Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Title: "Microwave Oven Control System"
This invention relates generally to microwave cooking ovens and
more particulnrly to n control system for controlling the cooking cycle of a
microwave oven in nccordance with an optimum cooking cycle program for
5the particulQr food item being cooked.
Heretofore, various systems have been utilized for determining
and controlling the cooking cycle in microwave ovens. This was needed ns
not all foods cook or heat in like manner when subjected to the high
10frequency energy generated in the oven. For example, high levels of such
high frequency energy can be used to cook meats and reheat most foods
while lower output levels are desired for cooking some foods such ns eggs
and for defrosting frozen foods. Typicnlly, the oven has n number of
controls consistin~ of one or more switches, diaLs or buttons in nn oven
15control pnnel1 the number nnd type dependin~ on the sophistication and
fentures avnilable in the particular oven. By actuating the proper controls,
the user could pattern the cooking cycle ta the particular food item being
cooked. The cooking cycle could also be varied during tlle cooking operation
in nccordnnce with sensed parameters such ns the temperature of the Eood
20which is obtained through a temperature probe employed in the oven cooking
cnvity~ If the oven is of the more sophisticated nnd programmable type, the
user could perform all the necessnry programming operations at one time,
the oven thereafter "remembering" its programmed instructions nnd carrying
out the cooking cycle in nccordance therewith.
25The oven user may develop his or her own cooking program for
particular foods or more likely follow cooking programs made available to
the user on recipe cards, in cookbooks, in instruction manuals, on containers
for the food item or the like. To achieve optimum cooking of some food
items, the program ihstructions may be particularly complex and require
30substantial time for manually programming the oven in accordance there~
with. For example, it may be that the optimum cooking program for a
particulnr food item reguires first cooking the food item nt n low microwave
-~ energy level for the first ~ten minutes followed by high microwave energy
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cooking for the next five minutes, and then cooking with the
oven's radiant heating element, if 50 equipped, for the next
five minutes with low microwave energy being intermittently
applied during the radiant heating or browning portion of the
cooking cycle. It can be appreciated that the optimum program
instructions may be sufficiently complex and time consuming that
the user may be resistant to using same thereby denying the user
of optimum food preparation. Even for simple programmed
cooking, it is often inconvenient for the user to program the
oven manuaLly. Moreover, the user may make the mistake while
programming the oven which could result in the food item being
overcooked or undercooked, or at least not optimally cooked. It
therefore would be advantageous to provide a microwave oven
control system wherein the oven is easily and automatically
programmed to perform an optimum cooXing program for the
particular food item to be cooked, ~he user merely performing
just one or a few simple and general operations.
Attempts have been made to provide for such automatic
programming and operation of microwave ovens, the user only
providing a few simple instructions to the oven control or
conceivably none a~ all other than to start the oven. One oven
is known to employ a card reader which reads the information
stored on a card and controls the oven in accordance with such
information. While the use of such ovens and cards may be
helpful when the user does a lot of repetitive and complicated
cooking, such an oven and card system is not practical for the
typical household where the menu is more varied.
With the foregoing in mind, it is a principal object of
the present invention to provide a microwave oven control system
which provides for easy and selective automatic programming and
control of the oven cooking cycle for optimum cooking of food
items therein and which is economically practical for usage with
many different types of food items.
The present invention provides a microwave oven control
system for a microwave oven comprising an oven control means in
the oven and manually~movable cooking cycle program
identification code rea~der =eans external of the oven and
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connected to the control means for directing oven operation in
accordance with a program for cooking a food item.
The reader means may co-operate with an article having
printed thereon an in~ormation bearing coae identifying a
cooking cycle program ~or the food item to be cooked. The
reader means may comprise a printed code reader and the oven
control means may comprise an oven cont~oller connected to the
reader for directing oven operations in accordance with the
program identified by the p~inted code read by the reader. The
printed code preferably is in the form of a bar pattern and, in
a preferred embodiment of the invention, the reader is an easily
manipulated light pen reader of the reflective sensor type which
is modulated in a~tcordance with the information bearing bar
pattern as the code i5 scanned by the light pen read~r. In the
embodiment, the control means ~urther comprises a me~lory ~or
storing at least one predetermined cooking cycle program and a
decoder/translator connected to the reader means and the m~ory
for selecting ~rom the memory a program indicated by the
information contained in the code and supplying the thusly
selected program to the controller for execution in accordance
therewith.
The invention further provides a control system for
microwave oven comprising an article having printed thereon at
least one recipe containing instructions for the preparation of
a food item and corresponding information bearing code
identifying a desired cooking program for such food item, reader
means positionable remotely of said oven for reading said
printed information bearing code, said reader means being
manually movable across said printed information bearing code,
and oven control means connected to said reader means for
directing oven operation in accordance with the cooking program
identified by the printed code. The article may be in the form
of a recipe card or collectively assembled such as in a recipe
book or cook book.
The invention still urther provides a microwave oven
control system compri~ing light pen reader means for generating
a modulated signal in accordance with an information bearing
code in the form of a machine readable bar pattern identifying a
cooking cycle program for a food item when read thereby, memory
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means for storing at least one cooking cycle program, means
connected to the reader means and memory means for selecting
from the memory means a program indicated by the modulated
signal generated by the ~eader means, and oven control means
connected to the means for selecting for directing oven
operation in accordance with the thusly selected program.
The following description and the annexed drawing set
forth in detail a certain illustrative embodiment of the
inventian, this being indicative, however, of but one of the
various ways in which the principles of the invention may be
employed. ~
In the annexed drawing;
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an oven embodying a
control system according to the invention, and a printed
information bearing article for use with the oven also according
to the inveIltion; and
Fig. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the control
system.
Reerring now more specifically to the drawing, a
microwave oven is seen at 10 in Fig. 1 and comprises an oven
housing 12 having therein an oven cavity, the open front end of
which is closed by a door 14. To the right of the door is a
control panel 16 which is provided with an oven start switch 18,
a display panel 20, speaker 22 and a printed code reader device
24. As seen in Fig. 1, the printed code reader device 24
preferably is a light pen -
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reader of the reflective sensor type, the output of which is intensitymodulated in accordance with a printed information bearing code being
scanned thereby, such as the machine readable bar pattern seen printed at
26 on a page of a recipe or cook book 30 in conjunction with a recipe 32
5 containing instructions for the preparation of a food item to be cooked in
the oven. Suitable flexible means or wires 34 connect the light pen 2~ to the
control panel 16 so that the light pen can be manually and easily manipulated
to scan the information bearing bar pattern 26, whether printed on a page of
a recipe book or on some other article such as on a recipe card, the package
10 for the food item or the like. This arrangement is particularly advan-
tageous, for example, over card reading devices that require special
information cards or the like of a specific size and shape for use in a reading
device employed in the oven.
Referring now to Fig. 2 wherein the control system for the
15 microwave oven is designated ganerally by reference numeral 36, it will be
seen that the light pen 24 is coupled to an oven controller or control circuit
38 which directs operation of the oven 10 in accordance with the cooking
cycle program identified by the information code read by the light pen
reader. The control system 36 may take various forms, a preferred form
20 being seen further to include a decoder/translator circuit 40 that decodes
and translates the signal received from the light pen reader 24 into control
circuit usable data such as into digital data where the control circuit
employs microprocessors or the like for effecting operation of the oven.
The decoder/translator circuit 40 thus converts the coded information into
25 usable instructions which are then supplied to the oven control circuit 38 for
directing the oven operation in accordance with such instructions.
In decoding and translating the coded information received from
the light pen reader 24, the decoder/translator circuit 40 may perform
various functions depending on the informational content of the printed
30 code. The code according to the invention may identify a desired cooking
cycle by containing, for example, a complete set of program instructions for
the control circuit 38. In this case, the decoder/translator circuit need only
convert the signals received from the light pen reader to instructional
signals used by the control cireuit. The decoder/translator circuit may also
35 irterpret or rdrpt the informrtion recei~ed irom the printed code for best
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results in the particulElr oven being used if the code contains general
information usable with ovens of different types. For ex~mple, the
information code may carry instructions for operating a radiant heating
element with which feature the oven is not equipped. In this instance, the
decoder/translator circuit mny disregard such instructions or modify the
other program instructions to ad~pt or modify same to account for the lack
of the radiant heating element or other oven feature. To achieve such
adaptation, the decoderltranslator circuit may rely upon data stored in a
memory ~ircuit 44 which in such case would contain modification informa-
tion for tailoring the given cooking program to the particular oven being
used.
The memory circuit 44 instead, and as depictedy can be used to
store at least one and preferably a number of cooking programs, each
program including recipe cooking instructions for effecting the desired or
optimum operation of the oven through the oven control circuit 38 for
cooking a corresponding food item. In this case, the printed code to identify
the desired program need include only information indicnting the stored
program such as the memory address therefor corresponding to the
particular food item to be cooked.
It will be appreciated that an oven employing memory stored
cooking programs can be utili~ed with the universal product code system
presently in use by the pack~ged food industry, the optimum program being
identified by the product code assigned to the food item to be cooked which
code contains information identifying the food item as well as its weight.
For practical purposes, the memory might only include programs for those
food items known to be more commonly cooked in microwave ovens without
substantial additional preparation, an error signal or the like otherwise being
generated if a stored program is unavailable for the item to be cooked.
A~s another modification, the memory circuit 44 may store a
number of sub-programs such as one or more defrost su~programs, baking
sub-programs, browning sub-programs, or the like. In this case, the printed
code carries abbreviated program instructions identifying the desired sub-
program or sub-programs and the sequence therefor for the corresponding
food item to be cooked, the decoderltranslator circuit 40 formulating from
such abbreviated instructions a complete set of cooking instructions for use
by the control circuit 38.
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The control circuit 38 having received program instructions by any
one of the foregoing or other modes may optionally effect a visual review
thereof on the oven display panel 20, a display circuit 46 being connected to
the control circuit and display panel for this purpose. Tnis is particularly
5 advantageous where the cooking pro~ram instructions are not otherwise
available to the oven user except in the printed information code which the
user may not be able to interpret. There may additionally be provided an
audio or voice output circuit 4~ connected to the control circuit 38 and to
the speaker 22 in the oven control panel 16, such output circuit employing
10 for example voice chips and associated circuitry to generate a spoken
program review~
Although the oven could operate solely through the automatic
program inp~lt system consisting of the light pen reader 24, decoder/trans-
lator circuit 40 and memory circuit 4~, the control circuit 38 desirably also
15 has connected thereto a manual program input device such as the touch
system input device 50 shown for enabling the user to enter manunlly his or
her own cooking progrnm instructions.
With the foregoing oven control system, it can now be appreciated
that the oven can be easily automatically programmed and operated in
20 accordance with an optimum cooking cycle, the program being identified by
an information bearing code which for example may be printed on the
package for the food item to be cooked. This is particularly advantageous in
the cooking of prepared frozen meals which commonly are initially heated
with low and intermittently applied microwave energy and then at a
25 continuous higher level of energy to serving temperature. Also as mentioned
above, the printed information codes may be employed in conjunction with
recipes on cards or in cookbooks or the like. The user can then prepare the
food item in accordance with the selected recipe and then simply scan the
corresponding information code with the reader for effectin~ an optimum
30 cooking program in the oven. Since the code is simply printed on the recipe
card, in the cookbook, or on the package for the article itself, it is relatively
inexpensive and practical to provide cooking program information codes for
a large number of products, particularly where the code contains the
complete or essentially complete set of instructions whereby only a small
35 capacity memory is required if at all.
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Although the circuitry for the control system described above is
not set forth herein, it should be understood that those skilled in the art
upon reading and understanding this disclosure will be able readily to develop
the circuitry for such control system employing conventional and availnble
S circuitry presently used in microwave ovens and in microprocessors.
~ Ithough the invention has been shown and clescribed with respect
to a preferred embodiment, it is obvious that equivalent alterations and
modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the reading and
understanding of the specification. The present invention includes all such
10 equivalent alterations and modifications, and is limited only by the scope of the claims.
