JP7486375B2 - Heating and cooking system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a cooking system that includes an imaging device and a cooking appliance.

Conventionally, cooking systems are known that are equipped with sensors that detect the state of a cooking device such as a stove, and issue a warning when an object such as a human body or clothing enters the sensor's detection area.

For example, the stove safety device in Patent Document 1 below has a capacitance detection means as a first intrusion detection means, and the capacitance detection means is attached to a predetermined position on the stove. The first intrusion detection means outputs a detection signal to the control means according to the presence or absence of an object intrusion into the first detection area. The control means detects that an object has intruded into the first detection area based on the detection signal from the first intrusion detection means.

The stove safety device also has a distance detection means or an imaging means as a second intrusion detection means, which is attached above the stove and facing the stove side. The second intrusion detection means outputs a signal corresponding to the presence or absence of an object entering the second detection area, and image information of the detection area to the control means.

The control means detects that an object has entered the detection area based on the detection signals from the first and second intrusion detection means. Both the first and second intrusion detection means are relatively small sensors that can be easily attached to any position above the stove (Patent Document 1, paragraph 0014, Figure 3).

JP 2013-181729 A

However, the stove safety device in Patent Document 1 has a wide second detection area, and the second intrusion detection means does not detect only the state of a specific burner. In addition, this device detects using a combination of the first intrusion detection means and the second intrusion detection means, so it does not accurately detect the intrusion of an object using only the imaging means.

The present invention has been made in light of this background, and aims to provide a cooking system with a simple configuration that can accurately detect an object that has entered a specific area.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cooking system in which a cooking appliance and an imaging device can communicate with each other, comprising:
The imaging device is provided at an upper position of the cooking appliance, images a burner of the cooking appliance and a surrounding area thereof, and detects an intrusion of an object into a danger zone, the danger zone being a region behind the center of the burner as viewed from a user's standing position during use of the burner,
When the imaging device notifies the user of the intrusion of the object into the danger zone, the cooking appliance performs a flame power reduction control to reduce the flame power of the burner below a current flame power;
The cooking device includes:
A timer unit that times a period of the heat reduction control,
the timing unit starts timing when the imaging device detects an intrusion of an object into the danger zone, and stops the timing when the object in the danger zone is no longer detected;
After the end of the firepower reduction control, a firepower increase control is performed to increase the firepower of the burner higher than the current firepower at least during the period of the firepower reduction control measured by the timer .

The cooking system of the present invention has an imaging device located above the cooker, so that the imaging device can capture images of the burner of the cooker and its surrounding area. The imaging device detects the intrusion of an object into the danger zone while the burner is in use and notifies the cooker.

Then, when the imaging device notifies the user that an object (e.g., a human hand or clothing) has entered the danger zone, the cooking appliance performs heat reduction control. This allows the system to accurately detect an object that has entered the danger zone with a simple configuration and ensure safety. Furthermore, since the cooking appliance is equipped with a timer, it can time the period of heat reduction control (the time the object entered the danger zone). Then, after the end of the heat reduction control, the cooking appliance performs heat increase control for at least the timed period of heat reduction control. This allows the system to recover from the delay in cooking during the period in which heat reduction control was performed.

In the heating and cooking system of the present invention,
The imaging device includes an analysis unit that analyzes a captured video or image,
The analysis unit analyzes the video or a plurality of the images in chronological order to determine an intrusion direction of the object into the danger zone,
It is preferable that when the intrusion direction is determined to be from the side where the user is standing, the cooking appliance performs the heat reduction control.

The analysis section of the imaging device analyzes the video or multiple images in chronological order to determine the direction from which the object entered the danger zone. When the cooking appliance is notified of information indicating that the direction of entry is from the side where the user is standing, it performs control to reduce the heat. This allows the system to perform control to reduce the heat only when the direction of entry of the object indicates a dangerous event.

In addition, in the heating and cooking system of the present invention,
When it is determined that the intrusion direction is not from the side where the user is standing, it is preferable that the cooking appliance performs the heat power reduction control after a predetermined time has elapsed.

When the cooking appliance is notified of information that indicates that the direction of the object is not from the side where the user is standing, the cooking appliance does not immediately reduce the heat, but instead performs heat reduction control after a predetermined time has passed. This allows the system to perform control so that cooking is not delayed when the possibility of a dangerous incident is low based on the direction of the object's entry.

1 is a schematic diagram of a heating and cooking system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the internal configuration of the heating and cooking system. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an imaging area and a danger zone. 4 is a flowchart of safe heat power control for a heating and cooking system. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a state before an object enters a danger zone. FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a state in which an object has entered a danger zone.

Below, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, referring to FIG. 1, a cooking system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. The cooking system 1 is mainly composed of a cooking device 10 and an imaging device 20, and the imaging device 20 is a system that can capture images of the cooking status using the cooking device 10.

First, the cooking device 10 will be described. A grill door 2 is provided in the center of the front side of the cooking device 10. The grill door 2 opens and closes the front opening of the grill chamber (not shown) provided inside the cooking device 10 when placing or removing an object to be heated in the grill chamber.

The cooking device 10 is a built-in type that is incorporated into the countertop W of a system kitchen, and is equipped with a box-shaped stove body 3 with an open top. A top plate 4 is provided on the top of the stove body 3, and stove burners 5, 6, and 7 (the "burners" of the present invention) supported by the stove body 3 are exposed upward from the top plate 4. A pot P is placed on the stove burner 5.

In addition, on both sides of the grill door 2 on the front side of the cooking device 10, there are buttons 13a to 13d for turning on and off the burners 5, 6, and 7, and the grill burner 8 inside the grill chamber, as well as a power switch 13e.

Each of the extinguishing buttons 13a to 13d is a push type, and when it is pushed once from the extinguishing position shown in Figure 1, where it is recessed into the front panel, and then released, it protrudes to the combustion position in front of the front panel, and in this state it can be rotated to adjust the flame strength.

Signals from the power switch 13e and the operation detection switches (not shown) of the on/off buttons 13a-13d of each burner 5-8 are input to the control unit 11, which is made up of a microcomputer and will be described later, along with signals from the flame detection elements of each burner 5-8. The control unit 11 then controls the igniter, main valve, and each gas valve device. In the following description, the rear side of the cooking appliance 10 is assumed to be a wall surface.

Next, the imaging device 20 will be described. The imaging device 20 is located above the cooking appliance 10 and is attached to the lower end frame 30 of the ventilation fan hood. Details will be described later, but the imaging section 21 of the imaging device 20 can capture an image of an imaging area that includes the stove burners 5 to 7 of the cooking appliance 10.

The imaging device 20 can also communicate with the cooking appliance 10 via wireless communication. In particular, the imaging device 20 detects abnormalities in the use of the burners 5, 6, and 7, or the intrusion of an object into the imaging area, and notifies the cooking appliance 10. This allows the cooking appliance 10 to reduce the heat of the burners 5 to 7 or turn them off, ensuring a safe state.

Next, the internal configuration of the cooking device 10 and the imaging device 20 will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

First, the cooking device 10 is composed of a control unit 11, an operation unit 13, a communication unit 15, and a timer unit 17. The control unit 11 mainly controls the heat of the stove burners 5 to 7 and the grill burner. The control unit 11 receives operation commands from the operation unit 13, which consists of the on/off buttons 13a to 13d, etc., and turns each stove burner on or off.

In particular, the control unit 11 performs safe fire power control, including fire power reduction control and fire power increase control for the stove burners 5 to 7. Fire power reduction control is control for reducing the fire power of the stove burners 5 to 7 below the current fire power for a predetermined time. Fire power increase control is control for increasing the fire power of the stove burners 5 to 7 above the current fire power for a predetermined time.

The communication unit 15 wirelessly communicates with the imaging device 20. The communication unit 15 receives from the imaging device 20 judgment information that compiles information on the use of the burners 5 to 7 and information on the intrusion of an object into the danger zone, which will be described later. The judgment information is then transmitted to the control unit 11.

Figure 3 shows an example of the imaging area and danger zone of the imaging device 20.

The solid-line rectangular frame in the figure indicates the imaging area R of the imaging device 20 that is determined when the stove burners 5 and 7 are in use. It is preferable that the imaging area R is large enough to include all of the stove burners 5 to 7.

The dashed rectangular frame in the figure indicates the danger zone Z. The danger zone Z is part of the imaging area R, and is an area behind the center of the stove burner 5 when viewed from the standing position S of the user of the cooking appliance 10. The size of the danger zone Z is arbitrary, but it is preferable to move the position of the danger zone Z depending on the stove burner in use.

Returning to FIG. 2, the timing unit 17 of the cooking device 10 is a timer (a low-flame timer, described later) that times the period of the above-mentioned heat reduction control. Specifically, the heat reduction control starts when the user's hand or clothing enters the danger zone, taking into account the direction of entry. Therefore, the timing unit 17 starts timing at that point.

Furthermore, the flame reduction control ends when the user's hands or clothing are removed from the danger zone Z. Therefore, the timing unit 17 stops timing at that point. This allows the timing unit 17 to accurately measure the period of the flame reduction control. This period is used when performing the flame increase control.

The imaging device 20 is composed of an imaging unit 21, an analysis unit 23, and a communication unit 25. The imaging unit 21 is, for example, a web camera, and is installed in a position where it can capture images of the stove burners 5 to 7 and their surrounding areas. It is preferable that the imaging unit 21 can zoom in and out and adjust the angle, and that the position of the imaging area R can be changed.

In addition, it is preferable that the imaging unit 21 is installed in a position overlooking the burners 5 to 7 from diagonally above the front side of the cooking appliance 10 (the user's standing position S in Figure 3) toward the rear side (wall side) of the cooking appliance 10, rather than directly above the burners 5 to 7. This allows the imaging unit 21 to detect at an early stage when the user's hands or clothes reach the danger zone.

The imaging unit 21 captures images of the stove burners 5 to 7 and their surrounding areas, and transmits the images (still images or video) to the analysis unit 23. The analysis unit 23 can, for example, refer to a database obtained by machine learning to analyze and make judgments about the input images that include the stove burners 5 to 7, a pot, the user's hands, etc.

The analysis unit 23 recognizes the state of the flames on the burners 5 to 7, or whether or not a pot is placed on each of the burners 5 to 7, and determines which of the burners 5 to 7 are in use and which are not.

The analysis unit 23 also determines whether the user's hands or clothes have entered the danger zone, as well as the direction in which the hands or clothes have entered the danger zone. If the input image is a still image, the analysis unit 23 determines the direction in which the hands or clothes have entered the danger zone from multiple input images in chronological order.

The analysis unit 23 transmits the determination information obtained by the analysis to the cooking appliance 10 (communication unit 15) via the communication unit 25. The communication unit 25 provides the determination information to the cooking appliance 10 using short-range wireless communication such as Bluetooth (registered trademark).

Next, a flowchart of the safe heat control of the cooking system 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 4. In addition, the explanation will be supplemented with reference to FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B as appropriate.

First, the imaging device 20 is turned on (STEP 01). This causes the imaging section 21 of the imaging device 20 to start capturing images of the stove burners 5 to 7 and their surrounding areas.

Next, the imaging device 20 determines whether the stove burner is in use or not (STEP 02). Specifically, the analysis unit 23 of the imaging device 20 analyzes the image (input image) captured by the imaging unit 21 and determines which of the stove burners 5 to 7 is lit. If the stove burner is in use, the process proceeds to STEP 03, and if it is not in use, the process loops until it starts to be used.

If the stove burner is in use ("YES" in STEP 02), the imaging device 20 starts detecting the intrusion of an object into the danger zone (STEP 03). The judgment information created by the analysis unit 23 is sent to the cooking appliance 10 at a predetermined timing.

Figure 5A shows an example of the imaging area R and danger zone Z' when the stove burner 5 is in use. In this case, a pot P is placed at the position of the stove burner 5, so the imaging device 20 determines that the stove burner 5 is in use, and sets the area behind the center of the stove burner 5 as the danger zone Z'. It is even more preferable that the danger zone Z' is an area behind the edge of the pot P. Note that in the illustrated state, the user's hands or clothes (objects) have not entered the danger zone Z', and it can be said that no dangerous incident has occurred.

Next, the imaging device 20 determines whether or not an object has entered the danger zone (STEP 04). FIG. 5B shows the same imaging area R and danger zone Z' as FIG. 5A. In the state shown, the user's hand has entered the danger zone Z'. In this case, since an object has entered the danger zone, the process proceeds to STEP 05. On the other hand, if the object has not entered the danger zone, the process proceeds to STEP 08.

First, the case where an object has entered the danger zone ("YES" in STEP 04) will be described. In this case, the imaging device 20 judges whether the object has entered the danger zone from the front (STEP 05). Here, "forward" refers to the direction as seen from the standing position S of the user of the cooking appliance 10 (see FIG. 5B), and the analysis unit 23 judges whether the object has entered from the front or elsewhere by analyzing the input image. If the object has entered the danger zone from the front, proceed to STEP 06, and if it has entered from a direction other than the front, proceed to STEP 10.

If an object enters the danger zone from the front ("YES" in STEP 05), the cooking appliance 10 executes flame power reduction control (STEP 06). The cooking appliance 10 obtains judgment information from the imaging device 20, but if both STEP 04 and STEP 05 result in "YES", this is considered a dangerous event and the cooking appliance 10 switches to flame power reduction control. Specifically, the cooking appliance 10 reduces the flame power of the stove burner 5 below the current flame power. This makes it possible to prevent burns to the user and ignition of clothing.

On the other hand, if an object enters the danger zone from a direction other than the front ("NO" in STEP 05), the cooking appliance 10 judges whether the object's intrusion time is 3 seconds or longer (STEP 11). If the object's intrusion time is 3 seconds or longer, the process proceeds to STEP 06, and if it is less than 3 seconds, the process returns to STEP 02. This means that if an object enters the danger zone from a direction other than the front, it is not immediately judged to be a dangerous event.

Next, the cooking device 10 turns on the small heat timer (STEP 07) and returns to STEP 02. The small heat timer is timed by the timing unit 17 of the cooking device 10.

Next, the case where an object has not entered the danger zone (the object has left the danger zone) ("NO" in STEP 04) will be described. In this case, the cooking device 10 determines whether the small fire timer is on or not (STEP 08). If the small fire timer is on, the process proceeds to STEP 09, and if the small fire timer is not on, the process returns to STEP 02.

If the small flame timer is on ("YES" in STEP 08), the cooking appliance 10 turns off the small flame timer (STEP 10). Then, the cooking appliance 10 ends the heat reduction control. The time counted by the small flame timer is stored in the timer unit 17.

Finally, the cooking appliance 10 executes heat increase control (STEP 10). In heat increase control, the cooking appliance 10 increases the heat of the stove burner 5 to a value higher than the current heat (heat before switching to heat reduction control) to recover the cooking delay (amount of heat) caused by the heat reduction control.

The flame power increase control automatically ends when it has been executed for at least the time counted by the small flame timer stored in the timing unit 17. It then returns to STEP 02. This completes the series of steps for safe flame power control.

Although the above describes an embodiment for carrying out the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and can be modified as appropriate without departing from the gist of the present invention.

In the above embodiment, an example was described in which the stove burner 5 (stove burner 7) on the front side of the cooking appliance 10 was in use, but the same applies to the stove burner 6 on the rear side of the cooking appliance 10. When the stove burner 6 is in use, the danger zone is the area behind the center of the stove burner 6 and up to the wall surface.

Although it has been explained that the danger zone Z' (see FIG. 5A) is preferably an area behind the edge of the pot P, this is not limited to this. The danger zone may be defined as an area slightly behind and to the rear of the center of the stove burner, allowing for stricter judgment.

In the above embodiment, if an object enters the danger zone from a direction other than the front, and the object's intrusion time is 3 seconds or more, the flame reduction control is started. 3 seconds is an example, and is not limited to this time. Also, a direction other than the front means a sideways direction or a rearward direction when viewed from the user's standing position S (see FIG. 5B). If the cooking appliance 10 is a face-to-face type, an object may enter the danger zone from the rear. For this reason, the flame reduction control may be executed in response to the intrusion of an object from any direction.

1...cooking system, 5-7...cooker burner, 8...grill burner, 10...cooker, 11...control unit, 13...operation unit, 13a-13d...fire on/off buttons, 13e...power switch, 15...(cooker) communication unit, 17...timer unit, 20...imaging device, 21...imaging unit, 23...analysis unit, 25...(imaging device) communication unit.

Claims (3)

A cooking system in which a cooking appliance and an imaging device can communicate with each other,
The imaging device includes:
The imaging device is provided above the cooking device, and captures an image of a burner of the cooking device and a surrounding area thereof;
During use of the burner, a region behind the center of the burner as viewed from a user's standing position is defined as a danger zone, and intrusion of an object into the danger zone is detected;
When the imaging device notifies the user of the intrusion of the object into the danger zone, the cooking appliance performs a flame power reduction control to reduce the flame power of the burner below a current flame power;
The cooking device includes:
A timer unit that times a period of the heat reduction control,
the timing unit starts timing when the imaging device detects an intrusion of an object into the danger zone, and stops the timing when the object in the danger zone is no longer detected;
After the end of the firepower reduction control, a firepower increase control is performed to increase the firepower of the burner to a level higher than the current firepower, at least during the period of the firepower reduction control measured by the timer.
A heating and cooking system comprising: The imaging device includes an analysis unit that analyzes a captured video or image,
The analysis unit analyzes the video or a plurality of the images in chronological order to determine an intrusion direction of the object into the danger zone,
The heating and cooking system according to claim 1 , wherein when it is determined that the intrusion direction is from a side where the user is standing, the heating cooker performs the heat power reduction control. The heating and cooking system according to claim 2 , wherein when it is determined that the intrusion direction is not from a side where the user is standing, the heating cooker performs the heat power reduction control after a predetermined time has elapsed.