Dynamic quality management/monitoring system of a commercial cooking appliance

Abstract

A method for detecting a cleaning need of a commercial cooking appliance with at least one cooking surface. The method includes the steps of capturing at least one image of at least a part of the cooking surface and/or at least a part of a cooking product, comparing the captured image of the part of the cooking surface with a prestored reference image of a contaminated cooking surface requiring cleaning and/or of the captured image of the part of the cooking product with a prestored reference image of the cooking product in a cooking status indicating a need for cleaning the cooking surface, and deciding, based on the result of the comparison, whether a cleaning is needed. A further aspect relates to a quality management monitoring system as well as a commercial appliance with a quality management monitoring system.

Claims

1. A method for detecting a cleaning need of a commercial cooking appliance with at least one cooking surface inside a cooking chamber, comprising the steps: capturing at least one image of at least a part of the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber or at least a part of a cooking product inside the cooking chamber during a cooking process using an optical recognition device; storing the at least one captured image in a first memory; pre-storing a reference image of a contaminated cooking surface inside the cooking chamber requiring a cleaning or a reference image of the cooking product inside the cooking chamber in a cooking status indicating a need for cleaning the cooking surface in a second memory; comparing the captured image in the first memory with the reference image pre-stored in the second memory using a comparator of a control device or a control; and based on the comparison, deciding whether an automatic cleaning is needed.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising automatically interrupting the cooking process or automatically switching off the commercial cooking appliance if a need to clean the commercial cooking appliance is detected by the control device or the control.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising comparing, by the control device or the control, a remaining cooking time until the completion of the cooking process with a predetermined time threshold and switching off the commercial cooking appliance only after the expiration of the remaining cooking time when the remaining cooking time is less than the predetermined time threshold.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising calculating a current contamination degree or determining a current contamination type based on the at least one captured image by the control device or the control.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising determining, by the control device or the control, an expected contamination degree or expected contamination type of the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber expected to result from a next cooking process based on the current contamination degree or the current contamination type of the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber and cleaning the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber prior to the start of the next cooking process when the expected contamination degree requires a cleaning of the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising selecting, by the control device or the control, a cleaning program for cleaning the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber from pre-stored cleaning programs based on a factor selected from the group consisting of: the current contamination degree, the expected contamination degree, the current contamination type, the expected contamination type and any combinations of the foregoing.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising outputting, by the control device or the control, a warning signal if a need to clean the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber is detected.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising overwriting or overriding, by the control device or the control, a condition selected from the group consisting of: a switched off status of the cooking appliance, an interrupted status of the cooking process, the output warning signal, or any combinations of the foregoing when the cooking appliance is switched on again.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one image of the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber or the cooking product inside the cooking chamber is a plurality of images captured by the optical recognition device in predetermined time intervals.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one image of the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber or of the cooking product inside the cooking chamber is a plurality of images captured continuously by the optical recognition device.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the optical recognition device is a digital optical recognition device.

12. The method according to claim 4, further comprising determining, by the control device or the control, an expected contamination degree or expected contamination type of the cooking surface inside the cooking chamber expected to result from a cooking time of the next cooking process or a remaining cooking time until completion of the current cooking process.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Further details, advantages and features of the present disclosure result from the following description of a preferred embodiment by means of the drawing. Therein,

(2) FIG. 1 shows a highly simplified schematic front view of a cooking appliance with a quality management monitoring system according to preferred embodiment of the present disclosure;

(3) FIGS. 2A, B show a flow diagram of a process of a quality management monitoring system by means of which the method according to the preferred embodiment is explained; and

(4) FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of the quality management monitoring system of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

(5) FIG. 1 shows a front view of a schematically simplified representation of a commercial cooking appliance 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the disclosure in which a quality management monitoring system 10 is used. Preferably, the cooking appliance 1 is a combi steamer. Alternatively, the cooking appliance 1 may be a baking oven, a microwave oven, a grill, a fryer or a cooking vessel. The quality management monitoring system 10 is particularly configured as a dynamic optical quality management monitoring system 10 (DOQM system).

(6) Preferably, the cooking appliance 1 includes a housing 2 with a cooking chamber 3. The access to the cooking chamber 3 is provided by a door 4 configured to be opened and closed. The cooking appliance 1 further includes an optical recognition device 5 particularly configured as a digital optical recognition device (DORD system).

(7) From FIG. 1 it can be seen that the optical recognition device 5 is preferably positioned within the cooking chamber 3 at or near to an upper area of a cooking appliance 1. However, the optical recognition device 5 may arbitrarily be arranged in, on or near to the cooking chamber 3 as long as a clear view to at least one cocking surface or one cooking product to be cooked or cooked by the optical recognition device 5 is guaranteed. Furthermore, the cooking appliance 1 includes an user interface 6. In FIG. 1 the cooking appliance 1 is shown with one single digital optical recognition device 5. Alternatively, a number of optical recognition devices 5 may be provided. Also, the cooking appliance 1 has a control device 7 which is in signal connection with the user interface 6 as schematically shown in FIG. 1. It should be noted that in this embodiment the control device 7 is arranged within the cooking appliance 1, wherein the control device 7 is invisible from outside.

(8) During a cooking process of the cooking appliance 1 the optical recognition device 5 is preferably configured to capture one or more images of the cooking product to be cooked or cooked and/or of a cooking surface of the cooking chamber 3 continuously. Alternatively, the capture of images may take place in time intervals.

(9) It is to be expected that the surfaces of which images are captured may change during a cooking program or rather a cooking cycle. Therefore, the optical recognition device 5 is further configured to be rotated and/or adjusted automatically. Thus, for example during the cooking process images of different surfaces of the cooking product or cooking surfaces of the cooking appliance 1 may alternately be captured. The captured images will then be compared with reference images of the cooking product indicating a cleaning need of the cooking surfaces and/or reference images of contaminated cooking surfaces requiring a cleaning. The captured images may preferably be stored in a first memory 7a of the control device 7 and the references images in a second memory 7b of the control device 7. Alternatively or additionally, the captured images and/or the reference images may be stored in a separate storage device or rather in a separate memory being in a signal connection with the control device 7.

(10) With the beginning of a cooking, program or rather a cycle the optical recognition device 5 is activated. This may take place for example either automatically by switching on the cooking appliance 1 or by the control device 7. The optical recognition device 5 starts to capture images of the cooking product and/or of one or more cooking surfaces of the cooking chamber 3. Data information which may be extracted from the captured images and serve for dynamically determining a contamination degree of the cooking surface(s) of the cooking chamber 3 may also be stored in the first memory 7a of the control device 7 or in the separate memory 8. Preferably, the optical recognition device 5 is for example arranged at a guide rail or a similar device. Here, the optical recognition device 5 is configured to move upwards and downwards inside the cooking chamber 3. Thus, the optical recognition device 5 may capture images of different surfaces of the same cooking product and/or of different cooking products. This may particularly be advantageous if different cooking products are simultaneously cooked in a continuous/ongoing cooking process (“rolling”-type cooking process). In addition, the optical recognition device 5 may preferably be configured to move along the guide rail or the similar structure in order to position itself next to the respective cooking product. A movability of the optical recognition device 5 within the cooking chamber 3 is particularly advantageous in cooking appliances with plural cooking levels on which the same or different cooking products may be cooked.

(11) Furthermore, the cooking appliance 1 may be provided with an illuminating device configured to illuminate the cooking product to be cooked or cooked and/or cooking surface of the cooking chamber 3 while capturing images. For example, the optical recognition device 5 is an optical device with a main lens, wherein the main lens preferably has a small aperture so that a high depth of focus is provided.

(12) Below, a method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B.

(13) In FIG. 2A interactions of an operator of the cooking appliance 1 and the quality management monitoring system 10 with the cooking appliance 1 are shown. Generally, the method comprises the following steps.

(14) In step 20, the cooking appliance 1 is switched on by the operator. After switching on the cooking appliance 1. In step 21, the controls of the cooking appliance 1 are also switched on. In step 22, the quality management monitoring system is activated. The steps 21 and 22 may either be automatically be executed as a result of step 20 or be separate actions being performed manually by the operator of the cooking appliance 1. In order to avoid potential mistakes and to reduce the number of steps to be performed by the operator, steps 21 and 22 are automatically executed as a result of step 20. In step 23, a cooking program or a cooking recipe is input either automatically or manually. With the input of the cooking or the cooking recipe, preferably the quality management monitoring system is provided with inter alia information on the type of the cooking program as well as details such as for example temperature, cooking time, regulation of steam times, pause times or end times of the cooking program. This is indicated by the double arrow between steps 22 and 23. The term “type” of the cooking program means whether it is a continuous/ongoing cooking program (“rolling”-type cooking program) or a discontinuous cooking program or rather a batch program (“batch”-type cooking program).

(15) In step 24, a decision point or rather decision block is reached. Here, it is questioned whether there is enough time to execute the input cooking program or cooking recipe before a cleaning of the cooking appliance is needed. If the answer to this question is “No”, the method proceeds to step 29, and a warning signal is output. In case of answer “Yes”, the cooking program is started, and the method proceeds to step 25. However, the step 24 is optional. This means that the step 24 is either not existing or may be cancelled. In this case, the quality management monitoring system is forwarded to step 25.

(16) In step 25, the optical recognition device 5 is activated. After the activation of the optical recognition device 5 preferably occurring automatically, the image sharpness of the optical recognition device 5 is adjusted. This is realized particularly in an automatic manner, for example by the control device 7 or an autofocus. It should be noted that the optical recognition device 5 may be formed as an autofocus imaging device so that a change of the field of view of the optical recognition device 5 does substantially not change the quality of the captured images. The activation of the optical recognition device 5 in step 25 is advantageously performed by the quality management monitoring system. Depending on whether the cooking program is a continuous or discontinuous cooking program, the quality management monitoring system may instruct the optical recognition device 5 to capture images only from the cooking surfaces of the cooking appliance 1 or rather inner surfaces of the cooking chamber 3. It should be noted, that the determination of the type of the cooking program may be not provided in other cooking appliances.

(17) In step 26, the optical recognition device 5 captures at least one image, preferably a plurality of images, of a surface of a cooking product to be cooked or cooked and/or a cooking surface of the cooking chamber 3 during the operation of the cooking program. The captured images are stored in the first memory 7a of the control device 7 or in the separate memory 8 being in signal connection with the cooking appliance 1 and electronically accessible through the control device 7.

(18) In step 27, the images, captured in step 26, of the surface of the cooking product to be cooked or cooked are compared with reference images of the same or a similar cooking product to be cooked or cooked indicating a contamination of the cooking surface. Alternatively or additionally, the images, captured in step 26, of the cooking surface are compared with reference images of a contaminated cooking surface requiring a cleaning. In particular, thereby the captured images of the cooking surface are compared with the same cooking surface in a contaminated status required a cleaning.

(19) It is particularly preferred that the images captured by the optical recognition device 5 in step 26 pass to the control device 7. Then, the control device 7 compares the captured images with a database of precaptured and prestored reference images residing in the first memory 7a of the control unit 7 or in the separate memory 8. The database of the previously captured reference images may be stored in the second memory 7b of the control device 7, in the separate memory 8 or in a memory integrated in the cooking appliance 1, but not necessarily in the control device 7.

(20) Furthermore, the precaptured reference images may be selected from images of surfaces of precooked cooking products in the same cooking appliance 1, from a collection of images of precooked cooking products in other cooking appliances with the same or a similar equipment or from a pool of images of cooking products. Alternatively, data sets, particularly data sets of the manufacturer of the cooking appliance 1, may be loaded as reference images. The manufacturer may generate data sets by testing publicly available or special cooking products. For example, a fast food chain may send a special product being available or to be launched in the market soon to the manufacturer of the cooking appliance 1. Then, the manufacturer may generate images of the product in a laboratory. Alternatively, the operators of the cooking appliance or chefs may have their own cooking recipes or cooking programs with related images of cooking products to be cooked or cooked in their own databases.

(21) In step 28, based on the comparison performed in step 27 a further decision point is reached at which it is questioned whether a cleaning is needed. If the answer to this question is “No”, the method returns to step 26, and the steps 26 and 27 will be repeated till the cooking product is cooked and the cooking program comes to an end. If the answer to the question concerning, the cleaning need is “Yes”, the method proceeds to step 29, and a warning signal is output. If in step 28 the answer is “Yes”, the quality management monitoring system automatically deactivates the cooking appliance 1 so that no further cooking can take place till the cooking appliance 1 is cleaned. Optionally, the quality management monitoring system may determine a remaining cooking time till the completion of the current cooking process in step 28, wherein the cooking appliance may at first complete the current cooking process as long as there is no risk in operating the cooking appliance 1. After that the cooking appliance 1 may automatically be deactivated till the cooking appliance 1 is cleaned.

(22) In step 29, furthermore the notification of a cleaning need of step 28 may be overrided by the operator of the cooking appliance 1. If the requirement of cleaning is overrided, this information may be stored as a reference (for example for a quality check or a training of operators) either in the control device 7 or the quality management monitoring system 10. The time of overriding the requirement of the cleaning is indicated in step 30. Alternatively or additionally, in step 30 a time till switching off may be shown, indicating time shift of performing a cleaning process. It should be recalled that in step 28 the quality management monitoring system may also determine the remaining cooking time of a cooking process. Insofar the time shown in step 30 may be the previously described time of overriding the requirement of the cleaning and/or the switch off time. In step 31, the cooking program 23 is completed. The steps 29 and 30 are optional.

(23) Furthermore, it should be recalled that the steps 26 and 27 are repeated if no cleaning is needed in step 28. If a cooking program without a cleaning need ends, the method proceeds to step 31. In this case after the completion of the cooking program 23 according to the step 32 another decision point is reached where it is questioned whether a cleaning is needed. If the answer to this question is “No”, the method returns to step 23. If step 24 is omitted or not existing, then the quality management monitoring system is routed to step 25. At this time, a new cooking program is input (step 23), and the control device 7 and/or the quality management monitoring system have access to: (1) the cooking time and other parameters concerning the new cooking program and (2) reference images or rather image data for comparison concerning the contamination degree of the cooking chamber 3 or the cooking product to be cooked or cooked. At this point the control device 7 and/or the quality management monitoring system determine whether there is enough time for completing the new cooking program before cleaning is required. Afterwards, the program according to the steps described before is continued. If the answer to the question in step 32 is “Yes”, the method preferably continues according to FIG. 2B.

(24) As can be seen from FIG. 2B, in case of a positive answer to the question in step 32 the method proceeds to step 33. In step 33, the input of a new cooking program or rather cooking recipe is prohibited, and the cooking appliance 1 is automatically stopped. At this point the method proceeds to step 34. In step 34, the contamination degree and the contamination type are determined. It should be recalled that reference images, showing different contamination degrees and/or contamination types, are prestored in the control device 7 and/or the separate memory 8.

(25) In step 35, the contamination degree and/or contamination type determined in step 34 are compared with the reference images. Based on the result of the comparison, an appropriate cleaning method or a plurality of appropriate cleaning methods and/or cleaning products is determined. In step 36, the determined cleaning methods and/or cleaning products are displayed at the user interface 6.

(26) In step 37, the indicated cleaning method or a selection of cleaning methods in case that a number of cleaning methods is indicated is selected. Alternatively, the operator of the cooking appliance 1 may input another cleaning method or change an already existing indicated cleaning method in step 37. In any case, each selected cleaning method is performed in step 38. Therefor, the cooking appliance 1 preferably has a cleaning device.

(27) In step 39 representing another decision point, it is questioned whether the performed cleaning is sufficient. In case that the answer to this question is “Yes”, the method proceeds to step 23 so that a new cooking program or cooking recipe may be input. If the answer to this question is “No” the method returns to step 34, and the steps 34 to 38 are repeated.

(28) In the following, the quality management monitoring system 10 of the cooking appliance 1 is described in detail with reference to FIG. 3. The quality management monitoring system 10 is configured to execute the method described above.

(29) The cooking appliance 1 of FIG. 3 is provided with a main switch 11. For switching on the cooking appliance 1 the main switch 11 is activated whereby in turn the control device 7 is activated. The control device 7 controls all cooking functions and parameters of a cooking process such as the time and the temperature of a cooking program and the regulation of steam. Furthermore, the control device 7 may preferably activate the optical recognition device 5. However, the optical recognition device 5, as already described above, may manually be activated. The optical recognition device 5 is in signal connection with the control device 7 symbolized by the double arrow between the control device 7 and the optical recognition device 5 in FIG. 3. In addition, the optical recognition device 5 is configured to send information from the captured images to the control device 7. This information may be stored in the control device 7 or in the separate memory 6 (FIG. 1) or in a database of the cooking appliance 1 for different purposes, as described below.

(30) From FIG. 3 it results that the cooking appliance 1 comprises a control 13 which is activated by the control device 7 for controlling the optical recognition device 5 and an illuminating device 14, if any. Alternatively, the control device 7 is configured to control the optical recognition device 5 and the illuminating device 14 directly.

(31) Furthermore, the control device 7 has access to prestored reference images of different cooking products to be cooked or cooked indicating a contamination of the cooking surface(s) of the cooking appliance. By means of a comparator 15 of the control device 7 and/or the control 13 these reference images are compared with the images, captured by the optical recognition device 5, of the cooking products to be cooked or cooked. Under special circumstances, the control 13 also enables a continuation of the cooking program even if otherwise a warning would have been output or a deactivation of the cooking program would have been recommended.

(32) Furthermore, the control 13 controls the output of a warning signal to the operator of the cooking appliance 1 that a new cooking product to be cooked should not be placed into the cooking chamber 3. The control 13 may be configured as a part of the control device 7. In any case, the control device 7 is configured to execute the functions described above. While images of a surface of the cooking product and/or a cooking surface of the cooking chamber 3 are captured by the optical recognition device 5, this information is forwarded to the control 13. This is symbolized by a double arrow between the control 13 and the optical recognition device 5.

(33) The decisions of the control 13 concerning the output of a warning, the deactivation or the continuation of the cooking program or rather cooking cycle, the output of the warning, to place no new cooking product into the cooking chamber 3 are delivered to the control device 7 (indicated by the double arrow between the control 13 and the control device 7). The determinations performed by the control 13 are forwarded to the user interface 6 by the control device 7.

(34) The user interface 6 includes, for example, a touch screen and/or a display for providing information to the operator and inputting information by the operator. The user interface 6 and the control device 7 are connected with each other in an interacting manner which is indicated by the double arrow between the user interface 6 and the control device 7. This interaction is advantageous in the case where for example the operator wants to overcome some aspects of the operation of the cooking appliance 1 such as the recognition of selected cooking products and/or whether the cooking program is incorrectly selected. In these cases the operator may select the cooking product and/or the cooking program. This information is then forwarded to the control device 7 so that the appropriate cooking program is selected.

(35) As can be seen from the preceding description, the quality management monitoring system 10 and the corresponding method according to the present disclosure allow a continuous monitoring of a cooking process and offer the user a number of decision points where the user may input decisions/information while simultaneously enabling an automatic control of the cooking program. Since all information regarding the cooking programs and the decisions/information of the user are stored, the following may easily be determined: (1) the usage and the wear of the cooking appliance 1; (2) the type and the number of the cooked cooking products; and (3) errors during the method.

(36) In addition to the above-mentioned written description of the disclosure, hereby supplementing the disclosure, explicit reference shall be made to the graphic representation of the disclosure in FIGS. 1 to 3.

(37) The complete content of the patents, the patent publications and other references it has been referred to is made to a content of the disclosure of the present application by reference.

(38) While the preferred embodiment of the present disclosure has been described using specific terms, the description serves for illustrating purposes, and it should be obvious that changes or modifications can be devised without departing from the scope of the claims appended hereto.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

(39) 1 commercial cooking appliance

(40) 2 housing

(41) 3 cooking chamber

(42) 4 door

(43) 5 optical recognition device/digital optical recognition device

(44) 6 user interface

(45) 7 control device

(46) 7a first memory

(47) 7b second memory

(48) 8 separate memory

(49) 10 quality management monitoring system

(50) 11 main switch

(51) 13 control

(52) 14 illuminating device/illuminating apparatus

(53) 15 comparator