METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVELY APPLYING HEAT TO AN OBJECT

摘要

A heating apparatus having a heating grid array (210) wherein individual elements of the heating grid array may be selected, thereby producing a heating/browning effect from the selected elements. Groups of the individual elements may be selected such that a desired heating/browning pattern is achieved. Elements of the grid array are selected for a duration of time such that a desired heating/browning pattern is produced. The heating apparatus contains an addressing circuit for addressing the grid array and a memory for storing heating/browning patterns. The heating device also contains a timing element for controlling the duration of time that the heating/browning pattern is applied. The memory contains duration data corresponding to all, or portions of the selected elements of the grid array. The duration data varies over the selected elements of the grid array so that different selected elements of the grid array are selected for different durations of time.