CN112369122A

CN112369122A - Method for operating a cooking appliance

Info

Publication number: CN112369122A
Application number: CN201980043308.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 丹尼尔·阿雷尔容; 克里斯托夫·瓦尔特; 戈兰·库尔特
Original assignee: Electrolux Appliances AB
Current assignee: Electrolux Appliances AB
Priority date: 2018-07-09
Filing date: 2019-06-25
Publication date: 2021-02-12
Anticipated expiration: 2039-06-25
Also published as: CN112369122B

Abstract

A method for operating a cooking appliance, the method comprising: (a) providing a database having operating parameters of the cooking appliance; (b) obtaining recipe data from a recipe source; (c) extracting cooking process parameters from the obtained recipe data; (d) determining adjusted cooking parameters by evaluating the extracted cooking process parameters according to data from the database and optionally settings made by the user; and (e) operating the cooking appliance based on the adjusted cooking parameter.

Description

Method for operating a cooking appliance

The present invention relates to a method for operating a cooking appliance.

In carrying out a cooking process, a user must enter a number of cooking process parameters, such as temperature or power level and duration, on the cooking appliance. Depending on the type of cooking appliance employed, the user must also select various other parameters, such as selecting the size and shape of the cooking area for heating in the hob, or selecting the program, the type of heating (such as convection heating, top heating and/or bottom heating) and adding steam in the oven.

While there are many online databases available for recipes for various foods, when it is desired to put a certain recipe into practice, the user must adjust the detailed information of the recipe to suit the particular situation, such as the number of servings to be cooked, and then must adjust the cooking parameters to suit the particular cooking appliance being used.

In EP1041860a2, a microwave oven is proposed which can communicate with a relay box which also communicates with a personal computer. The personal computer may be connected via the internet to a main computer storing a plurality of cooking recipes including control data for heating and cooking the cooking recipes by the microwave oven, which may be transmitted to the microwave oven.

The method proposed in EP1041860a2 is disadvantageous in that the user may not be able to freely search for recipes on the internet, but is limited to recipes specifically designed for microwave ovens. Furthermore, the method proposed in EP1041860a2 does not take into account the specific factors of the cooking appliance used, i.e. does not take into account that different cooking results may be achieved when different cooking appliances use the same cooking process parameters.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for operating a cooking appliance that facilitates the cooking process, and in particular the application of recipe instructions to the particular cooking appliance used.

The above object is solved by the present invention, which provides a method for operating a cooking appliance, the method comprising:

(a) providing a database having operating parameters of the cooking appliance;

(b) obtaining recipe data from a recipe source;

(c) extracting cooking process parameters from the obtained recipe data;

(d) determining adjusted cooking parameters by evaluating the extracted cooking process parameters according to data from the database and optionally settings made by the user; and

(e) operating the cooking appliance based on the adjusted cooking parameter.

In this method, a database is provided in which data for a specific cooking appliance is stored. Such data preferably includes the type of cooking appliance, the manner of heating (such as convection heating in an oven, steaming, microwave heating, etc.), and user preferences. In addition to such general operational data, the data in the database preferably contains data of various cooking operations, which may be used as base data or comparison data for the specific cooking operation to be performed. As will be explained in further detail below, the database is preferably continuously updated, in particular by using so-called artificial intelligence machine learning algorithms, so that by repeatedly applying such algorithms, the system is able to continuously learn, improve and optimize cooking programs that are performed in a particular cooking appliance and that also take into account the preferences of a particular user.

Before starting the cooking program, recipe data is obtained from a recipe source, which may be, inter alia, an online source, such as a website with cooking recipes, cooking videos, etc.

After the recipe data is obtained, cooking process parameters such as oven temperature and cooking time are extracted from the obtained data.

The extracted cooking process parameters are evaluated by using data from the database and optionally also taking into account settings made by the user to determine adjusted cooking parameters, which are particularly suitable for a specific cooking appliance and a specific user. That is, if the cooking appliance is a steam oven (the information of which is stored in the database), the selected recipe might be, for example, to prepare six meals in a convection oven, and if the user provides input to prepare four meals, the cooking process parameters are automatically recalculated for this particular case.

After the adjusted cooking parameters are thus determined, the cooking appliance is then operated based on these adjusted parameters.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for operating a cooking appliance in which recipe data is obtained from a recipe source, such as an online source, which is then automatically adjusted to suit a particular cooking appliance, wherein the ability to continuously adjust and optimize cooking programs is provided by employing a database that can be continuously fed with data tailored to the particular cooking appliance and user preferences, thereby finding ideal settings, such as temperature, duration and oven program, tailored to the particular appliance of the consumer.

Preferred embodiments are defined in the dependent claims.

In order to provide learning capabilities to gradually improve the database to better adapt the stored cooking process parameters to the specific factors of the cooking appliance and the preferences of the user, the method preferably further comprises recording operational data of the cooking process and storing the recorded data (optionally after further processing) in the database.

Thus, in prior art methods and systems, the user must manually input the settings of the cooking appliance, wherein in order to optimize the cooking process, the user would need to manually track the recipes that were previously used; in a preferred embodiment of the method, wherein operational data of the cooking process is recorded, optionally further processed, and then stored in a database, the database is thus automatically adapted to the preferences of the user.

To achieve the desired oven settings, the method preferably includes applying a machine learning algorithm to the recorded operational data and storing the data obtained by the machine learning algorithm in a database. The recorded operating data, which comprise recipe data in addition to the cooking process parameters, are therefore preferably used to adapt, expand and improve the already stored data. Although, especially in the initial phase, the database may be trained using many existing recipes, the recipes may be further analyzed using a machine learning approach in which imported recipes are compared with existing recipes using recipe knowledge collected in the database and proposed recommended settings based on key indicators.

In order to adapt the recipe data to the user's personal preferences, the method may further comprise querying the user for cooking process parameters based on the determined adjusted cooking parameters. That is, when the method establishes a set of recommended settings, the method may provide the user with an opportunity to modify those settings according to personal preferences. For example, if the method is used to operate a cooking appliance for grilling meat, the user may be required to select between the options "triple done", "quarter done", "quintile done" and "full done".

In a preferred embodiment of the method, the cooking process parameter based on the determined adjusted cooking parameter is presented to the user. That is, the user may be presented with parameters that affect the adjustment of the cooking parameters that have been retrieved so that the user can check whether further adjustments are needed.

The method proposed herein may be particularly advantageously employed when determining the adjusted cooking parameter comprises converting the cooking parameter suitable for the first heating method into the adjusted cooking parameter for the second heating method.

For example, if the cooking appliance is a steam oven, the user is not limited to searching for a steam oven recipe, but may use, for example, a convection oven recipe, the cooking parameters of which are thus converted to be suitable for a steam oven. Thus, the options of recipes are greatly expanded and erroneous operation of cooking appliances based on inappropriate recipes is avoided.

The recipe source may comprise any source from which recipe data may be obtained, such as an internet source, in particular an online database with recipes, a cooking website, an online audio, video or text source, an audio signal (such as a radio broadcast signal or a microphone signal), a video signal (such as a television program) or OCR readable text.

From the recipe source, the method in the step of obtaining recipe data involves at least one of web crawling, speech recognition, image recognition, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Thus, the present method is not limited to accessing a database containing recipe data that has been customized for a particular cooking appliance, but may use any kind of data retrieval by which cooking process parameters may be extracted from signals obtained from a recipe source.

In order to obtain detailed information about the type and amount of ingredients to be used, the actions to be taken, the parameters to be set, the cookware to be used, etc., the step (c) of extracting the cooking process parameters from the obtained recipe data preferably involves the step of parsing the obtained recipe data, i.e. analyzing and syntactically parsing the obtained recipe data.

The recipe data may include any data that is needed or may be helpful in determining optimal cooking process parameters and performing such cooking processes. Thus, the recipe data may comprise data on: the type of ingredients, the volume and/or weight of the total of the individual ingredients or any subset of the ingredients, the number of parts, the type of cooking utensil, the heating mode, the type of cooking (such as roast, fried, steamed, simmered, etc.), the cooking style (such as italian style, french style, cartian style, mexican style, etc.), the type of cooking vessel and/or accessories used, the predefined cooking program, and the individual cooking parameters (such as temperature, temperature-time curve, duration of the cooking step, and size and shape of the cooking area).

Although the method of the present invention may be carried out as such in a cooking appliance, in a preferred embodiment, steps (a) to (d) are carried out in a remote device which communicates with the cooking appliance continuously and/or on demand, the adjusted cooking parameters are transmitted from the remote device to the cooking appliance, and optionally the settings of the cooking appliance made by the user are transmitted to the remote device.

In such a preferred embodiment, the remote device may be a personal device such as a mobile phone, tablet, notebook, personal computer or smart home system, or alternatively, the remote device may be a multi-user database system remotely operated by a service provider. Thus, while the entire process of obtaining recipe data, extracting cooking process parameters from the obtained recipe data, and determining adjusted cooking parameters by evaluating the extracted cooking process parameters may all be performed on a personal device, these steps may also all be performed remotely by a service provider, wherein the personal device serves only as an interface for communicating with a remote service, i.e., for a user to input data and display data to the user.

In such an embodiment, the method may be implemented as an application running on a user's personal device (e.g. a mobile phone), for example for searching recipes, wherein after the user has determined a recipe source containing suitable recipe data, the mobile phone may send a corresponding request to a remote service, which then obtains the recipe data and processes such data to generate a suitable set of cooking process parameters, which are sent from the remote service to the user or directly to the cooking appliance. Likewise, the data processing may be partially or completely performed in the cooking appliance itself, in a separate device in communication with the cooking appliance, and/or by a remote service.

In view of the above, a cooking appliance configured for use in the method of the present invention may in the simplest case comprise only a communication interface allowing operating parameters generated on a remote service, such as a personal device or a remote device, to be transmitted to the cooking appliance so that the cooking appliance can be operated based on such parameters.

In a further sophisticated embodiment, the communication interface is a bidirectional interface allowing to transmit the operating parameters from the cooking appliance to a remote device for providing feedback to the remote device of the cooking process actually carried out. Such feedback data may be used in a self-learning approach to optimize and personalize similar future cooking operations.

Although in such embodiments the user interface (i.e. the data input by the user and the data presentation to the user) may be implemented in a separate device, such as a mobile phone, in other embodiments the cooking appliance is equipped with a user interface, such as a touch screen panel, which allows the user to input a recipe search request, select a desired recipe and display various data to the user. In such embodiments, access to the online source may be provided by a direct connection via a corresponding communication interface provided at the cooking appliance, or by configuring the cooking appliance to communicate with a network, such as a home communication network via a LAN or a wlan.

There is therefore a varying level of integration of the communication and processing means into the cooking appliances, which is equally applicable to a memory device for storing a database with operating parameters of the cooking appliances, which memory device may be provided at least in one of the cooking appliances, in a separate personal device (such as a mobile phone), in a remote device or at a remote service provider as such.

Claims

1. A method for operating a cooking appliance, the method comprising:

(a) providing a database having operating parameters of the cooking appliance;

(b) obtaining recipe data from a recipe source;

(c) extracting cooking process parameters from the obtained recipe data;

(e) operating the cooking appliance based on the adjusted cooking parameter

Characterized in that the method further comprises:

operational data of the cooking process is recorded and the recorded data is stored in the database, optionally after further processing.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a machine learning algorithm is applied to the recorded operational data, and data obtained by the machine learning algorithm is stored in the database.

3. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: the user is queried for cooking process parameters based on determining the adjusted cooking parameters.

4. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: the cooking process parameter based on the determined adjusted cooking parameter is presented to the user.

5. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the step of determining the adjusted cooking parameter comprises converting a cooking parameter suitable for a first heating method into an adjusted cooking parameter for a second heating method.

6. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the recipe source comprises an internet source, an audio signal, a video signal, or OCR readable text.

7. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein step (b) involves at least one of web crawling, voice recognition, image recognition, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

8. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein step (c) involves parsing the obtained recipe data to extract cooking process parameters.

9. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the recipe data comprises data on: the type of ingredients, the volume and/or weight of the respective ingredients, the number of portions, the type of cooking appliance, the heating mode, the type of cooking vessel, the predefined cooking program, and the respective cooking parameters, such as temperature, temperature time curve, duration of the cooking step, and the size and shape of the cooking area.

10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which method steps (a) to (d) are performed in a remote device, the method further comprising sending the adjusted cooking parameter to the cooking appliance.

11. The method of claim 11, in which the user made settings of the cooking appliance are sent to the remote device.

12. A method as claimed in claim 10 or 11, in which the remote device is a personal device, such as a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop, a personal computer or a smart home system.

13. A method as claimed in claim 10 or 11, in which the remote device is a multi-user database system operated by a service provider.

14. A cooking appliance configured for use in the method of any one of the preceding claims.