A system and method for defrosting or heating are presented. A radio frequency (RF) signal source provides, through a transmission path, an RF signal to an electrode that is proximate to a cavity of a defrosting system. A rate of change of a ratio of a reflected RF power measurement and a forward RF power measurement along the transmission path is determined to have transitioned from a relatively high value to a relatively low value. At a point in time when the determination is made, the RF signal is provided to the electrode for an additional time duration beyond the point in time, and provision of the RF signal to the electrode is ceased when the additional time duration has expired.

To provide a dielectric constant estimation device which can estimate a dielectric constant of an object with high accuracy in a non-contact state even when a shape of the object is indefinite, and a microwave heating device equipped with the dielectric constant estimation device. The dielectric constant estimation device includes a transmitting antenna (4) and a receiving antenna (6) which can switch a polarized wave of an electromagnetic wave between a TE wave and a TM wave. Based on a reflected wave of the TE wave and a reflected wave of the TM wave from the object, the dielectric constant estimation device calculates a TM/TE reflection ratio, and compares the calculated TM/TE reflection ratio and dielectric constant data of theoretical values stored in a memory part (10) in advance in the form of database with each other so that a dielectric constant of the object is estimated.

Technologies for controlling a cooking appliance include receiving a cooking recipe from a computing device. The cooking recipe defines one or more cooking steps and each cooking step includes executable instructions that are executable by the cooking appliance to cause the cooking appliance to perform the associated cooking step. The cooking appliance may execute the instructions of each cooking step to perform the cooking recipe. The recipe may include digital rights management features, may be encrypted, and may include additional information such as an ingredient list. The cooking appliance may provide instructions, such as audible instructions, to a user while cooking the recipe. The user may also generate a cooking recipe using the cooking appliance and share the cooking recipe with other users.

An object of the disclosure is to prevent the sensing accuracy of an exhaust gas sensor from being deteriorated by the effect of electromagnetic waves in an exhaust gas purification system for an internal combustion engine that is configured to apply electromagnetic waves to the exhaust gas purification device provided in an exhaust passage of the internal combustion engine. The disclosure is applied to an exhaust gas purification system for an internal combustion engine including an exhaust gas sensor located within the range of radiation of electromagnetic waves from a radiating device that radiates electromagnetic waves of a specific frequency to an exhaust gas purification device. The system suspends the radiation of electromagnetic waves from the radiating device during a sampling period in which sampling of the output value of the exhaust gas sensor is performed, even when a specific condition for performing the radiation is met.

An oven may include a cooking chamber configured to receive a food product, a convective heating system configured to provide heated air into the cooking chamber, a radio frequency (RF) heating system configured to provide RF energy into the cooking chamber using solid state electronic components, and control electronics configured to control the convective heating system and the RF heating system. The control electronics may further control a user interface configured to define one or more control consoles. At least one of the control consoles may enable a user to select a cooking program. The user interface may further provide a single indicator showing a graphical representation of current progress relative to a representation of a full commitment of time to complete the selected cooking program. The single indicator may further provide a selectable operator that is operable to control progress toward completing the selected cooking program.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods are disclosed for cooking a food item using RF oven. The food item may include a tag containing information regarding food items associated with the food item. The RF oven may include an interface to receive the information. The RF oven may also include a processor to determine an amount of energy to be delivered to the food item based on the information. The processor may be configured to cause a RF power source to supply RF energy to cook the food item based on the determined amount of energy.

An object of the disclosure is to prevent the sensing accuracy of an exhaust gas sensor from being deteriorated by the effect of electromagnetic waves in an exhaust gas purification system for an internal combustion engine that is configured to apply electromagnetic waves to the exhaust gas purification device provided in an exhaust passage of the internal combustion engine. The disclosure is applied to an exhaust gas purification system for an internal combustion engine including an exhaust gas sensor located within the range of radiation of electromagnetic waves from a radiating device that radiates electromagnetic waves of a specific frequency to an exhaust gas purification device. The system suspends the radiation of electromagnetic waves from the radiating device during a sampling period in which sampling of the output value of the exhaust gas sensor is performed, even when a specific condition for performing the radiation is met.

A microwave heating device and a method for operating a microwave heating device to heat a product inside a heating chamber includes at least two radiating portions that are adapted to radiate microwaves to the heating chamber and can be operated according to a plurality of operational configurations that differ in frequency or phase shift(s) between the radiated microwaves. A learning procedure can be executed by sequentially operating the radiating portions in several operational configurations for which energy efficiency data are calculated. An operating frequency can be selected via an algorithm that optimizes a mathematical function based on energy efficiency data. An operational configuration with a maximum energy efficiency at the selected operating frequency may be taken as a reference. A heating procedure can be executed by sequentially operating the radiating portions in operational configurations having the selected operating frequency and respective phase shift(s) chosen around the respective phase shift(s) of the reference operational configuration.

Consumer interfaces, systems and methods for preparation, conditioning and information of nutritional substances are provided. Embodiments further relate to preparation and conditioning of nutritional substances in conjunction with the collection, transmission, and use of information regarding a current nutritional, organoleptic, or aesthetic value of the nutritional sub stance.

Apparatus for processing an object includes a cavity for receiving therein the object. A plurality of processing antennas are configured to coherently feed the cavity with RF radiation generated by a processing RF source. A memory stores processing instructions for each object from a given group of objects. A user interface is configured to receive identification of an object to be processed from a user. A processor is configured to receive from the interface indication of the identification of the object, select a processing instruction based on the indication, and control the processing RF source to radiate according to the selected processing instruction. The energy processing instruction includes a plurality of excitation setups, each excitation setup of said plurality of excitation setups including amplitudes, each of which is associated with one of the plurality of antennas, and one or more phase differences associated with each two antennas associated with non-zero amplitudes.