or more images representative of a composition of the food present in the active zone, and wherein the composition includes the quantity of meat, a quantity of water, the quantity of skin, and the quantity of stuffing.

15. The oven of claim 14 , wherein the processor is programmed to send data to a display device, wherein the display device is configured to display the one or more images of the representative the composition of the food present in the active zone based on the data received from the processor.

16. The oven of claim 5 , wherein the data sent to the display device comprises:
a parameter representative of a freshness of the food present in the active zone; and
a set of parameters representative of a composition of the food present in the active zone, comprising values concerning a relative quantity of skin, a relative quantity of meat, a relative quantity of water, and a relative quantity of stuffing.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Emea Spa
• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Ratti Carlo Filippo
• Pedrazzo Marco Maria

Classifications

• H05B6/6435 Primary

  Aspects relating to the user interface of the microwave heating apparatus · CPC title

• H05B6/6455

  the sensors being infrared detectors · CPC title