A cooking apparatus has a cooking chamber, a microwave unit to radiate microwaves to the cooking chamber, a convection unit to supply hot air to the cooking chamber, a grill unit to supply radiant heat to the cooking chamber, an input unit to receive a cooking command and a control unit to perform a cooking corresponding to the received cooking command by performing one of a first heating stage and a second heating stage, and after performing the one of the first heating stage and the second heating stage, performing the other one of the first heating stage and the second heating stage. In the first heating stage, the control unit operates the microwave unit and at least one of the convection unit and the grill unit, and in the second heating stage, the control unit operates the grill unit and the convection unit while not operating the microwave unit.

A microwave heating apparatus includes a cavity arranged to receive a load. At least one microwave generator is configured to feed a plurality of microwaves into the cavity. At least one image-capturing device and a control unit is adapted to obtain load volume information of the load within the cavity based on information recorded by the image-capturing device about at least one portion of the load, obtain load density information using at least one of a user input and information recorded by the image-capturing device about at least one portion of the load, determine load mass information based upon the load volume information and the load density information, determine a heating pattern based upon the load mass information and control the at least one microwave generator to provide the heating pattern within the cavity.

In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a radio frequency (RF) generator that is to generate a RF signal, first and second electrodes, and an impedance match module in series between the RF generator and the first electrode. The RF generator detects reflected power from the RF signal applied to a load electrically coupled between the first and second electrodes to change a temperature of the load, the RF signal to be applied to the load until the reflected power reaches a particular value.

Control electronics may control power amplifier electronics associated with application of RF energy generated using solid state electronic components. The power amplifier electronics may be configured to control application of RF energy in an oven according to a cooking recipe at least in part based on a learning procedure that generates a power cycling between high and low powers when the learning procedure is executed. The control electronics may include processing circuitry configured to employ a thermal stress mitigation technique to control thermal stresses on the power amplifier electronics associated with the power cycling.

A microwave treatment device comprises: a heating chamber that accommodates a heating target, a microwave generator that generates a microwave; a feeding unit that supplies the microwave to the heating chamber; a reflected microwave power detector that detects a reflected microwave power returned to the microwave generator; a controller that controls the microwave generator; and a storage unit. The storage unit stores a level of the reflected microwave power detected by the reflected microwave power detector together with a frequency of the microwave supplied to the heating chamber and an elapsed time after a start of heating the heating target. The controller causes the microwave generator to execute a frequency sweep over a specified frequency band and determines that the heating target is in a boiling state based on a temporal change in a value that is obtained based on the reflected microwave power at each frequency.

A cooking apparatus includes a cooking chamber, a first heating source disposed on an upper side of the cooking chamber, a second heating source disposed on a lower side of the cooking chamber, and a shelf. The first heating source includes including a plurality of heaters and the second heating source includes a magnetron configured to generate high-frequency waves. The cooking chamber includes a first cooking area formed above the shelf and a second cooking area formed below the shelf. The first cooking area supporting a first object to be cooked using the first heating source and the second heating source. The second cooking area supporting a second object to be cooked using the second heating source. The shelf includes a cooking surface and a heat generator. The heat generator is configured to generate heat due to the high-frequency waves and transfer the heat to the cooking surface.

The present technology relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, a cooking robot, a cooking method, and cooking equipment capable of generating a new recipe. An information processing device of one aspect of the present technology generates a new recipe on the basis of chemical structure information representing chemical structures of food ingredients used for cooking, sensing information obtained by measuring flavors of food ingredients using a sensor, and flavor subjective information representing subjective evaluation of people with respect to flavors of food ingredients. The present technology can be applied to a computer prepared in a kitchen.

A method for identifying a cooking level of a food load in an electromagnetic cooking device is disclosed. The method includes controlling a frequency and a phase of a first RF signal and a second RF signal and amplifying the first RF signal and the second RF signal thereby generating a first RF feed and a second RF feed. The method further includes emitting the first RF feed and the second RF feed into an enclosed cavity to heat a food load and measuring at least one reflection signal. The method further includes calculating a Q-factor for the enclosed cavity based on the reflection signal, monitoring the Q-factor, and identifying a change in the Q-factor exceeding a predetermined change threshold. In response to identifying the change exceeding the predetermined change threshold, a cooking level for the food load is identified.

A method for analyzing a frequency response of a cooking device is disclosed. The method comprises controlling a plurality of RF signals within an operating range of the cooking device at plurality of phase shifts between a first RF signal and a second RF signal. A plurality of efficiencies of at least one reflection signal in the resonant cavity are measured in response to a plurality of RF feeds generated from the RF signals for the plurality of phase shifts. The frequency response of the resonant cavity is modeled with a numeric model and a plurality of interpolation parameters for the numeric model are calculated based on the plurality of measured efficiencies of the RF feeds. The frequency response of the cavity is estimated for the operating range of the cooking device based on the numeric model with the plurality of interpolation parameters.

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.