JP3037577B2 - Cooking support system and method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for supporting the preparation of dishes, and relates to all fields requiring food processing, such as processing of foodstuffs requiring a specific cooking method by hand and support of manufacturing. Provide various information on the output means to support the preparation of the dishes, and measure the time required for time management by a timer device, and link the remaining time to the output means in conjunction with the preparation procedure of the dishes. The present invention relates to a cooking support system that outputs a sound and notifies the end of the work process by voice.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the increase in CPU capacity, the increase in hard disk capacity, and the spread of CD-ROMs, a wide range of applications that capture voices, images, and the like and further enhance the user interface have been developed. It is becoming available.

On the other hand, a recipe (recipe) which describes each process and ingredients for cooking for each dish has been developed as a "reading material" mainly in women's magazines and the like. It was useful information in understanding the preparation process and procedure for cooking, or in enhancing the cooking repertoire.

[0004] After that, apart from the provision of information by magazine media, the flow of pursuing the "listness" of such information spreads, and this recipe is written on a card-shaped paper, and the index is arranged in alphabetical order of the dish name. By being attached and organized, cooks can also instantly retrieve recipe cards for desired dishes.

Further, in recent years, this recipe management has gained the power of a computer, and it has become possible to record such recipe information in a hard disk, a CD-ROM, or a memory, and to freely display the information on a display device of the computer. In addition, several sets of still images showing the cooking method and the finished image of the ingredients are prepared in the recipe information.
It has become possible to even search for a desired dish based on a dish name or the like.

[0006] However, the management of the time of each preparation step (for example, the time for boiling the ingredients, the time for steaming the dishes, etc.) which is indispensable for the preparation of the dishes, and the notification by voice ("Stop the fire", etc.) No computer system is provided that is shown in conjunction with the cooking procedure.

At present, various devices for notifying time have been patented. For example, after arbitrarily setting a predetermined time, measurement is started by a timer device to determine the elapsed time, or the elapsed time and the remaining time from the set time to the set time are determined, and the elapsed time or the remaining time is calculated. An application has been filed for a device for outputting at least one of the time information as a voice message at predetermined time intervals from a voice output means (Patent Application No .: Sho 60-21961).
"Audio time notification device", filed on February 8, 1985).

In a similar application, in a heating device that performs timer control or temperature control, the remaining heating time or elapsed heating time and the current temperature of the controlled part are automatically set at certain intervals during the heating operation. Has filed an application for a voice notification device (Patent Application Number: 54-13
4943 "Heating device", filed October 18, 1979). However, in spite of many applications for devices for notifying such time and other information by voice, time management linked to a cooking procedure and notification of sound are realized as in the present invention. No application has been filed for such a device.

[0009]

[Problems to be solved by the invention] When cooking,
Usually, it is desirable to store recipes of respective dishes in advance, and to cook according to procedures and methods according to the recipes. However, modern dishes tend to require more ingredients, use more complicated cooking methods, and require more dishes, and it is extremely difficult to memorize all these recipes and perform them exactly as they are. It is. Therefore, it has been customary to work in the kitchen with a magazine or the like in one hand, and the content of the magazine is recorded on a recording medium and read out on a display connected to a computer. The era of cooking is changing.

However, according to this method, the conventional recipe is merely displayed on the display connected to the computer, and the process of viewing the recipe and proceeding to the operation is the same as the conventional one. Required time (as opposed to washing, cutting and stripping the material, the time of that step is an important point of the quality of the food, such as the time to boil the material and the time to cook the food, etc.) ) Had to be individually measured with a clock or the like, and it was necessary to separately prepare a clock and a stopwatch for time measurement, and to memorize the ending time, take notes, or set the time. For this reason, due to mistakes in memory and notes, incorrect time setting, and the like, many creators in this process caused problems such as excessive or insufficient boiling time and steaming time, and eventually reduced the quality of cooking.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention assists each step in the preparation of each dish with a description and / or an image, and executes each step. For at least one of the above, an apparatus and a method are provided for managing the required time and notifying the end of the process by voice.

According to the present invention, there are provided timer means for measuring from the start to the end of each cooking step, storage means for storing various data relating to the cooking step and voice data indicating the end of the step, and instructions for outputting a cooking method instruction. Output means, audio output means for outputting audio based on the audio data to notify the end of the process, and control means for controlling each of the above means, each device is electrically connected Various necessary signals and data are transferred between the devices.

According to the present invention, a timer means for measuring the elapsed time of each cooking step and the time from the start to the end, a storage means for storing a description, a time, a sound, and image data relating to each cooking step, a description, and an image Data, a user selection button, an input area, an elapsed time of a cooking process, an output unit for outputting a search result, an audio output unit for outputting an audio based on the audio data to notify the end of the process, An input unit for performing a user selection or an instruction to an input area, and an interface between the above units, a control unit for controlling a processing flow, each device is electrically connected, Various necessary signals and data are transmitted between the devices. The timer means uses a built-in timer of the computer.

With the above-mentioned apparatus, it is possible to search for data relating to the dish from the name of the dish and the name of the ingredient.
The elapsed time of the cooking process requiring time management is output, and the end of the cooking process can be notified by voice according to a preset time.

The term "cooking" as used herein does not represent only a series of complete work flows for preparing from unprocessed ingredients to dishes as finished products.
A work flow including only a part of a cooking process with cooking and a process of preparing ingredients can also be defined as “cooking”.

Further, any output device such as a display device, a printing device, and a voice output device can be used as the output means for outputting instructions of a cooking method, elapsed time of a cooking process, search results, and the like.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, referring to FIG. 1, components of a cooking assistance system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a computer system for implementing the present invention, in which each component is connected by a line indicating a functional or electrical relationship. The control device 1 is connected to each of the components of the timer device 2, the storage device 3, the display device 4, the audio output device 5, and the input device 6, and exchanges a signal relating to necessary information with each component. .

The timer device 2 measures time and holds the measurement result based on a command from the control device, and transmits the measurement result to the control device 1.

The storage device 3 is shown as a hard disk in this example, but may be a memory, a CD-ROM, an external disk, or any other storage device. Here, a main table, a description data table,
An audio data table, an image data table, and the like are stored, and serve as storage means for storing various data relating to the cooking process and audio data indicating the end of the process. Reading and writing operations are performed on the storage device 3 from the control device 1 as necessary.

The display device 4 is used for selecting or inputting the above-described explanatory data and image data transmitted from the control device 1, the remaining time based on the measurement result of the timer device 2, and the display screen flow such as buttons. The area is displayed. The display device 4 is an output unit for outputting an instruction of a cooking method.

The sound output device 5 is a sound generating device such as a speaker for outputting a sound by a sound signal converted from the sound data stored in the storage device 3 by a sound control mechanism included in the control device 1. In this case, the timing for outputting the sound is determined by the control device 1 based on information from the timer device 2 and the storage device 3 as described later.

The input device 6 is an input means such as a mouse, a keyboard, and a pen used for selecting or inputting a button on a screen, an input area, or the like. Perform the desired operation.

FIG. 1 merely shows one embodiment for the purpose of explanation, and another configuration having the same function as that of the present invention is shown in FIG.
It can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art, and in order to carry out the present invention, it is not always necessary to use a general-purpose machine such as a personal computer that is becoming popular in each home. Any type of computer having the above configuration can be used, and it can be realized as a dedicated machine for cooking support.

Next, an embodiment of the embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 2 and various data stored in the storage device of FIG. In the embodiment according to the present invention, a dish is first searched for from a dish name, an ingredient name, and the like, and when a dish to be created is selected from the searched dishes, the control device 1 determines whether or not the selected dish is to be cooked. The position of the main table storing the data relating to the preparation procedure is specified, and the title and ingredients of the dish are displayed on the display device. At the same time, a button entitled “View cooking method” is displayed on this screen. When the operator selects this button with a mouse or the like, the work steps are sequenced according to the procedure shown in the flow chart of FIG. Display on the street.

FIG. 3 shows a main table used in the system. The main table has an index corresponding to the cooking procedure, and a description address, time data (for example, in minutes), a voice address, and an image address relating to the cooking procedure are set in the same row as the index. The explanatory note address indicates the address on the explanatory note data table similarly storing the explanatory note of each step, which is also described in FIG. 3, the time data represents the time required for the step, a voice address, and The image address indicates an address on the audio data table (also shown in FIG. 3) and an image data table (not shown), similarly to the description address. However, the explanatory note data in the explanatory note data table is text data that can be arbitrarily modified and added using an editor or the like, whereas the audio and image data in the image data table It should be noted that is data representing a sound or image that can be interpreted by any mechanism or software, and is usually stored in a form that cannot be interpreted by humans. That is, the audio data does not always have the image shown in FIG.

However, in recent years, a system for converting text data into voice has been devised. In such a system, data can be read by a human,
Modification is also easy. In the present embodiment, a system that utters voice from text data is used (an actual example of the above system includes VC2 of Ricoh Co., Ltd.).

Referring again to FIG. 2, the following description will be made in accordance with this flowchart. When the “view cooking method” button is selected, the control device 1 reads the description address 100 corresponding to the index 1 for the first process from the main table shown in FIG. Read the description data "Pour water and ingredients into the pot" in the statement data table and display it on the display device together with the button titled "See how to cook" (blocks 11 and 12) and index 1 Is read from the main table (block 13). Thereafter, it is determined whether the "next" button is selected (determination 14), and the process loops until the "next" button is selected. When the above button is selected, the process proceeds to time data determination. If the time data read in the above step is 0 (decision 15), that is, if the step does not require time management, the next step, that is, the current index 1 is incremented and the index is set to 2 (block 24) The same operation is repeated for index 2 on the main table and the subsequent indexes. In the judgment 25, it is judged whether or not the data corresponding to the incremented index exists on the main table any more. When the data does not exist, that is, when all the cooking steps have been completed, the processing is ended. This determination can be realized by a method known to those skilled in the art, such as storing the last index number in another area for comparison, or making the last index number a bit string other than a specific number.

If the time data is not 0 in the determination 15, the time data is set for the timer, and a timer start button is newly displayed on the display device (blocks 16 and 17). Judgment
At 18, loop until this timer start button is pressed,
If pressed, start the timer immediately (block 19),
The voice address corresponding to the index is read from the main table and set for voice output (Block 2
0). Then, to display the remaining time on the display device,
Display is performed at a predetermined interval and a loop is performed (block 21). When the timer elapses the set time, the audio output processing of block 23 is started by processing such as a timer interrupt,
The loop processing in block 21 is released, and the process proceeds to the next index.

Although a series of processing flows of the system according to the present invention has been described with reference to FIG. 2, this is merely an example for explanation, and for example, for interrupting the processing,
A step of determining and processing the pressing of a cancel key,
Note that the step of outputting an image related to the process when the “view cooking method” button is pressed is omitted.

FIG. 4 shows a screen of a display device immediately after selecting a dish to be prepared and in which the first step is not yet displayed in another embodiment according to the present invention. or,
FIG. 5 shows the screen of the display device at the stage where the process has proceeded to step 14. When the "view cooking method" button is selected, a useful image relating to the current process is displayed in the right half of the screen. FIG. 6 shows a state before proceeding to a step requiring time management and before a timer start button of the step is pressed,
FIG. 7 is a screen displaying the remaining time of the process (for example, the time for steaming the material) at predetermined intervals. When the remaining time reaches 0, the description of the next step is displayed if there is a next step, and if not, the display relating to this dish is terminated and the display returns to the predetermined menu screen.

Although the processing flow of the embodiments of the present invention has been described mainly with reference to FIG. 2, these embodiments are only provided to illustrate the principle of the present invention, and It is apparent that other embodiments can be readily constructed using these principles by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

[0032]

According to the present invention, a sentence explaining a cooking procedure and an image are provided at the same time as the cooking operation, and the time required for each step based on the recipe can be managed. Since the notification can be made, the cooking operation can be performed more easily, accurately, and efficiently, and as a result, the quality of the dish can be further improved.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a search function for appropriately outputting a corresponding recipe from a desired dish name or material name by an output means of a computer, thereby searching for a quick and efficient cooking method, and A menu can be designed and assembled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a cooking support system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure for displaying a description and outputting a voice message in the embodiment of the cooking support system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing data of a main table to be used, descriptive sentence data stored at an address stored in the table, and a voice message in the embodiment of the cooking support system according to the present invention. .

FIG. 4 is a display screen immediately after a dish to be cooked is determined in the embodiment of the cooking support system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a display screen at the time of step 14 in FIG. 2 of the embodiment of the cooking assistance system according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a display screen before proceeding to a step requiring time management and before a timer start button of the step is pressed in the embodiment of the cooking support system according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a display screen showing a remaining time of a process requiring time management of a dish to be cooked in the embodiment of the cooking support system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 control device 2 timer device 3 storage device 4 display device 5 audio output device 6 input device

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-2-212901 (JP, A) JP-A-6-110634 (JP, A) JP-A-6-327414 (JP, A) JP-A-56-59313 (JP) , A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A23L 1/01 G06F 3/16 G06F 17/60

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. Timer means for measuring from the start to the end of each cooking step, storage means for storing various data relating to the cooking step and voice data indicating the end of the cooking step, and output means for outputting an instruction of a cooking method A voice output means for outputting a voice based on the voice data to notify the end of the process, and a control means for controlling the respective means, wherein a user issues a command to the control means. Input hand to enter
And at least one step requiring time management,
The time required for the corresponding process of the corresponding dish is stored in the storage means.
The data is stored as time data, the various data stored in the storage means is output from the output means, and the time management is required in the respective steps.
The time required for at least one necessary step is measured by the timer means, and the timer means starts the corresponding step.
It is started by the user from the input means at the beginning, and
When the required time has been reached, a signal indicating the end of the corresponding process
Signal to the control means, and when the control means receives a signal indicating the end of the process.
A cooking assistance system configured to activate the voice output unit and output voice from the voice output unit based on voice data stored in the storage unit. 2. A search for a dish corresponding to a keyword such as a dish name and a material input from said input means, and said data relating to the creation of the dish stored in said storage means is output to said output means and said voice. Output to an output means.
The cooking support system according to 1 . 3. The timer means transmits to the control means a signal indicating the time lapse of at least one step requiring the time management at a predetermined interval, and the control means outputs the elapsed time to the output means. The cooking support system according to claim 1, wherein the information is output to the cooking support system . 4. A method for supporting each process when a dish is prepared, the method comprising various data relating to a cooking process and audio data indicating the end of the process.
Data storage and at least one process requiring time management
The time required for the corresponding process of the dish to be cooked as time data
A step of storing, a step of retrieving data relating to the dish corresponding to the dish name, the ingredient name, and the like; a description of each of the steps, and image data relating to the execution of the step, which are output in association with the progress of the cooking. with respect to step a, said time management at least one step required to be,
At the start of the corresponding process, the timer means is set by the user.
A step of activating, by measuring the actual time required for the process spent by said timer means, when the stored predetermined time has elapsed, by outputting the voice data to the voice output means, of the process Signaling the termination. (5) The dish name, ingredients, etc. entered from the input means
Search for dishes corresponding to the keyword,SaidRemembered that
Said data on the preparation ofInstructions on how to cook
To outputOutput means,OrOutput to the audio output means
Claims4The method described in. Wherein said timer means, said at certain predetermined intervals
It transmits a signal indicating the time course of the time management of the required at least one step, and outputs an instruction of the cooking methods that elapsed time
The method of claim 4 you output to the output means for. 7. The timer has a computer clock.
Characterized in that it is a timer using a clock signalClaim 4
Described inMethod.