MICROWAVE OVEN WITH THERMAL IMAGING TEMPERATURE DISPLAY AND CONTROL

摘要

A microwave oven is shown and describe which includes infrared thermal imaging cameras. The infrared thermal imaging cameras are used to display heat maps of food items being cooked on a local LCD or on a remote mobile device, such as a smart phone. Other sensors such as microphones and hygrometers may also be used for display and for controlling cooking. Optical images may also be provided via optical cameras. The temperature values provided by the infrared thermal imaging cameras may be used for temperature control and/or to generate (and then execute cooking based upon) crowdsourced optimal cooking models tailored to specific food items and microwave ovens.

主权项

1. A microwave oven, comprising:
a housing comprising an internal heating chamber; a microwave radiation generator; at least one infrared thermal imaging camera having a field of view in the heating chamber, wherein the at least one infrared thermal imaging camera generates a set of temperature signals, each temperature signal in the set of temperature signals having a value and corresponding to a location within the field of view; a controller, wherein the controller is programmed to receive the set of temperature signals and adjust a cooking parameter based on the values of the temperature signals in the received set of temperature signals.