JP2009219738A - Rice cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rice cooker having an information sound rationally set for informing of the end of cooking rice. <P>SOLUTION: The rice cooker includes: a driving means 3 for driving a heating means 4 for heating a pot 1; a temperature-detecting means 5 for detecting the temperature of the pot; a timing means 7 for measuring a time; a control means 6 for controlling the driving means by the input from the temperature-detecting means or the timing means to control the operation of cooking rice or warming cooked rice; an information sound means 9 for sounding information sound; an information means 8 for informing of the end of cooking rice by which the information sound means sounds an information sound informing of the end of cooking rice immediately after the end of cooking rice; an input means 10 such as a switch operated by a user; and a sound-changing means for changing the information sound informing of the end of cooking rice by which the information means changes the information sound by input from the input means. The information sound can be changed in sound volume, sounding time, sounding pattern, frequency, number of times of sounding, or the like. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a rice cooker that notifies the end of rice cooking with a notification sound.

  Conventionally, in a rice cooker, the end of cooking rice is notified by a buzzer, a display, or the like at the end of cooking (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  FIG. 10 shows a specific example. A pan 102 whose upper opening is opened and closed by a lid 101 is heated by a heating unit 104 driven by a driving unit 103.

  The temperature of the pot 102 is detected by the temperature detection means 105, and the control means 107 drives the drive means 103 based on the detection result and the time measurement result of the time measurement means 106 to control the rice cooking operation.

When cooking is completed, the cooking end notification means 108 causes the notification means 109 to notify the end of cooking.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-133911

  The notification sound at the end of rice cooking is generally sounded for a long time, but the conditions for using the rice cooker by the user are various, and the rice cooking end notification sound may not be heard.

  On the other hand, the rice cooking end notification sound is noisy and there is a problem of deteriorating the environment of the cooking work space such as the kitchen.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-described conventional problems, and is a pan that is installed in a main body so that it can freely enter and exit, and an upper release portion is opened and closed by a lid, a heating unit that heats the pan, and a driving unit that drives the heating unit. And a temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the pan, a time measuring means for measuring time, and a control for controlling the operation of rice cooking and heat insulation by controlling the driving means by the input from the temperature detecting means and the time measuring means. Means, a notification means for sounding a notification sound, a rice cooking end notification means for causing the notification means to sound a rice cooking end notification sound immediately after the end of cooking, an input means such as a switch operated by a user, and an input from the input means The rice cooking end notification means is provided with rice cooking end sound changing means for changing the rice cooking end notification sound, thereby enabling optimal rice cooking end notification.

  The rice cooker of the present invention can provide a user-friendly rice cooker that can adjust the notification sound at the end of rice cooking to an appropriate sound for the user.

The present invention is installed in a main body so as to be freely accessible, and a pan whose upper opening is opened and closed by a lid, a heating means for heating the pan, a driving means for driving the heating means, and a temperature of the pan are detected. Temperature detecting means; time measuring means for measuring time; control means for controlling the driving means by input from the temperature detecting means and the time measuring means to control the operation of cooking and keeping heat; and notification means for sounding a notification sound And immediately after the end of cooking, the notifying means sounds a rice cooking end notification sound, an input means such as a switch operated by a user, and the input from the input means ends the rice cooking end notification means. A rice cooking end sound changing means for changing the notification sound is provided, and the optimum rice cooking end notification is made possible.

  The specific change contents of the rice cooking end sound changing means may be to change the volume, ringing time, ringing pattern, frequency, or ringing number of the rice cooking end notification sound.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, this invention is not limited by this embodiment.

(Embodiment 1)
In FIG. 1, a pan 1 is installed inside a rice cooker, and its upper open portion is opened and closed by a lid 2.

  The cooked food in the pan 1, that is, water and rice are heated by the heating means 4 driven by the driving means 3.

  The temperature of the pan 1 is detected by the temperature detecting means 5. The control means 6 controls the rice cooking operation by driving the drive means 3 based on the detection result of the temperature detection means 5 and the time measured by the time measurement means 7.

  When cooking is completed, the cooking end notification means 8 causes the notification means 9 to notify the end of cooking.

  By inputting using the input of the input means 10 such as a switch and displaying for setting on the display means 11, the volume of the notification sound at the end of cooking rice of the cooking rice end volume changing means 12 is determined. At the end of cooking, a notification sound at the end of cooking is sounded at the volume set by the cooking end volume changing means 12.

  FIG. 2 shows the overall structure of the rice cooker, and if it is an electromagnetic induction type, the pot 1 in the main body 13 is induction-heated by the induction coil 14. Reference numeral 15 denotes a substrate, which includes an inverter circuit and the like. Reference numeral 16 denotes an operation board on which a display unit and an operation unit are installed.

  FIG. 3 shows a circuit configuration in which AC power is supplied from a commercial power source 17 and rectified by a diode bridge 18. High frequency power is generated by an inverter circuit including the smoothing capacitor 19, the resonance capacitor 20, the switching element 21, and the induction coil 14.

  The power supply IC 22 supplies power for operation to each circuit. The inverter circuit is driven by a drive IC 23 and an IH control IC 24. The temperature of the pan 1 is detected by the thermistor 25.

  The microcomputer 26 controls the IH control IC 24 based on various inputs such as the thermistor 25 to heat the pan 1 and cook rice. The timer in the microcomputer 26 is counted by the oscillation of the crystal oscillator 27 to measure the time. 28 is a setting switch, and 29 is a liquid crystal display element.

  In the rice cooking end notification volume setting mode, the volume is input by the switch 28 and the setting result is displayed on the liquid crystal display element 29 to set the rice cooking end notification volume.

  The notification by sound is performed by the microcomputer 26 outputting an oscillation signal and causing the separately excited buzzer 30 to sound.

  By switching the resistor 31 and the resistor 32 by the microcomputer 26, the value of the current flowing through the buzzer 30 can be changed, and the loudness of the buzzer 30 can be changed.

  Operations of the control means 6, the rice cooking end notification means 8, and the rice cooking end volume changing means 12 are performed by a program of the microcomputer 26.

  FIG. 4 shows the operation unit, and in the standby mode in which no rice is cooked, the menu is quickly cooked by pressing the course switch 33, and the cooking end notification volume setting mode is kept by pressing the heat retaining switch 34 for 10 seconds. become.

  Then, it becomes a display of the volume setting mode shown in FIG. 4, and the rice cooking end volume is changed by changing the number displayed on the liquid crystal display element 29.

  The number displayed by pressing the hour switch 35 increases, and the number displayed by pressing the minute switch 36 decreases. The larger the displayed number, the greater the notification sound at the end of cooking, and the smaller the displayed number, the smaller the notification sound at the end of cooking.

  When the number is 0, the volume is zero, and the rice cooking sound is not emitted.

  At the moment when the displayed display is changed by the switch input, the rice cooking end notification sound sounds, and it can be confirmed how much the set sound is.

  After reaching the predetermined number, when the cancel switch 37 is pressed, the setting is stored, the rice cooking end notification sound volume setting mode is terminated, and the standby mode is restored.

  And rice cooking is performed, and when rice cooking is completed, the rice cooking end notification sound sounds at the set volume.

  In addition, unlike the operation, the usage status is often different from the operation and when the cooking end notification sound is heard. In the setting mode, only the volume of the rice cooking end notification sound is changed, and the volume of other operation notification sounds is kept as it is.

  In the present embodiment, the display is performed by the liquid crystal display element 29, but it goes without saying that the same effect can be obtained even if it is performed by another display element such as an LED or a neon lamp.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 5 shows the second embodiment, in which the rice cooking end sound volume changing means 12 in the first embodiment is replaced with the rice cooking end sound time changing means 38.

  The other parts are the same as those in FIG. 1, and those in the first embodiment are used for specific description.

  By performing input using the input of the input means 10 and displaying for setting on the display means 11, the ringing time of the notification sound at the end of rice cooking of the rice cooking end sound time changing means 38 is caused to ring for 10 seconds, for example. Or it sets so that it may sound for 20 seconds, and the notification sound at the time of the end of rice cooking sounds only during the ringing time set by the rice cooking end sound time changing means 38 at the time of the end of rice cooking.

  By adjusting the length at which the rice cooking end notification sound rings, it is possible to realize a rice cooking end notification sound of an appropriate length for the user, such as wanting to make it longer because it misses and vice versa. is there.

(Embodiment 3)
FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment, in which the rice cooking end sound volume changing means 12 in the first embodiment is replaced with a rice cooking end sound pattern changing means 39.

  The other parts are the same as those in FIG. 1, and those in the first embodiment are used for specific description.

  By inputting using the input of the input means 10 and displaying for setting on the display means 11, the ringing pattern of the notification sound at the end of rice cooking of the rice cooking end sound pattern changing means 39 is changed, and the rice cooking ends when the rice cooking ends. The notification sound at the end of cooking is sounded with the sound pattern already set by the sound pattern changing means 39.

  FIG. 7 is an example of the ringing pattern of the rice cooking end notification sound. By changing the pattern of the notification sound at the end of rice cooking in this way, it is difficult to hear and it is easy to hear, and conversely, it is desirable to change from a noisy to a sound pattern that is not harsh. A moderate cooking end notification sound can be realized.

(Embodiment 4)
FIG. 8 shows a fourth embodiment, in which the rice cooking end sound volume changing means 12 in the first embodiment is replaced with a rice cooking end sound frequency changing means 40.

  The other parts are the same as those in FIG. 1, and those in the first embodiment are used for specific description.

  By inputting using the input of the input means 10 and displaying the setting on the display means 11, for example, the notification sound frequency is changed from 2 kHz to 1 kHz because the rice cooking end notification sound is high and difficult to hear, or vice versa. Because the cooking end notification sound is low and difficult to hear, the frequency of the notification sound at the end of cooking by the rice cooking end sound frequency changing means 40 is set so that the cooking end sound frequency changing means 40 is changed to 4 kHz. The alarm means 9 is sounded at the set frequency.

  By adjusting the height of the rice cooking end notification sound, it is difficult to hear and it is possible to realize a proper rice cooking end notification sound for the user, such as wanting to make the sound higher or lowering the sound.

(Embodiment 5)
FIG. 9 shows Embodiment 5 in which the rice cooking end sound volume changing means 12 in Embodiment 1 is replaced with rice cooking end sound frequency changing means 41.

  The other parts are the same as those in FIG. 1, and those in the first embodiment are used for specific description.

  By performing input using the input of the input means 10 and displaying the setting on the display means 11, the number of sounds of the notification sound at the end of rice cooking by the rice cooking end sound frequency changing means 41 is set.

For example, the setting is made such that after ringing once, forgetting to listen is prevented by ringing again after a few minutes, or it is noisy to ring repeatedly, so that once ringing, it will not ring anymore.

  In this way, by setting the number of times the rice cooking end notification sound is sounded, it would be difficult to hear it because it would fail to hear it, and conversely, if it becomes too many times, it would be noisy to reduce the number of times that the rice cooking was appropriate. A notification sound can be realized.

  As mentioned above, the rice cooker concerning this invention can adjust the alerting | reporting sound at the time of the completion of rice cooking to a sound suitable for a user, and can be widely utilized also for household appliances other than a rice cooker.

The block diagram of the rice cooker in Embodiment 1 of this invention. Sectional drawing of the rice cooker in Embodiment 1 of this invention. Circuit diagram of rice cooker in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Explanatory drawing of the operation part of the rice cooker in Embodiment 1 of this invention. Block diagram of rice cooker in Embodiment 2 of the present invention Block diagram of rice cooker in Embodiment 3 of the present invention Explanatory drawing which shows the ringing pattern example of the rice cooking completion alert sound of the rice cooker in Embodiment 3 of this invention. Block diagram of rice cooker in embodiment 4 of the present invention Block diagram of rice cooker in embodiment 5 of the present invention Block diagram of a conventional rice cooker

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pan 2 Lid 3 Drive means 4 Heating means 5 Temperature detection means 6 Control means 7 Timing means 8 Cooking end notification means 9 Notification means 10 Input means

Claims (6)

A pan that is installed in the main body so that the upper open portion is opened and closed by a lid, a heating unit that heats the pan, a driving unit that drives the heating unit, and a temperature detection unit that detects the temperature of the pan. A timing means for measuring time, a control means for controlling the driving means by controlling the driving means by the input from the temperature detection means or the timing means, a notification means for sounding a notification sound, and the end of cooking Immediately after that, the rice cooking end notification means for causing the notification means to ring the rice cooking end notification sound, the input means such as a switch operated by the user, and the input from the input means change the rice cooking end notification sound to the rice cooking end notification sound. A rice cooker comprising a rice cooking end sound changing means. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the rice cooking end sound changing means changes the volume of the rice cooking end notification sound. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the rice cooking end sound changing means changes a ringing time of the rice cooking end notification sound. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the rice cooking end sound changing means changes the ringing pattern of the rice cooking end notification sound. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the rice cooking end sound changing means changes the frequency of the rice cooking end notification sound. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the rice cooking end sound changing means changes the number of ringing of the rice cooking end notification sound.