JP2001343130A - Heating cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve visibility of display information by a light emission display device regardless of the closing state of a door, in a heating cooker. SOLUTION: In a microwave oven having structure designed that the light emission display device 2 installed at the front part of an oven body 10 is covered and concealed by a door 11 formed of half mirror glass, by a case of a state that the light emission display device 2 is covered by closing the door 11 and a case of a state that by opening of the door 11, the light emission display device 2 is not covered and exposed, the magnitude of luminance of display information by the light emission display device 2 is regulated. This constitution enables display information to be brought into a state that it is properly easily seen by a user even when the door 11 is opened or closed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to various types of cooking devices other than microwave ovens.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The applicant of the present invention uses a half-mirror glass with respect to the front opening of a heating chamber of a microwave oven so that the inside of the heating chamber can be visually checked even when a door is closed. Is proposed to have a structure that allows the door to be opened and closed. To cover and hide the light emitting display installed on one side of the room,
I'm thinking about making it as large as possible.

[0003]

In the above prior art, since the door is made of half-mirror glass, even though the door is closed, the display information of the light emitting display device covered by the door can be viewed, but the display information is passed through the door. Therefore, it can be said that the brightness is lowered and the image becomes hard to see. For this reason, in a situation where some information input work is performed while confirming display information while the door is closed, there is room for improvement such as inconvenience.

[0004] In view of such circumstances, an object of the present invention is to improve the visibility of display information on a light-emitting display device in a heating cooker regardless of the open / closed state of a door.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heating cooker comprising: a light-emitting display device installed near a front opening of a heating chamber in which a cooking object is stored in a cooking device main body; It is designed to be covered and hidden with a door made of translucent material that can be opened and closed at the opening,
It is characterized in that the brightness of display information by the light emitting display device when the door is closed is set higher than the brightness of display information by the light emitting display device when the door is open.

According to a second heating cooker of the present invention, a light-emitting display device installed in the vicinity of a front opening of a heating chamber in which a cooking object is stored in a cooking device main body is openably and closably attached to the front opening of the heating chamber. It is designed to be covered and concealed by a door made of a translucent material, and a detection element for detecting the open / closed state of the door and a management element for at least controlling an operation of displaying necessary information on the light emitting display device. In the state where the management element is displaying appropriate information by the light emitting display device, when the detection element recognizes that the door is opened, the brightness of the display information is set to a required reference value, When it is recognized that the door is closed, the brightness of the display information is set higher than the reference value,
It is characterized by:

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the above-described first or second configuration, the light emitting display device has a transmissive liquid crystal panel and a backlight installed on the back of the liquid crystal panel. It is characterized by having a configuration.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the cooking device according to the third aspect, the management element has a static lighting mode in which the backlight is continuously driven when the door is closed, and when the door is open. It is characterized by a dynamic lighting mode in which the backlight is intermittently driven.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 to FIG. 4 show an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a microwave oven as a heating cooker, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state where a door is opened in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the microwave oven, and FIG.
9 is a flowchart relating to a display operation.

As shown in FIG. 3, the microwave oven shown in FIG.
An operation input device 1, a light-emitting display device 2, a heating device 3,
Drive circuit 4, door switch 5, door open / close detection circuit 6
And a control device 7.

1 and 2 in the microwave oven.
As shown in FIG. 5, a door 11 made of a half-mirror glass is attached to the front opening of the heating chamber of the range case 10 so as to be opened and closed, so that the inside of the heating chamber can be visually checked even when the door 11 is closed. In addition, the door 11 is made as large as possible to cover the light-emitting display device 2, so that the front surface of the range case 10 has as little irregularities as possible to provide a structure with excellent design.

The operation input device 1 is installed on the front of the range case 10 or the like, and is provided with at least a cooking start key and a cooking time setting key.
When these keys are operated, corresponding signals are input to the control device 7.

The light-emitting display device 2 is installed near the operation input device 1 on the front surface of the range case 10 and displays at least the current time and the remaining time of the cooking time at least by switching. Panel (LC
D) 21 and a backlight 22 such as a light emitting diode (LED). The backlight 22 is provided behind the liquid crystal panel 2 and displays a pattern such as characters and numerals on the display panel 2.

The heating device 3 is, for example, a heater, a magnetron or the like, and heats a cooking object stored in a heating chamber in a range case.

The drive circuit 4 includes a commercial AC power supply (for example, AC
100 V) to generate a voltage for driving the heating device 3 and supply it to the heating device 3.

The door switch 5 is turned off when the door 11 is closed and turned on when the door 11 is opened. The door switch 5 restricts the door 11 in the closed state in the range case 10 and operates in response to the operation of the door open button 12. The door 11 is installed near a door opening / closing mechanism (not shown) that releases the restrained state so that the door 11 can be opened.

The door open / close detection circuit 6 recognizes the open / close state of the door 11 in response to the on / off signal output from the door switch 5 and outputs a detection signal to the control device 7.

The control device 7 is composed of a microcomputer and selectively selects one of a plurality of cooking courses in which a plurality of cooking conditions are defined in response to a command signal output from the operation input device 1, for example. In addition, the processing according to the flowchart of FIG.

Here, in the microwave oven of the present embodiment, when the door 11 is opened, the brightness of the light-emitting display device 2 is set to an appropriate reference value that makes it easy for a person to see, and when the door 11 is closed, the light is emitted. It is characterized in that the display information of the light-emitting display device 2 can be easily viewed through the door 11 made of a half mirror glass by setting the luminance of the display device 2 higher than the reference value.

In this embodiment, the brightness of display information of the light-emitting display device 2 is adjusted by a dynamic lighting mode in which a rectangular wave voltage is supplied to the backlight 22 of the light-emitting display device 2 for driving. In this case, a static lighting mode in which a constant voltage is continuously supplied to drive the device is considered.

Next, a display operation related to opening and closing of the door 11 in the microwave oven will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG.

When the power is turned on, the open / close state of the door 11 is checked in step S1, and it is determined in step S2 whether the door 11 is closed. here,
If it is determined that the door 11 is open, in step S3, the backlight 22 of the light-emitting display device 2 is set to a static lighting mode and the brightness of the display information is set to a required reference value that is easy for a person to see. In S5, a necessary display is performed. If it is determined that the door 11 is closed, the backlight 22 of the light emitting display device 2 is set to a dynamic lighting mode so that the brightness of the display information is lower than the reference value. Thereafter, in step S5, information required at the present time is displayed in one of the above-described lighting modes.

As described above, in a structure designed to cover and hide the light emitting display device 2 installed on the front portion of the range case 10 with the door 11 made of a half mirror glass, the light is emitted by closing the door 11. The brightness of display information by the light-emitting display device 2 is adjusted between the state where the display device 2 is covered and the case where the light-emitting display device 2 is exposed without being covered by opening the door 11. Therefore, the display information can be made easily viewable to the user regardless of whether the door 11 is open or closed. That is, it is possible to avoid a phenomenon that the display information is too dazzling when the door 11 is opened and becomes difficult to see, or the display information is dark and hard to see when the door 11 is closed.

As described above, if the visibility of the display information by the light emitting display device 2 is enhanced irrespective of the open / closed state of the door 11, if the user inputs some information while watching the display information by the light emitting display device 2, In the working situation, whether the door 11 is open or closed,
Misuse of displayed information does not occur, and the information input operation can be performed easily and quickly, thereby improving usability.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to only the above embodiment, and various applications and modifications are conceivable.

(1) In the above embodiment, the light emitting display device 2
Backlight 2 as a method of adjusting the brightness of display information
2 is switched between a static lighting mode and a dynamic lighting mode.
This can be dealt with by increasing or decreasing the current supplied to the backlight 22.

(2) In the above embodiment, the light emitting display device 2
As an example, a structure including a transmissive liquid crystal panel 21 and a backlight 22 has been described, but a fluorescent display tube or the like can be used.

(3) In the above embodiment, the translucent door 1
Although an example using a half mirror glass as 1 has been described, the present invention also includes one formed of another translucent material.

[0030]

According to the present invention, the visibility of the display information is always increased regardless of the open / closed state of the door by adjusting the brightness of the display information by the light emitting display device in accordance with the open / closed state of the door. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate an input error in a situation where the user performs information input while viewing the display information, and to perform an input operation quickly.

As described above, the structure of the light-emitting display device is improved by covering the light-emitting display device with the half mirror glass, but the visibility of the light-emitting display device is improved irrespective of the door open / closed state to facilitate information input. An easy-to-use cooking device can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a microwave oven according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state where a door is opened in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram of the microwave oven of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart relating to a display operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 operation input device 2 light emitting display device 3 heating device 4 drive circuit 5 door switch 6 door open / close detection circuit 7 control device 10 range body 11 door

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3L086 AA01 AA12 AA13 BC01 BC20 CA12 CA16 CB09 CC11 CC16 DA24 DA25 3L087 AA01 AA04 AB02 AB20 BA03 BA09 BB08 BC10 BC14 DA24 DA25

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A door made of a translucent material, wherein a light-emitting display device installed near a front opening of a heating chamber in which a cooking object is stored in a cooking device body is openably and closably attached to the front opening of the heating chamber. A heating cooker designed to be covered and concealed, and the brightness of the display information by the light emitting display device with the door closed and the brightness of the display information by the light emitting display device with the door open A cooking device characterized by being set higher than the above. 2. A door made of a translucent material, wherein a light-emitting display device installed near a front opening of a heating chamber in which a cooking object is stored in a cooking device body is openably and closably attached to a front opening of the heating chamber. A heating cooker designed to cover and hide with a detection element for detecting an open / closed state of a door, and a management element for at least controlling an operation of displaying necessary information on the light emitting display device, In a state where the management element is displaying appropriate information by the light emitting display device, when it is recognized that the door is opened by the detection element, the brightness of the display information is set to a required reference value, and the door is closed. Wherein the brightness of the display information is set to be higher than the reference value when it is recognized that there is a cooking device. 3. The heating cooker according to claim 1, wherein the light-emitting display device has a configuration including a transmissive liquid crystal panel and a backlight provided on a back surface of the liquid crystal panel. A cooking device characterized by the following. 4. The cooking device according to claim 3, wherein the management element has a static lighting mode for continuously driving the backlight when the door is closed, and intermittently drives the backlight when the door is opened. A cooking device having a dynamic lighting mode.