Systems and methods include a cooking appliance comprising a heating element disposed within a cooking chamber and operable to selectively emit waves at any of a plurality of powers and/or peak wavelengths, a camera operable to capture an image of the cooking chamber, and a computing device operable to supply power to the heating element to vary the power and/or peak wavelength of the emitted waves and generate heat within the cooking chamber, and instruct the camera to capture the image when the heating element is emitting at a stabilized power and/or peak wavelength. The computing device is operable to generate an adjusted captured image by adjusting the captured image with respect to the stabilized power and/or peak wavelength. The computing device comprises feedback components operable to receive the adjusted captured image, extract features, and analyze the one or more features to determine an event, property, measurement and/or status.

A heating cooker includes heating chamber configured to house a food, through-hole formed in a wall surface of heating chamber, an imager configured to capture an image in heating chamber through through-hole, air blower configured to blow air on an outside of heating chamber, and wind guide configured to guide wind generated by air blower. Thus, wind guide is disposed so that the wind from air blower forms an air curtain passing through space between the imager and through-hole.

A information processor of a terminal apparatus reads from a memory identification information of a food handling apparatus and a table, identifies a function associated with the identification information of the food handling apparatus received by a information receiver in accordance with the table, and starts up the function.

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.

This disclosure relates to a microwave heating device and a method for operating a microwave heating device, in particular to heat at least one product inside a heating chamber of the device. The microwave heating device comprises at least two radiating portions that are adapted to radiate microwaves to the heating chamber and can be operated according to a plurality of operational configurations that differ in frequency and/or in phase shift(s) between the radiated microwaves. A learning procedure can be executed by sequentially operating the at least two radiating portions in several operational configurations. Energy efficiency data are calculated for those operational configurations. An operating frequency can be selected via an algorithm that optimizes a mathematical function based on energy efficiency data. An operational configuration with a maximum energy efficiency at the selected operating frequency may be taken as a reference. A heating procedure can be executed by sequentially operating the at least two radiating portions in operational configurations having the selected operating frequency and respective phase shift(s) that are chosen around the respective phase shift(s) of the reference operational configuration.

The invention relates to a method (100) and apparatus for controlling the heating of food ingredients. The method comprises the step of measuring (110) the spectrum of energy absorption of the food ingredients in a given range of radio frequencies. The method also comprises the step of identifying (120), in said given range of radio frequencies, the radio frequency for which the food ingredients have the maximum energy absorption. The method also comprises the step of applying (130) an electrical field to the food ingredients, said electrical field having a radio frequency corresponding to said radio frequency for which the food ingredients have the maximum energy absorption. The step of measuring (110) comprises, for a plurality of selected radio frequencies in said given range of radio frequencies, the steps of: applying an electrical field on the food ingredients having a radio frequency corresponding to a given selected radio frequency in said plurality of selected radio frequencies; and, measuring the ratio between the energy of the radio frequency electrical field reflected or absorbed from the food ingredients, and the energy of the radio frequency electrical field applied to the food ingredients. The plurality of selected radio frequencies are selected from said given range of radio frequencies by the steps of: for each of said given range of radio frequencies, obtaining a penetration depth of an electrical field having a radio frequency corresponding to the given radio frequency into the food ingredients, and including the given radio frequency into the plurality of selected radio frequencies if the penetration depth of the electrical field having radio frequency corresponding to the given radio frequency is equal to or larger than the thickness of the food ingredients in the direction of the electrical field applied to the food ingredients. This invention allows reducing the heating time of food ingredients.

The microwave heating apparatus (100) comprises a cavity (101) arranged to receive a load (102A, 102B), at least two patch antennas (103A, 103B) coupled to the at least one microwave generator (104), and a control unit (105). Each of the at least two patch antennas (103A, 103B) is configured to radiate microwaves into a predefined direct heating zone (108A, 108B) within the cavity proximate the respective patch antenna (103A, 103B). The control unit (105) is configured to select energy levels for each of the at least two patch antennas (103A, 103B) as if the load (102A, 102B) were static and as if there not interference between the at least two patch antennas (103A, 103B).

An electromagnetic energy delivery system includes a set of radio frequency channels. Each channel includes a radio frequency feed, at least one high-power amplifier and a phase-shifting component. Each high-power radio frequency amplifier includes at least one amplifying component configured to output a periodic signal that is amplified in power with respect to an input radio frequency common reference signal. The phase-shifting component is configured to modulate the phase of the output periodic signal with respect to the input radio frequency signal. A controller coupled to the set of radio frequency channels can be configured to cause the output periodic signals from each of the radio frequency channels is to have a time-varying phase difference relative to the common reference signal and a phase difference relative to the other output periodic signals that is constant when averaged over time.

An arc-shaped microwave oven is disclosed, including a cooking cavity, an oven base, a microwave generation unit disposed within the oven base, and a control unit also disposed within the oven base, wherein the oven base includes a bottom portion and a back portion that is assembled with the bottom portion, the cooking cavity is formed by a cavity surrounded by the bottom portion, the back portion and a furnace door, the furnace door is in a hood shape and provided with a microwave shielding cover, and the microwave generation unit and the control unit are electrically connected to an operation/display unit. The furnace door can be movably connected to the back portion, the furnace door can swing up and down relative to the bottom portion and the back portion to open and close respectively, and the furnace door can be in an arc hood shape.

This disclosure relates to a microwave heating device and a method for operating a microwave heating device. The microwave heating device comprises at least two radiating portions that are adapted to radiate microwaves to the heating chamber and can be operated according to a plurality of operational configurations that differ in frequency and/or in phase shift(s) between the radiated microwaves. Data of energy efficiency, as a function of operational configurations, can be obtained for a product in the heating chamber. For example, energy efficiency data are obtained through a learning procedure. The obtained data can be processed to select one or more operational configurations ranking high in energy efficiency and a heating procedure for the product inside the heating chamber can be executed by operating the at least two radiating portions according to the selected one or more operational configurations.