JPS5944793A - Cooling device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cooking appliance such as a microwave oven that recognizes the shape of food placed in a heating chamber and automatically determines heating conditions based on the recognition result.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Generally, in cooking appliances such as microwave ovens,
The cooking time is set by the cook operating the timer on the iR panel. Therefore, it is necessary to operate the timer each time cooking is performed, which is cumbersome to operate.

Recently, as a way to improve these shortcomings, the food inside the heating chamber is photographed using an imager, the shape of the food is recognized from the output of the imager, and heating conditions such as heating time are adjusted based on the recognition results. It has been considered that the heating operation is performed according to the determined heating conditions. However, this has the following problems.

That is, since the only illumination inside the heating chamber is an internal light of about 20 watts, it is difficult to obtain stable operation of the image pickup device. For example, the relationship between the sensitivity of the imager and the brightness (wattage) in the heating chamber is as shown in Figure 2.The operation of the imager is extremely unstable with only the conventional 20 watt interior light. . Because of this, the shape of the food cannot be recognized accurately and reliably, and as a result, accurate heating conditions cannot always be obtained. Hiko, to obtain sufficiently stable operation of the imager, an illumination lamp of about 100 watts or more is required.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been developed in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to provide a cooking device in which stable operation of an image pickup device can be obtained and the shape of food can be recognized accurately and reliably. It is about providing.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention photographs food in a heating chamber with an imaging end, recognizes the shape of the food using the output of the imager, determines heating conditions such as heating time based on the recognition result, and In a cooking appliance that performs a heating operation, a photographing light source that illuminates the inside of the heating chamber is provided, so that stable operation of the image pickup device can be obtained.

[Implementation sequence of the invention]

Hereinafter, one implementation of the present invention F! iu will be explained with reference to the drawings.

Figure 2 shows the operation and control of the microwave oven according to the present invention, in which 1 is a display section that digitally displays heating time, etc.;
2 is a keyboard section. The key date section 2, the food selection key 3 for selecting the type of food (for example, meat, vegetables, liquid, etc.), the shape recognition key 4 for recognizing the shape of the food, and starting the heating operation. It is composed of a start key 5 and the like for starting the operation.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the microwave oven according to the present invention.

This is shown schematically. That is, 6 is a heating chamber, and a turntable (shelf board) 8 on which food 7 is placed is provided at the bottom of the heating chamber 6, and this turntable 8 is rotated by a motor 9. Further, a magnetron 10 as a heating means is attached to one side wall of the heating chamber 6, and the food 7 on the turntable 8 is heated by radiating high frequency waves from the magnetron IO into the heating chamber 6. Forced to be cooked.

The magnetron 10 is connected to a power supply circuit 11 consisting of a high voltage transformer and a rectifier circuit.
1 is connected to an AC power source 13 via a triac 12 as a power limiter. The triac 12 is subjected to on-off control by a main part 24, which will be described later.

Further, an illumination window 14 is formed on one side of the heating chamber 6, and an interior light (illumination light) 15 is provided on the outer side of the heating chamber 6 facing the illumination window 14. The interior light 15 illuminates the inside of the heating chamber 6 through the illumination window 14 and is driven by a lamp drive circuit 16 connected to the power source 13. The lamp drive circuit 16 converts the alternating current voltage from the power supply 13 into a predetermined direct current voltage, and drives the interior light 15 with the direct current voltage. A photography lighting window 17 is formed at a predetermined portion of the ceiling surface of the heating chamber 6, and a photography light source (
For example, a lamp) 18 is provided. The photographing light source 18 illuminates the inside of the heating chamber 6, especially the food 2, through the illumination window 17 when photographing is performed using an area sensor 22, which will be described later. It has a light intensity of wattage and is connected to the lamp drive circuit 16 via a relay contact 19. The relay contact 19 is controlled to turn on and off by a main leg portion 24, which will be described later. Approximately, an opening 20 for photographing food is formed in the approximately medium heat section of the ceiling surface of the heating chamber 6, and an optical system 2 is provided in the upper part of the heating chamber 6 opposite to this opening 20. A CCDC processing sensor 22 is provided along with the imager. The area sensor 22 is scanned and driven by the sensor drive circuit 23 to photograph the food 7 on the turntable 8 through the optical system 21 and the aperture 20''fr, and converts it into an electrical signal. The sensor drive circuit 2-3 is connected to a main control section 24 mainly composed of, for example, a CPU (central processing unit). 2 are connected to each other.

Next, the operation in the above configuration will be explained. First, by turning on the power switch (not shown), the lamp drive circuit x6VcN source is supplied, and the interior light 15 is turned on. Next, the food 7 to be cooked is placed on the turntable 8, and then the food selection key 3. . . . Select and operate the key 3 corresponding to the above-mentioned food 7. As a result, the seeds of the food 7 are selected and designated, and manually inputted to the main part 1 section 24. Next, by pressing the shape recognition key 4, the signal ?
The main control unit 24 receives the signal and turns on the 1/- contact 19 to turn on the photographing light source 18, and also operates the sensor drive circuit 23'fc to drive the area sensor 22 to scan and move the food on the turntable 8. Shoot 7. The output of the area sensor 22 due to this photographing operation is transmitted to the sensor drive circuit 2.
3 to the main side voice section 24.

The main side teeth portion 24 recognizes the shape (size) of the food 7 based on the output of the area sensor 22, and performs calculation processing such as time conversion (calculation of heating time) based on the recognition result. In this case, the heating time is calculated based on characteristic data as shown in FIG. i.e. generally the type of food (e.g. meat).

Different types of food (vegetables, liquids, etc.) have different specific gravity even if they are of the same shape, and therefore the weight of the food differs. Furthermore, the dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent of foods are also different.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the heating time for each shape differs depending on the type of food. Therefore.

Characteristic data of heating time for each type of food shape as shown in FIG. When the type of food is selected in ..., the heating time is calculated based on the corresponding characteristic data (
time conversion).

In this way, when the calculation of the heating time is completed,
The tll8 section 24 displays the time on the display section 1, and turns off the relay contact 19 to turn off the photographing light source 18.
Turn off the lights. Therefore, only the interior light 15 is turned off. Then, when the heating time is displayed on the display section l, by pressing the start key 5, the main side mountain 1 section 24 that receives this signal turns on the triac 12 and causes the madanetron 10 to operate in oscillation mode. , start the heating operation. Then, the main side part 24 subtracts the calculated heating time at the same time as the triac 2 is turned on, and when it becomes zero, the triac 12 is turned off and the heating operation is stopped.

In this way, by providing the photographing light source 18 that lights up only when the area sensor 22 is photographing and illuminates the inside of the heating chamber 6, sufficient brightness can be obtained to photograph the food 7 inside the heating chamber 6. The area sensor 22 can perform sufficiently stable operation. As a result, the entire shape of the food 7 can be recognized accurately and reliably, and as a result, accurate heating conditions can be determined at all times. Further, since the photographing light source 18 is not turned on when unnecessary except when photographing the food 7, an energy saving effect can also be obtained.

In the above implementation row, the interior light 15 and the photographing light source 1 are
8 are operated by DC voltage, but they may be operated by AC direct voltage as shown in FIG. 5. By doing so, the lamp drive circuit 16 becomes unnecessary and costs can be reduced. Further, in this case, by detecting the phase of the AC voltage and opening and opening the operation of the factory sensor 22 according to the phase difference, the photographing light source 18
The shape of the food 7 can be accurately recognized even when operated with an alternating current voltage. That is, when the photographing light W18 is turned on by AC voltage, as shown in FIG. (proportional to the amount of light) P(t
) is the coefficient R: the internal resistance of the light source 18, and the amount of light emitted varies depending on the phase of the power supply voltage.

When the amount of light changes in this way, the sensitivity of the area sensor 22 changes, as is clear from FIG. 1. For this reason, the accuracy of photographing by the area sensor 22 decreases, making it impossible to accurately recognize the shape. Therefore, as shown in Part 5, the voltage phase of the power supply 13 is detected by the position detection circuit 25, and the detection signal is supplied to the main side filTl ff1 (24) to start the operation of the area sensor 22. (Open 1-1.) C. The phase detection circuit 25 is connected to
As shown in M, resistors R5 to R6, diodes D, D2
, a capacitor C>, and an inverter circuit 11+I2 are connected to output a detection signal as shown in FIG.

That is, when the main controller 110 section 24 detects the rising edge of the detection signal train supplied from the phase detection circuit 25, the main controller 110 section 24 changes the time to
The sensor drive circuit 23 is operated only during this period to allow the area sensor 22 to perform the entire photographing operation. Then, the area sensor 22 is not allowed to operate until the rising edge of the detection signal is detected again. As a result, the change in the amount of light during the photographing operation of the area sensor 22 is reduced by half tJ compared to the case where 11 strokes are performed per stroke using the phase @shape, and photographing accuracy is significantly improved. Power, the above time t. The accuracy will further improve if you make it short! Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 9, only the white lamp 15 may be operated by AC voltage. By doing this, the power consumption is reduced by the amount of power consumed by the interior light 15, and the circuit components of the lamp drive circuit 16 (such as a rectifier) are reduced.
However, since the power consumption can be reduced by that much, the cost can be reduced.

Further, in this case, by arranging the refrigerator interior light 15ff to be turned off when the area sensor 22 is operated, the influence caused by turning on the refrigerator interior light 15 with AC voltage can be completely eliminated. In other words, when the interior light 15 is turned on by AC voltage, the voltage (AC voltage) of the power supply 13 (AC voltage) V(t) is changed to V( t) = Vm sin ωt, the power of the interior light 15 (proportional to the amount of light) P(t
) is 2, α: Coefficient R: The internal resistance of the interior light 15 changes.

The amount of light emitted in proportion to this also varies in intensity. (σ) When the intensity of the light intensity changes during the operation of the area sensor 22, a sound is generated that changes with respect to the light intensity of the photographing light source 18 which is turned on by the DC voltage at this time (see FIG. 10). Therefore, the sensitivity of the area sensor 22 changes, making accurate shape recognition impossible. Therefore, as shown in Figure 9.

The refrigerator interior light 15 is connected to the power source 13 via a relay contact 26, and the relay contact 26 is turned on and off by the control unit 24, so that the refrigerator interior light 15 is turned off only when the area sensor 22 is in the photographing operation. In other words, when the area sensor 22 is in the shooting operation, the relay contact 26 is turned off.
When the II2 shadow operation (calculation of heating time) is completed, the relay contact 26 is turned on.

Furthermore, in the embodiment 1'''C, the heating operation is started by operating the start key 5, but the heating operation may be started automatically at the same time as the calculation of the heating time is completed, for example.

Further, although only the heating time is calculated as the heating condition, the optimum heating output may also be calculated, and the heating operation may be varied based on the heating output. Also, as an imager, C
Although a CD-type area sensor is used, other image pickup devices such as an MO8-type area sensor, or an image pickup tube may also be used. Further, although the description has been given of the case where the present invention is applied to a microwave oven, it can be similarly applied to a sub-heater using an electric heater or induction heating means as the heating means, for example.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a cooking device that can be expected to have various effects, such as stable operation of the image pickup device and accurate and reliable recognition of the shape of food.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a characteristic diagram showing the relationship between the sensitivity of the imager and the brightness inside the heating chamber, Figs. 2 to 4 show an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is a plan view of the operation panel; FIG. 3 is an overall configuration diagram, FIG. 4 is a characteristic diagram showing the characteristics of heating time with respect to the shape of food, and FIGS. 5 to 8 show other embodiments of the present invention. is the overall Pak” 9 Chengzu, No. 6
The figure shows how the amount of light changes with the power supply voltage! 0 is shown in f diagram, 7th
The figures show diagrams of a phase detection circuit, FIG. 8 shows output signals of the phase detection circuit, and FIGS. is an overall configuration diagram, and Figure 10 is a percentage diagram showing the photosensitivity characteristics of the area sensor. 6... Heating chamber, 7... Food/items, 10...
・Magnetron. 13...AC power supply, 15...Interior light (lighting light), 1
6... Lamp, rigid circuit, J8... Light source for photography, 1
9...Relay contact, 22...Area sensor (imager), 23...Sensor drive circuit, 24...Main f! jl
1 inch, 25...phase detection circuit, 26...relay contact. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1 483 Figure 2 II 4

Claims (6)

[Claims] (1) An imager for photographing food placed in a heating chamber; a means for recognizing the shape of the food from the output of the imager; and determining heating conditions such as heating time based on the recognition result; 1. A cooking appliance comprising: a heating means that operates according to determined heating conditions to heat food in the heating chamber; and a photography light source that illuminates the inside of the heating chamber. (2) The cooking appliance according to claim 1, wherein the photographing light source is activated only when an image pickup device is operated. (3) The cooking appliance according to claim 1, wherein a light source operated by AC voltage is used as the photographing light source. (4) The cooking appliance according to claim 3, wherein the phase of the alternating current voltage is detected, and the operation of the image pickup device is controlled according to the detection result. (5) The cooking appliance according to item 1 of the scope of Patent No. 8N, characterized in that a light source operated by DC voltage is used as the photographing light source. (6) The cooking appliance according to claim 5, further comprising a lighting lamp that is activated by AC voltage and illuminates the inside of the heating chamber, and the lighting lamp is turned off when the image pickup device is operated. .