A cooking appliance includes a plurality of electrically controlled heating elements operable to elevate a temperature of food items. A user interface includes a touch-sensitive circuit that is operatively-connected to an external surface of the cooking appliance for altering operational settings of the electrically controlled heating elements. An electrovibration feedback circuit is coupled to the external surface that generates a vibratory feedback that is sensible by the user's finger at the external surface in response to adjustments of the operational settings. The electrovibration feedback circuit creates an electrostatic force on the user's finger that simulates friction between the user's finger and the external surface.

A smart table is disclosed. The smart table includes a plate, an inverter configured to convert direct current (DC) power into alternative current (AC) power and to supply the AC power, a coil unit disposed below the plate and including a plurality of working coils heated by the AC power, a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader configured to recognize an RFID tag of a home appliance placed on the plate and to receive information on the home appliance from the RFID tag, and a processor configured to drive one or more of the plurality of working coils as wireless power transmission coils to perform control to transmit wireless power to the home appliance based on the received information.

An induction heating device and a method for sensing a cooking vessel on an induction heating device are provided. The induction heating device may include a controller that converts a resonance waveform generated as current is applied to a sensing coil into a square waveform. The controller may determine whether a cooking vessel placed on the induction heating device has an inductive heating property based on a number of pulses of the converted square waveform.

The present invention relates to an induction heating circuit for an induction heating cooker. The induction heating circuit for an induction heating cooker includes: one or more induction heating coils (111, 112 and 113) one or more resonance condensers (121, 122 and 123); one or more switching elements (Q1, Q2 and Q3); one or more switching drivers (131, 132 and 133); an on-time control unit (140); and a microcomputer (150) (=claim 1), whereby although the plurality of induction heating coils are provided on the single cooking tool, a configuration of the induction heating circuit can be simplified without any noise to thereby reduce the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

An induction heating cooker according to the present invention has a top plate on which a heater area indication indicating a mount position of to-be-heated object is formed, and a first coil and a second coil that are formed of an annular coil arranged below the heater area indication of the top plate, the second coil includes a first winding portion extending in a circumferential direction of the first coil, and a second winding portion spaced apart from the first winding portion and extending in the circumferential direction of the first coil, and the distance between the first winding portion and the top plate is different from the distance between the second winding portion and the top plate.

An induction device includes an induction unit including a sensor unit which is arranged above the induction unit in a mounted position and includes a plurality of activity sensor elements arranged in a distributed manner and configured to detect a sensor parameter in the form of an activity parameter of the induction unit. A control unit is provided to analyze the sensor parameter.

The present disclosure relates to an induction heating apparatus and a method for controlling the same. In one embodiment, when a power level of a heating zone is input, a noise suppressing operation may be performed to suppress initial driving noise that might occur before a frequency for heating a container. A controller of the induction heating apparatus may adjust duty cycles of switching signals input to switching elements included in an inverter circuit and a driving frequency of the inverter circuit respectively and perform the noise suppressing operation. In the embodiment, when a power level of a heating zone is set and a container starts to be heated, initial driving noise may be reduced.

The present disclosure relates to an induction cooking top comprising a system adapted to modify the control of the presence of the pan on the induction cooking top, upon a command by the user.

A hob device, in particular an induction hob device, includes a variable cooking surface, a user interface and a control unit which in the presence of a heating type divides the cooking surface into a plurality of heating zones in at least one dividing direction, associates heating parameter to each of the heating zones, in a manner dependent on location, for heating at least one cooking pot placed on the heating zone, and forms a cooking zone that is associated with the cooking pot and is heated using the heating parameter. In the event of a request of the heating type for the cooking pot, the control unit is provided to wait for at least one operating action by a user by way of the user interface.

A method for identifying cookware on an induction cooktop having coils, includes the steps: (a) acquire a coverage factor matrix; (b) set a present level at a maximum value of the matrix; (c) count closed iso-level curves corresponding to the present level and save the result; (d) decrease the level by an amount; (e) count closed curves corresponding to the decreased level; (f) when the number of closed curves at the present level is not lower than that from the previous level, update the saved result with the present level; (g) when the number of closed curves at the present level is lower than that from the previous level, keep the previously saved result; (h) repeat steps (d) to (h), until the number decreases; (i) assign coils inside the curve to a distinct cluster; and (j) use the clustering to estimate a position, shape, size, and orientation of the cookware.