A microwave oven system, which includes: a microwave oven having a controllable power setting; a thermal camera at the microwave oven and which provides temperature data of one or more cooking items in the microwave oven; an optical camera at the microwave oven and which provides optical data of the one or more cooking items in the microwave oven; and a controller. A processor is configured to: receive the optical data, identify using a machine learning model, the one or more cooking items and their quantities at the microwave using the received optical data of the optical camera, access a recipe data bank, determine, using the recipe data bank, one or more steps for cooking of the one or more cooking items in the microwave oven.

Methods and apparatuses for drying, especially cannabis, are provided. One of the provided methods includes: heating the cannabis in a cavity of a variable frequency microwave oven using at least two different frequencies; measuring temperature of at least 1 cm square of the cannabis at different times during the heating; and controlling the heating based on the temperature measured so that the cannabis is kept for at least 20 minutes at temperatures above 30° C. and below 100° C.

A system is configured to perform an operation that results in increasing a thermal energy of a load. The system includes a radio frequency signal source configured to supply a radio frequency signal, an electrode coupled to the radio frequency signal source, and a variable impedance network that includes at least one variable passive component. The variable impedance network is coupled between the radio frequency signal source and the electrode. The system includes a controller configured to determine an operation duration based upon a configuration of the variable impedance network, and to cause the radio frequency signal source to supply the radio frequency signal for the operation duration.

A household microwave appliance includes a cooking compartment, a cooking compartment wall surrounding the cooking compartment and including a cooking compartment opening, and a microwave dome arranged remote from the cooking compartment and designed to cover the cooking compartment opening. The microwave dome includes a first sensor opening and a second sensor opening, with a first sensor arranged behind the first sensor opening and oriented directly into the cooking compartment, and with a second sensor arranged behind the second sensor opening and oriented indirectly into the cooking compartment via a reflecting surface of the microwave dome.

A food preparation appliance includes a housing, a conveyor, a thermal element, a first sensor, a second sensor, and a third sensor. The housing defines an inlet, an outlet, and a processing zone between the inlet and the outlet. The conveyor is configured to move a food product from the inlet, through the processing zone, and to the outlet. The thermal element is positioned within the processing zone. The first sensor is positioned proximate the inlet of the housing and along a lateral side of the conveyor or along a first cantilever arm extending laterally across the conveyor. The second sensor is positioned within the processing zone. The third sensor is positioned proximate the outlet of the housing and along a lateral side of the conveyor or along a second cantilever arm extending laterally across the conveyor.

A top hood for covering food in a microwave oven is provided. The top hood (H1) includes a microwave transparent wall structure including a side wall (SW) and top part (TP). The side wall (SW) and top part (TP) define the internal area (IA) covered by the top hood (H1). Attached to the wall structure of the top hood (H1), the top hood (H1) includes a temperature sensor (TS) for measuring the temperature within the internal area (IA) covered by the top hood (H1). The top hood further includes a wireless transmitter (WT) for transmitting the measured temperature information to an external display unit (DU).

A method of displaying time to temperature for a microwave appliance includes operating the microwave appliance to heat an article positioned within a cooking chamber of the microwave appliance, measuring a temperature of the article with an infrared camera of the microwave appliance, calculating an estimated time until the temperature of the article is less than a threshold temperature based at least in part on a cook time input, the measured temperature of the article, and a current power setting of the microwave appliance, and presenting the estimated time on a display of the microwave appliance.

According to a first aspect, there is provided an adaptive cooking device that includes: a cooking chamber configured to receive a food product, an antenna assembly, an RF power source, a sensor assembly coupled to the cooking chamber and comprising a plurality of sensors, each sensor configured to obtain a measurement characterizing a cooking process in real-time, and one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors configured to obtain a different type of the measurement, and a controller coupled to the antenna assembly, the sensor assembly, and the RF power source, wherein the controller is configured to: receive the measurement characterizing the cooking process from the sensor assembly, process the measurement to determine a modified cooking process, and operate the antenna assembly and the RF power source in accordance with the modified cooking process in real-time.

A microwave appliance includes a microwave facility which generates microwaves and introduces the microwaves into a cooking compartment and which is operable with at least two configurations to generate different field distributions of the microwaves in the cooking compartment. A temperature acquisition facility contactlessly acquires a heat distribution in the cooking compartment, and a data processing facility identifies a non-food to be cooked region in the cooking compartment from the acquired heat distribution. A control facility sets a current configuration of the microwave facility and operates the microwave facility The control facility selects or sets at least one of the configurations of the microwave facility with regard to reducing a power of the microwaves in the identified non-food to be cooked region.

Methods and systems are provided for applying RF power as part of an RF treatment. Starting the RF treatment may include treating a product positioned within an RF chamber with RF waves. The RF treatment may include estimating a log kill of the product during the RF treatment and terminating the RF treatment responsive to the estimated log kill reaching a log kill threshold.