METHOD FOR OPERATING A COOKING APPLIANCE, AND COOKING APPLIANCE

Abstract

In a method for operating a hob using a smartphone as external operating device, the presence of an operator close to the hob is queried, this being able to be performed by a presence sensor or by operating elements on the hob itself. If the operator is present at the hob, then all of the operating commands from the smartphone are implemented at the hob. As soon as the presence of the operator is no longer able to be recorded at the hob, either no further operating commands from the smartphone are implemented or only operating commands by way of which a power of a heating device of the hob is reduced are implemented.

Claims

1. A method for operating a cooking appliance using an external operating device, wherein said cooking appliance has: at least one heating device, a control device, at least one presence sensor device for recognizing a presence of an operator, a communication device, wherein said at least one presence sensor device and said communication device are connected to said control device, and wherein said control device controls a supply of power to said heating device, with the following steps: said cooking appliance is switched on or is already switched on, an operator sets, directly on said cooking appliance, a remote operating mode for one of said heating devices for an input possibility for said external operating device, wherein said external operating device interacts with said communication device in order to transmit operating commands to said communication device for execution on said heating device by said control device, said presence sensor device records a presence of said operator at said cooking appliance or close to said cooking appliance, wherein in this case a distance between said operator and said cooking appliance or said presence sensor device of less than 5 m is assessed as said operator being present at said cooking appliance, in a 1st case, in which said presence of said operator is recorded at said cooking appliance, operation of said cooking appliance by way of said external operating device is possible, and operating commands from said external operating device are executed by said control device, in a 2nd case, in which said presence of said operator is not recorded at said cooking appliance, no further operating commands from said external operating device for bringing about an increase in a power of one of said heating devices of said cooking appliance are executed by said control device.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein an operation directly on said cooking appliance is executed with priority over an operation by way of said external operating device.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a distance between said operator and said cooking appliance or said presence sensor device that is assessed as said operator being present at said cooking appliance is settable up to at most 5 m.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in said 2nd case, only a reduction in a power of said heating device is authorized and executed by said control device as operating command from said external operating device.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in said 2nd case, a power of said heating device is reduced automatically when said presence sensor device no longer identifies said presence of said operator at said cooking appliance.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said power of said heating device is reduced by at least 20% to 50% or is reduced by 1% to 50% of said maximum power of said heating device.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in an event that, following interruption of said presence of said operator at said cooking appliance as said 2nd case, presence of said operator at said cooking appliance is identified again as said 1st case, either a previous operating state of said heating device as was prevailing at an occurrence of said 2nd case, when said absence of the operator at said cooking appliance was identified, is set directly, or it is necessary for said operator to confirm a new operation, so that a previous operating state of said cooking appliance or of said heating device is then reproduced.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein corresponding information is transmitted to said operator as a requirement and/or for confirmation for said new operation for confirmation by said operator, so that said previous operating state of said cooking appliance or of said heating device is then reproduced.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said presence sensor device is arranged directly on or in said cooking appliance, wherein provision is made for said presence sensor device, integrated in said cooking appliance, for recording an operation by said operator and/or a change in a position and/or a weight of an item of cookware placed on said hob or for recognizing people and/or movements in a region around said cooking appliance.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said presence sensor device is arranged at a distance of less than 5 m from said cooking appliance.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein said presence sensor device is not provided directly on said cooking appliance.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein precisely one single of said heating devices is controlled using said external operating device in accordance with an explicit assignment of said external operating device to precisely said heating device.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of said heating devices are controlled using said external operating device in accordance with an explicit assignment of said external operating device to precisely said heating devices.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said entire cooking appliance is controlled using said external operating device in accordance with an explicit assignment of said external operating device to said entire cooking appliance.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said presence of said operator at said cooking appliance is recorded repetitively or repeatedly.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein said presence of said operator at said cooking appliance is recorded repetitively or repeatedly at time intervals of less than 1 min.

17. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said external operating device is a mobile terminal as a smartphone or a tablet computer.

18. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said external operating device is an intelligent machine for assisting said operator or an external automatic controller, a radio network or the Internet or a cloud.

19. A cooking appliance having: at least one heating device, a control device, a presence sensor device for recognizing a presence of an operator, a communication device, wherein said presence sensor device and said communication device are connected to said control device, and wherein said control device controls a supply of power to said heating device, wherein said control device is designed to perform a method as claimed in claim 1 using an external operating device.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0041] Exemplary embodiments of the invention are schematically illustrated in the drawings and will be discussed in more detail below. In the drawings:

[0042] FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration of a hob as cooking appliance according to the invention, on which the operating method according to the invention is explained, wherein the presence of an operator close to the hob is recognized, and

[0043] FIG. 2 shows the hob from FIG. 1 during the operating method, in which the presence of the operator at the hob has no longer been recognized.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

[0044] FIG. 1 illustrates a hob 11 according to the invention as abovementioned cooking appliance. The hob 11 has a hob zone 12, under which three induction coils 14a, 14b and 14c are arranged as abovementioned heating devices. The induction coils 14a to 14c are supplied with power in the usual way, in particular from a power supply with converters that are actuated by a hob controller 15 with a microcontroller 20 as control device. For the sake of simplicity, the actuation of the induction coils 14a to 14c is illustrated directly here. The hob controller also has another operating panel 16 as operating device for the hob 11. The operating panel 16 has a plurality of operating elements 17 that may be designed in a known manner, for example as touch switches or as a touch display. A display 18 is provided, either as a possibly multi-digit seven-segment display, known per se, with LEDs or as an LCD display or part of an abovementioned touch display.

[0045] The hob 11 has a communication device 22 that is designed, through the antenna symbol, as a wireless communication device. It may for example operate using WLAN or Wi-Fi, alternatively in accordance with any radio standard, for example including Bluetooth or BLE. The communication device 22 interacts with the hob controller 15 via a forwarding system 24, which may be interrupted and is therefore illustrated here as a type of switch. It may in particular forward operating commands, as has been explained above and as is set forth in detail below. The hob 11 is designed for an abovementioned remote operation mode.

[0046] The forwarding system 24 or its switches may be interrupted through the action of the presence sensor 26, as is illustrated by the dashed connection. In practice, the presence sensor 26 advantageously interacts with the communication device 22 or with the hob controller 15. The presence sensor may be for example a camera, illustrated here within the hob 11. As an alternative, a camera 26′ may also be arranged outside the hob 11 in a kitchen in which the hob 11 is installed. The external camera 26′ may then communicate with the hob 11 via a radio connection or in a wired manner, for example including by way of the communication device 22 itself, and in particular transmit information in order to determine a sufficient presence of an operator B at the hob 11. The influence of the presence of the operator B at the hob 11, which may be given in FIG. 1 through a distance of less than preferably 3 m, for example because the operator B is standing directly in front of the hob 11, is illustrated by the three dotted arrows toward the presence sensor 26. The abovementioned 1st case according to the invention is thus present.

[0047] Instead of a camera as presence sensor 26, it is also possible to use other ones of the abovementioned possibilities, meaning that an operation on the hob controller 15 or on the operating panel 16 may also be assessed as such presence. A pot recognition system by way of one of the induction coils 14a to 14c, which is known to a person skilled in the art, may also be used. If a pot T on an induction coil, such as for example here on the induction coil 14a, is moved by the operator B, then this may be recognized on the induction coil 14 itself and assessed as the reliable presence of the operator B at the hob 11.

[0048] The operator B may transmit operating commands to the hob 11 by way of a smartphone 28 as abovementioned external operating device in the remote operating mode or transmit them to the communication device 22, which then forwards them to the hob controller 15 on the condition of recognized presence according to FIG. 1. The induction coil 14a with the pot T on top of it may thus, for example, then be operated by the operator B including solely via the smartphone 28, in particular be changed as desired with regard to its power. This is possible because the 1st case applies.

[0049] An Internet connection I of the smartphone 28 to a cloud C is also illustrated. This means that it is possible for example for cooking programs or the like to be loaded from the cloud C onto the smartphone 28, possibly modified there, and then transmitted to the communication device 22 as control commands for implementation by the hob controller 15 either through intervention by the operator B himself or by a cooking program running on the smartphone 28. Further possibilities for the interaction between the smartphone 28 and the cloud C have been explained above.

[0050] FIG. 2 then illustrates, through a much smaller illustration of the operator B, how said operator, together with the smartphone 28, has moved away from the hob 11, in particular beyond the abovementioned distance of 3 m or even 5 m. The abovementioned 2nd case according to the invention is thus present. A telephone call may for example be received on a smartphone 28, the operator then answering this and moving away from the hob 11, that is to say no longer being present. He is then no longer able to monitor a progress, in particular a cooking process in the pot T on the induction coil 14a, and is not able to recognize a possibly occurring critical situation. The presence sensor 26 in the hob 11, alternatively an externally arranged camera 26′, are not only no longer able to record the presence of this specific operator B at the hob 11, but rather are not able to record any presence of any person, whether or not this person has previously operated the hob 11 or wishes or does not wish to operate it. Although the smartphone 28 thus has an intact connection to the communication device 22 even in the case of recognizing that the operator B is no longer present at the hob 11, the presence sensor 26 has disconnected the forwarding system 24. The disconnection advantageously takes place at the time when the presence sensor 26 recognizes that the operator B is too far away from the hob 11 or is no longer close enough to the hob 11. This may be performed at a conventional sampling rate of the presence sensor device, which may be for example in the range from below 1 sec to up to 1 sec or may extend up to 10 sec. As an alternative, there may generally be provision for the presence sensor 26 to recognize that the operator B has moved away from the hob 11 but, for as long as no operating command comes from the smartphone 28, nothing about the state needs to be changed. The other possibility described above is however preferred.

[0051] If an operating command is then input on the smartphone 28 either directly by the operator B, possibly even unintentionally, or by an automatic cooking program running thereon, possibly interacting with the cloud C, then, in the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, this operating command is not forwarded to the hob controller 15 at all due to the disconnected forwarding system 24. The hob controller 15 does not implement this command in any case. This is the safety measure according to the invention, since the operator B is obviously not able to check whether a critical or hazardous state could occur on the hob 11, triggered by this operating command. As a departure from this method, there could also be provision for the forwarding system to be made attentive as it were, but only to be disconnected, or for an operating command to no longer be transmitted to the hob controller 15 by the smartphone 28 or to no longer be executed by said hob controller if this operating command would result in an increase in the power of the induction coil 14b for the pot T. A reduction in the power of the induction coil 14a as external operating command may then be implemented even by the hob controller 15, since the heating power thereof thereby decreases and the risk of a critical state at the hob 11 is at least reduced, if not even possibly completely eliminated. An operating command to switch off the induction coil 14a would of course also expediently be implemented, since this would definitively again result in a further reduction in the risk of a hazardous situation. Such an external operating command to reduce the power or to switch off the induction coil 14a may have been input intentionally by the operator B, possibly during the absence, as a safety measure. This is then advantageous because this is also implemented in this way in order to reduce the risk. The operator is thus able to reduce the power for the induction coil 14a from power level 7, illustrated on the display 18, for example to a power level 3 or 4, even from relatively large distances for safety reasons. Although the pot T is thereby still kept warm or hot, no further critical states are able to occur. Even pasta water threatening to boil over usually no longer boils over at such a power level.

[0052] Instead of a hob 11, an oven could also form the cooking appliance according to the invention, alternatively a pressure cooker, a grill or the like. In the case of these cooking appliances as well, an external operation using a smartphone or the like may be advantageous, in particular for performing cooking programs with regard to a power/time profile. There is then also advantageously provision here for the presence of an operator to be necessary at least in order to increase a power on a heating device, at least at the point in time of this desired power increase.

[0053] As a further safety measure, it is possible for the hob controller 15 to automatically reduce a power of the induction coil 14a that was operated previously by way of the smartphone 28 in the event that the presence sensor 26 no longer identifies the presence of the operator B at the hob 11. A power reduction may take place by the abovementioned values, but this should be sufficient to avoid a hazardous situation. A power should thus be reduced by at least 20% to 50% or be reduced by 1% or 10% to at most 50% of the maximum heating power of the induction coil 14a. However, it is in no case still possible to externally increase the power. When automatically reducing the power for safety reasons, the power for the induction coil 14a may thus be reduced for example automatically from power level 7 shown on the display 18 to a power level 3 or 4, similarly to as described above.

[0054] If, following the absence of the operator B at the hob 11 according to FIG. 2, it is identified that the operator B is now back at the hob 11 according to FIG. 1, for example because an operating command has been input or because a camera 26′ has recognized this, then the operating state of the hob 11 and in particular of the induction coil 14a as were prevailing when the absence was discovered may possibly be set again. As an alternative, it may be necessary for an operator B to be made aware, through a signal, for example optically and/or acoustically on the operating panel 16, that confirmation of the presence is necessary. One of the operating elements 17 then for example has to be operated by the operator B, so that a normal operating process is then possible by way of the smartphone 28 as external operating device.

[0055] In a further refinement of the invention, it is also possible for the smartphone 28 not to be required as external operating device, but rather the cloud C forms this external operating device by way of an Internet connection I directly to the communication device 22. An operator B may have selected a cooking program from the cloud C on the operating panel 16. It is then the case that, although operating commands are transmitted to the hob controller 15 from the cloud C, a power is increased at a controlled induction coil 14a only when an operator B is present at the hob 11.