A method for controlling a cooking hob including induction coils, wherein a heating process includes time cycles subdivided into time slots. The method includes: setting a requested power for each induction coil to be activated by a user, defining a group of induction coils that have the same requested power, determining a number of time slots given by the number of different requested powers, activating all groups of induction coils to be activated during a first time slot at a same current power for a calculated duration, and activating a part of groups of induction coils to be activated during a further time slot at the same current powers in each time slot for a calculated duration if more than one group of induction coils are defined, so that an average current power of each induction coil within the time cycle corresponds with the requested power for the induction coil.

A cooking utensil for positioning on a cooktop plate to perform a heating operation includes a functional unit and a receiving unit which is configured to receive energy in a contactless manner and to supply energy to the functional unit. The functional unit includes at least one control unit which manages energy supplied by the receiving unit to supply energy to the functional unit in at least one operating state.

A cooking utensil includes a drive unit which is configured to drive at least one consumer, and a receiving unit which is configured to receive energy in a contactless manner and to supply energy to the drive unit. The cooking utensil can be part of a cooking system which further includes a cooktop apparatus having an induction unit configured at least to supply energy for the receiving unit of the cooking utensil.

A stove top includes a stove top plate having at least one area-connected cooking zone for placement of an item of cookware in variable positions. Formed on the stove top plate is a display unit for displaying information about a position of the item of cookware on the cooking zone. The display unit has a first display field in which a plurality of separate display regions are fixedly arranged adjacent to one another, with each display region displaying a reduced symbol depiction of the entire cooking zone. Lighting devices are assigned to the symbol depictions of the display regions, respectively, to illuminate the symbol depictions in at least a plurality of partial areas having different surfaces and/or different surface-areas.

The invention relates to a hob comprising a transparent or semi-transparent hob plate (2) and multiple heating elements (3) arranged below said hob plate (2), the hob further comprising illumination means arranged below said hob plate (2) for providing light markings (4) at the upper side (2.1) of the hob plate (2), said light markings (4) indicating heating zones (5) associated with the heating elements (3), wherein the illumination means comprise a light box (10) with at least a bottom wall portion (11) and a pair of side wall portions (12), said light box (10) including one or more lighting elements (13) for illuminating an interior space (14) of the light box (10), wherein the light box (10) further comprises an upper portion (15) being adapted to emit light towards the hob plate (2) in order to provide said light marking (4) at the upper side of the hob plate (2).

An induction energy transmission system includes a supply unit having a supplying induction element for supplying energy, and a receiving unit having a receiving induction element that receives energy from the supplying induction element when in an operational state a shortest connection between the supplying induction element and the receiving induction element is minimal. The supplying induction element has a sub-region which, in the operational state, is oriented at an angle relative to a plane that is at least substantially perpendicular to the shortest connection between the supplying induction element and the receiving induction element.

A cooking apparatus includes a cooking plate including a cooking area divided into a plurality of sub-areas; a plurality of induction heating coil groups corresponding to the plurality of sub-areas; a plurality of drive assemblies configured to supply a driving current to each of the plurality of induction heating coil groups; a user interface configured to receive a compartment command that divides the cooking area of the cooking plate into the plurality of sub-areas. The cooking apparatus includes a sub-assembly configured to determine an induction heating coil group corresponding to the sub-area in which a cooking vessel is placed when the compartment command is input; and a controller configured to control a drive assembly to supply a respective driving current to the determined induction heating coil group such that a preset target temperature is distributed to an induction heating coil overlapping the sub-area in which the cooking vessel is placed.

The present disclosure relates to a sensing system that includes a plurality of resistive elements coupled to a plurality of nodes and a controller configured to index through a plurality of modes to measure an electrical characteristic for each resistive element. Each mode of the plurality of modes represents a different combination of power, return, or open circuit condition applied to each of the plurality of nodes. The controller is configured to calculate, for each of the modes, a total power consumed by the system and a power consumed by each of the resistive elements based on the measured electrical characteristics, to determine a physical parameter.

The present disclosure provides a thermal system that includes an array of heating resistor circuits having first termination ends and second termination ends, and a plurality of nodes connected to the heating resistor circuits at the first and second termination ends. The thermal system further includes power wires to provide power to the heating resistor circuits and signal wires to sense a temperature of each of the heating resistor circuits. Each node is connected to a power wire and to a signal wire, and a number of heating resistor circuits is greater than or equal to a number of power wires and to a number of the signal wires.

A generic hob device having improved characteristics with regard to high operating convenience includes an output unit and a control unit. The hob device outputs by the output unit a catalogue of recipes for selection, and depending on an operating input, the hob device leads an operator through a selected recipe by the output unit.