JP2004313574A - Rice cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To tastily cook rice by appropriately cooking various kinds of the rice with a small memory and simple operation in a rice cooker for cooking the rice by supplying electric power according to a rice-cooking process previously stored in a heating unit for heating a pot. <P>SOLUTION: The pot 11 is removably housed inside a body 10, the pot 11 is heated by the heating unit 12, power is supplied to the heating unit 12 according to the rice-cooking process previously stored in a control unit 14, the rice-cooking process is stored in a rewritable and nonvolatile memory and the rice-cooking process is transmitted to the nonvolatile memory by a communication means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a rice cooker that cooks rice by supplying electric power to a heating unit that heats a pot in accordance with a rice cooking process stored in advance.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, this type of rice cooker has been configured as shown in FIG. Hereinafter, the configuration will be described.
[0003]
As shown in FIG. 3, the body 1 is formed in a cylindrical shape whose upper surface is open, and a coil base 2 which is a storage portion for the pan 3 is disposed inside the body 1, and the coil base 2 is made of a non-metallic material. It is formed into a bottomed cylindrical shape by the material. On the outside of the coil base 2, an induction coil 4 as a heating means is disposed facing the bottom surface and the bottom side surface of the pan 3.
[0004]
In the above configuration, first, a predetermined amount of cooked rice and water is put into the pan 3, and then the heating coil 4 is energized to heat the pan 3. Rice cooking is performed by energizing in a predetermined energizing pattern (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[0005]
In such a conventional electric rice cooker, the method of cooking white rice and the like is constant, and there is a problem that, for example, when the quality of rice such as brands changes, the cooked rice differs.
[0006]
In order to solve these problems, there is a method in which a rice brand program of several processes is provided in advance, and the rice cooking program is switched according to the quality of rice to execute rice cooking (for example, see Patent Document 2).
[0007]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2002-10910 (page 1, FIG. 1)
[Patent Document 2]
JP-A-2002-300963 (pages 5-7)
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, even if the rice cooking program is switched according to the rice quality and the rice is cooked, the variety of rice nationwide is enormous, and the range in which rice can be cooked is limited. In addition, the quality of rice fluctuates depending on the climate and the like, and the types of cooking methods corresponding thereto also increase. In order to cover all of them, it is necessary to have an enormous number of cooked rice patterns, and an enormous memory for storing the cooked rice process is required.
[0009]
In addition, when the rice cooking process is selected, the number of switches to be selected increases, and it is necessary to press the selection switch many times.
[0010]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to optimally cook rice of various brands with a small amount of memory and a simple operation so as to cook deliciously.
[0011]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cooking apparatus in which a pan is detachably housed in a body, a pan is heated by a heating unit, and power is supplied to the heating unit according to a rice cooking process stored in advance by a control unit. Is stored in a rewritable nonvolatile memory, and the rice cooking process is transmitted to the nonvolatile memory by communication means.
[0012]
This makes it possible to optimally cook various brands of rice with a small amount of memory and simple operations, and to cook deliciously.
[0013]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention provides a body, a pot removably stored in the body, a heating unit for heating the pot, and power supply according to a rice cooking process stored in the heating unit in advance. A control unit, a rewritable non-volatile memory for storing the rice cooking process, and a communication unit for communicating the rice cooking process to the non-volatile memory, so that an optimal rice cooking process can be freely performed according to the rice to be cooked. It can be changed, so that it is possible to cook rice with various kinds of rice cooking processes with less memory and simple operation, to cook rice of various brands optimally, and to cook deliciously.
[0014]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the rice cooking process according to the first aspect of the present invention is transmitted to the non-volatile memory by a communication means, and the rice quality of various brands is improved. Rice can be cooked according to the rice cooking process according to the condition, so that more detailed cooking can be performed.
[0015]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a display device for performing a display operation is provided, and the non-volatile memory simultaneously stores a rice cooking process and display contents to be displayed on the display device. Since the brand of rice to be cooked can be confirmed, simple and error-free operation can be performed.
[0016]
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the non-volatile memory stores a plurality of course-specific rice cooking processes of a predetermined brand. Since the menu other than the white rice is also switched at the same time, the operability can be further improved.
[0017]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the non-volatile memory is configured to periodically rewrite a rice cooking process when a predetermined brand is registered. It changes from new rice to old rice, but by automatically supplying the rice cooking process according to it, you can always cook deliciously.
[0018]
【Example】
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0019]
As shown in FIG. 1, the body 10 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape whose upper surface is open, and the pot 11 is detachably stored in the body 10, and the pot 11 is heated by the heating unit 12. The heating unit 12 includes a heating device 13. The control unit 14 supplies electric power in accordance with the rice cooking process stored in the heating device 13 in advance, and is configured as shown in FIG. 2. A microcomputer 15 is provided in the control unit 14 and has a rewritable nonvolatile memory 16. Built-in.
[0020]
The communication unit 17 transmits data related to the rice cooking process to the nonvolatile memory 16, and is connected to an external storage device 22 such as a CD-ROM by a connector 18. The lid unit 19 closes the opening of the body 10, and the display device 20 uses a dot matrix liquid crystal.
[0021]
The operation of the above configuration will be described. First, when a food 21 such as rice or water is put into the pot 11 and operated, power is supplied from the control unit 14 to the heating device 13 according to the rice cooking process stored in the nonvolatile memory 16 built in the microcomputer 15 in advance. Is supplied, and rice is cooked by a predetermined process.
[0022]
When the quality of the rice changes, such as the brand of the rice to be cooked, the data relating to the rice cooking process in the nonvolatile memory 16 of the microcomputer 15 is rewritten from the external storage device 22 via the connector 18 and the communication means 17 to cook the rice. I do.
[0023]
In this way, by rewriting the rice cooking process program via the communication means 17 according to the rice quality of the rice to be cooked, it is possible to freely change the optimal rice cooking process according to the rice to be cooked, With a small amount of memory and simple operation, you can cook rice in a variety of rice cooking processes, can cook rice of various brands optimally, and cook deliciously.
[0024]
At this time, the rice brand display data is rewritten into the non-volatile memory 16 together with the rice cooking process data, and according to the brand display data, the rice brand is displayed on the display device 20 to confirm the rice brand. Because of this, simple and error-free operation can be performed.
[0025]
Also, in general, many users cook rice such as polished rice, sushi, rice cake, and cooked rice for each menu with the same brand of rice.However, storing a plurality of course-specific rice cooking processes of a predetermined brand in the non-volatile memory 16 makes it possible to store a single rice. By rewriting the brand rice cooking process, menus other than white rice are also switched at the same time, so that operability can be further improved. In other words, by rewriting the brand once, the menu other than the white rice is also rewritten at the same time, so that the rice cooking process corresponding to the rice used by the user can be used in all menus without the user being particularly aware. .
[0026]
Furthermore, the non-volatile memory 16 automatically rewrites the rice cooking process when a predetermined brand is registered, thereby automatically supplying the rice cooking process according to the change of rice from old rice to old rice depending on the time of eating. You can always cook rice in the optimal rice cooking process according to the quality of rice.
[0027]
In this embodiment, the communication means 17 is connected to the outside using the connector 18. However, the communication means 17 may perform communication using infrared rays or radio waves, or may use a memory card. Can be obtained.
[0028]
Further, the program can be downloaded from the Internet by using the communication unit 17. In this case, for example, if the year of production differs even for the same brand of rice, the quality of the rice may change due to the weather, but even in such a case, the latest rice cooking process data is By always downloading, the rice can be cooked in a rice cooking process corresponding to these rice, so that the convenience can be further improved.
[0029]
Further, in this embodiment, the microcomputer 15 has the nonvolatile memory 16 built in, but may be held in an external memory such as a memory card, and the same effect can be obtained.
[0030]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the rice cooking process is stored in the rewritable nonvolatile memory, and the rice cooking process is transmitted to the nonvolatile memory by the communication means. It is possible to freely change the optimal rice cooking process according to the conditions, so that rice of various brands can be optimally cooked with a small amount of memory and simple operation, and can be deliciously cooked.
[0031]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the rice cooking process according to the rice brand is transmitted to the nonvolatile memory by the communication means, rice cooking in the rice cooking process according to the rice quality of various brands can be performed. Therefore, it is possible to make a more detailed cooking method.
[0032]
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display device for performing a display operation, and the non-volatile memory is configured to simultaneously store a rice cooking process and display contents to be displayed on the display device. Can be confirmed, the degree of freedom of the rice cooking process can be increased, rice can be cooked corresponding to a wider range of rice quality, and simple and error-free operation can be performed.
[0033]
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the nonvolatile memory stores a plurality of course-specific rice cooking processes of a predetermined brand, menus other than white rice are simultaneously switched by rewriting the rice cooking process of the brand. Therefore, operability can be further improved, and rice with less uneven cooking can be cooked.
[0034]
According to the invention as set forth in claim 5, since the non-volatile memory periodically rewrites the rice cooking process when a predetermined brand is registered, rice also changes from old rice to old rice depending on the timing of eating. By automatically supplying the rice cooking process according to that, it is possible to always cook deliciously. In addition, even when the amount of cooked rice is changed in addition to the quality of rice, it is possible to cook rice thoroughly.
[Brief description of the drawings]
1 is a partially cutaway side view of a rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the rice cooker; FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway side view of a conventional rice cooker;
Reference Signs List 10 Body 11 Pot 12 Heating unit 14 Control unit 16 Non-volatile memory 17 Communication means

Claims (5)

A body, a pot removably stored in the body, a heating unit for heating the pot, a control unit for supplying power according to a rice cooking process stored in the heating unit in advance, and a rewritable memory for storing the rice cooking process A rice cooker comprising: a nonvolatile memory; and a communication unit that transmits a rice cooking process to the nonvolatile memory. 2. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the rice cooking process according to the brand of rice is transmitted to the non-volatile memory by communication means. 2. The rice cooker according to claim 1, further comprising a display device for performing a display operation, wherein the non-volatile memory stores the rice cooking process and display contents to be displayed on the display device at the same time. 2. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the non-volatile memory stores a plurality of course-specific rice cooking processes of a predetermined brand. 2. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the non-volatile memory periodically rewrites the rice cooking process when a predetermined brand is registered.

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