A method for controlling an information terminal apparatus is disclosed. The method includes, receiving first display data indicating a condition to permit collecting selection information indicating recipe information selected by a user, and recipe information for selection. Once a recipe is selected by the user, selection information indicating selected recipe information is received. Based on the received information, a determination of whether the selected recipe information has a specific health identifier, and a determination of whether the user has granted a comprehensive permission for collecting the selection information under the indicated condition are made. When the selected recipe information is determined to include the specific health identifier and it is determined that the user has granted the comprehensive permission, the selected recipe information is uploaded to a server without requesting an individual permission from the user.

A heating power control device includes a storage in which first information is stored, the first information being on a cooking process being executed using a cooking appliance, a receiver that receives second information indicating an absence of a user of the cooking appliance or a presence of the user, and a controller that determines whether or not the user is absent for a predetermined period of time based on the second information, determines, based on the first information, whether or not the cooking process is a heating process when the user is determined to be absent for the predetermined period of time, determines, based on the first information, a control method of controlling heating power of the cooking appliance when the cooking process is determined to be a heating process, and controls the heating power of the cooking appliance by the control method.

Using a memory that manages a user log including at least a cooking time and a food to be cooked with a cooking device used by each user in a plurality of users, a recommended cooking time corresponding to a first user's food to be cooked included in recommended cooking times for respective foods calculated based on cooking times with the cooking devices is acquired from a server, a user interface that prompts the first user to select one of candidates of cooking times including at least the recommended cooking times is displayed on a display, and in response to detecting that a cooking time is selected by performing an input operation on the user interface, a setting command to set the selected cooking time is output to the first cooking device.

Example methods and apparatus for communicatively coupling internal components and accessories appliances, and appliances with external components and accessories are disclosed herein. A disclosed example method of operating a domestic appliance having at least one of an internal communications network and/or an external communications network among at least two components includes identifying the components, communicating the capabilities of each identified component, communicating the status of each identified component, providing a command interface for operating the components, facilitating communication between the components, and operating the appliance using the command interface and the facilitated communication.

A heating cooker according to the present disclosure includes a heating chamber, a heating unit, a capturing unit, a control unit, an appearance characteristic analysis unit that analyzes an appearance characteristic of a heated material, an information reading unit that reads heating control information, an information storage unit in which an acceptable range of the heating control information is registered, and an information determination unit that determines whether the heating control information read by the information reading unit is within the acceptable range. When the heating control information read by the information reading unit is within the acceptable range, the control unit executes heating control based on the heating control information read by the information reading unit. When the heating control information read by the information reading unit is not within the acceptable range, the control unit does not execute heating control based on the heating control information read by the information reading unit.

In order to improve and make more reliable the preparation of food by several kitchen appliances, the present invention proposes a system and a method. The system for preparing foodstuffs comprises a first kitchen appliance, in particular a cook mixer, a second kitchen appliance and a control unit, the first kitchen appliance having at least one detection means for detecting at least one piece of information about the state of a foodstuff, wherein the first kitchen appliance is connected to the control unit via a first communication connection, and wherein the further kitchen appliance is connected to the control unit via a second communication connection, and is characterized in that the control unit is configured to compare the at least one piece of detected information about the state of the foodstuff with a preparation instruction and in that the control unit is configured to control the further kitchen appliance as a function of the result of the comparison.

A software application for generating cooking instructions for a food item can comprise an input module identifying the food item, a query module to query a cooking instruction database based on the input and return cooking instructions for the food item, and an output module to output the cooking instructions.

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.

A system and method for safe operation of a microwave oven is disclosed. The heating function of the microwave oven may be automatically disabled upon detection, by the microwave oven, of a metal object entering a heating compartment of the microwave. The detection may be based on magnetic induction. Further, the heating function of the microwave may be automatically enabled and recovered upon detection, by the microwave oven, of a metal object being removed from the heating compartment of the microwave.

A heat-cooking device includes shape information reading and analyzing unit (204), information storage unit (205), and controller (203). In a case where shape information read by shape information reading and analyzing unit (204) has been registered in information storage unit (205), the heat-cooking device performs heating control based on heating control information registered in information storage unit (205) with being associated with the shape information. In a case where the shape information read by shape information reading and analyzing unit (204) has not been registered in information storage unit (205), a shape of a label attached to an object to be heated or a character printed on the label is read from an image taken by imaging unit (202), and the heat-cooking device performs heating control based information thus read.