KR100424717B1 - A method for displaying cookable menu list in a micro wave oven - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is to electronically display a cooking menu that can be cooked using the frozen food information held in the home through wired or wireless communication or power line transfer communication with the refrigerator having the information of the frozen food stored in the bar code, etc. The present invention relates to a method of controlling the display of cooking menus in a microwave oven, and for this purpose, a method of displaying a cooking menu capable of combining frozen foods currently provided in a refrigerator in a microwave oven, comprising: a refrigerator storing a list of frozen foods currently stored; Receives a list of frozen foods stored in the refrigerator through communication, compares the received frozen foods list with the frozen foods list for each pre-stored dish, extracts the current cookable dishes list, and extracts the list of extracted cooking menus. List of menus that can be displayed and also cooked Even if there is insufficient frozen food during extraction, a menu containing cooking foods containing insufficient frozen foods is displayed on the cookable list so that the user can check the frozen foods stored in the refrigerator and eliminate the hassle of worrying about the menu to cook. It can provide convenience, and also can not cook only frozen foods currently stored in the refrigerator, but by displaying the frozen foods that are insufficient, the user can conveniently check the frozen food purchase information.

Description

A method for displaying cookable menu list in a micro wave oven}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a microwave oven, and in particular, a cooking menu capable of cooking using frozen food information held at home through wired / wireless communication or power line transfer communication with a refrigerator having information on frozen food stored in a barcode. It relates to a cooking menu display control method in a microwave oven to display the.

In general, there are various types of heating cookers that can cook frozen foods by heating, boiling, or baking them using a predetermined heat source, but in particular, microwave ovens, which are used to cook frozen foods through high-frequency heating, It is an electronic product which is widely used in recent years because of the convenient use method.

These microwaves are supplied with a high voltage generated by the action of the transformer to the magnetron and the electromagnetic waves are projected into the cooking chamber to cook the frozen food. In such a microwave, various cooking menus can be selected by one-touch key operation. The generation intensity and cooking time of electromagnetic waves are set to the optimum conditions for each menu.

On the other hand, recently, many instant foods have been developed and are on the market, and among them, frozen foods that can be easily cooked by consumers using a microwave are increasing.

Such frozen foods and frozen foods for cooking are usually provided in a refrigerator provided in a home, and the user takes them out when needed and cooks them using a microwave oven, but the user checks the food stored in the refrigerator and prepares a menu that can be cooked. There was a problem that was quite inconvenient to choose.

On the other hand, frozen foods stored in the refrigerating compartment or the freezing chamber have a valid period for each frozen food, so when the expiration date is passed, the frozen foods stored in the refrigerator are deteriorated. In case of doing so, it is harmful to the health, but the user often forgets to check the shelf life of the frozen food stored.

Accordingly, for the above-mentioned problem, Korean Patent Application No. 95-3917 includes a display device installed on a predetermined external portion of a refrigerator to display a food name or an expiration date, and a function key for selecting a scanner mode or a normal mode. It provides a key input device, a scanner installed at a predetermined part of the refrigerator to read information about barcodes attached to the packaged food, an alarm to sound an alarm when the food expiration date expires, and information about the food name and expiration date. When the information on the food name and the expiration date is detected by analyzing the memory to be stored and the barcode information input through the scanner, the food name and the expiration date are registered and stored, and the food name is displayed at the same time. Through a refrigerator with a barcode scanner that includes a central processing unit to control the alarm output. By using the scanned bar code information to allow the user to recognize the expiration date of the frozen food stored in the refrigerator.

In detail, the refrigerator with the conventional bar code scanner described above includes a scan mode and a normal mode, and in the scan mode, the scanner is driven to receive a food name and an expiration date through a bar code, and is input through the above-described process in the normal mode. When the expired food is detected using the barcode information and the current time information in the central processing unit, the alarm is operated along with the display of the corresponding food name to recognize the valid state of the frozen food stored in the refrigerator.

Accordingly, in the present invention, a menu capable of cooking in a microwave oven based on the above-mentioned frozen food information received through communication with a refrigerator having frozen food information regarding the brand name and the expiration date for the frozen food stored through the above-described barcode. I was looking for a way to display the list.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the object of the present invention is to store the frozen food information currently stored at home through wired or wireless communication or power line communication with the refrigerator containing the frozen food information stored in the bar code information input To provide a cooking menu display control method in a microwave oven to display a cooking menu capable of cooking based on the above.

1 is a block diagram of a microwave oven and a refrigerator employed according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a cooking menu display control process in a microwave oven according to the present invention;

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: refrigerator

110: barcode detection unit 120: microcomputer

130: frozen food information storage unit 140: change and demodulation unit

150: line matching unit

200: microwave

210: key input unit 220: microcomputer

230: cooking menu storage unit 240: microwave driving unit

250: display unit

In the microwave according to the present invention, a method of controlling display of a cooking menu is a method of displaying a cooking menu capable of combining frozen foods currently provided in a refrigerator in a microwave oven, and storing a list of frozen foods currently stored in the refrigerator. Receiving a list of frozen foods stored in the refrigerator through communication with, extracting a list of currently cookable dishes by comparing and analyzing the received frozen food list with a frozen food list for each pre-stored dish, and extracting And displaying a list of the prepared cooking menus.

The above objects and various advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the preferred embodiments of the invention described below with reference to the accompanying drawings by those skilled in the art.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a microwave oven and a refrigerator employed according to the present invention, the refrigerator 100 includes a barcode detector 110, a microcomputer 120, a frozen food information storage unit 130, a modulation / demodulation unit 140, and And a line matching unit 150, and the microwave oven 200 includes a key input unit 210, a microcomputer 220, a cooking menu storage unit 230, a microwave driving unit 240, a display unit 250, and a modulation / demodulation unit ( 260 and the line matching unit 270 is configured.

In this configuration, the barcode detection unit 110 of the refrigerator 100 detects a barcode attached to the frozen food and outputs barcode information including a brand name and an expiration date.

In addition, the microcomputer 120 is a means for controlling the overall operation of the refrigerator, and stores the barcode information applied from the barcode detector 110 as the frozen food information storage unit 130 in the frozen food information storage unit 130, which will be described later. When a signal for requesting frozen food information is applied from the modulation / demodulation unit 140 through the line matching unit 150 as a communication means, the frozen food information stored in the frozen food information storage unit 130 is read and the modulation / demodulation unit 140 is read. Will output

In addition, the modulation and demodulation unit 140 modulates the frozen food information data received from the microcomputer 120 into a signal suitable for power line communication and applies the line matching unit 150 to the line matching unit 150. AC 110 / 220V) serves as an interface such as impedance matching between the power line flowing through the refrigerator and the returned frozen food information to the power line to output.

Meanwhile, the key input unit 210 of the microwave oven 200 includes a plurality of menu keys for selecting a cooking menu that can be selected in the microwave and a predetermined key for checking a list of menus currently available for cooking. Outputs a key signal corresponding to the operation.

The microcomputer 220 is a means for controlling the overall operation of the microwave oven, and applies a control signal for selectively driving the microwave oven to the microwave driver 240 based on a menu key signal from the key input unit 210. To control the microwave driving for cooking of the selected menu, and when a predetermined key signal is applied from the key input unit 210 to check a list of available menus, a request for requesting frozen food information to the demodulator 260 is performed. Outputs the data, compares and analyzes the frozen food information data applied from the modulation and demodulation unit 260 and the frozen food (ingredient) list for each cooking menu stored in the cooking menu storage unit 230 to compare The list is extracted and controlled to be displayed on the display unit 150. In this case, a dish having frozen foods lacked in the combination of frozen foods required is extracted New also controls display so that the display by including in the list together.

In addition, the cooking menu storage unit 230 stores a cooking time and a high frequency heating degree for cooking for each cooking menu, and in particular, stores a combination of a list of frozen foods required for each cooking menu, and controls the microcomputer 220. Read the data according to.

On the other hand, the microwave driver 240 is driven under the control of the microcomputer 220 to generate electromagnetic waves into the cooking chamber of the microwave to drive the frozen food is cooked.

In addition, the display unit 250 displays an operation state of the current microwave oven under the control of the microcomputer 220 or displays a menu list capable of cooking.

In addition, the modulation and demodulation unit 260 modulates and outputs data applied from the microcomputer 220 or demodulates the data applied from the line matching unit 270 by being loaded on a power line and outputs the data to the microcomputer 220. 270 extracts data on the power line by performing an interface with the power line, or carries data on the power line to carry out communication.

Next, a refrigerator and a microwave oven having the above-described configuration will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 attached to a cooking menu display control process in a microwave oven according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

First, the user operates a predetermined key provided in the key input unit 210 of the microwave oven 200 to check a list of cooking menus which can be cooked using the frozen food stored in the refrigerator 100. 220 determines whether a predetermined key signal for checking a list of cookable menus is applied from the key input unit 210 (step 200).

At this time, if a predetermined key signal for checking the menu list available from the key input unit 210 is applied, the microcomputer 220 applies the data for requesting the frozen food information to the modulator 260 (step 202).

Then, the modulation and demodulation unit 260 modulates the data for the requested frozen food information request to the line matching unit 270 to be suitable for power line carrier communication.

Then, the signal applied through the power line is applied to the microcomputer 120 of the refrigerator 100 through the line matching unit 150 and the modulation and demodulation unit 140 of the refrigerator 100, the microcomputer 120 stores the frozen food information The frozen food information stored in the unit 130 is read and applied to the modulation / demodulation unit 140.

At this time, the frozen food information data applied to the modulation and demodulation unit 140 is modulated and applied to the line matching unit 150, and the microcomputer 220 of the microwave oven 200 again is the line matching unit 270 of the microwave oven 200. And frozen food information data through the modulation / modulation unit 260 (step 204).

Next, the microcomputer 220 of the microwave 200 compares and analyzes the combination of the received frozen food information data and the frozen food for each menu stored in the cooking menu storage 230 (step 206), and is stored in the refrigerator. A list of cooking menus that can be cooked with the combination of frozen foods is extracted (step 208).

At this time, a menu with a predetermined number of frozen foods that are insufficient in the combination of frozen foods stored in the refrigerator is also extracted to allow the user to recognize the frozen foods to be purchased to cook the menu.

Next, the microcomputer 220 controls and displays the displayable menu list extracted through the above-described process (step 210).

Then, the user can more conveniently select a menu for cooking by checking the displayed menu list, and can also conveniently check frozen foods to be purchased.

Meanwhile, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, power line communication is employed as a communication means between the refrigerator and the microwave oven, but it can be seen that modification can be easily performed by separate wired communication or wireless communication.

Accordingly, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, the user can display a list of cooking menus which can be cooked by checking the wired / wireless or power line communication with the refrigerator having the frozen food information stored in the refrigerator in the microwave oven. While checking the frozen food stored in the refrigerator, it can provide convenience for eliminating the trouble of worrying about the menu to be cooked. Also, the frozen food stored in the refrigerator cannot be cooked, but the insufficient frozen food is displayed. As a zoom, the user can also conveniently check the frozen food purchase information.

Claims (1)

A method of displaying a cooking menu for cooking by combining frozen foods currently provided in a refrigerator in a microwave oven, Receiving a list of frozen foods identified through a bar code stored in the refrigerator through one of wireless communication and power line communication; Comparing and analyzing the received frozen food list and the pre-stored frozen food list combination for each cooking menu to extract a list of currently cookable dishes; And displaying a list of the extracted cooking menus.