A method for monitoring the use of cooking a cooking hobs, using an infrared imaging system to detect and classify at least one region of the hob to ascribe a characteristic to said region, to determine relevant criteria relating to that region, and to provide responses appropriate to deviations from those criteria.

A power transmitter is provided herein. The power transmitter provides executing a dynamic heating operation with a heating object. The power transmitter senses a metallic structure in a presence of a coil of the power transmitter and transmits waves at one or more frequencies in response to sensing the metallic structure. The power transmitter determines that the metallic structure is the heating object based operation conditions respective to transmitting the waves and executes the dynamic heating operation by providing a power transfer to the heating object.

A cooking vessel sensor and an induction heating device including a cooking vessel sensor is provided. The cooking vessel sensor may include a cylindrical hollow body having a first receiving space defined therein; a hollow cylindrical magnetic core received in the first space and having a second receiving space defined therein; and a sensing coil wound on an outer face of the side wall by a predetermined number of winding counts. The cylindrical hollow body may have a side wall having a coil outlet defined therein, and the sensing coil may pass through the coil outlet out of the body. The cooking vessel sensor may further include a controller that applies a current to the sensing coil and determines, based on a sensing result of the cooking vessel sensor, whether the cooking vessel is inductive or has an inductive heating property.

A method for heating a cooking vessel on a hob with a plurality of heating devices is described. Each heating device has a heating region in which a cooking vessel can be arranged in order to be heated by the heating device under the control of a power supply. The cooking vessel has a temperature sensor together with an evaluation apparatus and a transmitting apparatus for transmitting an identification and temperature data. A controller controls the heating device in a specific manner and evaluates the received temperature data using a plurality of plausibility checks in order to determine whether said data match the operation of the heating device. If these plausibility checks are passed, the cooking vessel is assigned to the heating device.

Food stuffs are cooked at precise temperatures, which are optionally below 100° C., in a vessel that is evacuated to exclude air, in which low pressure steam replaces the air. When a sufficient quantity of air is excluded and replaced with water vapor, the temperature of vapor is accurately measured inside the vessel below the lid to control the temperatures within about 1° C. Air is preferably excluded via a controlled heated process for a relatively short period of time at high temperature to generate steam, the temperature is lowered to condense water vapor upon which the lid will sealingly engage the rim of the vessel, forming a partial vacuum in the cooking vessel.

A smart inductive heating appliance includes an interface for interacting with a package intelligence and communication module on a smart package. The smart heating appliance may also detect and charge chargeable devices inductively. A number of data sets may be utilized to enhance control of heating/cooking and to enhance safety. A thermodynamic load profile of the package may include detailed data correlations established in a package testing step and utilized to control heating of the package as well as to validate and authenticate the package.

Food stuffs are cooked at precise temperatures, which are optionally below 100° C., in a vessel that is evacuated to exclude air, in which low pressure steam replaces the air. When a sufficient quantity of air is excluded and replaced with water vapor, the temperature of vapor is accurately measured inside the vessel below the lid to control the temperatures within about 1° C. Air is preferably excluded via a controlled heated process for a relatively short period of time at high temperature to generate steam, the temperature is lowered to condense water vapor upon which the lid will sealingly engage the rim of the vessel, forming a partial vacuum in the cooking vessel.

A cooking device includes an information unit having an information storage unit for storing an intrinsic placement unit characteristic of a placement unit which is placeable on a cooking surface so as to be heatable. The information unit is arranged on the placement unit outside of a heating region of the placement unit for communication with a communication unit.

There is provided an apparatus for heating a pot of food or beverage, the apparatus comprising at least one receptacle (20), each receptacle for temporarily receiving a pot of food or beverage to be heated. Each receptacle comprises a base (22), sidewalls (24), and an opening opposite from the base (22) for receiving the pot; a heater element (43) mounted to the sidewalls; a temperature sensor (45) mounted to the base; a pot sensor (40, 41) for detecting whether or not a pot is present in the receptacle; and a controller connected to the heater element, temperature sensor, and pot sensor. The controller is configured to control the heater element in response to the pot sensor and temperature sensor.

A wireless power transmission apparatus for induction heating includes: a working coil that is configured to change operation based on selection of a mode of operation from among a plurality of operating modes, the plurality of operating modes including a wireless power transmission mode configured to wirelessly transmit power and a heating mode configured to heat one or more objects, an inverter that is configured to output, to the working coil, current at an operation frequency, and a controller. The controller is configured to detect a target object, and determine, in the wireless power transmission mode, whether the target object is (i) a device from among a first group of devices including a device with a reception coil or (ii) an induction heating device.