A method comprises receiving a plurality of meals into an oven. The plurality of meals includes at least two different types of meals, each type of meal requiring a different respective cooking time. The method also includes running a separate timer for cooking each respective type of meal in the plurality of meals. A system can comprise an oven cooking compartment configured to receive a plurality of individually packaged meals. The system can also include a controller operatively connected to the oven, the controller including machine readable instructions configured to perform the method recited.

A cooking control system accesses a set of training data used to train a machine learned model configured to detect smoke in a kitchen environment based on image data of a stovetop. The cooking control system receives real-time image data of a stovetop from a camera in the kitchen environment and applies the machine learned model to the image data to determine a likelihood that the image data includes smoke. If the cooking control system determines that the received images contain smoke, the cooking control system may perform one or more actions, such as disabling operation of the stovetop and sending an alert indicative of smoke to a user of he cooking control system or a local emergency department.

A cooking appliance capable of preventing a user's unintended rotation of a knob assembly includes: a main body including a control panel; a valve positioned inside the main body, and including a valve shaft being pushable and rotatable; and a knob assembly including an inner knob coupled with the valve shaft, and an outer knob being movable with respect to the inner knob in a first direction in which the outer knob approaches the inner knob, wherein, when the outer knob moves by a first push distance in the first direction, the valve shaft and the inner knob are prevented from rotating.

An aided safety cooking appliance includes a housing having a front side with an oven aperture extending through to proximal a rear side and a rear side extending above the top side to form an upper panel. An oven door is coupled to the housing to open and alternatively cover the oven aperture. A range top comprises a plurality of burners coupled within the top side of the housing. A plurality of heating elements is coupled within each of the plurality of burners and the oven aperture. A pair of control units comprises an upper control unit and a lower control unit. Each of the pair of control units comprises a plurality of buttons. A CPU is coupled to the housing and is in operational communication with the plurality of buttons of each of the pair of control units and with the plurality of heating elements.

The invention relates to a device element comprising an operating component, wherein said device element is designed to carry out at least one process, and the operating component is designed such that said process of the device element is carried out depending on the position of the operating component, said operating component being freely placeable relative to the device element, and a sensor system is provided which detects at least one characteristic of the operating component and actuates the process of the device element depending on this detection.

Disclosed is an oven having a sensor for sensing the air inside a cooking chamber so as to enable the cooked state of food materials to be recognized. The disclosed oven comprises: the cooking chamber; a first passage part disposed outside the cooking chamber so as to communicate with the cooking chamber; the sensor disposed inside the first passage part; a second passage part isolated from the first passage part, and through which forcibly suctioned external air is transferred; and an inlet and an outlet, which allow the first and second passage parts to communicate with each other, wherein, when the inlet is closed, the air inside the cooking chamber flows into the first passage part, and then passes through the sensor so as to be discharged through the outlet, and when the inlet is opened, the air flowing from the second passage part to the first passage part through the inlet passes through the sensor together with the air flowing into the first passage part from the inside of the cooking chamber so as to be discharged through the outlet.

A method and system are provided or determining a fuel or gas type input into a fuel system or a voltage input into an electrical system of a cooking appliance. For instance, the cooking appliance may be a cooktop appliance or an oven appliance. Particularly, a calibration cycle may be performed in which the heating rate of an object or air at or within the cooking appliance is determined. Based on the determined heating rate, the input may be classified. That is, based on the heating rate, the gas type or input voltage into the cooking appliance may be determined. Further, based on the classified input, the settings of the cooking appliance may be selected for optimal cooking performance.

The method and system disclosed herein presents a food preparation system that provides a user-friendly data collection and data annotation process that leverages crowd-sourced data to reduce the prohibitive costs associated with developing an extensive training set using dedicated cooking experiments and specialized manual annotation efforts. The food preparation system and corresponding method collect one or more data types (e.g., structured data such as temperature and weight data, and unstructured data such as images and thermal maps) and allow the collected data to be annotated by human users in order to provide information regarding the process of cooking, as well as food item identity, location, and/or outline information. A combination of image processing and user input is utilized in order to create models with food recognition and determining cooking progress.

A cooktop appliance or heating element, as provided herein, may include a sensor support assembly positioned within a heating zone of the heating element. The sensor support assembly may include a shroud cover and a thermostat. The thermostat may be mounted to the shroud cover. The thermostat may include a base and a top cap held on the base. The top cap may be positioned above the shroud cover and spaced apart therefrom. A vertical air gap may be defined between the top cap and the shroud cover.

An embodiment of an electric heating element is disclosed, including an electrically resistive inner heating element, an electrically resistive outer heating element, and a thermostat positioned along a cold leg of the inner heating element. The thermostat is configured to selectively allow electrical current to be delivered to the inner heating element while maximum electrical current, for example, continues to be provided to the outer heating element. The thermostat cycles the electrical current on and off when detecting maximum and minimum desired temperatures radiated from the electric heating element. The inner heating element has a pair of cold legs that extend parallel to a pair of cold legs of the outer heating element, some or all of which may be supported by a terminal bracket.