A microwave oven container may include a body for containing a liquid, an agitator projecting through a bottom wall of the body to agitate the liquid contained in the body, where the agitator includes a first end located in the body and a second end located exterior to the body. The second end of the agitator is able to couple with a turntable drive of a microwave oven to power movement of the agitator in response to rotation of the turntable drive. The container may also include a cage located within the body that substantially surrounds the first end of the agitator and includes a plurality of openings to allow liquid contained in the body to pass through the cage.

The present invention relates to a medical preparation container which includes a microwave power sensor assembly. The microwave powered sensor assembly includes a sensor configured to measure a physical property or chemical property of a medical preparation during its heating in a microwave oven. The microwave powered sensor assembly is configured for harvesting energy from a microwave radiation emitted by the microwave oven and energize the sensor by the harvested microwave energy.

The disclosure relates to 433 MHz solid state microwave heating cavity and industrial defrosting system. The 433 MHz solid state microwave heating cavity and industrial defrosting system includes a sample conveying device, a metal detector, a microwave processing system, and a motor, provided on a machine frame. An upper part and a bottom part of a microwave processing module are provided with a microwave source separately. Microwave sources are connected to bell mouths through wave guide tubes. Two bell mouths are connected to a heating cavity through microwave windows. The microwave source is a 433 MHz solid-state microwave source. The high-power-density 433 MHz microwave is used to penetrate meat products to make a uniform temperature inside and outside after defrosting, the defrosting takes only 2-4 minutes from 18 C. to 2 C., color and nutrients of the meat products after the defrosting are basically the same as those of fresh meat.

Several embodiments include a cooking appliance. The cooking appliance can include one or more heating elements; a cooking chamber; and a camera attached to the interior of the chamber. In some embodiments, the cooking chamber prevents any visible light from escaping the chamber (e.g., the cooking chamber is windowless). In some embodiments, the heating elements are controlled by a computing device in the cooking appliance. In some embodiments, the output of the camera is used to adjust heating pattern of the heating elements.

A disclosed computer-implemented method for heating an item in a chamber of an electronic oven towards a target state includes heating the item with a set of applications of energy to the chamber while the electronic oven is in a respective set of configurations. The set of applications of energy and respective set of configurations define a respective set of variable distributions of energy in the chamber. The method also includes sensing sensor data that defines a respective set of responses by the item to the set of applications of energy. The method also includes generating a plan to heat the item in the chamber. The plan is generated by a control system of the electronic oven and uses the sensor data.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method including detecting, by a controller coupled to an array of elements, an object having a plurality of portions, and analyzing a selected portion to determine its volume and density, to determine parameters of radio frequency thermal excitation for the selected portion. The method also includes selecting radiation emitters from the array elements according to the parameters; each of the array elements is separately selectable and controllable. The method also includes controlling the radiation emitters according to the parameters to perform the thermal excitation of the selected portion. The controlling includes causing interference of waves emitted from separate radiation emitters. The method also includes forming a three-dimensional thermal image of the selected portion, analyzing the thermal image, adjusting the parameters according to the analyzing, and detecting movement into a space irradiated by the radiation emitters. Other embodiments are disclosed.

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 defrosting system includes an RF signal source, one or more electrodes, a transmission path between the RF signal source and the electrode(s), and an impedance matching network coupled along the transmission path. A system controller may modify the impedance matching network to reduce the reflected signal power. The system controller may determine an initial estimate of the mass of the load. Desired signal parameters for the RF signal may be determined based on the initial estimated mass of the load. The system controller may determine a refined estimate of the load mass based on a rate of change of an S11, VSWR, or reflected power parameter measured at the transmission path, or based on elapsed time between matches. Refined signal parameters for the RF signal may be determined based on the refined estimated mass.

A disclosed computer-implemented method for heating an item in a chamber of an electronic oven towards a target state includes heating the item with a set of applications of energy to the chamber while the electronic oven is in a respective set of configurations. The set of applications of energy and respective set of configurations define a respective set of variable distributions of energy in the chamber. The method also includes sensing sensor data that defines a respective set of responses by the item to the set of applications of energy. The method also includes generating a plan to heat the item in the chamber. The plan is generated by a control system of the electronic oven and uses the sensor data.

Provided are a heating unit, an imaging unit that captures an image of an interior of a heating chamber, a setting unit that sets heating control details, and a storage that registers the captured image and the set heating control details in association with each other. Further provided area plural-article determination unit that determines whether a plurality of types of foods are present, a similarity determination unit that determines a degree of similarity of a plurality of images, a control detail identification unit that identifies heating control details corresponding to a food included in a captured image in accordance with a determination result obtained by the similarity determination unit, and a controller. The controller presents heating control details indicating each food on a display unit in accordance with a number of the foods. This configuration can provide a heating cooker capable of facilitating heating control setting.