REFLECTION SHIELD FOR A COOKING OVEN CAMERA

Abstract

In order to avoid that the picture signal obtained from an oven camera that is mounted at the exterior side of an oven door is disturbed by reflections, it is suggested to provide a reflection shield (40) for an oven camera (18) that is mounted at the exterior side of an oven door (30; 14) for monitoring an oven cavity (12) of a cooking oven (10), the reflection shield (40) comprising: a shield element (40) for covering a portion of the oven door (30; 14), a viewing window (46) for the camera (18); and at least one clamp (42) for clamping the reflection shield (40) to a handle (36; 16) of the oven door (30; 14).

Claims

1. A reflection shield for an oven camera that is mounted at the exterior side of an oven door for monitoring an oven cavity of a cooking oven, the reflection shield comprising: a shield element for covering a portion of the oven door, a viewing window for the camera, and at least one clamp for clamping the reflection shield to a handle of the oven door.

2. The reflection shield of claim 1, wherein the at least one clamp is designed adapted to be clamped between the oven door and the door handle.

3. The reflection shield of claim 2, wherein the at least one clamp, when in a released state, has a dimension measured orthogonal to an outer surface of the oven door which is larger than the a distance of the door handle from the oven door.

4. The reflection shield of claim 3, wherein the at least one clamp, is shaped such that during insertion of the clamp, the clamp is biased, and in a fully mounted position is at least partially released.

5. The reflection shield according to claim 2, wherein the at least one clamp has an abutment surface with which the clamp rests against the door handle, wherein the abutment surface is shaped to be complementary to the a cross-sectional shape of the door handle.

6. The reflection shield according to claim 2, said at least one clamp comprising two clamps between which there is located the viewing window.

7. The reflection shield according to claim 1, wherein said reflection shield is formed as a single piece component.

8. A camera assembly to be mounted at an exterior side of an oven door for monitoring an oven cavity of a cooking oven, the assembly comprising: a camera having mounting means for mounting the camera at a door handle located at the exterior side of the oven door; and the reflection shield according to claim 1.

9. The camera assembly of claim 8, wherein the mounting means comprises at least one fixation for attaching the camera at the door handle.

10. The camera assembly of claim 8, wherein the mounting means comprises a door handle having a recess in which there is mounted the camera.

11. The camera assembly of claim 10, wherein the door handle is an elongate hollow element having an aperture in which there is mounted the camera.

12. The camera assembly of claim 11, wherein the door handle comprises at least two support elements for mounting the handle to the oven door wherein at least one of the two support elements comprises a wire feed-through for the passage of wires for connection of the camera.

13. A cooking oven comprising: an oven cavity; an oven door having a viewing window; a door handle mounted at the an exterior side of the over door; and the camera assembly according to claim 7 attached to the door handle.

14. The cooking oven of claim 13 further comprising at least one of: display means for displaying pictures obtained by the camera; control means coupled to the camera for controlling oven functions in dependency of picture data received from the camera; and transmission means for transmitting picture data to a remote display means, such as a remote computer, a tablet or a mobile phone.

15. A cooking oven comprising A cooking oven comprising: an oven cavity; an oven door having a viewing window; a door handle mounted at an exterior side of the over door; a camera installed at said handle and directed downwardly askew toward said window and adapted to obtain images of cooking foodstuffs within said oven cavity through said window; and a reflection-shield assembly adapted to be installed between said door handle and said window to reduce reflections that may obscure images of said foodstuffs obtained by said camera, the reflection-shield assembly comprising a substantially flat shield portion and a pair of clamps located at opposing lateral ends of said assembly; each said clamp comprising: an abutment surface whose contour is complementary to a cross-sectional shape of said handle at a location where the clamp abuts the handle when installed, an upper corner of, or a projection from, said abutment surface adapted to provide a snap-fit connection of said assembly relative to said door handle when installed, and an engagement section at a lower free end of said abutment section adapted to be engaged and pushed by a user to deflect said abutment surface away from said handle in order to disengage said snap-fit connection and thus permit removal of said assembly from said door handle when installed; wherein the aforementioned snap-fit connection can be engaged upon installation of said assembly and disengaged upon removal thereof without tools.

16. A reflection-shield assembly adapted to be installed between a door handle and a window of an oven door, comprising a housing portion, a substantially flat shield portion, and a pair of clamps located at opposing lateral ends of said housing portion; each said clamp comprising: an abutment surface whose contour is complementary to a cross-sectional shape of said handle at a location where the clamp is to abut the handle when installed, an upper corner of, or a projection from, said abutment surface adapted to provide a snap-fit connection of said assembly relative to said door handle when installed, and an engagement section at a lower free end of said abutment section adapted to be engaged and pushed by a user to deflect said abutment surface away from said handle in order to disengage said snap-fit connection and thus permit removal of said assembly from said door handle when installed; wherein the aforementioned snap-fit connection can be engaged upon installation of said assembly and disengaged upon removal thereof without tools.

17. The reflection-shield assembly of claim 16, said substantially flat shield portion adapted to rest against said window of said door when installed; said upper corner of said abutment surface of each said clamp being adapted such that as said upper corner is urged upon installation of said clamp assembly beyond a point of minimum distance between said handle and said window, said corner is partially released from compression therebetween against its bias, and snaps over said handle to hold said clamp in place.

Description

[0019] Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described below by reference to the drawings

[0020] FIG. 1 is a front view of a reflection shield in accordance with the present invention;

[0021] FIG. 2 is a perspective side view of the reflection shield of FIG. 1; and

[0022] FIG. 3 illustrates an oven with which the reflection shield of FIGS. 1 and 2 can be used.

[0023] FIG. 1 shows a portion of an oven door 30 for closing a cooking chamber of a cooking oven which can be similar to the oven illustrated in FIG. 3.

[0024] In particular, FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic partial sectional side view of a cooking oven 10 which is equipped with a camera 18 and which can be implemented as it is disclosed in WO 2016/034295. The cooking oven 10 includes a cooking chamber 12 which is openable and closable by an oven door 14 provided at the front side of the cooking oven. The oven door 14 comprises an door handle 16 arranged at an upper portion of an outer side of said oven door 14. The oven door 14 includes a transparent window. In the example shown, the oven door 14 includes an outer glass panel 26 and an inner glass panel 28.

[0025] The camera 18 is attached to the door handle 16, and as shown in FIG. 3, can be located at least partially inside the door handle 16. A lens coverage 20 of the camera 18 is directed from camera 18 through the oven door 14 to a food item 24 disposed on a cooking tray 22 inside the cooking chamber 12. Picture data recorded by camera 18 can be transmitted to a control unit of the cooking oven so as to provide for automated cooking functions and/or can be transmitted to a display device so as to be viewed by a user of the cooking oven.

[0026] Turning back to FIG. 1, oven door 30 comprises a window 32, which as explained by reference to FIG. 3 may comprise one or more glass panes. Thus, particularly when window 32 is designed as a so-called cool front window, the outer surface of which does not get hot even when the oven cavity is heated to high temperatures, window 32 will comprises at least an outer glass panel and an inner glass panel, the surfaces of which all may cause reflections.

[0027] In the proximity of the upper edge 34 of the oven door 30 there is provided a door handle 36, which in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is an elongate bar element of substantially circular cross-section which is mounted horizontally at the door. In a central section of the door handle 36 there is provided a camera housing 38, which as can be best seen in FIG. 2 is mounted in an aperture that is provided at a portion of the door handle 36 facing towards window 32. Camera housing 38 is installed at door handle 36 so as to be directed downwardly askew towards window 32, so as to obtain a view of basically the entire oven cavity, similarly as is illustrated in FIG. 3.

[0028] To avoid that reflections at any of the panes of window 32 reach the camera, such as reflections from the side or from below, a reflection shield 40 is attached to door handle 36. As illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, reflection shield 40 in its upper region comprises a housing portion 44 which carries a substantially flat shield portion 48 which in the assembled state rests against the window 32 of oven door 30. As can be best seen in FIG. 2, reflection shield 40 is held at door handle 36 by means of two clamps 42 which are located at the two lateral end portions of housing portion 44.

[0029] Clamps 42 each comprise an abutment surface 50 the contour of which is complementary to that of door handle 36. Clamp 42 at its lower free end comprises an engagement section 52 which is adapted to facilitate engagement by a user to apply a pushing force, by which clamp 42 can be bend away from door handle 36 in case that the reflection shield 40 is to be removed. Thus, by applying a pushing force onto engagement section 52 an upper arm 54 is slightly bend towards a horizontal portion 56 of reflection shield 40, which in the mounted state shown in FIG. 2 extends parallel to window 32. To facilitate mounting of the reflection shield 40 by inserting reflection shield 40 into the gap formed between door handle 36 and the oven door 30, the upper arm 54 is attached to the horizontal portion 56 so as extend slightly downwards. As can be seen in FIG. 2, clamp 42 is shaped to extend beyond the point where the distance between the door handle 36 and the oven door 30 is at a minimum. Thus, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in which the door handle has a circular cross section, the abutment surface 50 of the clamp extends with its upper corner 58 to a level that is above a horizontal line that extends through the center of the cross section of door handle 36, so that when corner 58 passes such level, the clamp at least partially releases to thus hold the clamp in place.

[0030] It is to be understood that the clamping action can be obtained by various shapes of the clamp, wherein an appropriate shape is selected in dependency of the cross sectional shape of the door handle. Thus, for example in case that the door handle has a rectangular shape, the clamp 42 can be designed to have an abutment surface that is complementary to such rectangular shape, i.e. instead of the concave abutment surface 50 shown in FIG. 2 the clamp can be provided with an L-shaped abutment surface, which at its upper end further is provided with a short projection that acts as a lock to prevent the clamp from slipping downwards. Instead of providing a lock at the upper end of the abutment surface, there also could be provided a lock in an intermediate region of the abutment surface, such as a pin that projects outwardly from the abutment surface into a corresponding aperture or recess provided in the door handle.

REFERENCE SIGNS

[0031] 10 cooking oven [0032] 12 cooking chamber [0033] 14 oven door [0034] 16 door handle [0035] 18 camera [0036] 20 lens coverage [0037] 22 cooking tray [0038] 24 food item [0039] 26 glass panel [0040] 28 inner glass panel [0041] 30 oven door [0042] 32 window [0043] 34 upper edge of 30 [0044] 36 door handle [0045] 38 camera housing [0046] 40 reflection shield [0047] 42 clamp [0048] 44 housing portion [0049] 46 recess (viewing window) [0050] 48 shield portion [0051] 50 abutment surface [0052] 52 engagement section [0053] 54 upper arm [0054] 56 horizontal portion [0055] 58 upper corner of 50