JP3036671U - Cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) 【Abstract】 PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically identify a type of an object to be cooked, automatically determine an optimum heating and cooking method, and automatically select a cooking menu. SOLUTION: An image pickup means for photographing an object to be cooked B by an electronic camera 5 to obtain digital information of an image of the object to be cooked B,
An identification device 6 for identifying the type of the object to be cooked by comparing the image pickup information and the image pickup information obtained by the image pickup means with a database which stores image pickup information of the object to be cooked B corresponding to the type of the object to be cooked in advance. And a cooking means for cooking according to the type of the object to be cooked B.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

 The present invention relates to a heating cooker which automatically identifies a heating means according to the type of food to be heated.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Currently developed heating cookers, especially microwave ovens and microwave ovens (collectively referred to as "electronic ovens" below), automatically cook when a cooking method is selected by selecting many cooking menu buttons. It was something that could be done. That is, the microcomputer attached to the microwave oven presets and stores the heating method, heating time, and temperature according to each menu, and in some cases, by using a weight sensor, humidity sensor, temperature sensor, etc. together, Cooking was possible simply by pressing the automatic cooking key. As a heating method, a combination of heating means such as a microwave oven, a grill heater, hot air, etc. is operated along the flow of time as appropriate. It is also possible to perform manual heating to cook your own taste.The heating cooker is equipped with a timer to adjust the cooking time, and the person who cooks can set the time based on their experience. I'm cooking. For that purpose, the heating cooking time was changed according to the amount of water contained in the food. Recently, research has been conducted to further improve the cooking time, and a device that detects the amount of water vapor generated from the food and adjusts the cooking time has been developed and partially put into practical use.

However, there is a problem that setting of a cooking method corresponding to the type of food to be cooked becomes difficult due to the structure or operation of the heating cooker as the type of food to be cooked increases. there were. As a prior application technique for solving such a problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-203154 discloses a means for detecting the size of an object to be heated and an object to be heated in order to automatically set a cooking menu in a heating cooker. A means for detecting the color of the food is provided, and means for automatically selecting the cooking menu by inputting the above detection result to the operation control circuit is disclosed. Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-18539, an odor sensor for detecting the odor of food is provided in the cooker body, and the food identifying means for identifying the type of food based on this information and the heating means are controlled. A heating cooker provided with heating control means is disclosed. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-79635 discloses a heating cooker which recognizes an accessory for cooking in a heating cooker, for example, a rotating dish and cooks it under heating conditions according to the recognition result.

The automatic setting of the cooking menu according to each of the above prior arts provides information limited to the food to be cooked, such as size of the food to be cooked, color, odor, type of accessory, etc. The detection method is intended to identify the cooking method of the food to be cooked. Naturally, the types are limited and the identification accuracy is low.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 The present invention has been devised in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and in the heating cooker, the type of the cooked object is automatically identified without depending on the experience of the person who cooks, the can, etc. An object of the present invention is to provide a heating cooker that automatically and more accurately determines an optimum cooking method and automatically performs cooking.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The present invention sets an electronic camera as an image sensor (a device for recognizing and identifying an image) in a part of a cooking device to recognize the type of an object to be cooked, and a preset optimum cooking method. In order to solve the problem by automatically selecting, the heating cooker according to claim 1 captures the object to be cooked by the electronic camera and digital information of the image of the object to be cooked. Image-capturing means for obtaining cooking information, a database storing image-capturing information of an object to be cooked corresponding to the type of the object to be cooked, image-capturing information obtained by the image-capturing means and image-capturing information stored in the database are compared, It is characterized in that it is provided with an identification means for identifying the type of food and a cooking means for performing cooking according to the type of food to be cooked. Therefore, when the door of the heating cooker is opened, the electronic camera operates to take a picture of the food to be carried into the main body of the heating cooker and send the information to the identification device. The identification device identifies the cooking target carried in by comparing with the imaging of the cooking target stored in advance in the database, specifies the cooking method, and starts cooking. The microwave oven does not work if the food to be brought in does not match the previously stored image of the food to be cooked.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above-mentioned means, the cooking device is characterized in that digital information of the cooking object obtained by the imaging means can be added or modified as imaging information stored in the database. Therefore, the general imaging information of the object to be processed, which is initially stored in the heating cooker, is replaced with the unique imaging information of the object prepared by the person who actually uses the heating cooker. With the addition, it is possible to further facilitate and increase the identification of the species of the food to be cooked. In the heating cooker according to claim 3, an identification mark corresponding to the cooking means of the item to be cooked is provided on the surface of the item to be cooked or the package of the item to be cooked, and the optical reader reads the identification mark to perform cooking. A bar code and a cooking type mark are used as the identification display means, and these can be read by a bar code reading device or an electronic camera to facilitate the identification of the type of the object to be cooked.

[0008]

[Embodiment of the invention]

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. (Embodiment 1) This embodiment can be called an image pickup / comparison method, and the basic idea is to take an image of an object to be cooked with an electronic camera each time, and to take the image or a pattern obtained from the image pickup in advance in the identification device. Compared with the input imaging or the pattern database obtained from the imaging, as a result, the type of cooking object is recognized at a fine level, and the cooking method is automatically selected based on the recognition result, and cooking is performed. is there. The electronic camera used in the present invention can be attached to the inside or outside of the heating cooker, and the cooked object can be photographed and stored / digitally corrected and changed as digital information. The person can freely modify, add, or modify the imaging information. Further, in addition to the image recognition by the electronic camera, it is possible to perform more accurate type identification by combining other physical sensors such as an infrared sensor and a weight sensor. Not only is the electronic camera used to identify the type of food to be cooked, but the food to be cooked is monitored while cooking is in progress and its optical changes are grasped to correct the degree of heating and the heating time thereafter. You may do it.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a microwave oven A embodying the present invention. The microwave oven A is for cooking an object to be cooked B, and a rectangular parallelepiped main body case 1 is provided with a rectangular parallelepiped inner case 2 to form a cooking chamber 3. An openable and closable door 4 is provided on the front surface of the main body case 1, and an electronic camera 5, an identification device 6, and a timer 7 are sequentially arranged outside the inner case 2 on the upper surface thereof. The electronic camera 5 is arranged outside the inner case 2 and the entrance portion of the heating and cooking chamber 3 is set as a photographing range. Therefore, it is necessary that at least the lower portion of the electronic camera 5 in the inner case 2 is made of a heat resistant transparent material. The operation of the electronic camera 5 starts when the door 4 is "open" and stops when it is "closed". The food B to be cooked is imaged during this storage. Note that the operation of the electronic camera 5 may be turned on / off instead of opening / closing the door 4, and a camera switch (not shown) may be attached to the main body of the microwave oven A. In the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the entrance of the cooking chamber 3 is the shooting range. However, the shooting range of the electronic camera 5 is the center of the cooking chamber 3 and the cooking position of the food B is cooked. You may In this case, the position of the electronic camera 5 is set to the upper center of the heating and cooking chamber 3, and the operation of the electronic camera 5 is started by "closing" the door 4 when the food is delivered.

Further, in the above embodiment, only the image pickup information from the electronic camera 5 is sent to the identification device 6 for identification, but not only such optical information but also other physical information, for example, The temperature, humidity, weight, material, shape, etc. of accessories such as dishes are detected by a sensor before and after cooking, and are sent to the identification device 6 to change the heating conditions. You may do it. The heating and cooking method itself in this embodiment is the same as that of a known microwave oven, except that the user does not have to press the cooking selection button according to the type of the food B to be cooked.

As an example of cooking, in the case of a fried egg as the food B to be cooked as shown in FIG. 1, it is usually enough to break the eggs and drop them on a plate and simply place them in the cooking chamber 3. In this case, it is assumed that the fried egg imaging information is stored in the identification device 6, and the type of heat source, heating intensity, heating time, etc. are programmed in advance as a heating and cooking method in association with this information. . It is possible to provide cooked foods with even higher safety by incorporating a pathogen germicidal heating process into this program as needed. In addition to the above fried eggs, for example, steamed cooking such as fish, chicken, pork, vegetables, Shumai, chawanmushi, cooking stew, roll cabbage, roast beef, doria, risotto, etc., cooking cookie, cake, pie, hamburger, etc. Is free. It should be noted that the means for discriminating the image pickup information of the electronic camera from the image pickup information of the cooked food stored in the database in this embodiment is technically advanced, and the overall shape of the cooked food and the ingredients of each food used. Software that judges by comparing shape and color etc. shall be used.

(Example 2) [0012] This example can be called a recognition mark display method, and the basic idea is that when the (heating) cooking method is specified according to the type of frozen food, etc. A bar code or cooking type mark is previously displayed on the surface of the package of the food to be cooked at the manufacturing factory stage, and these data can be read accurately by a bar code reader or an electronic camera attached to the heating cooker, and The cooking method can be set automatically.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the microwave oven C according to this embodiment. In FIG. 2, members given the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 have the same configurations as those in FIG. The microwave oven C according to this embodiment does not necessarily need to be equipped with an electronic camera. A barcode 9 is displayed on the surface of the package 8 of the cooked food D for which the cooking method is specified with frozen foods, etc. at the manufacturing or packaging stage of the cooked food D so that it can be read by an optical reader. To do. Specifically, the barcode reading pen 11 is attached to the microwave oven C via the code 10, and the barcode 9 is read by the reading pen 11. Like the microwave oven A, the microwave oven C is provided with an identification device 6a, in which bar code information, that is, a cooking program corresponding to the cooking method is stored. Therefore, the user can accurately specify the cooking method by simply running the reading pen 11 on the barcode 9.

In this embodiment, when the cooking method has a user's preference, for example, when setting to be hard, medium, soft, etc., a plurality of bar codes corresponding to each may be attached. . The barcode 9 may be read as an image by an electronic camera without using the reading pen 11 and the cooking method may be specified by using the identifying means of the first embodiment. Since the inside of the cooking device and its surroundings are exposed to high-temperature and high-density electromagnetic waves, the electronic camera and display mark reading device should be separate from the cooking device body to reduce the above effects. May be. In this case, an imaging frame may be prepared in order to specify the distance between the food and the electronic camera.

Further, with such a configuration, versatility of the electronic camera is improved. In other words, the present invention can be realized by connecting an electronic camera, which is usually used with a personal computer or the like, with a connector to the main body of the cooking device provided with the identification device 6a. In addition, in some cases, an operation panel for manual operation may be provided, and a start switch, a cooking switch, a time setting switch, etc. may be provided.

[0016]

[Effect of the invention]

 The present invention has the following effects with the above configuration. 1. According to the invention of claim 1, the cooking can be performed without operating the button indicating the type of the object to be cooked in the cooking device. In other words, it is not necessary to provide the cooking device with a cooking selection button for selecting the heating means. 2. According to the second aspect of the invention, in addition to the above effect, it is possible to add or correct the information captured by the electronic camera to the imaging information of the cooking object corresponding to the type of the cooking object stored in the database. Thus, not only can the cooking method be specified more accurately, but the cooking menu can be increased. 3. According to the third aspect of the invention, since the specific heating cooking method is automatically specified according to the type of the object to be cooked, it is possible to specify the precise heating cooking method without making a mistake in the cooking method. High quality food can be obtained from.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A Microwave oven (Example 1) B Cooking object C Microwave oven (Example 2) D Cooking object 1 Main body case 2 Inner case 3 Heating cooking chamber 4 Door 5 Electronic camera 6 Identification device (identification means) 6a Identification device ( Identification means) 7 timer 8 package 9 bar code 10 code 11 (bar code) reading pen (optical reading device)

Claims (3)

[Utility model registration claims] 1. An image pickup means for obtaining digital information of an image of an object to be cooked by photographing the object to be cooked with an electronic camera, a database storing image pickup information of the object to be cooked corresponding to the type of the object to be cooked, and an image pickup. An identification unit for comparing the imaged information obtained by the means with the imaged information stored in the database to identify the type of the object to be cooked; and a cooking unit for performing cooking according to the type of the object to be cooked. Cooker characterized by. 2. The heating cooker according to claim 1, wherein the digital information of the food to be cooked obtained by the imaging means can be added or modified as the imaging information stored in the database. 3. A means for providing an identification mark corresponding to the cooking means of the cooking target on the surface of the cooking target or the package of the cooking target, and causing the optical reading device to read the identification marking to perform cooking. A cooking device characterized by the above.