Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
TITLE OF TH~ INVE~NTION
COOKING APPARATUS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus
such as a microwave oven, and particularly to a cooking
apparatus which is able to provide correct cooking
information for given number of servings and display the
information in the most suitable manner.
Description of the Prior Art
As dietary culture improves in recent years,
high-performance cooking apparatuses such as microwave
ovens which can cook various dishes with a single unit have
been developed and spread in general families. This
tendency may continue in the future.
To effectively use such high-performance cooking
apparatuses to make delicious dishes, it is important to
correctly grasp cooking information related to the dishes
to cook. This information may include; a menu of dishes
that can be cooked by the cooking apparatuses, quantities
of food materials of each dish necessary for preparing the
dish for a given number of persons to be served with the
dish, and recipes of the dishes.
Conventionally, a user of such a cooking apparatus
shall refer to cookbooks, etc., to confirm cooking
information related to a dish to cook. This is a laborsome
work. In addition, the cookbooks are usually based on
standard models in deciding quantities of food materials of
their dishes. Therefore, the user shall properly convert
the quantities written in the books into those needed by
the user. This is also a laborsome ~ork.
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The cooking apparatuses are, therefore, strongly
required to have a function of providing correct and easily
understandable cooking information for a given number of
servings of each dish.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a
coo~ing apparatus which can provide correct cooking
information of each d.ish for a user of the apparatus in
cooking the dish with the apparatus for a given number of
persons to be ~erved with the dish.
Another object of the present invention is to provide
a cooking apparatus which can process cooking information
of food materials and display the information in the most
suitable manner.
Still another object of the present invention is to
provide a cooking apparatus which can provide correct
cooklng information.- for a given number of servings of a
dish to be cooked, select the most suitable units for the
~0 information and display the information with the selected
units.
Still another object of the present invention is to
provide a cooking apparatus which can provide correct
cooking information for a given number of servings of a
~5 dish to be cooked and display the information with
fractional numbers.
~ till another object of the present invention is to
provide a cooking apparatus which can provide correct
cooking in~ormation for a given number of servings of a
dish to be cooked, round up or down values related to the
information, and display the rounded up or down values with
character strings corresponding to the rounding up or down
operations.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a
cooking apparatus has necessary cooking functions and
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comprises a cooking information storage for storing names
of materials of each dish to be cooked by the apparatus and
quantities of the materials needed for preparing the dish
per person, a display for displaying at least the
quantities of the materials needed for cooking the dish, an
input switch for inputting the number of persons to be
served with the dish, and operating device for calculating
the quantities of the materials needed for preparing the
dish for the inputted number of persons according to the
quantities of the materials per person stored in the
cooking information storage, and a display data correction
device for correcting the calculated quantities to provide
a most suitable visible display data which may be
intuitionally understandable by the user of the apparatus
and supply the data to the display.
The correction for providing the optimum visible
display data comprises an optimum unit selecting process
for selecting the most suitable uni-ts with respect to the
quantities of the materials calculated for the inputted
number of persons and converting the quantities with the
selected units, and at least either of a process of
generating fractional numbers according to the converted
quantities with the selected units or a process of rounding
up or down the converted quantities with the selected units
and adding character strings corresponding to the rounding
up or down operations to the quantities which have been
rounded up or down.
These and other objects, features and advantages of
the present invention will be more apparent from the
following detailed description of preferred embodiments in
~onjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig 1 is an external view of a microwave oven
3S according to an embodiment of the present invention;
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Fig. 2 iS a block dia~ram showing concept of display
correcting process of cooking information according to the
present invention;
Fig. 3 is a circuit block diagram of the microwave
oven according to the present invention;
Figs. 4(a~ to 4(f) are views showing display states of
the microwave oven;
Fig. 5 is a block diagram showing the details of a
flow of the display correcting process according to a first
embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing an optimum unit
selecting process according to the embodiment:
Fig. 7 is a view showing an example of unit conversion
tables;
Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing a fractional number
preparing process according to the embodiment; and
Fig. 9 is a flowchart showing a value rounding process
according to the embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
Figure 1 is an external view of a microwave oven 1
according to the present invention.
The microwave oven 1 comprises a box-like main body 3,
a door 5 for a cooking chamber, and a display and control
portion 7. The display and control portion 7 comprises a
display portion 9 which may be a liquid crystal display
plate, and an input means 11 which may be a transparent
switch laid over the display portion 9. The display
portion 9 is to properly display cooking information
necessary for cooking a dish ~or a given number of persons
to be served with the dish, under the control of a control
and operation portion 13 to be described late in detail.
The input means 11 is controlled by the control and
operation portion 13 and manipulated by a user to input
instructions.
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Figure 2 shows a concept of the microwave oven 1 of
the present invention. The microwave oven 1 calculates
quantities of food materials necessary for preparing a
required dish for a given number of persons to be served
with the dish (Step 10), and corrects the calculated
quantities to provide optimum visible display data that are
understandable by the user intuitionally (Step 12).
As shown in Fig. 3, the microwave oven 1 is controlled
by the control and operation portion 13 which may be a
microcomputer. To the control and operation portion 13,
the display portion 9, the input means 11, a storage
portion 15 and a cooking driving portion 17 are connected.
The storage portion 15 forms a cooking information
storage means, and stores a cooking driving process
program, a quantity calculating process program and a
display correcting process program, etc., for the use of
the control and operation portion 13. The storage portion
further stores cooking information such as names of
dishes that can be cooked by the microwave oven ], names of
food materials necessary for the respective dishes,
quantities per person of the respective materials of each
dish, recipes of the respective dishes, and conversion
tables to be used for the optimum unit selecting process.
` The cooking driving portion 17 is controlled by the
control and operation portion 13 according to the cooking
driving process program to drive, for example, a magnetron
and a turntable.
Operation of the present invention will be described
with reference to Figs. 4a to 4f.
While the microwave oven 1 is not cooking, the control
and operation portion 13 displays a work menu such as the
one shown in Fig. 4a on the display portion 9 and waits for
a user to select a~d input a work through the input switch
11 .
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If the user selects "MENU" of the input switch 11, the
cont~ol and operation portion 13 reads a menu of dishes the
microwave oven 1 can cook, out of the storage portion 15,
and displays the menu on the display portion 9 as shown in
Fig. 4b.
If the user selects "POTATO SOUP" in the menu, the
control and op~ration portion 13 provides a display of Fig.
4c to ask the user to input the kind of information the
user is needing.
If the user selects "NUMBER OF PERSONS" to get
information about materials of the potato soup and
information about quantities of the materials necessary for
preparing the potato soup for a required number of persons,
the control and operation portion 13 provides a display of
Fig. 4d to ask the user to select the number o~ persons to
be served with the potato soup. Then, Fig. 4e which is the
same as Fig. 4c, is displayed.
If the user selects "MATERIAL" in Fig. 4e, the control
and oper~ation portion 13 executes the quantity calculating
2Q and display correcting process programs and reads names of
materials necessary for making the potato soup and
quantities of the materials per person, out of the storage
portion 15. Then, the control and operation portion 13
calculates quantities of the materials necessary for
preparing the potato soup for the required number of
persons inputted previously, corrects the calculated
quantities, and displays the corrected quantities as shown
in Fig. 4f.
As shown in Fig. 5, the quantities of the materials,
etc., are calculated in Step 19 according to the inputted
number of persons. Based on the calculated quantities,
optimum units are selected, and values of the calculated
quantities are converted into other values in Step 21
according to the selected units.
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In Step 23, the quantities with the selecte~ optim~m
units are changed to fractional numbers.
In Step 25, the quantities with the selected optimum
units are rounded up or down. In this rounding process,
character strings corresponding to the rounding up or down
operations are added to the rounded up or down quantities,
respectively.
In Step 27, the fractional numbers or the rounded
values based on the calculated quantities are selected
according to a predetermined manner and displayed.
Respective proc~sses of the correction for providing
optimum visible display data will be described.
Firstly, the optimum unit selecting process oE Step 21
will be explained with reference ~o a ~lowchart of Fig. 6
It is supposed that a calculated quantity of the soup
is 1000 ml. Figure 7 shows an example of the conversion
tables stored in the storage portion 15. In Step 29 of
Fig. 6, a pointer is set to the head of the conversion
table o~ Fig. 7 to retrieve the conversion table.
In Step 31, it is judged whether or not the pointer is
located at a last position. If the pointer is not located
at the last position, an inputted unit ~ml~' for the
quantity of the soup is compared with an original unit of
the conversion table in Step 33. If they coincide with
each other, Step 35 is carried out.
In Step 35, it i5 judged whether or not the inputted
quantity with the unit "ml" is within an applicable range,
i.e., within a range from a usable minimum value "1000" to
a usable maximum value "~". If the inputted quantity is
within the applicable range, the process proceeds to Step
37.
In Step 37, the inputted quantity "1000" is converted
into "1" to proceed to Step 39.
In Step 39, it is judged whether or not the value
obtained in Step 37 is easy to understand for the user.
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Namely, the number of effective digits of the converted
value "1" and that of the inputted value "1000" are
compared with each other. If the number of effective
digits of the converted value is smaller than that of the
S inputted value, the process proceeds to Step 41.
In Step 41, the converted value is adopted as a new
value, and the pointer is brought forward (Step 43). Then,
the process returns to Step 31.
In Step 31, if the pointer is located at the last
position, the process proceeds to Step 45 to complete the
optimum unit selecting process. Thus, an optimum unit
"l(liter)" and the converted figure "1" are obtained.
In Steps 33, 35 and 39, if results of the judgments are
negative, Step 43 is carried out.
The fractional number preparing process will be
described wit4 reference to Fig. 8.
It is supposed that a converted quantitative value of
2.25 teaspoons of salt is obtained by the optimum unit
selecting process. In Step 47 of Fig. 8, an integer "2" is
picked up out of the value and outputted.
In Step 49, decimals ~0.25~ are picked up out of the
value.
In Step 51, it is judged whether or not the decimal
portion is zero. If the decimal portion is zero, it is
judged as a failure of preparing a fractional number, and
the process proceeds to Step 53. If the decimal portion is
not zero, the process proceeds to Step 55.
In Step 55, a numeral "2" of the decimal portion is
detected.
In Step 57, the numeral "2" of the decimal portion is
used to calculate "102".
In Step 59, a value "100" calculated in Step 57 is
multiplied by the decimal portion "0.25" carried from Step
51.
In Step 61, a resultant "25 of the multiplication is
set as a numerator, and the value "100" carried from Step
57 is set a~ a denominator. The numerator and denominator
are reduced to obtain a denominator "4" and~a numerator "1"
in Step 63.
In Step 64, it is judged whether or not the reduced
denominator is predetermined values, in this case 2, 3, 4,
5. If the denominator is not the predetermined values, it
is judged as a failure of preparing a fractional number,
and the process proceeds to step 53. If the denominator is
the predete.rmined values, the process proceeds to Step 65.
In Step 65, it is judged whether or not the .reduced
numerator is "1". If the numerator is not "1", the reduced
denominator and numerator are outputted to provide a
fractional number.
If the numerator is "1" in Step 65, it is judged
whether or not the reduced denominator is "2" or "4" in
Steps 67 and 69. If the reduced denominator is "2" or '4"
in Steps 67 and 69. If the reduced denominato.r is "2", a
character string "HALF" is outputted in Step 71. If the
reduced denominator is "4", a character string "QUARTER" is
outputted in Step 73. In the above-mentioned example, the
denominator is "4" and the numerator is "1". Therefore,
the character string "QUARTER" is outputted.
Moreover, in Step 61, if the decimal portion is
repeating decimals, such as "0.3333333", the reduced
denominator becomes "3.0000003" and the reduced numerator
becomes "1". In this case, the decimal portion of the
reduced denominator is neglected and the neglected
denominator "3" is obtained.
The value rounding process with a displied number of
digits D will be explained with reference to Fig. 9.
It is supposed that quantitative value of 1.232
tablespoons of sugar has been obtained by the optimum unit
selecting process. In Step 75 of Fig. 9, it is judged
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whether or not the unit converted value is lar~er than a
predetermined value "0.2". If the value is smaller than
the predetermined value "0.2", the process proceeds to Step
77 to output only a character string ~LITTLE~ as a result
of the value rounding process.
In the above-mentioned example, the unit converted
value "1.232" is larger than the value "0.2" so that the
process proceeds to Step 79. In this step, an equation
~=INTtloglOX) is used to calculate the number ~K~ of digits
of the unit converted value to obtain "K=0". Then, Step 81
is carried out.
In Steps 81, ~3 and 85, equations
Yl=10( ) X=123.2, Y2=INT(Yl)=l23 and Y3=Yl-Y2 are used`
to calculate Y3. In this example, Y3=Yl-Y2=123.2-123=0.2 is
obtained. In Step 87, it is judged whether or not the
value Y3 is close to zero. If it is close to zero, it is
judged as a failure of the value rounding process to
proceed to Step 89.
In the above-mentioned example~, the value Y3 is 0.2
which is ~ot close to zero, so that the process proceeds to
Step 91. In this step, it is judged whether or not the
value Y3 is equal to or larger than "0.4". Since the value
Y3 is smaller than 0.4, Step 93 is carried out to calculate
an equation Y2 10( D 1) to obtain a value 1.23. To the
value 1.23, a character string "LITTLE OVER" is added and
outputted as a rounded value.
In Step 91, if the value Y3 is larger than 0.4, Step
95 is carried out to calculate an equation(Y2~1) lo(K D 1)
to obtain a value 1.24. To the value 1.24, a character
string "LITTLE UNDER" is added and outputted as a rounded
value.
As described in the above, the quantities of the
materials to be cooked are displayed on the display portion
9 after carrying out the correction for providing optimum
visible display data. Therefore, quantities of materials
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needed for cooking a predetermined dish for a required
n~mber of persons can be displayed in a manner which is
understandable by the user intuitionally.
In the above-mentioned embodiment, a quantity of each
food material per person has been represented with an
integer and decimals. By slightly changing programs,
fractional numbers for food materials may naturally be
processed with the above-mentioned calculations and
corrections.
Although the present invention has been described with
reference to the microwave oven, the present invention is
applicable for other cooking apparatuses such as electronic
rice cookers.
In the embodiment, the cooking information has only
been display data to be displayed on the display portion 9.
However, voice information may also be used to improve
convenience.
~ In the embod,iment, the number of persons to be served
has been designated with an integer as shown in Fig. 4d.
However, ten keys may be provided for the cooking apparatus
to dèsignate the number of persons in more detailed manner
such as 1.3 persons.
Various modifications will become possible for those
skilled in the art after receiving the teachings of the
~5 present disclosure without departing from the scope
thereof.
