Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a food unfreezing control method and a refrigerator using the same, and aims to solve the problems in the background art.
Specifically, the invention is realized by the following technical scheme:
a food thawing control method is applied to a refrigerator and comprises the following steps:
s1, acquiring the freezing time of the food in the freezing chamber;
s2, acquiring a food list associated with the thawing chamber according to the Bluetooth information received by the thawing chamber Bluetooth receiver;
s3, judging whether the food in the current unfreezing chamber exists in the food list, if so, executing S4, if not, supplementing the current food information into the food list, and then executing S6;
s4, prejudging the freshness of the thawed food;
s5, judging whether the freshness of the pre-judged food after thawing reaches the expectation, if so, executing S6, and if not, executing S8;
s6, determining the thawing duration according to the weight and the pre-thawing temperature of the food;
s7, detecting whether the heating and unfreezing time for heating and unfreezing the food to be unfrozen in the unfreezing chamber is shorter than the preset heating and unfreezing time, if so, carrying out conventional heating and unfreezing, and then executing S9, and if not, executing S8;
s8, outputting a water thawing control command to the water thawing device; the water thawing control instruction is used for controlling the water thawing device to wash the food to be thawed in the thawing chamber by using flowing water;
and S9, acquiring the freshness of the thawed food and giving a prompt to the user.
Preferably, the S1 includes:
s11, the user presses the Bluetooth label, and the Bluetooth receiver in the freezing chamber receives the input data sent by the Bluetooth label;
s12, the processor adds the record of the food to be put in, and establishes and starts the thread of the timer of the food to be put in;
s13, the user presses the Bluetooth label, and the Bluetooth receiver in the freezing chamber receives the taken data sent by the Bluetooth label;
and S14, the processor deletes the thread of the timer of the food, records the freezing time of the food, and judges whether the Bluetooth receiver in the unfreezing chamber receives the input data sent by the Bluetooth tag within the preset time, if so, S2 is executed, and if not, the freezing time information is deleted, and the process is finished.
Preferably, the S4 includes:
s41, drawing a relation curve of 'freshness after thawing-temperature before thawing-freezing time before thawing' according to information of freshness after thawing, temperature before thawing and freezing time before thawing of the same type of food historically in a food list;
and S42, pre-judging the freshness of the thawed food according to the freezing time length and the current temperature of the food.
Preferably, the S6 includes:
s61, determining the food weight corresponding to the type information according to the mapping relation between the food volume corresponding to the type information of the food determined by the spectrum information and the food weight;
and S62, determining the heating and unfreezing time according to the weight of the food and the temperature before the food is unfrozen.
Preferably, the S9 includes:
s91, acquiring images of thawed food by a camera in the thawing chamber and sending the images to a processor, comparing image information acquired by the camera with the color saturation of corresponding fresh food stored in a remote server by the processor, and calculating a color saturation difference;
s92, an odor sensor in the unfreezing chamber acquires odor concentration data of unfrozen food;
s93, calculating odor concentration data of unit volume after the corresponding food is unfrozen according to the volume information of the food;
s94, determining the thawed freshness of the food according to the odor concentration data of the thawed food in unit volume and the color saturation difference, and storing the information of the thawed freshness;
and S95, prompting the freshness of the thawed food to a user.
Preferably, the S42 includes:
determining two variables of the freezing time length and the current food temperature of the food, and performing chart checking according to a relation curve of 'freshness after unfreezing-temperature before unfreezing-freezing time length before unfreezing' of the food to determine the freshness after unfreezing of the food.
Preferably, the S62 includes:
for each kind of food, predetermining the standard heating and unfreezing time length of the food under the standard weight and the standard pre-unfreezing temperature, proportionally expanding/reducing the standard heating and unfreezing time length according to the ratio of the current food weight to the standard weight to obtain a weight correction heating and unfreezing time length, calculating the difference value between the standard pre-unfreezing temperature and the current pre-unfreezing temperature of the food, and multiplying the weight correction heating and unfreezing time length by a first coefficient when the difference value is a positive value; when the difference value is a negative value, multiplying the weight correction heating and unfreezing time by a second coefficient; the first coefficient is a preset positive number which is larger than 1, and the second coefficient is a preset positive number which is smaller than 1 and larger than 0.
8. A refrigerator using the food thawing control method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.
Detailed Description
Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, like numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present invention. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with certain aspects of the invention, as detailed in the appended claims.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It is to be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various information, these information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope of the present invention. The word "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at … …" or "when … …" or "in response to a determination", depending on the context.
The present invention will be described in detail below by way of examples.
A food unfreezing control method is applied to a refrigerator, the refrigerator is provided with a freezing chamber and a unfreezing chamber, the freezing chamber and the unfreezing chamber are respectively provided with a Bluetooth signal receiver, and the Bluetooth signal receivers are used for receiving Bluetooth information sent by a Bluetooth tag; the Bluetooth tags are correspondingly arranged according to the names of the foods, and when the foods are put into the refrigerator, the Bluetooth tags corresponding to the names of the foods can be selected to be arranged on the foods; the Bluetooth tag is provided with a button, when food is put into the freezing chamber or the thawing chamber, a user presses the button on the Bluetooth tag, and when the food is taken out of the freezing chamber or the thawing chamber, the user presses the button on the Bluetooth tag; when the button on the Bluetooth label is pressed down and pressed, different Bluetooth signals can be sent out, and the freezing chamber or the thawing chamber judges whether the user takes out or puts in the food currently according to the difference of the received Bluetooth signals; the refrigerator is also connected with a remote server and used for exchanging information with the remote server; the refrigerator is characterized in that the unfreezing chamber of the refrigerator is also provided with an odor sensor, a camera and a spectrum detection module, the spectrum detection module is used for collecting a spectrum image of food in the refrigerator, the camera in the unfreezing chamber is used for collecting an image of the unfrozen food and sending the image to the processor, and the odor sensor is used for detecting the odor concentration of the unfrozen food in the unfreezing chamber; the refrigerator also comprises a processor, wherein the processor can receive corresponding information from the Bluetooth signal receiver, the odor sensor, the camera and the spectrum detection module for processing; as shown in fig. 1, the food defrosting control method includes:
s1, obtaining a freezing time period of the food in the freezing chamber.
And S2, acquiring a food list associated with the thawing chamber according to the Bluetooth information received by the thawing chamber Bluetooth receiver.
S3, judging whether the food in the current unfreezing chamber exists in the food list, if so, executing S4, if not, supplementing the current food information into the food list, and then executing S6.
And S4, pre-judging the freshness of the thawed food.
And S5, judging whether the freshness of the pre-judged food after thawing reaches the expectation, if so, executing S6, and if not, executing S8.
Specifically, a freshness threshold value may be preset according to the type of food, and when it is determined that the freshness of the food is lower than the freshness threshold value after thawing, it is determined that the freshness does not reach the expectation, otherwise, it is determined that the freshness reaches the expectation. If the freshness of the food after thawing reaches the expectation, a common heating thawing mode can be directly carried out; if the freshness of the food after thawing is not expected, which indicates that the food itself may be contaminated with microorganisms, and performing the heating thawing chamber creates an environment more advantageous to the propagation of microorganisms, it is considered to perform S8 for water thawing.
And S6, determining the defrosting time period according to the weight of the food and the temperature of the food before defrosting.
S7, detecting whether the heating and unfreezing time for heating and unfreezing the food to be unfrozen in the unfreezing chamber is shorter than the preset heating and unfreezing time, if so, carrying out conventional heating and unfreezing, and then executing S9, and if not, executing S8.
Since the purpose of the whole refrigerator is refrigeration and unfreezing means that food needs to be heated in a proper amount, the heating part in the refrigerator works correspondingly, and the heat emitted by the heating part inevitably exchanges heat with the refrigeration space of the refrigerator, so that the unfreezing time is not long. The preset unfreezing time is a preset time length, and when the unfreezing time is longer than the preset unfreezing time, the whole refrigeration environment of the refrigerator is generally considered to be unfavorable.
In this embodiment, the thawing chamber is a temperature-variable chamber, the temperature in the thawing chamber is adjustable, and when the thawing function needs to be started, the temperature in the thawing chamber is increased, so that the food in the thawing chamber is gradually separated from the thawing state, and the food thawing is facilitated.
Specifically, when the user is detected to start the unfreezing function, when food to be unfrozen in the unfreezing chamber needs to be unfrozen, the unfreezing time for unfreezing the food to be unfrozen in the unfreezing chamber is obtained, whether the unfreezing time is smaller than the preset unfreezing time is detected, the unfreezing time is insufficient and does not reach the preset unfreezing requirement, when the unfreezing time is larger than or equal to the preset unfreezing time, the unfreezing time is indicated to reach the preset unfreezing requirement, and the food unfreezing process can be completed. And after the thawing duration is compared with the preset thawing duration, subsequent operation is carried out, and the next processing process can be determined according to the current state of the food to be thawed, so that the actual requirement is met. The specific value of the preset unfreezing time is not unique and can be determined according to actual requirements.
S8, outputting a water thawing control command to the water thawing device; the water thawing control command is used for controlling the water thawing device to wash the food to be thawed in the thawing chamber by using flowing water.
When food when treating to unfreeze when needs unfreeze, output water unfreeze control command to water thawing apparatus, water thawing apparatus receives and treats after control command that unfreeze food carries out water thawing, the mode that the water unfreezes is not exclusive, specifically, in this embodiment, water unfreeze control command is used for controlling water thawing apparatus and adopts the water that flows to wash the indoor food that waits to unfreeze, the mode that adopts the water that flows to wash the food that waits to unfreeze carries out water thawing and can make the food that waits to unfreeze be in the state of being washed by the water of difference always, can accelerate the speed of unfreezing, thereby improve work efficiency.
In this application, water thawing apparatus's structure is not exclusive, in this embodiment, water thawing apparatus includes water pipeline and valve, the valve sets up in water pipeline, in operation, water pipeline is used for inserting water unfreezing indoorly, when the valve receives water unfreezing control command, the valve is opened, water in the water pipeline can be poured on treating the food that unfreezes, the realization is treated the water unfreezes of food that unfreezes, furthermore, water thawing apparatus can also include water pump, water pump sets up in water pipeline, when the valve is in the open mode, treat the food that unfreezes after the well pressurization in water pipeline that water pump will be followed and washes, can ensure that more water can all pour into a mould on treating the food that unfreezes, thereby improve the effect of unfreezing. In addition, water thawing apparatus still includes effluent treatment plant, effluent treatment plant includes waste water collection structure and waste water purification structure, waste water collection structural connection waste water purification structure, waste water collection structure is used for getting together the waste water collection who washes after waiting to unfreeze food and transports waste water purification structure, effluent purification plant is used for getting rid of the back with the impurity in the waste water, transport the water after purifying to the conduit again in, the realization is treated the circulating water washing of unfreezing food, can the water economy resource. The structure of the wastewater collection structure is not unique, for example, a water supply tank can be arranged at the bottom of the thawing chamber, water after food to be thawed is washed is collected in the water supply tank, the water supply tank is communicated with a wastewater purification device, and the collected wastewater is conveyed into the wastewater purification device for purification. It is understood that in other embodiments, the wastewater treatment device may have other configurations as long as those skilled in the art recognize that it is possible to achieve the above.
In an extensible manner, the water thawing control instructions can also be used for controlling the water thawing device to thaw food to be thawed in the chamber in a water soaking manner. The specific structure of the water thawing device is different according to different functions of the water thawing control command. In this embodiment, water thawing apparatus can include conduit and pond, and the during operation, conduit are arranged in inserting water to the pond, and the pond is hoarded water, treats that the food that unfreezes places in the pond, and water thawing process accomplishes the back, and the water rethread conduit in the pond transports away, perhaps also can transport away through the water pipe that sends of difference. When the food to be thawed is thawed by water in a water soaking mode, the consumed water amount is less, and the resource is saved.
And S9, acquiring the freshness of the thawed food and giving a prompt to the user.
By adopting the food unfreezing control method, the foods can be unfrozen by adopting different unfreezing strategies according to the freshness of the foods, and the phenomenon that stale frozen foods are secondarily deteriorated in the unfreezing chamber is avoided.
Specifically, as shown in fig. 2, the S1 includes:
s11, the user presses the Bluetooth label, and the Bluetooth receiver in the freezing chamber receives the input data sent by the Bluetooth label.
The put-in data refers to data information that the food is put into the freezing chamber. The put-in data includes at least food category information.
S12, the processor increases the record of the food put in, and establishes and starts a timer thread of the food put in.
The Bluetooth tag is correspondingly arranged according to the name of food, and when the food is put into the refrigerator, the Bluetooth tag corresponding to the name of the food can be clamped or attached to the food. Specifically, the Bluetooth label can be pasted on a food packaging bag through the adhesive surface on the Bluetooth label. In a preferred embodiment, the bluetooth tag can be made into a small clip and then clipped on the food or packaging bag to achieve the recycling effect. After the timer thread of the food is started, the counting of the freezing time of the food is started.
S13, the user presses the Bluetooth label, and the Bluetooth receiver in the freezing chamber receives the taken data sent by the Bluetooth label.
The taking-out data refers to data information that the food is taken out of the freezing chamber.
And S14, the processor deletes the thread of the timer of the food, records the freezing time of the food, and judges whether the Bluetooth receiver in the unfreezing chamber receives the input data sent by the Bluetooth tag within the preset time, if so, S2 is executed, and if not, the freezing time information is deleted, and the process is finished.
If the processor judges that the Bluetooth receiver in the unfreezing chamber receives the putting-in data sent by the Bluetooth tag within the preset time, the food is taken out of the freezing chamber by the user and then is put into the unfreezing chamber in time, the time counted by the timer thread of the food put into the food obtained by the processor is the freezing time of the food, and if the time counted by the timer thread of the food put into the unfreezing chamber is not the freezing time of the food, the unfreezing control method is ended.
Specifically, as shown in fig. 3, the S4 includes:
and S41, drawing a relation curve of 'freshness after thawing-temperature before thawing-freezing time before thawing' according to the information of freshness after thawing, temperature before thawing and freezing time length before thawing of the same type of food historically in the food list.
For each food to be defrosted, the pre-unfreezing temperature can be measured by a temperature sensor in the unfreezing chamber, and the pre-unfreezing freezing time can be measured by the steps S1-S2; and the freshness is determined by comprehensively judging the concentration of the odor after the current food is thawed and the video capture image, and the specific steps are shown in step S9. In the invention, the freshness is defined as a decimal between 0 and 1, the closer the freshness value is to 1, the fresher the food is, and the closer the freshness value is to 0, the fresher the food is. The freshness judgment criteria of each food are different, for example, frozen foods such as pork, beef (red meat) and the like, and the freshness of the frozen foods after thawing is determined by both the aspects of smell and appearance color; after being thawed, seafood fish (white meat) and the like are mainly characterized in that the food smell is increased but the appearance color and the like are not greatly changed if the food is not fresh. A freshness judgment reference table of different kinds of foods may be previously stored in the remote server, and thus, by the table, for each kind of food, a freshness value of the food may be determined according to the acquired food image color value and the food odor value per unit volume. The freshness judgment comparison table can be stored in a remote server and updated in real time. Specifically, as shown in fig. 4, a graph showing the relationship of "freshness after thawing-temperature before thawing-freezing time before thawing" for a certain type of food is shown. As can be seen from the curves, in the case of consistent temperature before thawing, as the freezing time length before thawing increases, the freshness of the food after thawing decreases; in the case where the freezing time before thawing is uniform, the freshness of the food after thawing decreases as the temperature before thawing increases. Drawing a curve related to the change of three dimensions according to the three dimensions is prior art, and the invention is not repeated.
And S42, pre-judging the freshness of the thawed food according to the freezing time length and the current temperature of the food.
According to the relation curve of 'freshness after unfreezing-temperature before unfreezing-freezing time length before unfreezing' of food, when two variables of the freezing time length of the food and the current temperature of the food are determined, the freshness after unfreezing of the food can be determined. The current food temperature can be directly obtained through an infrared temperature measuring module arranged in the unfreezing chamber.
Specifically, as shown in fig. 5, the S6 includes:
and S61, determining the food weight corresponding to the type information according to the mapping relation between the food volume corresponding to the type information of the food determined by the spectrum information and the food weight.
Specifically, the spectral information of the food is obtained based on the acquired spectral image, and the type information of the food is determined according to the spectral information. Carrying out image data processing on the obtained spectral image to obtain the volume of the food, specifically, carrying out binarization operation on the spectral image, carrying out region marking on the spectral image after binarization, then determining the position information of the edge of the spectral image after the area marking, calculating the projection area of the food based on the position information, namely the projection area of the area surrounded by the determined edge, when the area surrounded by the determined edge is a plurality of areas, the sum of the projection area of each area is the projection area of the food, then determining the volume of the food based on the projected area of the food and the mapping relation between the projected area of the food and the volume of the food corresponding to the category information, the cloud server or the database stores the mapping relation between the area and the volume of each food, and the detection device for the weight of the food in the refrigerator determines the volume corresponding to the area of each food according to the mapping relation. The region marking is performed on the binarized spectral image to remove redundant parts in the spectral image so as to determine the edge of the spectral image after the region marking, for example, when the food is fruits such as apples, apple stalks and the like are removed. The remote server stores the mapping relation between the food volume and the food weight of each food, and the detection device of the food weight in the refrigerator can determine the weight corresponding to the volume of each food according to the mapping relation.
And S62, determining the heating and unfreezing time according to the weight of the food and the temperature before the food is unfrozen.
Specifically, the greater the weight of the food, the lower the temperature of the food before thawing, and the longer the heating thawing time period is required for each food. The standard heating and unfreezing time length of each food under the standard weight and the standard unfreezing temperature can be determined in advance, the standard heating and unfreezing time length is proportionally enlarged/reduced according to the ratio of the current weight of the food to the standard weight to obtain the weight correction heating and unfreezing time length, the difference value (all in centigrade) between the standard unfreezing temperature and the current food unfreezing temperature is calculated, when the difference value is a positive value, the current food unfreezing temperature is lower than the standard unfreezing temperature, and the weight correction heating and unfreezing time length is multiplied by a first coefficient (a positive number larger than 1); when the difference value is a negative value, which indicates that the current food pre-thawing temperature is higher than the standard pre-thawing temperature, the weight-corrected heating and thawing duration is multiplied by a second coefficient (a positive number less than 1 and greater than 0), in one embodiment of the present invention, the first coefficient is 1.2, and the second coefficient is 0.8. In this way, the heating and thawing period required for the current food can be determined based on the standard heating and thawing period for each food.
Specifically, as shown in fig. 6, the S9 includes:
s91, the camera in the thawing chamber collects the image of the thawed food and sends the image to the processor, and the processor compares the image information collected by the camera with the color saturation of the corresponding fresh food stored in the remote server and calculates the color saturation difference.
Specifically, the fresh food images stored in the remote server are also divided into conventional unfrozen images and water unfrozen images, and the purpose is to approach the unfreezing state of the current unfrozen food as close as possible, so that consistency of comparison conditions is realized.
And S92, acquiring odor concentration data of the thawed food by an odor sensor in the thawing chamber.
The odor concentration data is specifically a detectable resistance value which is converted out by the odor sensor according to the odor intensity. The smell sensor can convert the detected smell intensity into a detectable resistance value, and in the application, the larger the detected smell intensity is, the larger the converted resistance value is.
And S93, calculating the odor concentration data of unit volume after the food is thawed according to the food volume information.
And S94, determining the thawed freshness of the food according to the odor concentration data of the unit volume of the thawed food and the color saturation difference, and storing the information of the thawed freshness.
And storing the thawed freshness information as the thawed freshness of the same type of food which is thawed historically in a food list, and providing reference information for thawing the same food next time.
Specifically, for different kinds of food, the weight values of the odor concentration data and the color saturation difference value per unit volume in determining the freshness of the food are preset. A look-up table corresponding to freshness in the case where only the odor concentration data per unit volume or the color saturation difference value is changed may be set for each food separately under a single variable (i.e., in the case where only the odor concentration data per unit volume or the color saturation difference value is changed is considered), a sum of the two freshness values multiplied by corresponding weight values is calculated, and the sum is determined as the thawed freshness of the food, wherein the sum of the weight values of the odor concentration data per unit volume and the color saturation difference value in determining the freshness of the food is 1. Specifically, the freshness value in the comparison table corresponding to freshness when the odor concentration data per unit volume and the color saturation difference value change under the single variable may be determined as follows: taking the color saturation of the food with standard freshness as a reference value, and defining the freshness value as 1 (namely freshness) when the change of the color saturation difference value is not more than 10% compared with the reference value; when the change of the color saturation difference value exceeds 10% but is less than 20% of the reference value, the freshness value is defined as 0.8, and the like, and the freshness is a decimal between 1 and 0, i.e. the larger the change of the color saturation difference value is compared with the reference value, the smaller the corresponding freshness value is, the fresher the color saturation difference value is, and the fresher the color is. Similarly, the odor concentration per unit volume of the food with the standard freshness can be used as a reference value, and the corresponding freshness value can be determined according to the proportion of the detected odor concentration per unit volume of the food exceeding the reference value, wherein the freshness is a decimal between 1 and 0.
And S95, prompting the freshness of the thawed food to a user.
The invention also provides a refrigerator using the method of any one of the preceding embodiments.
The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention. It should be noted that, in the present specification, the embodiments are all described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments may be referred to each other. For the device-like embodiment, since it is basically similar to the method embodiment, the description is simple, and for the relevant points, reference may be made to the partial description of the method embodiment.
In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. The apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, and for example, the flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of apparatus, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems which perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
In addition, the functional modules in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated together to form an independent part, or each module may exist separately, or two or more modules may be integrated to form an independent part.
The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes. It is noted that, herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.