A heating cooker of the present disclosure includes a heating chamber for accommodating a heating target; a heating unit; a control unit; a detection unit; an illumination unit; an image-capturing unit; a recognition processing unit; and a notification unit. The heating unit heats a heating target. The control unit controls heating by the heating unit. The detection unit detects opening/closing of a door of the heating chamber. The illumination unit illuminates an interior of the heating chamber. The image-capturing unit captures images of the interior of the heating chamber when the door is opened and closed. The recognition processing unit is operable to read the heating control information provided to the heating target from the captured images. When the recognition processing unit successfully reads the heating control information when the door is opened, the control unit causes the notification unit to notify success in reading the heating control information.

A cooking appliance that uses steam to heat a food item includes a cooking chamber; a steam generator that generates steam to heat the food item; a heating element that generates heat to heat the food item; an outlet that fluidly connects the cooking chamber to a first external environment outside of the cooking chamber; and an active inlet that fluidly connects the cooking chamber to a second external environment outside of the cooking chamber. The active inlet has a blocking member that prevents a fluid from the second external environment from entering the cooking chamber though the active inlet, and an actuator that moves the blocking member between a closed position in which the blocking member prevents the fluid from entering the cooking chamber through the active inlet, and an open position in which the blocking member allows the fluid to enter the cooking chamber through the active inlet.

Several embodiments include a cooking instrument. The cooking instrument can include a heating system. The heating system can include one or more heating elements capable of emitting wireless energy into the cooking chamber. The cooking instrument can also include a control system. The control system can executing a heating sequence to drive the heating system, detect, based on an output signal of a sensor, a trigger event, and configure the heating system in response to detecting the trigger event.

Systems and methods for user configurable cooking appliances include receiving system resources having associated budgets, facilitating user allocation the system resources to a plurality of heating elements without exceeding the associate budgets, applying the system resources to the heating elements to heat one or more food substances within a cooking chamber, and selectively regulating delivery of the system resources to the heating elements such that no more than the associated budget of each of the system resources is delivered to the heating elements. Computing components can execute a heating algorithm to cook at least one food substance in the cooking chamber, detect a state change of the food substance, and modify the heating algorithm to reconfigure the system resources supplied to the heating elements in response to the state change and in accordance with user configured allocation and associated budgets for the system resources.

An object is to prevent a no-load operation. In a heating cooking apparatus (1) of the present invention, after a determination unit (22a) determines that no food product is present in a heating chamber (13), a reading control unit (22c) causes the reading device (16) to stop a reading operation for a predetermined time, or cancels, for a predetermined time, an information code read by the reading device (16).

A heating cooker includes a heating cavity for accommodating a heating target, an imager for capturing an image of an interior of the heating cavity, and an exposure controller for performing exposure control. The exposure controller is operable to perform the exposure control based on gray level information obtained from the image captured by the imager. As a result, it is possible to acquire an image for recognition after accurately detecting the illuminance of the interior of the heating cavity and performing exposure control.

A heating apparatus includes a heating circuit configured to heat a product to be heated; a door; a door lock mechanism configured to lock the door with the door closed; and a processor configured to control the heating circuit and the door lock mechanism, wherein based on an indication of a heating time period and a “settling” time period, the processor causes the door lock mechanism to lock the door, with the door closed, from a beginning of the heating until an end of the “settling” time period.

Various smart package configurations may include a package intelligence and communication module (PICM) intelligently interacting with smart heating appliances and users. A thermodynamic load profile may correlate thermodynamic response characteristics of the package and be stored in or associated with a unique identifier in the PICM. The TLP enables efficient and safe heating of packages on a smart appliance as well as package validation and authentication. Package configurations also include structural elements for efficient heating of food, beverage, cosmetic and personal care products.

Accordingly, embodiments herein disclose a method for providing an audio recipe and a cooking configuration. The method includes receiving cooking instructions from at least one data source. Further, the method includes obtaining at least one recipe parameter from the cooking instructions. Further, the method includes dynamically generating the audio recipe and the cooking configuration corresponding to the audio recipe based on the at least one recipe parameter. Further, the method includes storing the audio recipe and the cooking configuration.

A cooking apparatus includes an input interface configured to receive a control command for an operation of the cooking apparatus, a communication interface configured to communicate with a terminal device, a memory configured to store information related to limitation of a cooking operation received from the terminal device, and a processor configured to perform the input control command based on the information related to the limitation of the cooking operation, and the processor is configured to, based on a cooking operation command being received via the input interface in a cooking operation limitation state set according to the information related to the limitation of the cooking operation, control the communication interface to request the terminal device for release of the limitation of the cooking operation, and based on a release command being received from the terminal device, perform the input cooking operation command.